The Darkest Knight (Guardians of Camelot #3) - Victoria Sue Page 0,70

to get separated.”

He nodded as they started walking, but the noise from the boathouse was obvious as they got nearer.

“It’s a wedding,” Ali said, her voice tinged with horror. Charles watched as Lance and Lucan glanced down at their amulets. The stones were all dark which meant the Ursus were near.

“Lucan, call Gawain. I think we need help.”

Lucan fished his phone out of his pocket. “No signal.” Lance swore under his breath.

“Should we retreat?” Charles asked.

“Too late,” Lucan said. “They will know we are here.”

Lucan had barely gotten the last word out when the voices of what sounded like a hundred Ursus seemed to rip the sky. “We need Mel,” Ali said and gripped her axe and gazed on the scene in front of the lake. Every door was open, and people in tuxes and dresses spilled out onto the steps and the footpaths leading into the trees. Charles could imagine the area set with dozens of chairs for the ceremony earlier, and his heart hurt. Then they both heard a laugh, and a man in a tux spun around the woman in his arms wearing a white dress while the other guests formed a ring around where they were going to dance.

The first shimmer started on the left of the group, and Lucan charged, holding his sword in a desperate rush to stop the Ursus from striking anyone in the group. Lucan got to it as the beast dragged the groom from his bride and with a roar tossed the man fifteen feet away.

Charles counted a single heartbeat before pandemonium erupted. Human screams rivaled the cries of the beasts. People completely unable to see what the knights were fighting tried to run from them. Charles got to one Ursus as a woman trying to run from him with the sword ran straight into an Ursus, and it swiped her away like an annoying fly. She landed awkwardly and lay completely still.

Then the gunfire started. One guest had a pistol and was firing haphazardly at the knights, but he was in more danger of hurting one of the panicked guests, and with a frustrated curse, Lucan grabbed it off him just as he was reloading with shaking hands. Ali was already bleeding from her side, and Roxy by this time wasn’t staying back but battling her own. There were just too many. If Charles were able to count as the black blood sprayed his face, he would have easily called a dozen or maybe more. Then he heard another scream cut off and turned. An Ursus standing in the middle of the destruction of bodies and furniture lifted the bride in one meaty hand, his sword in the other. She was alive, completely petrified but struggling against the unseen force that had her by the throat. Charles shouted and in one move as he ran past Ali picked up her axe and threw it at the back of the beast’s head. The resounding smack as it embedded itself in the beast’s skull was the distraction he had hoped for, and it dropped the woman. Roxy dived in and dragged her away. The beast turned and with one hand reached behind him and pulled the axe from its skull, all the time fixing its black, deathly stare on Charles.

Then it screamed and charged, but just as Charles lifted his hand, he realized he had no weapon, and everything froze.

He felt the insistent tug of magic and extended both arms willingly toward it. But instead of going forward, a body slammed right into him and he went down. He had a minute to comprehend he was still by the lake when he realized his arms were full of Kay, and he instinctively hung on. “Kay,” he gasped, mind reeling, and clutched him tight.

“Get up,” Lance ordered, yelling at the others as the Ursus all seemed to shimmer and vanish. “Get up now.” He could hear the sirens and immediately understood they had to leave. His arms tightened around an unconscious Kay as Lance pulled him upright, and he ran forward as Lance nearly dragged them both along the path to their cars. Lucan simply picked Ali up, and Roxy took her axe and ran after them. They got into the cars as flashing lights appeared ahead.

“Stay there.”

Charles jerked at Mel’s voice.

“What?” Lance asked incredulously.

“They cannot see the cars. I hid them. Wait until they have driven past.”

Charles glanced down at Kay and just breathed. Obvious bruises and swelling and he looked gaunt.