Shattered (Alchemy Series Book #3) (9 page)

"
I know."

I grabbed his arm and held him back a minute.

"She did what she thought was right, just like you would've."

"W
e aren't together. She can do whatever she wants."

He pulled out of m
y grasp and walked back toward the group. He was too frustrated to see past his own feelings at that moment, so I let it go. I had my own conflicted emotions to sort through before I could fix anyone else.

Sabrina had
been acting strangely, but I never thought she would do something like this. And how the hell did she get the rest of them on board? If I could've gotten my hands on Oslo right now, I would have broken the promise myself and wrung his neck.

Walking through the rubble, we all tried to stay toward the center
of the road. Buildings were collapsing without notice all the time. There hadn't been a twister in this area in the last three days and the winds weren't bad today, but it didn't matter. Most of the structures were so impaired now, the smallest thing would bring them tumbling down.

As we followed Abby another mile, I realized this was the farthest I'd been fro
m the casino since we'd returned. It burned the reality of the destruction into my brain. Bits of playing cards blew through the air and landed on the ground in front of me like a ticker tape parade, celebrating the end of the world. And this was the end. Maybe not of life, but most of the people living today would never see a normal city again in their lifetime.

My body followed the group even
as my mind wandered in the surreal atmosphere. Every so often, I felt eyes peering at us, but whenever I turned, there was nothing. I knew there were still people out there that the rippers hadn't gotten to. I also suspected there were other creatures out there as well, things that might be worse than the rippers, but hadn't shown themselves yet.

The next movement that caught my eye wasn't
from ghosts lingering in burnt out buildings, it was from one of our own.

"Dark, are you okay?"

His hands were trembling and when he turned to me, a ravished look was in his eyes. Sweat was beaded on his forehead and he looked feverish.

"I can't hold it back
any longer," he said.

"The change
?"

He nodded.
"It's the magic," he said through gritted teeth. Before he could explain any more, his clothes were shredding off his body. His jaw elongated, huge canine teeth growing. Blond fur grew and covered his now almost naked form. Muscles twitched and grew as his body shot up an additional two feet.

W
e all stopped and gawked. It was terrifying and mesmerizing. It was also something most of us hadn't seen happen in person. The wolves tended to transition in private. Now everyone knew why. Dark seemed completely vulnerable during the transition that took about five minutes. If there was an enemy around, five minutes of vulnerability was a lifetime.

"Dark, are you okay?" I asked
after the change seemed to be slowing to an end.

"I don't think he can
speak in this form," Dodd said.

Dark
stiffly nodded his head in agreement, showing that he was coherent, if not quite comfortable yet. I trained my vision on his head, since he wore nothing but fur now and he had a surprisingly large appendage hanging below the waist. I knew it wasn't the polite thing to do, but I couldn't help and wonder if it was as large in his human form. Geez, Dark, I never would've guessed.

"Did you ever have this problem before?
When things were normal?"

Dark shook his head in response.

"Do you want to continue?"

He nodded again.

"Okay, let's keep going then. We don't have a lot of time." What I wanted to say was
they
didn't have a lot of time. I'd keep going until the trail ran out, hopefully with Burrom, but alone if need be.

We started
moving forward again, Abby still in the lead but now with Dark close behind her. I watched him, occasionally sniffing the air or along a wall that one of them must have touched as they passed.

When the sun was looming overhead
at about one o'clock, I realized that some of our party would need to turn around or they wouldn't be able to make it back. We'd been walking this long and hadn't even made it to the desert yet.

"
We need to stop." I swigged heavily from the water bottle stored in my pack and handed Burrom his, since he was too good to carry his own. I wished I were drinking something with more of a kick than water, but I couldn't risk dehydration, so I'd left my flask behind.

"What?" Dodd asked, clearly agitated.

"You've got to turn around." I wiped the sweat off my forehead with my arm.

"Not happening
, Jo." He shook his head and turned around and kept walking.

"If you don't turn around, you and the rest of
the people here might not make it back. You could be eaten," I yelled after him.

Dodd
stopped again and looked around, "Anyone want to go back, suit yourself. No hard feelings."

A deep rumbling sound emerged from Dark and he shook his
massive head. Donald and Alisa both asserted they were staying as well, which I was a bit surprised by.

I turned to Burrom, who shrugged. "I mig
ht die but it won't be from rippers and it won't be now."

I look
ed at their faces and I didn't tell them what I was really thinking. I didn't want to watch them die all around me. I couldn't watch them die. I wanted to scream at them that I was at my breaking point. I couldn't take another thing. That if they wanted to die, couldn't they do it with someone else? These days, I was holding myself together with whiskey and denial. I didn't have my whiskey and denial was having a bad day.

I didn't say these things
. I just started walking. At our current pace, we'd be in the middle of the Valley of Fire, a deserted part of the desert, come nightfall. Not a great place to try and find cover if we were attacked. Why oh why didn't I bring my flask?

We didn't stop for anything.
We ate as we walked. If someone had to go to the bathroom, they went and caught up quickly. We were all too aware of the ticking clock.

The crumpled building
s became more and more spread out until there was nothing but desert and the last rays of a fading safety were disappearing quickly.

