as Slade does.
The Reflectives take their silent cue, and Beth backs toward them, ceramic daggers in each hand. The blades point in opposite directions, traveling in a loose half-circle around her body.
“What is it? Nightlopers?” she asks with quiet intensity, her eyes boring into the darkness.
Slade nods.
“Jacky, Maddie, stand behind us,” Jeb barks.
“Nightlopers—perfect, guys. Can't we get into the treehouses before we get in a catfight?”
“Jacky!” Maddie cries, and he sinks just as a paw swipes over his head. Strands of his hair float to the forest floor after the near-miss.
“Fuck a duck!” Jacky screeches. “That bastard about swiped my head off.”
Nightlopers pour out of the womb of the surrounding forest. Partially furred bodies slink between one-thousand-year-old tree trunks.
Slade tallies their numbers, and the odds are not in his favor. He buries the instinct to protect Beth.
Merrick swings his blade and takes out much of the throat of the rat nightloper who swiped at the Three male.
Slade has a moment's regret that the Three made it before two lions come for him.
He slants his eyes at Beth and sees she is beside Gunnar. His talons punch painfully from his fingertips.
He flies over Maddie, who is huddling beside the Reflective females, and stabs his talons through the skull of the first lion. Impaling the five bony knives at his fingertips, he uses the nightloper as a tether and swings his left arm wide, catching the throat of the second.
His target staggers and stumbles forward, paws circling a throat oozing blood between his fingers.
Beth rushes to his aid, and he shouts, “No!” His fangs impede his pronunciation, and it comes out slurred.
Slade curses in frustration.
Beth ignores his warning. She jumps on his back, using it like a springboard.
She flies through the air, one leg curled beneath her body and one straight out, knives in her fists. “Ah!” she cries as she slams into a wolf nightloper.
Her foot gags his open mouth, and she wraps her free leg around his throat.
Slade stutters at the sight of Beth so close to the nightloper's mouth. He knows the nightloper won't kill a female as valuable as Beth is. But a nightloper can do much that is shy of true death.
Slade pushes off the head of the lion. Strings of his partial mane cling to Slade’s talons as they pop free of the bony skull. He falls to the ground, and Slade hops to the nightloper Beth rides.
The nightloper jerks Beth’s foot from his mouth, and she slashes at his throat with exacting precision.
It nicks his flesh, but it's not a mortal wound.
Slade plows through two more nightlopers.
“No!” he bellows, and the nightloper's eyes flick to Slade's as he stands over Beth.
Mute understanding flows between them.
Do not touch her!
The nightloper's rows of teeth gleam as he follows Beth to the ground. Her elbows slam against the forest's undergrowth. She drops one of her blades as she breaks her fall.
Beth searches for reflections, but none exist within night's embrace on One.
A rat nightloper falls on Slade's back, sinking its teeth into his shoulder. As he runs toward Beth, he tosses it off, a chunk of his flesh in its teeth.
So much for ignoring instinct.
Beth buries her blade in the nightloper's shoulder, and the wolf’s mouth opens wide.
Beth strikes the nightloper’s throat with her knuckles, rolling away.
The wolf lands on her back.
She screams, and her gaze meets Slade’s. Beth's eyes are flat black discs of fear and determination. Slade's emotions swell from the proof of her courage, and that small seed of tenderness he harbors grows larger.
Slade mutters a curse. This female has the bravest heart of any he's ever known. And a nightloper bite will make things far worse for her.
Slade rushes the distance, and something grabs his feet. He falls, kicking backward, and hears a satisfying crunch.
Beth raises her forearms to protect her face. Slade springs to his feet then leaps the remaining distance. He misses.
Slade leans forward and grabs the leg of her pants. He pulls her to him with everything he has… just as the wolf clamps down on her leg.
Slade's momentum sets the nightloper's teeth more soundly, and Beth wails.
Slade releases her immediately. Heaving a mighty hiss of rage-fueled venom, he lands on the nightloper.
He falls on top of Beth, killing the nightloper above her. The breath whooshes out of her body, and Slade quickly rolls off the nightloper's body, prying its mouth off Beth's leg.
Beth sharply inhales. “Get me up!” she says, her eyes frantically searching for the rest of the group