“Why not just kill them?” Faris griped.

“Too many dead already, and Doran is right about that. We might need them later,” I said. I took a breath, spun, and bolted into the forest behind me. Alex was with me, and Faris wasn’t far behind, guarding our rear. Berget caught up with ease.

“He’s fast,” she said with a glance over her shoulder. I couldn’t look. Everything I had focused on not falling flat on my face. Within the shadow of the trees, the darkness of the night was deep enough that gauging where the fuck my feet landed was bitching hard.

My foot caught a root and Berget grabbed me, yanking me upright. “How close is the Great Wolf?”

“Two miles,” I spit out as something grabbed my hair from behind and yanked me to a stop. Before I could do anything, the big foot had me in the air, benched over his head like he was fucking King Kong.

“Put me down, you idiot!” I yelled, hoping he would listen. No such luck. With the tip of one ragged fingernail—which happened to be the size of a small steak knife—he gouged a shallow furrow on my bare arm. The blood welled and he held his mouth open, shaking me like I was some kind of soda pop and he was trying to get the last damn drop from the bottom. My blood dripped into his open mouth.

“Must heal,” he said, holding me with one hand and slowly lowering me back to the ground. He didn’t let me go.

I pulled one of my blades and pressed the tip into his belly. “Let me go. Now.”

His fingers unleashed me as he groaned and clutched at his own belly.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to hurt them?” Berget was at my side, helping me navigate the terrain away from the big foot.

“I didn’t.” Which worried me. He groaned again and a loud rumble in his guts made me think we might be in for a show I didn’t want. Last time I’d hear noises like that, Alex had gotten into the spicy Thai food and no one had been able to stand within twenty feet of him for days. Apparently, my blood didn’t agree with him.

The hair on the big foot’s body lifted as if with a life of its own, and a guttural moan slipped out of his mouth giving me a glimpse of flat, broad teeth. He ground them together, a crack rebounding through the air.

“Faris . . .”

“I told you, your blood isn’t really your blood anymore. It’s a blend of yours and mine. I have no idea what it’s going to do to him.”

I opened my mouth, was going to ask what the hell we were supposed to do when a series of wolf howls rolled through the air. I did a quick count. Ten. There were ten werewolves coming our way along with the seven other friends of the big foot. Fucking hell. This was not how I wanted to deal with things.

The big foot in front of us suddenly let out a mind numbing roar that rooted my feet to the ground. Like a spell. He lurched toward me, his eyes blood shot and saliva dripping from his mouth.

“You have to kill him!” Faris shouted.

I knew it, damn, I knew it. I pulled my second sword and stepped toward the towering big foot. “I’m sorry.” I whipped my swords forward, crossing them in front of me. They cut through the big foot’s guts, opening him like a stuffed tick. He dropped to his knees and I spun into him, slamming my blades through the neck, taking his head.

I jammed my blades back into their sheaths and started toward the Great Wolf. A couple of miles.

“Why aren’t we running?” Berget whispered beside me, looking over her shoulder several times.

“They’ll catch us anyway because I’m too slow, and even if one of you carries me they’ll catch us. So we walk and conserve our energy.” Alex bounced beside me, his hair flopping as he went up and down.

“Rylee, big wolves coming. Big, bigger than boss.”

Fantastic. That was just what I wanted to hear. I pulled my crossbow free and fitted it with a bolt. Carried it loosely at my side. The bolt, edged in silver, would do serious damage to a werewolf or vampire. Same as my whip laced with silver filament.

“Thought you weren’t going to hurt them?” Faris laughed the words at me and I had to restrain myself from using the crossbow on him.

“Everyone keeps pointing out that if I don’t make it, the world is royally screwed. Maybe I finally believe that shit.”

I tapped Alex lightly on the head. “Tell me when the wolves are thirty feet out.”

“Yuppy doody, Rylee.” He spun around to stare into the darkness, walking backward with high, exaggerated steps until he was in front of me, ears and eyes trained on the forest behind us.

My heart was racing. This was not how I normally did things and it rubbed me the wrong way. Twitching, I fought not to spin around. Fuck it.

“Alex, stay close.” I turned, bringing my crossbow up to my cheek, sighting down the channel. Faris and Berget let out twin groans that at another time would have made me laugh. Ten werewolves, we could take them. They were probably sick anyway.

There could be no mercy in me, not if I wanted to keep the world whole and my loved ones safe. I stood, watching the darkness, waiting for a glimmer of golden werewolf eyes.

A shimmer of silver to the left and I adjusted my aim, saw the eyes, pulled the trigger. As the snarl of pain erupted, I was already fitting the crossbow with another bolt. A glimmer of eyes to my left and I loosed a second bolt. A yelping cry told me my aim was true.

“Alex, stay back.” Like everyone else, he’d taken my blood, but what if the effects wore off? He would be vulnerable to the pox. I managed to get a third bolt in, but not before they were on us.