Crais(88)

Que stumbled next to me.

I grabbed his arm. It was hot to touch, as if his blood was boiling. “Go now, Que. You’re strong enough to gather yourself even after the Seventine erupts. Others may not be so lucky.”

Of course I had no freaking idea if he could survive this, but I figured appealing to his ego was the way to go.

“I wanted power for Walkers ... for Brace,” he finally muttered. “Not destroy ...”

His words trailed off, and as I watched he seemed to gather strength and took off into the forest at a speedy blur. Abigail and Brace were at my side in an instant. I collapsed into her arms, unable to hold my own weight any longer.

“Go,” I muttered. “We still have to move. This blast is epic and Que’s not strong enough to get far enough away.”

They’d just started to move when the wolf let out a growl. He nudged at my leg.

“Uh, is Cujo going to gnaw on me or something?”

He scared me and at the same time didn’t. Abigail and I had loved to watch that old movie with the killer dog. I hoped this wolf had more restraint.

“Colt wants you to get on his back. It’ll be faster.”

Brace was already reaching down to grip me under the arms and throw me onto the giant wolf. Damn, I hate being treated like a chil ... did he just say Colton was the wolf?

The beautiful, snowy-white animal tilted his long jaw filled with razor-sharp teeth around and nudged me again. And now I could see his familiar icy blue eyes staring at me.

“What does he want?” I turned wide eyes to Brace, when what I really wanted was to do was bury my hands into the soft fur.

“He wants you to hold on,” was all he said.

And with a leaping lurch we were moving. I clutched deeply into the luxurious fur, hoping I wasn’t hurting him. The ache in my leg eased as it cushioned down his side. The pace was so quick I ended up lowering my head to rest on his back; he really was the size of a horse. We made it out into the field, Walkers from all over following us. Word had gotten around and everyone was bailing.

I could feel the air simmering around us and then the world stood still for a moment. The blast knocked everyone off their feet. In the last minute, while I was flying through the air, Colton must have transformed again, because instead of hitting the ground, I was cradled in his strong arms as they cushioned the impact.

I glanced down. Holy smokes, grab your phone and call for help. The man was naked, and he was fine as hell ... heck. I looked again; I was only human ... well, kind of. In fact I was finding it rather difficult to tear my eyes away.

“Keep that up and you’re going to make me blush.”

I lifted my face.

His white-blue eyes looked amused and there was no sign of any pink on his face.

Our friends and fellow Walkers were slowly getting to their feet. It looked as if everyone was okay. Brace stared out to the forest where his father had been heading. The trees surrounding the zone were flattened to the ground.

“Colt!”

I spun my head at the sound of Abigail’s screech.

“Put her down; you’re butt-naked.”

He laughed. “I don’t usually get complaints about that. And she can’t walk. Her leg is injured.”

“Brace,” Abigail said as she shoved him. “Go get Luce. Colt’s junk is hanging out.”

Brace’s face had no expression as he stepped over and removed me from Colton’s warm embrace, although his eyes sparkled with humor. I almost protested my switch of carrier, but knew that would be a tad weird and obvious.

“Remind me to kick her for that later,” I muttered as we neared my best friend.

Brace laughed.

“I’m sorry about your father,” I felt compelled to say.

Although, personally I thought he’d dug his own grave and got what he deserved.

He shrugged. “Que had it coming. He played with creatures of power and he paid the price.”

Apparently Brace agreed with me.

Though, despite his nonchalant words, I detected a slight shift in tone. He wasn’t as uncaring as he made out. I wondered again about my parents. I’d always hated that they had been killed when I was too young to remember them, but maybe it was easier that way. Although they might have had some insight into my soothsayer abilities. Maybe it ran in the family or something. Not that they’d know on the dead zone of Earth.

“Lucy, could you maybe try not give me a heart attack before I’m twenty.” Abigail’s eyes flashed. “This kidnapping business is getting a little old.”

Tell me about it.

“You know me, Abbs, I love the attention.”

“Well, just go back to drunken stripping. You were getting plenty of attention there.”

I smiled and grimaced. “Wasn’t worth the hangover, trust me.”