Page 14 of A Very Armitage Christmas
“That may not work!” Nate’s voice, high and panicked. I glanced over my shoulder. He and Arik were working furiously together, now, and they both looked pale and grim. “I don’t think the wards will hold against that many hitting the line all at once. We were expecting a few random stragglers, bodies left by rogue vampires. Not — whatever the fuck this is!”
“Turns out there was an old cemetery just beyond the edge of our territory,” Jennifer put in, as she circled to the side to cover Matt’s flank. “They stopped using it twenty years ago. Stephen’s the only one who remembered, and he forgot to tell us until we woke him up ten minutes ago.”
“Well, that’s just fucking great,” Nate and Arik snarled — in perfect unison. They froze, stared at each other for a second, turned bright red, and went back to work without another word.
“How the hell do they still have flesh on them?” I demanded. “Shouldn’t they just be skeletons by now?”
“Embalming’s a wonderful thing,” Jennifer said with a shrug. “I’m guessing this is less than half the cemetery’s inhabitants, the better-preserved and more recent ones. The rest are probably rattling their bones back at the graveyard.”
“Well, I’m staying here,” I said. “My job’s to be the first line of defense, right?” And I’d be damned if so much as a single zombie got past me, no matter what Nate said about the wards being able to handle a few at a time. Nate was right behind me, defenseless except for his finger lightning. And that rocked, but it also wouldn’t help if he had zombies all over him.
Matt appeared at my shoulder. “Like fuck it is. At least not on your own.”
I shot him a grin. “Fine, old man. Let’s see how many you get this time, when it’s an even playing field.”
“More than you, guaranteed, pipsqueak.”
I ignored that. I’d prove him wrong…and besides, we had a line of zombies bearing down on us, dozens of them, moaning and dragging their half-rotted feet along through the snow, their jaws wide and full of filthy teeth.
The sun broke the horizon, gilding bare, maggoty scalps and showing details that I — yeah, I could’ve lived forever without seeing some of what I was seeing.
And then they were on us. Matt shouted encouragement, and the pack’s fighters jumped into the fray. It was chaos, zombies coming at us one after the other, limbs flying, machetes whirling, chunks of flesh and bone getting flung in every direction. One of them latched onto my shoulder and bit down hard, a throbbing, awful pain, and when Matt’s machete severed its head, the head stayed attached. He knocked it flying with the flat of his blade and then spun to take down another. Luke was mowing them down like a tank, and everyone else was holding their own, but they kept on coming. I got separated from Matt, hacking and chopping — and then a zombie lunged away right as my machete lodged in its spine, another one wrapped its arms around me from behind, and the machete wrenched out of my hands.
I heard Matt shouting, “Arik, now! Do it now! We can’t wait!”
I lashed out with my claws, raking them through the pile of zombies surrounding me. I threw them off as fast as they could come at me, but I had bites on both arms, both legs, and one on my ribs that had gone down to the bone.
And I’d started to feel it. Those weren’t normal bites. Maybe I wouldn’t transform into anything, but I wasn’t going to be feeling great.
If I lived.
Nate. I wanted to see Nate. Another one came at me, rictus grin wide open, and I shoved my claws through its head, whirling to pitchfork it into two more of its friends.
I saw Jennifer going down under a pile of zombies, too, but I couldn’t get to her. Andy struggled to her side.
And then a bomb went off.
Or at least that’s what it felt like. A wave of magic, something powerful and strange and ear-splittingly purple, boomed through the whole scene, knocking zombies down like bowling pins and ripping them into pieces.
I fell to my knees. Whammy, as Nate would say. Fuck, Nate. Had he done that, or Arik? Pinkish sunlight fell on churned snow stained red with blood and filthy black with whatever fluids came out of the undead. I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of me. Shaking my head didn’t help, only made the ringing worse.
Why did I feel so fucking heavy? Like I needed to lie down.
Not here. Gross.
I wobbled, and then through it all I felt my mate, more clearly than I’d ever felt him before. I hadn’t realized how much of himself he must have been holding back, or protecting, maybe, until there weren’t any barriers at all. The bond glowed with reds and golds and blues, and it rang like resonance in a crystal glass. Nate’s energy, flowing through the bond to me, unfiltered and beautiful and filled with so much emotion…more than I’d ever thought someone like him could have for someone like me.
Ithurt, like the soul-deep equivalent of cleaning out a wound with rubbing alcohol. Stinging and burning and healing all at once.
How had I wondered if he really loved me? My wounds didn’t matter. All that mattered was feelingthat, for as long as I could. The world spun in front of me, snow and corpses and sunlight and trees, like a kaleidoscope. My whole body throbbed with pain and with bliss all at the same time.
Nate skidded to a stop in front of me, flinging himself down on his knees and taking my face in his hands. His fingers felt small and cold against my skin. He was pale and disheveled, with his hair flying in all directions, but there was no blood on him. No wounds. I’d kept him safe.
“I’m a mess,” I mumbled. I blinked at him. Both of him, for a second. My vision cleared, and he resolved into one lovely Nate. “Shouldn’t touch me.”
Nate’s beautiful dark brown eyes gleamed, catching a glint of the dawn and lighting up like something out of this world. “You’re my mess,” he said. “My alpha. My —” He choked and cleared his throat. “I love you. And now Arik needs to heal you, so I can beat the shit out of you for being so fucking reckless. I love you. Come on, let’s get you up.”
Somehow Nate got his shoulder under one of my arms and helped me stagger to my feet, grunting with the effort and nearly collapsing under my weight. He didn’t complain or bitch at me, just steadied me until I could put one foot in front of the other.
