"If they take you, you'll fight," Zane said. "They'll kill you." He closed his eyes. "This is one time when you can't protect yourself, but maybe we can."
"You'll both die," I said.
Zane shrugged with his one good shoulder, casual, like it didn't matter.
The thought came that it would all be over if I had sex. It would end then, and only then. Raina came back in full force, spilling through me. She wanted Nathaniel, and that she could not have, not with my body. Fucking Nathaniel would be like child molesting. I wouldn't do it.
Zane. Zane would do. Raina had always been fickle. I got a sudden visual so strong it made me blush. Was there anyone that Raina hadn't slept with? I wasn't going to do either of them. No way.
Then they'll die. I wasn't sure if it was my thought or the munin. Either way, we were right.
Jason limped into sight. I knew him just by the shape of his shoulders and his hair. Either I hadn't healed him completely, or he'd been in a fight. Maybe both. I'd broken contact before I finished. The munin was saving the deeper healing for sex. For her it was the toll to be paid for services rendered. No payment, no healing. Like a drug dealer giving just a taste.
Jason gave me a very strange smile as he entered the trees near Nathaniel and Zane. He slid down until he was sitting with his back against a small tree trunk. He let out a sigh.
We all looked at him. A scream tore our gaze back to the woods. Out there, close, they were fighting. Another howl rode the still, hot air. The sound was close enough to make my scalp prickle.
The trees we had stopped at were at the bottom of a hill. It was familiar. "Are the cabins just up there?"
"Yes," Zane said.
"If you go to the cabins, they'll follow," Jason said. "Can't have the tourists seeing it."
"Fuck that," I said, "Some of them won't follow to the cabins because of the tourists. I say we go and board ourselves in."
"It won't end until someone wins," Jason said. He sounded tired or maybe discouraged.
"And up there are two vampires who are on my side." I started up the hill. Nathaniel and Zane followed at my heels. Jason just sat there. We were a quarter of the way up the hill before he pushed to his feet to follow. When all this shit was over, I'd ask what was wrong. Right now, there was no time.
Figures appeared through the trees. Zane gave a little push to my back. "Run," he said, "I'll delay them."
Nathaniel turned with him, facing down into the dark and the danger.
"No," Zane said, "you go with her, Nathaniel." He looked at me. "I'm learning what it means to be an alpha. Nathaniel doesn't know how to fight."
Nathaniel looked from one to the other of us. He finally settled on me. "What do you want me to do?"
I thought about that for a second, studying Zane's so-careful face. "I'd say come with me, but I'm not leaving Zane behind."
I reached back and touched Zane's hand. "I won't leave you to die."
"Damn it, Anita, if you're not here, they won't kill us. They'll just hurt us and go after you," Zane said.
"I'm sort of bait," I said.
"Yes."
"Don't die on me, okay?"
"I'll do my best," Zane said.
I squeezed his hand. "Don't do your best, just don't die. You, either," I said to Jason.
He shook his head. "I have to stay with you. Richard's orders."
"Why?"
He shook his head and glanced back at the dark figures moving through the trees. Closer, always closer. "Later. Now, we move."