House Of Dragons Page 33

  Being that I definitely wasn't too great with lots of it and did have a tendency to pass out when confronted with the sight of it, I felt like Kathy should accompany her to the guard tower to make sure she made it okay, but now that it was down to just the two of us, Kathy really couldn't be spared.

  Just a few moments after Lily left, Kathy and I started dashing along the wall again, stabbing Huskers; and within a few minutes, we actually had them down to a very 30manageable level. There weren't nearly enough of them to break down the wall, that was for sure. Killing maybe two or three every minute or so now, Kathy and I continued along, and I realized that although her build wasn't exactly athletic, she was in better shape than most women half her age.

  With her expression one of calm determination, she wasn't even breathing that hard. Though I was nowhere near to being winded, I, former Olympic figure skater, was actually breathing harder.

  She and I worked so well and efficiently together as a team that after a few more minutes, we were actually able to take a break to drink some water and observe the shifter battle through a pair of binoculars.

  Kathy looked first, soon saying that our men appeared to be doing just fine. "They've got their hands full for sure, but they're definitely holding their own. I don't even see any of our men injured or dead out on the field yet. There are many Borderliners and Pine Hill shifters dead, though...maybe even a dozen of them. But I don't see even a smudge of blue paint on a single one of them."

  Wisely, so that our shifters could tell friend from foe, they'd quickly smeared blue paint on their foreheads and backs before streaming out the gate. Weeks earlier, red paint had first been suggested by a few shifters, just because it seemed like a fierce color appropriate for battle; but Nick had ultimately vetoed that idea, thinking that once the enemy became bloodied, it might once again become difficult to tell friend from foe.

  After scanning the field until she spotted Mike and Sam and could see with absolute certainty that they were okay, Kathy handed the pair of binoculars off to me, grabbed her knife, and strolled away to kill a hissing female Husker who'd stuck its entire rotting face between a steel beam and a wooden plank maybe just ten feet away.

  Gaze locked on Kathy, snapping its sharp fangs, it was clearly desperate to bite her and drink her blood, though that wouldn't be happening. Kathy dropped it with a single rapid stab to the eye, muttering something about how she wasn't going to get bitten that day.

  After putting the binoculars to my eyes and looking through a wide crack between two thick wooden planks, I quickly located a ferociously fighting lion that I was fairly certain was Nick, who was a decidedly dark-colored lion, with fur nearly the same shade as dark maple syrup.

  Blaine was also pretty easy to identify, because his tiger stripes were unique, with some of them tapering off into zig-zag lightning bolt-looking things on his sides. The fact that most of the fighting was happening on a very gently sloping hill that came down from the forestland to the east had also made it easy to identify them, because I could see nearly everything. Like Nick, Blaine was also fighting furiously, decapitating an unpainted enemy wolf with one snap of his powerful jaws.

  Completely unable to see any more gore after this, I moved the binoculars to my right a little ways, not because there was much of anything to see to the southeast, because the battle was still really contained dead east, but I just wasn't quite ready to put the binoculars down yet. Once I had taken in what there was to be seen to the southeast, I immediately dropped the binoculars, gasping. "Kathy. Kathy. Help me find a ladder. I'm going over the wall."

  THE FINAL CHAPTER

  My squeamishness, which had made me turn the binoculars away from the battle, had caused me to see a sight at once miraculous and horrifying. It was a sight that made me instantly begin trembling from head to toe, and that was no exaggeration. Also, my breathing had suddenly accelerated to a near-pant. At the same time, I felt more filled with energy than I probably ever had in my life before, like I could have ran a marathon full-out without ever slowing, unless my rubbery legs gave out beneath me and made me collapse to the ground. But even then, I felt like the electric energy my body seemed filled with, would allow me to quickly reach the finish line just by crawling.

  I'd seen my sisters. I hadn't been hallucinating. I was certain. I'd seen Jessica and Ebony. They'd been near the middle of a gently-sloping hill similar to the one to the east. To their right, there had been a group of men. I didn't know how many men were in the group. I'd seen the men somewhere in the corners of my eyes. My gaze had been locked on Jess and Eb for every millisecond of the two seconds I'd been looking directly at them before absolute shock made me drop the binoculars.

  The sight had been, without a doubt, the most miraculous one I'd ever seen in my life. However, at the same time, it was the most horrifying. Dozens of Huskers were closing in on Jess, Eb, and the men with them from all sides. Some of the Huskers were only maybe thirty or forty feet away. And because there were so many of them, there was no clear escape route that Jess and Eb could cut through. Not without fighting a line of Huskers three or four deep.

  After dispatching another Husker sticking its face through the wall, Kathy frowned at me, lowering her massive knife. "Now, why in the hell would you say-"

  "Just help me find a ladder."

  "No. Now, you tell me right this second what-"

  "Never mind. I already see one."

  I was already dashing toward it. Not twenty feet beyond Kathy, it had been left in place a few days earlier when a few of us were repairing a rotting section of wood high up on the wall.

