Time seemed to screech to a halt as I landed in Charlie Swan's side yard, looking around, eyes wild. I took an involuntary step back when I saw the cruiser sitting in the driveway. "Damn it, Charlie," I thought to myself, ignoring the questions coming from my brother and now Quil, who had finally decided to join us. I followed the scent around to the back yard, letting out a loud snarl as I saw the two males standing in the back yard. They turned to face me and under any other circumstances, the looks of shock and confusion on their faces would have been comical. I stalked closer, keeping my eyes locked on the pair, pausing only when they moved to prepare for their attack.
I didn't see any sign of Charlie in the yard, not that that meant anything. Ignoring the voices in my head yelling for me to stop and wait, I lunged at the larger of the two vampires, sinking my teeth into his neck. I didn't know if I was preventing or avenging the murder of my imprint, but either way, I'd die trying if I had to. The vampire yelled out in pain and I felt the hands of the smaller vampire grab at my fur before I was hurled across the yard, hitting the ground hard.
Almost as soon as I made contact with the ground, I was back on my feet, charging again. I could smell Charlie's scent, but I didn't know if it was just from him being outside earlier or from the vampires being inside his house. I darted away, just narrowly getting away from the larger vamp as he jumped at me. One I could handle. I didn't know how I'd survive a fight with two. "We're almost there, Leah! Hold on!" Seth thought as I bit down on the smaller vampire's leg and jerked my head, flinging him aside, only to have him land perfectly on his feet.
The prospect of even surviving seemed less and less as I backed towards the back corner of the yard, my eyes darting between the two approaching leeches. I listened hard, trying to hear some sound that would signal my imprint was still alive. Some little glimmer of hope that would help me to keep fighting. I let out a soft cry when I was answered with silence.
At that moment, I resigned myself to the fact that I might not live through this fight. If Charlie was dead, there was no point in me living anyway. I again lunged myself at the bigger vampire, hoping I could at least take the worse threat out before my brother got there. No such luck. As the bigger vampire launched himself at me, meeting me in mid-air, I saw a sandy colored wolf come skidding into the yard. I bit and snapped at the ice cold, granite hard skin as we fell to the ground all the while my thoughts screaming at my brother to run. "Seth, wait for backup!" I yelled as he took off towards the smaller vampire, kicking up pieces of Charlie's lawn as he went. "I am the backup," he stubbornly replied, he and the vampire circling each other. I jumped aside as the leech tried to get his arms around me and bit down on his hand, ripping it from his body and throwing it across the yard.
The smaller vampire took one look at what was happening with his friend and fled for the woods. I'm sure Seth would have gone after him hadn't taken a blow to my head. I staggered back, seeing bright flashes of white in front of my face. "Go after the other one, Seth! Don't let him get away!" I begged, again ducking out of the blood-sucker's grip. "And let you stay here and die? Yeah, right. Mom would ground me forever if I did that." We circled the vamp, each taking turns lunging at him, pulling chunks of what used to be flesh off of his body. He wailed in pain and Seth sunk his teeth into his throat, effectively cutting off the noise. Thank God seeing as how the last thing we needed was one of Charlie's nosey neighbors wandering into the back yard to see what was going on.
Standing back, tail twitching, I was ready to jump into the fight, even though my brother didn't seem to need the help. At this point, I just wanted to help make the blood sucker suffer while hoping Charlie hadn't. I took a step forward as I saw the vamp raise his hand and screamed "Seth!" as his arm made contact with my brother's spine. I went to dive for the arm, but didn't even get off the ground when I felt a cold pair of arms around my body. I heard a series of stomach churning snaps as the pain rushed through my body, causing me to yelp loudly. I didn't even have time to take stock of what was broken before he threw me to the ground and grabbed ahold of my ear. At first I thought he would take my head off, but just like I had, he wanted to watch me suffer. He yanked my head up and I felt the world spin and slide as my head was slammed into a large rock on the ground.
I heard a snarl as my body involuntarily phased back to its human form, but it hadn't come from Seth or me. I no longer felt the cold hands on me as I lay on the ground, barely holding on to consciousness. I didn't know if it was the massive internal damage that would get me or the brain trauma, but it didn't matter at this point. I stared up at the sky, watching the gray clouds go in and out of focus as they darkened. No wolf from our pack had ever been injured as badly as I was in that moment. I knew that even though my body had started to heal itself, it probably wouldn't be enough.
As the sky started to dim, I heard the commotion of the wolves arriving. More teeth against rock hard skin, the shrieking of the small vampire as he was torn limb from limb, and the growling and snarling of the pack members doing the damage. I felt a warm nose poke my arm as tears streamed down my face. I couldn't move or even think over the pain. My only hope was that if Charlie was dead, that I'd see him on the other side. I know I'd been a bitch, but I'd done enough that God wouldn't punish me for that, right? I felt the ground around me move as the wolf next to me moved and heard a whole new flurry of activity. I couldn't tell what was what as I slipped further and further away. I felt a hand take mine as another hand was placed on my face and heard Charlie Swan say "Leah? Honey, it'll be okay," as the world went black.