Page 33 of Escaping Hallow Hill Academy
He can’t fucking die.
A vicious sound tears from a violent wolf, and it terrifies me that he might hurt himself, too.
“Stay back, Styx!” I order as my feet pound forward. Guilt wracks me, makes my whole body shake. I don’t need my wolf hurt in this fuckery. Rueren shouldn’t evenbehurt. I’ve been alone for so long that I’ve forgotten what caring feels like.
It feels a lot like this.
The monster embeds its claws deeper into Rueren’s body. They pierce through his chest, and blood blooms across the front of him. A snarl rips from his throat. I see his features contorted in pain, a moment that I feel deep in my own bones, but the lights blink, and in the next moment, a new creature is in Rueren’s place.
His expression has somehow shifted across his skin. His perfect nose elongates and distorts into a mesh of blackened flesh. His ears spread over the side of his head, and when he opens his mouth to snarl, every single one of his teeth is pointed and shimmering like knives.
I hear the bones begin to snap like twigs in a dry forest and then the sound of shearing metal. Wings—thin, membranous, muscled wings—burst from Rueren’s back and break through the metal like a knife splitting butter.
He’s a giant bat creature.
He’s a fucking bat man.
He roars, and the sound is as monstrous as the creature behind him. Long, clawed fingers rip the metal from his chest, and he turns, slicing them through the monster. It drops. It dies.
I blink at how fast he was able to accomplish that.
He turns and looks at me, and I know what his red gaze holds. Bloodlust, but he stares at me with that mischievous smile, and I just know he’s not that far gone.
“Rue . . .” The nickname trips out of my mouth in a moment of awe.
His whole body is hulking and massive, and the silver collar around his neck looks like a rubber band about to snap.
“Sekar.” His own voice is guttural as he says the word, and I can’t fucking fathom how I find this so erotic, but I do.
Then he drops like a potato sack. His howls of pain are something that I know will haunt my nightmares. His body ripples as he writhes on the ground. Convulsions take over him entirely, and when he blinks, his eyes bleed silver liquid.
I drop to my knees next to him, and he fights and struggles for breath, his fingers trying to pry away the collar around his neck, but it just squeezes tighter like a fucking vice.
Silver exudes from his orifices, shining down his nostrils, the corners of his mouth.
“Fuck!” I don’t know what the fuck to do. The fucking collar, it’s killing him! And I know I can’t just let him die. “Shift back, Rue! You have to fucking shift back!”
My words must pierce past his howls of pain, because his brows pull together, and he tries to settle his convulsions. His thick body slowly melts back to his normal size, until the collar doesn’t look like it’s choking the life out of him anymore, but he’s still covered in blood. He’s still weak.
And he’s looking at me like he’s a dying man in the desert, and I’m the last glass of water in the universe.
“You called me Rue.”
My fingers swipe away the silver from his warm skin, my thumb swiping along his bottom lip. “We have to get you out of here.”
He doesn’t argue as I pull him to his feet and throw his arm around me. He’s heavy and shaking on his knees but still manages to stumble back up the steps and out into the hall.
“Ah, fuck,” I groan. A loud beeping is shrill through the entire academy.
“That’ll be the alarm.”
“No shit, old man.”
He barks out a laugh.
We pick up the pace until we’re running as fast as we can in the direction of our dorms. Everyone else is doing the same, so no one looks at us any differently.
“They’re locking down the whole place,” Rue explains between heavy pants. “They know there’s been a security breach. We have to hurry. You have to heal me so they don’t suspect.”