  Having zero fear of heights, I'd actually been up on the ladder myself. Which is how I knew that once I climbed to the top, I'd be able to easily scramble down the other side of the wall, even though there was no ladder. Looking over at the other side of the wall just out of curiosity, I saw that it was constructed of so many different pieces of timber and steel that there were a few places where a person could get a few good footholds on the way down.

  When I was dashing by her, Kathy grabbed my arm to stop me. "Stop, Eva, right this second. Stop."

  I tried to shake her hand from my arm, but she had an iron grip. "You don't understand. My sisters are out there. They're alive. I just saw them. They're to the southeast. I don't know how, but they're alive and completely fine, but I have to go help them. There's a good-sized horde of Huskers-"

  "No. No, goddammit, you're staying right here."

  "No, I'm-"

  "You're really ready to just throw it all away? The happiness you have with Blaine and Nick? Your very life? You're really ready to just throw that all away? And for what? For a slim chance-"

  "Of saving my sisters? Hell, yes. Now, let go of my damn arm so I can-"

  "No. Rethink your choice, Eva. Happiness and Blaine and Nick, or probable death. At the very least, they'll never forgive you, though you probably won't even be alive for them to-"

  "I guess this is just who I am, Kathy. I'm the kind of woman who flies out of trucks to help men she's just met, and I'm the kind of woman who's about to climb over a wall if there's even a one-in-a-trillion chance my sisters can be saved. I guess I'm just dumb. But-"

  "If all the Huskers out there don't kill you, you know the Borderliners will drag you back to their village, right? Where you'll be raped, and where you'll probably never be heard from ever-"

  "I don't care. Now, let go of my damn arm, Kathy, or else I'm going to punch you in the face."

  In response, Kathy only tightened her already-fiercely-tight grip, adding a hand to my other arm as well. "No. No, you can't go out there, Emily! Don't you realize you'll never come back?"

  Clearly in her frustration and anger, Kathy had misspoke, calling me Emily, though there wasn't even anyone named Emily in the village. I didn't have even a second to puzzle this out, though, and Kathy didn't even seem to realize her mistake.

  She suddenly grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me hard enough to make my teeth ch
atter. "You stupid, stupid girl! Why have you always been so impulsive...so reckless!" Just as suddenly as she'd begun shaking me, she backhanded me across the face. "How could you have done what you did?"

  She'd hit me so hard that stars had instantly appeared in front of my eyes, and I'd staggered backward, falling to my rear, stunned. It hadn't even been the pain of her blow that had done it, just the sheer power and force. I'd never been hit a single time in my life, let alone backhanded by a very strong lady who'd seemed to put every ounce of her strength into it.

  Kathy was suddenly sorry now, though, crying with her hands covering her mouth, as if she couldn't believe what she'd done. "I didn't mean to do that, Eva. I'm so sorry. I'm so very sorry. I just wanted you to be Emily...thought you were her for a second. I'm so sorry."

  I had a feeling I was getting really close to hearing why Kathy had always behaved strangely toward me, but as intrigued as I was, I just simply did not have a fraction of a second to spare at present.

  Quickly getting to my feet, I rubbed the stinging side of my face, trying to shake the stars out of my eyes at the same time. "Follow me, Kathy, and I will punch you in the face. Twice now, for what you just did to me."

  Softly-lined cheeks wet with tears, she just nodded, the perfect picture of contrition. "I won't follow you. I won't try to do anything to you. I'm just so sorry that I hit you."

  I didn't have time to hear anymore and began sprinting off to the ladder at top speed. When I reached it, I raced to the top, just flying. I came down the other side of the wall at about the same rate of speed, just jumping the last five or so feet, unable to be bothered looking for another foothold.

  Now looking to the southeast, I couldn't see Ebony and Jessica at all. All I could see was a tight circle of at least a hundred Huskers clearly in some kind of a frenzy, moving faster than they usually did. I realized it was possible that Eb and Jess might have already been bitten, and the Huskers that I could see on the outside of the circle were desperate to move in for a taste of their blood.

  To the east of the village, Blaine, Nick, and all the other Helena fighters were too far away for me to call out to. Besides, it looked like they still had their hands quite full dealing with all the Borderline and Pine Bluff shifters. Also, I didn't want to alert any of the enemy fighters with any shouts. I was just going to have to try to break through the circle of Huskers and get to Jess and Eb myself, or die trying.

  I knew by now that I wasn't the kind of person who could just simply go on in my life knowing that I hadn't even made an effort to save them. It didn't even matter to me that I might lose my own life in this effort.

  It did, however, matter to me that I might never see Blaine or Nick again, and that my death would surely break their hearts. By this point, I'd become convinced that they both truly loved me just as much as I loved them, and I knew that I'd be absolutely devastated, just wrecked, if one of them died.

  So, I could only imagine that they'd feel the same. Still, I couldn't not do what I was going to do. Like I told Kathy, I knew who I was, and it was maybe a dumber yet braver person than I'd ever thought myself to be. Or, apparently like Emily had been, whoever Emily was, maybe I was just reckless. Not that it even mattered what I was. I was going to try to save my sisters.

  At the very least, I wasn't going to let them be undefended and turn into Huskers. I knew they had a group of human men with them, of course, but for all I knew, the group of men was a predatory one who'd chased Eb and Jess right into the arms of the Bloodsuckers in the first place.

