Page 71 of Shackled to the World
“Wait.” Her uncle held up his hand, then dug his phone out of his pocket and gave her a nasty smile. “I want you to hear them slaughter your friends first.”
Her breathing stalled in her chest when she heard the phone ring.
“Erickson.” The phone was full of static, dropping in and out.
“I got it.” Her uncle met her gaze and grinned maliciously. “Kill them.”
She snapped.
It was time to even the odds.
She allowed the afterworld to swirl to life inside her, the darkness demanding retribution. She gave her uncle a sinister smile, allowing every bad thing he’d ever done to her to fuel her rage. “I learned a few tricks of my own while away.”
She allowed the afterworld to swallow her whole and stepped through the doorway to stand next to her uncle, then swung the bat with all her might.
Her uncle stumbled back, barely ducking in time to avoid having his head removed, lifting up his arm to protect himself and the wooden bat struck his hand instead. The satisfying crack of bones reached her ear, and she grinned at his scream. The phone shattered, tiny pieces of metal, glass and plastic flying in all directions.
Her uncle cursed and cradled his broken hand to his chest, smearing more of his blood on the grimoire cover. Instead of fear, he glared at her in defiance. “You can’t kill me, not if you want to survive.”
“Ah, but I’ve learned a thing or two while away, my dear, sweet uncle.” She smiled as the first spark of alarm tinged his face. She lifted the bat again and took a step toward him. “Shall I show you?”
He stumbled away, glaring at the wolves, his squeaky voice trembling with rage. “Don’t just stand there. Kill her.”
The wolves leapt forward as one.
At the last second, Kevin twisted, taking down two of them…leaving her with three.
Then Prem dropped down on one of the wolves aiming for her, landing on his head like some demented fur trader hat of old come back to life to seek revenge. The wolf shook his head violently, but Prem hung firm to his hair, his little claws gouging the wolf’s face and sinking them into the gooey whites of the guy’s eyes, and the wolf bellowed in pain, groping for the ferret as he spun in a dizzying circle.
Then she had no more time to watch because the other two wolves were upon her.
She swung the bat, cracking the first wolf across his temple. Wood shattered, sending splinters flying in every direction. Little shards bit into her flesh, peppering her face and arms. Ignoring the pain, she watched the wolf drop like a hunk of meat and skid across the forest floor a few feet before coming to a complete stop.
He remained unmoving.
These wolves didn’t seem to be able to heal as fast as they would normally.
Before she had time to think, claws raked down her spine, ripping into her flesh, and she hissed in pain. She whirled, the claws slicing deeper before they were torn free of her body. She gritted her teeth, feeling rivulets of blood trickling down her spine as she faced the older wolf.
He bared his teeth, fangs gleaming as he leapt to rip out her throat.
Annora lifted her arm, and his teeth clamped down over it, biting with enough force to snap her bones again. Instead of dropping to her knees from the overload of pain, she brought up what remained of the broken bat and rammed the ragged edges straight into his chest.
A garbled howl caught in his throat, his eyes widened in shock, then their light dimmed, and his jaw went slack. As he dropped to the ground, he dragged her with him. She struggled to disengage his fangs from her arm, ripping flesh in her haste, when the last wolf charged her. His face had been peeled away like a medical cadaver, leaving behind strings of mangled tendons and shredded muscles.
She fell backwards and rammed her foot directly into his throat.
Bones crunched under the impact.
Claws dragged down her leg, leaving deep grooves in her flesh before he staggered back, grabbing at his own shattered throat as he struggled to breathe. Annora dragged herself to her feet and saw Kevin barely holding his own against the other two wolves.
Without the drugs or his enhanced shifter strength, they were slowly whittling him down, chunks of flesh and blood flying with each blow. He wasn’t going to make it if she didn’t help.
From the corner of her eyes, she saw her uncle take off into the woods in the opposite direction…and Prem racing after him in his loping gait, his furry little body matted with blood.
She skidded to a halt, the need to go after them like a craving, and she hated herself for hesitating.
Then Kevin shouted. “Go. I got this.”
