Page 113 of Heart of Dawn
Stars, my arm seriously hurt, too much blood pouring from me.
Dawn’s screams became an endless wail similar to a siren, the ground shaking, the glass cabinets breaking open. I covered my ears against the onslaught, struggling to get to my feet.
The edges of the hole began to collapse, cracks splitting the floor, more hot smoke spraying out.
Crap. Crap. Crap.
I tried getting vertical again, my backside kissing the floor.
“Stars!” I cried.
I couldn’t die here. Not after so much fighting to live.
What a selfish thing to say. Did I not think so many others lost their lives after battling to survive? They managed to live through this hell for months and months only to turn down the wrong street and encounter a zombie horde? Or fall down some hole with no one around to pull them out, starving to death?
Selfish. Selfish. Selfish.
But Miko… He needed me.
The wailing stopped, replaced by loud gurgling. Dawn’s gong-like heartbeats faded into a softer rhythm, diminishing by the second.
It worked. It really worked.
The ground quaked, part of the ceiling above the hatch breaking loose. It fell into the hole with an almighty racket.
I managed to get up on my third try, wobbling and about to keel over again.
“I’ve got you.” Cate grabbed me, steadying me, her breath smelling of my blood.
“Th-Thanks…”
“Can you walk?”
“Thanks to you.”
“Come on.”
The ground shook violently. We stumbled to the side, staying upright.
James appeared in the doorway, back to his old self. “Bloody hell.” He tore off part of his top, covering my arm with it.
“Sorry for biting you,” Cate said, patting me between the shoulder blades.
I couldn’t answer, too dizzy to speak.
The wolves navigated the edges of the hole, climbing in and out on the way back to the other side. Cate picked me up to spare me the struggle.
Pink ooze ran down the walls, dripping from the ceiling.
Paige waited for us, also herself again, on the other side of the hole with Miko in her arms. He was still unconscious, looking so fragile, too delicate. An alpha like him didn’t get carried. He was too big, too strong.
But not now.
“He’s in a bad way,” Paige said, her concern piling on the searing pain in my should.
Not him.
Not Miko.