  After yanking my screwdriver from my pocket and stabbing two Huskers near the wall through their eyes, one right after the other, I tore off across the green grass, glancing in the direction of the battle, and Blaine and Nick, with my chest aching. "I'm so sorry."

  *

  With adrenaline flooding my veins, I fought just as ferociously and as well as I hoped I would, killing at least twenty of the hundred-something member Husker horde within minutes. However, even after that, I still couldn't see Eb or Jess, and I'd attracted the attention of many of the remaining Huskers.

  At least ten of them were now heading straight for me, fangs bared. I'd only been able to dispatch the twenty or so that I had because they'd all been more or less focused inward, possibly on Jess and Eb's bleeding bodies, though I was barely even letting myself think about that.

  I wasn't even going to make an attempt at retreat. Not now. Not now that I was maybe within mere feet of my sisters, just unable to see them. With the ten or so Huskers about to attack me, though, I was beginning to lose hope that I was going to remain unbitten much longer. I was possibly never going to see Blaine and Nick again, and even if I did, I figured it would probably only happen while I was in the grip of the Bloodsucker virus.

  I didn't think either of them would ever forgive me before I turned into a Husker, requiring one of them to kill me.

  Over the previous several weeks, Nick had told me repeatedly that no matter when the battle happened, and no matter what happened during it, I wasn't to leave the village walls, by any means, for any reason. And like I'd learned the first day in the truck with him and Blaine, when Nick gave an order, he expected it to be followed.

  Unable to imagine any scenario that would make me even want to leave the village walls during the battle, I'd told Nick repeatedly that I wouldn't, also telling Blaine a few times when he brought up the subject as well. Now I just hoped that Kathy would at least tell them why I'd gone over the wall, if I was too out of it with fever by the time Blaine and Nick found me. Or, if the virus had already transformed me into a Husker by that point.

  I wasn't about to give up just yet, though. Even with a dozen Huskers coming at me, even if there was still a one-in-a-million chance that I could still save Jess and Eb, I was going to take it. I was going to continue to fight.

  However, at the same moment that the dozen or so Huskers reached me at once, hissing, someone yelled to my left, attracting their attention.

  "Hey! Hey, you nasty blood bags! Over here!"

  It was Kathy, some thirty feet away, waving her arms. Right away, several of the Huskers began shambling on over to her, leaving me to deal with only the several remaining, which I immediately began stabbing with my screwdriver.

  To my left, Kathy began yelling again. "Come on! All of you! Over here! Come and get me!"

  Now she had the attention of most of the horde, who began shambling on over to her, groaning and hissing.

  Kathy yelled again, though this time so loudly she was nearly screaming. "Now, Emily! Now! Run! Get back to the village!"

  I really needed to find out who Emily was. Just sometime when I wasn't nearly being trampled by a hundred-some bloodthirsty creatures with fangs bared.

  I began dodging and weaving, but I wasn't about to run. Now I could see Jessica and Ebony. Jess was on her rear in the long Kentucky bluegrass, shrieking, covering her face, while Ebony stabbed at several Huskers near her with a long, thin knife. Around them both, the group of men they were with stabbed at other Huskers even as those Huskers lurched away toward Kathy.

  Everything began to feel as if it were happening in slow-motion and yet with lightning-fast speed all at once. I reached Jess and Eb, who both screamed when they saw me, as if I were a ghost. I yelled, stabbing at a Husker who was quickly moving toward Ebony, fangs bared. I pulled Jess up from the ground by the hand. I shouted at the group of men to go help Kathy. But right then, not even a second after I'd spoken, it became clear that Kathy was about to get more help than a group of human men could ever provide.

  Thunderous roaring alerted me at first, and then I looked and saw Nick and Blaine, neck-and-neck, charging over from the battlefield. I could only guess that they'd somehow heard Kathy's yelling. Behind them a short distance, several dozen Helena shifters with paint-smeared heads were charging over as well.

  I allowed myself the tiniest sigh of relief, daring to hope that now not only were Jess, Eb, and I going to live, but Kathy, too. I hon
estly wasn't sure if I wanted the group of men to live or not, being that I didn't know if they were predators and rapists who'd been holding Jess and Eb captive or something.

  Nick came to a screeching halt next to Jess, Eb, and me, and I knew what to do, all but leaping onto his broad back and telling Jess and Eb to do the same. And the second they were on his back, Jess holding onto Eb's shoulders, Eb holding onto mine, and me clutching Nick's golden mane, he took off.

  I turned back quickly just in time to see Kathy leap onto the back of a Helena wolf. Some distance away, the group of men was running toward the village, with shifters on either side of them picking off Huskers.

  When I felt Eb wrap me in a monstrous bear hug about halfway to the village gates, I just wept, shoulders shaking, reaching one of my hands back to cover one of her own. And by the time the gates had been opened and Nick had taken us inside the village, Eb, Jess, and I were all weeping, flying up and off of Nick's back to embrace, all three of us talking so fast that through our tears our words just sounded like complete gibberish.