I knew Cormac was probably going to be on a r
ampage back at the casino. He'd expect us to be walking in at any moment. That only added to the stress I already felt. I threw Burrom a look and slowed my pace. He did the same.

"If we get attacked, try to keep them in the center."
I spoke low but I was pretty sure some of them heard me anyway.

He rolled his eyes
at the imposition but I knew he'd do it.

And then we slowed to a stop. I saw Abby and Dark circling around.
Shit. They'd lost the scent. Dark was still in werewolf form and he was pacing, unable to find their trail. 

"This makes no sense. They didn't just disappear
," Dodd said, following after Dark and visibly crowding him. "Dark, they've got to be here."

Dark whined a bit. Dark was Dodd's roommate and sidekick
. He also worshipped the ground Dodd walked on. He wouldn't lose the trail if he could help it.

After another ten
minutes of watching them try and fail, I was getting increasingly nervous. Standing still like this made it much easier for the rippers to find us.

"We know where they were headed. We just keep going in that direction."
At that very moment, I didn't care if we headed farther away from the casino or closer, anything but standing still.

"You're right," Dodd agreed. "We keep heading toward Arizona."

Back on the move again, I didn't feel relaxed but it was better than standing still.

About fifteen minutes later
, both Dark and Abby started to pick up a trail again. Moving quickly, I followed as close as I could, hoping to be a living shield if the rippers came. I knew that I needed to be within a few feet if there was going to be any shot of it working. Donald and Alisa? They probably wouldn't fare too well and I'd have to increase my daily prescription of whiskey.

In the full dark, it wa
s hard to see exactly where Dark and Abby were going, but I saw Dark suddenly kneel down next to a large boulder.

"What is it?" I asked, forgetting that Dark couldn't speak in this form.

I saw the feminine shape lying prone on the ground as I neared him. Her name was Colleen, the teenager with the purple eyes. She had been on the list of people the senator had demanded for insurance. This didn't bode well.

She was barely conscious when I kneeled down next to her.

"Colleen?" I asked and felt along her limbs for injuries. There were several patches of wetness seeping through her shirt and she moaned when I touched her. I looked up at the others. "We've got to get her back to the casino. She's in bad shape."

"I can't stop. Sabrina's out there heading toward the senator," Dodd said.

"She's not."

Startled, we all looked down when we heard the soft voice of Colleen.

"Where are they?" I asked the girl, her eyes now partially open.

"We were attacked on our way there."

There was blood on her lips. This was bad, real bad.

"By who?"
I asked.

"
I don't know," she said. Her eyes drifted closed but I didn't think she was unconscious. Every word seemed like an effort to her.

"She is not going to make it very long if we don't get her
help." I looked specifically toward Dodd now. "We all want to get Sabrina back and our only lead will die out here if we don't do something quick."

"Agreed," he said
. "You take her back. I'm going to keep moving forward with Dark."

"Dodd, think for a second. I couldn
't carry her back even if I agreed to that plan, and if we start splitting up, then we'll all be dead for sure."
You're dead,
is what I wanted to say, but I was trying to not enflame his ego along with his need to save his woman. "If she dies, we might not ever find Sabrina. And if we don't get her help soon, she's dead." I whispered
she's dead,
hoping Colleen wouldn't hear me. I hoped Dodd was picking up on the general theme of what I was saying and I wouldn't have to scream
we're all going to die
over and over again.

"Okay," he said.
"We turn around."

Dark made a growling noise and motioned his nose toward the helpless Colleen.

"Yes, I think that's a good idea," I replied and watched the eight foot tall werewolf scoop her up. He'd be able to carry her easier than anyone else in his wolf form.

Burrom dug his pipe out of his jeans pocket.
"This isn't going how the cards said it would."

"What did the cards say?" I a
sked.

"You probably don't want to know," he replied as we walke
d in full darkness, Dodd flashing a light ahead of us.

"Tell me anyway," I said.

"Forget it. I spoke to soon."

I looked to wh
ere Burrom was staring up ahead. Dodd's flashlight caught a shimmer of their scaly skin as they made their way toward us. I couldn't tell how many there were, but the rippers had found us.

"You take the back," I said to Burrom
as I quickly moved to the front.

"Now this is more of
what I expected," I heard Burrom say as I ran to the front.

"Get behind me," I said to Dodd.

"Absolutely not," he replied. "No one dies for me."

"I. Won't. Die." I stressed each word. "
You
will."

He took precious seconds that we didn't have but finally relented. "Valid point," he replied and then allowed me to step in front of him.

With everyone behind me, I could concentrate solely on what was coming at us. As the rippers got closer, I saw there were fifteen of them. 

T
hey made strange clicking and hissing noises as they edged closer. I didn't remember that noise from last time and I'm sure I would have. It filled the air with a foreboding and I had a really bad hunch it meant they were preparing to feed.

They stopped three f
eet away from me, which was way too close for comfort. They started to fan out and circle around us.

"Burrom," I call
ed, not wanting to turn my back on the rippers.

"They're closing in," he yelled from behind
me, voice raised but calm.

It was a lot easier to be calm when you knew you weren't going to be dinner and you didn't care if the people around you were
possibly dessert.