I reach for the blades Nyx gave me and start wielding them blindly.
I hit something.
It hisses in response.
Good, if I’m going to die, I’m not going to die without fighting as hard as I can.
A growl echoes through the darkness. I slash my blades through the cool blackness, but it doesn’t stop the undeniable feel of sharp teeth sinking into my shoulder.
Must be vampires.
Fuck.
“Ambrose!” I scream for his help, but I’m greeted with silence.
Is he alive? Dead?
I connect to him, knowing he’s the only thing that can help me now.
Our connection is still there. He’s alive. But barely.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to save us.
The tiniest, craziest of ideas form in my head. I have no idea if it will work, but it’s my only chance. I find that thread—the one that leads to the cool, dark shadows in Ambrose’s brain.
“We’re being attacked. Help,”I send to Nyx through Ambrose’s connection, and hope to the gods he gets the message.
Chapter 8
Nyx
“We’re being attacked. Help,”her voice ricochets through my head, bouncing off every wall as it rings out loudly.
Talonis has been rattling off about something about the vampires for the last half hour while I’ve been trying to coach Ambrose on how to get Lumi to fall in love with her. I don’t know if my coaching sucks or if Ambrose is just that much of a halfwit, but so far it hasn’t been working.
But then I hear her voice in my head. A voice I’ve been desperate to hear since she cut off our connection. Fear, pain, and panic ring out faster than her words hit me. I don’t have time to process how I’m hearing her, if it’s a hallucination, or a trap.
I run.
I only know where she is because of Ambrose, because of my connection with him.
As I run, I can’t decide if I should stay in my vampire form or wolf form. My vampire is faster, but my wolf, I feel more in control of. If I fight in my vampire form, I might kill someonewho doesn’t deserve to die. Or I might kill someone who needs to be questioned before they are killed. It might push me over the edge of my control again until there is nothing left of myself.
Wolf, definitely wolf.
I start to shift, but my body has other ideas. Claws form, bones bend, fur sprouts, but I’m still running on two legs, not four. Still seeing out of my vampire eyes, with my vampire fangs.
What the hell?
Shift.
I’ve never had trouble shifting. Not since the first time I learned to shift. It’s as instinctual as breathing for me.So why is my body resisting now?
I keep running. It’s the only thing I know to do. But I have to shift. All my instincts are screaming at me that I need to be in my wolf form.
“Shift!” I command myself with my vampire mind control.