Page 93 of Outcast Fae
As if I had conjured him with my thoughts, the gray-haired man appeared in our path and began to change into his massive werebear form. He shifted in the blink of an eye, growing so big he filled the width of the corridor, his head hitting the low ceiling. His mass was enormous, huge arms and legs, a giant body with shaggy white fur. Black claws the length of kitchen knives extended from his paws. His yellow canines grew into huge tusks that could rip our bodies to pieces in one bite.
He made the werewolves look like pups in comparison.
That didn’t stop the pack from taking on the challenge. One of the werewolves leaped to attack. Silver Bear swatted him out of the air as if he were a fly. The werewolf slammed against the wall, letting out a sad whimper, then slid to the floor.
Two more werewolves and a vampire advanced threateningly on Silver Bear.
“This way!” Horace said, throwing a side door open while the others kept Silver Bear distracted. I felt terrible leaving them to fight our battle, but I had to get the children to safety. They were my one priority.
We rushed through the side door, pushing and shoving, tripping over each other. The group ran across a long room furnished with hospital-style beds until we reached another door at the end. The sound of snarling and more gunshots followed in our wake. There were enemies at every pass! How would we get out of here? It seemed impossible.
Past the door, we burst into another corridor just like the one before, veered right, and kept going.
“We’re almost there,” Horace said. His balding head was glistening with sweat, and he was holding his side. He was obviously hurt, but would he make it to the exit? I just had to hope he’d hold out a little longer.
Pounding footsteps down the hallway behind us caught my attention. I whirled in time to see two armed guards in their gray uniforms rushing at us, pointing their guns indiscriminately. They must’ve trailed us through the room and were on our tail. Luckily they didn’t fire and peered warily at the children. Maybe they’d been ordered not to harm them. Maybe they had an ounce of human decency.
“Behind us,” I yelled, putting my body between the guards and the children.
Horace shot a glance over his shoulder, and his eyes went wide. “Duck,” he yelled. “Dalton!”
His guard friend swung and aimed a handgun at the guards. I barely had time to yank the children to the floor before he pulled the trigger twice. The gunshots filled the corridor and the guards fell like stones and didn’t move again.
Rushing to the fallen men, Horace snatched their guns. “Take one.” He pressed the metal weapon into my hand.
I shook my head. I’d never shot a gun and had no intention of starting now. “Give it to someone else,” I said as I leaned down to take a baton from the man’s belt instead. “I’ll take this.”
Horace gave me an irritated look and tossed the gun to one of the older vampires, who stared at it with a frown as if he thought the thing was useless. Still, he held onto it.
“It’s just around the corner,” Horace urged us forward.
“What about the others?” I asked, glancing backward, hoping to see the ones who had stayed to fight Silver Bear. At least three of our group were no longer with us.
Horace shook his head. “We can’t wait. We have to keep going.”
He turned and kept running. Up ahead, he opened another door that led down a staircase. One by one the children—witch, vampire, and fae alike—went through the door and down the steps.
“Hurry, hurry,” Horace urged as the sound of rushing feet echoed behind us.
He turned, aiming his gun. The vampire did, too. One of the teen witches joined our side, her hands out and beginning to glow. I joined too, holding the baton as the children continued to trickle down the staircase. The wooden stick in my hand wouldn’t stop a bullet, but I had to help somehow.
Two men and a woman stepped into the corridor about fifteen feet from where we stood guarding the stairwell. These guards didn’t wait for us to attack. In unison, they leaped and shifted in midair—the men into wolves and the woman into a black panther. Their torn uniforms fell to the floor in tatters as they soared in our direction, snarling. Meanwhile, two more stepped in with guns and opened fire on us.
Even as we ducked, bullets zinging past our heads, Horace let loose a bullet. It struck one of the werewolves right between the eyes. The inert creature crashed into him, taking him down.
The guards on the far side of the shifter animals stopped firing as if realizing they might hit one of their own. That didn’t stop the shifted panther or her partner. While the witch and vampire took on the remaining werewolf, the panther set her sights on me. She took two giant steps before leaping in my direction. Her yellow eyes locked on me as she soared. She was four times my size with huge teeth and claws, but I knew if she got past me she’d go for Hani or Wren.
Just as she was about to land and pin me, I leaped up, beating my wings fiercely.
The panther missed me, whizzing by and crashed headfirst into the wall. Her skull gave a horriblethunk, and the entire wall trembled as her huge body fell to the floor.
I whirled, panting and holding the baton. Would she stay down?
I watched as sounds of a struggle and gunshots echoed behind me.
Luck was not on my side. The panther climbed up, swaying, dazed after her collision. I couldn’t wait for her to regain her strength. In close quarters, she would tear me apart. I raised the baton and smashed it down on her big head. The panther dropped to the floor with athud.
I whirled toward the sound of scuffles to find that the vampire had stuffed the gun inside the remaining werewolf’s mouth and was choking the creature with his bare, clawed hands. It seemed he wasn’t much for guns either. He likely had no need for them.
