"No!" I shouted, tucking my wings in and plummeting to reach her. No, no, no! Fleur turned her beautiful eyes to me, and they were widened with fear. Her captors dragged her roughly to one of the armoured cars that they'd arrived in and I could hear her screaming from this altitude. Eila shouted at me from above. I couldn't hear her words. All I could hear was the screaming wind.

"Fleur!"

"Griffin!" she screamed back. She furiously wrenched her arm out of the Eraser's grasp, and she struck the Eraser in the face, running for a take-off. More Erasers leapt and pounced at her, tackling her to the ground. I gaped in horror.

"Run!" she shouted. "RUN, GRIFFIN!"

"Not without you," I muttered, pulling up from my dive and crashing into an Eraser feet first. Twin missiles streaked into the mass of wolf-men, and I barely registered at Kichiro and Eila had my back. Wolf-men surrounded me on all sides. I lunged and hit one in the nose, sending it crashing back into its cohorts. I roundhoused another, and one particularly scarred Eraser landed a punch in my ribs. I heard something crack, and I gasped. I staggered to my feet, but they pulled me down again. I heard Eila cry out and Kichiro snarling.

The hammer of a gun cocking brought us all to a standstill. The Erasers parted like the Red Sea and my breathing hitched in my throat.

An arm was wrapped around Fleur's slender neck, and the ugly black muzzle of an Uzi was pressed into the side of her head. Fleur's captor chuckled humourlessly.

"Anne," Kichiro snarled. Anne's lips curled into a malicious smile as she narrowed her eyes at us.

"Don't anybody move. So much as twitch and your darling flock-mate's brains will be splattered all over the floor before you can do anything," she hissed.

"Now, put your hands on your head," Anne said, "slowly. No sudden moves."

"Anne..." Eila pleaded. "Anne, I thought, I thought... I thought you were on our side!"

Anne cackled. "Oh, please. Me, on your side? When I'm getting paid perfectly well as is and getting to be a part of the greatest scientific revolution to occur in this century and probably centuries to come?"

Anne let out a bark of hysterical laughter.

"You're all miracles," she said, a sick type of glee/admiration entering her eyes. Fleur met my eyes. I couldn't stand it, seeing her so vulnerable, so frightened. Dread knotted in the pit of my stomach, and I met her eyes again.

They widened, and Fleur mouthed one word.

Run.

Everything exploded white.

My eyes stung uncomfortably as daylight burnt its red impression on the back of my eyelids. I lifted a hand to cover my eyes, unsteadily sitting up and kneeling before attempting to stand up. That failed miserably, but my eyes adjusted. I forced myself to open my eyes and I tried again to stand.

Everything came rushing back as Mist and Bobby shouted our names. I whirled and saw Kichiro and Eila, staggering to their feet. I checked them off my list, and I quickly scanned the area for Fleur, real, unadulterated fear blossoming in my chest.

I saw her then, hands pressed to her head, barely on her feet. I saw her crumple, and she descended to join the bodies littering the floor. Time seemed to flow slower and slower, and I ran to catch her before her body hit the floor and I shattered into a million pieces.

"Oh, God," I murmured, smoothing her hair away from her face. Her skin was cool to the touch, and she was covered in blood. Her head lolled to the side and I lifted her from the churned earth. I cradled her body and wrapped my arms around her, wishing that I could have protected her from the horror of this life.

One of the bodies surrounding us stirred and stood shakily. I lifted my eyes and glared witheringly at Anne.

"What have you done?" I shouted. "What have you done to her?"

"Nothing," Anne croaked. "Seems like she kept her an ability a secret from you! Spectral blast, keyed to kill Erasers specifically, engineered-"

Anne coughed, spitting blood and hunching over in pain. She put her hand over her throat, eyes bulging as she gasped for air, hacking up more blood. She screamed, and black fluid flooded from her eyes, ears, nose and mouth, eating away every part of her it touched.

Anne screamed and shook violently, spasming and thrashing. Her eyes were glazed black, and the black stuff ate away at her skin until bare bone came through one side of her face. The other half was drooped and distorted like melting wax, and most of the hair was eaten from her head. Anne's thrashing slowed and stilled, and she smiled with the half of her face that still remained.

"You killed her," I whispered hoarsely. "You killed her."

"Can't get rid of me that easy," a soft voice murmured. A bloody hand cupped my cheek, turning my face down, and Fleur smiled at me.

"Fleur," I whispered. Anne whimpered and screamed once until her limbs hit the cold earth with a thud. The black fluid had burned a hole through her, eating her from within. Anne's eyes stared at the sky, and her face was frozen in terror.

Fleur put her arms around me and buried her face in my neck.

"Don't leave me again," I said. "Never leave me again."

Kichiro tossed another branch into the fire, and we huddled around it. Whisper and Rhaksha leaned on each other, eyelids drooping shut. Bobby and Mist were curled together like ragged puppies, and Eila sat by them, stroking Bobby's fluffy strawberry blonde hair. We were all still crusted in blood, and again, on the run.

The crumpled remains of the Twinkie wrappers littered the ground, surrounding the empty cans of ravioli. Changing into the clean clothes from our emergency stash seemed futile; with the state we were in, basically nothing but a long, hot shower could cut through the grime covering us head to toe. We had about 4000 bucks, stolen from Anne's house over the course of our stay.

Rhaksha's eyes dropped shut, and Whisper soon followed, but his eyes jerked open again.

"What's to become of us?' he mumbled sleepily.

"We go back on the run. Stealing, running, surviving," I replied simply.

"Will we every be safe?" Mist whispered to Eila, eyes still shut. Eila smoothed back her blonde hair.

"We'll see," she said gazing into the fire.