Chapter 11

Kate

After Luke held me close for a few moments, his hands exploring the hard skin along my shoulders and back, I involuntarily stiffened against his embrace, a faint sound caught in my ears, unnoticed by Luke.

"What is it? Did I do something wrong?" he asked, looking down into my eyes.

I gave the tiniest shake of my head as I looked towards the dense forest, back where Luke and I had come from. His nostrils flared as he caught the sound I had found a second earlier, his eyebrows scrunching together angrily.

"Always in the way," he muttered to himself, pushing me back.

The sound was of feet, tiny, precise, and sprinting feet. Somehow, one of the females had gotten around the wolves—probably the one who had the most effective and violent means of protecting herself—and was heading right towards me.

Luke's warm hands guided me behind his hostile stance, still having the urge to protect me even though I was the most durable I could ever be. The sound grew closer and closer. Luke suddenly exploded into fur and teeth, pushing me backwards as his expanding body bumped into me during the phase, his shorts fluttering in tiny pieces to the ground.

I took steps backward, not counting on Luke to protect me anymore. I was a part of this mythical group, I could fend for myself. Once I would find the best possible moment to strike, I would enter into the fight. Luke could protest all he wanted, but it wouldn't matter to me.

But it seemed for a moment that Luke wasn't paying attention to me at all. He must have noticed that I was separating myself from him, but he wasn't taking any measures to get back in my way. Maybe he understood how strong I was now.

But then Carrie and her fiery hair streaked through the trees, moving high speed, but in slow motion for my eyes. Her leap towards the air, closing the void between her and Luke in a matter a second, was long enough that I could see the look on her face—the look of utter rage and hate on her face, and the fact that she wasn't directing it towards me meant that she had another target on her mind—it was Luke. When Charlotte didn't come leaping after her, meaning Carrie was alone, it was apparent that the wolves had gotten to her.

Then wouldn't the wolves be chasing after her? As far as I could hear, they weren't in range. Did they actually kill Charlotte? Did Carrie unleash her fiery fury on all of them and run straight for Luke? Perhaps she wanted to end this vicious cycle once and for all, but I didn't see how killing Luke would achieve that.

I couldn't act fast enough. She was already on Luke by the time I leapt towards her, her hands forming a death grip on his fur. She started ripping it out furiously, until she thought to open her mouth and expose her lethal, dagger teeth. Luke was trying to scratch her off, almost getting a snap at her head, but she dodged around. Finally, I landed right on Carrie's back, pulling desperately at her arms and torso, trying to pry her from him.

"I cannot wait to be finally rid of the both of you!" she shrieked maniacally.

At that moment, Carrie reached around to place her palm on my skin, and unleashed her burning powers on me, a sensation that was tenfold the burning I felt when I made the transition from human to vampire. I let out a gasping shriek and writhed through the air as her force sent me flying backwards, careening into the ground and sending rocks and dirt flying around me.

The moment I hit the ground, Luke let out a ferocious snarl and bared his teeth at Carrie, biting into her shoulder and causing her to let go of him. He flung her back and she landed in the dirt on the opposite side of Luke. Even after she touched me, my body still burned, and I couldn't pick myself off from the ground. I was immobile.

Luke made one leap to my side and used his teeth to help me up. Carrie was already coming at us and lurched for Luke, landing on his back and causing Luke to utter a terrifying, tortured howl that made me tremble and shiver from head to toe. When he managed to throw her off, I became alert, my body sprung into action. I leapt over Luke in one motion and put myself in between Carrie and him. I was determined to not let Luke feel again what Carrie had unleashed on me. In less than a second I was crouched in hostility as a low hiss escaped through my teeth. An internal swelling in my body arose, a force that I felt myself exerting, as if all my muscles were turning to stone, and I felt the complete need to keep Carrie away from Luke. The entire front of my body tightened, tingling a little, as I prepared myself to fend her off, my alert eyes taking in each step Carrie took towards us. I was so angry at her that the landscape in front of me seemed to ripple.

Carrie took one last bound, and suddenly, her head snapped back with a crack, and her body went flying uncontrollably through the air without neither Luke nor I laying a hand on her. It was almost as if I had exerted an invisible force field with the desperation that I had to keep her away from Luke.

I stared, wide-eyed and motionless, Carrie seeming to move in slow motion as she careened through the air, thudding to the ground with a loud crack as trees broke and scattered in her wake.

Luke was standing behind me, as unsure of what to do as I was. We watched as she took her time getting to her feet in two seconds. When she lifted her head to us, her stare was venom, spitting to the ground.

Running paws thudded through the forest in our direction from all around. In a second, Adam and five enormous and pissed off wolves crouched low as they broke through the trees, flanking me and Luke on each side. Each of their feral and pointed teeth were bared, taking measured steps closer and closer to Carrie as if to say You're outnumbered, so if you want to fight, bring it on.

Carrie lifted her chin defiantly and directed her glare at Luke, then more pointedly at me. "This isn't over," she spat. "Remember who's coming to get you." She didn't even turn around, but was gone in a flash, speeding off until my sharp ears could not pick out the sound of her sprinting feet any more.

The wolves around us seemed to be relaxing as they waited for her to be far enough to be out of earshot, and turned towards Luke and me. Adam flashed to my side, smiling victoriously.

"Hey, sis, how'd ya do?" he asked.

I simply stared back at Adam without a word, still in shock. Then I remembered the reason I was standing there, and spun around to face Luke, putting my hands on him, patting his fur to make sure he wasn't in pain anymore.

"Are you okay?" I asked frantically.

Luke gave a wolfy chuckle as he smiled down at me. He licked my face from chin to forehead and I staggered back.

"Ew! Luke, that's gross!"

From my peripheral vision, I saw the tall sunny light brown wolf—Howard, if I remembered correctly—peel off the shorts tied to his back leg. He approached Luke and me, dropping the shorts behind Luke's left leg before retreating back, never keeping his watchful eyes off me. I deeply wondered what thoughts were soaring through each of the wolves' minds; certainly their thoughts centered around me.

All the wolves were there: a black one—Gerard, a russet one—Kevin, a silver one—Peter, and Howard—the sunny brown one. I noticed it before—but hadn't paid much attention to it—that there were now six wolves to the pack. The new one was a smaller, pure white wolf, seeming to hang back from the other wolves, his ears flattening unsurely to his head when I snuck a glance at him. He must have been very young and new to this life—and certainly to standing near a vampire without any form of hostility. However, I was certain he knew much about me by now.

Luke turned, gingerly picking up the shorts with his teeth, and trotted to the forest before phasing.