So, we should all be so very thankful, especially ME! Here's why, I lost my flash drive. Keep in mind this is a VERY important drive. It has ALL of my past, present, and future stories on it, not to mention all of my papers and past and present school work. Thankfully, I got a call from my best friend saying, "Did you happen to leave your drive in the pocket of the jacket you let me borrow." I nearly cried from joy and immediately went to get it. So, the moral of the story is, you should definitely back up your flash drives. Anyway, just wanted to share this with y'all. I would've updated before now if that had not happened. AND, I love you all so much for your reviews and your favorites and your follows. You all keep me going. Big love!

Chapter 35

The ride to the house was silent. Bo, Hale, Tamsin, and Dyson sat in the car as quiet as could be, all thinking and weighing their options. When they left the hospital, the Sphinxes had been hard at work. They were practicing jumping bodies and compiling a list of ways they could help to pull Leila out of Kenzi without harm. The SUV stopped on the hard pavement and they opened the doors. They couldn't get closer than this. Not a lot of people traveled this road, so a blacked out SUV would look pretty suspicious if he had lookouts. They took off, running full speed up the dirt path and toward the house. Dyson's ability to run long distances helped him out and he reached the lining of trees faster than anyone else, Bo was behind him, her will to get to Kenzi and the fact that she had recently fed, helped her out. Hale and Tamsin were side by side as they approached. Dyson nodded toward the goblin that was hunkered down in a bush across the way. Within seconds the lawn was filled with goblins.

"GO!" Dyson shouted. His vision narrowed into a straight line, he didn't care about who was next to him or behind him, he ran straight forward, toward the house. The double doors opened and people flooded the lawn, Dyson didn't know what kind of Fae they were, or if they were Fae at all, he didn't care. Anyone that got in his way was dead quickly. The bullets in his guns were gone very quickly. He took someone down with each bullet and when he was out he tossed his guns aside and let his animal side take over. His hands lashed out, his fingers, claw tipped, ripping throats and cutting jugulars. He knew he was growling and roaring, but he didn't give it a second thought. He could faintly hear Bo behind him, he could smell the blood and hear the shouts of men. It reminded him too much of the days he fought for Kings and sacrificed himself time and time again for no purpose other than the power of the man he fought for. Not now though, now he fought for a purpose, he fought for something much stronger than power. He fought for love and he fought to bring the woman he loved back to him safely. He was fighting for someone, not just something. A stinging pain brought him back to the fight and he realized that a blade had sliced through his upper arm. He was deeper into the house so he knew the people inside would be stronger and harder to fight than the ones he'd easily dispatched on the lawn. He swung, knocking the man away for an instant, but the man swung back, slamming his fist into Dyson's cheek, he didn't falter, Dyson reached out with deadly speed and precision and raked his claws across the man's throat. The man fell and Dyson moved toward the staircase. He paused, goblins were fighting people right below him but Dyson needed to focus for a minute. He smelled the air, half shifting so that he could find what he was looking for. He had to sift through the bloody air and the smell of sweat, but when it hit his nose, he knew it was her. The smell of lilies blowing in the soft summer breeze, with touches of chocolate and fresh berries. He knew that smell better than he knew his own, Kenzi was upstairs. He ran up the rest of the staircase and raced down the hallway. When he stumbled over a wire that ran across the floor and heard a click, it was too late to move. A low whistle of something sailing through the air pierced his ears but it was dismissed quickly when pain shot through his body. An arrow embedded itself into his thigh. He screamed, ignoring the second whistle. Another arrow slammed into his shoulder and he stumbled backward, falling hard to the ground. Dyson tried to catch his breath, the wounds sizzled and he ground his teeth hard. He reached for the one in his thigh, but a foot stepped hard on his wrist.

"Silver. Hurts like a bitch right?" Dyson looked up and saw the man standing over him. His gray hair and nearly black eyes were enough to give him away.

"Aros." Dyson growled.

"You know, I tried getting information from your human the easy way, I tried asking, I tried hitting, it didn't work. She was just so hardheaded, not willing to give up her friends. See, I knew you all would be coming after her, I just didn't know when, and I definitely didn't account for the goblins switching sides on me. But I knew she was aligned with the Fae somehow, I just didn't know what kind of Fae. After wasting too much time trying to figure it out, I just called in a favor and had a friend look into her mind for me. She put up one hell of a fight, I'll give her that. Especially for someone as close to death as she is." Aros grinned and Dyson leapt for his throat. He grabbed hold of the arrow in Dyson's shoulder and pushed, causing Dyson to pull away from him in pain.

"You son of a bitch, I'll kill you." Dyson growled.

"But, unfortunately for you, not before we pull Leila out of Kenzi and they both die, but kudos for trying." Aros was smiling and delighted with himself, Dyson took his chance. He grabbed Aros' hand where it was latched around the arrow and with one swift motion, his snapped Aros' wrist. Aros screamed and jerked backward. Dyson grabbed the arrow in his shoulder and pulled it out, pain was nothing he was concerned with right now, he had to get to Kenzi. Dyson knew Aros, and he knew he wasn't a fighter, Aros cheated his way to winning. But with Dyson on his feet, there was no way Aros was getting out of this alive. Aros jumped toward Dyson, catching him off guard and they fell backward onto the glass table, it shattered beneath their weight. Dyson grabbed for Aros, but Aros was smart and he knew Dyson would go for the throat. Aros moved his head and wrapped his hand around Dyson's throat.

"I'm going to kill you, then I'm going to kill your girlfriend, and then I'm killing Leila. After this, everyone will know not to mess with me, everyone will fear me, just like they should, just like they did before Leila's people interfered. And there's nothing you, or your idiot friends can do about it." Aros barely got the last sentence out. Dyson had already reached down and ripped the arrow from his thigh. But when Aros spoke the last word of his sentence, Dyson brought his arm around and pushed the arrow into Aros' eye. Aros screamed bloody murder but Dyson just smiled.

"I've always found that when killing someone, you should just get it over with, not talk about it for ten minutes." Dyson didn't stop though, he pushed the arrow further in until the arrow pierced his brain and Aros went limp. Dyson shoved Aros' dead body off of him and pulled himself up. He ignored the pain in his body and hurried toward Kenzi's smell. He shoved open the door and his stomach dropped. Two men, if one could call them that, were stood over Kenzi. The things over her had long robes on and hoods that covered their heads, their hands were misshapen and their fingers tipped with claws. Kenzi's small body was stretched out on a thin metal table, her wrists and ankles bound by chains, were bolted down to the edges. She was even paler than when the goblins had taken her, and now her skin was marred with cuts and bruises as if someone had tortured her. The two things had their arms stretched out over Kenzi and they were chanting something. Dyson took a step forward and Kenzi screamed, it was a glass breaking scream, high and full of pain. Her eyes had been clenched shut, but they popped open and her mouth slammed shut. Whatever these things were doing to her, it was hurting her, Dyson jumped through the air before another thought crossed his mind, his body collided with one of them and they tumbled down. Dyson's hands were holding the thing down, but his mouth was free, he snarled and sank his fangs into its throat. Dyson was back on his feet as quickly as possible. The other thing picked up the pace with its chanting and another screamed erupted, but this time, Kenzi came up off the table, her whole body arching with the scream. The thing turned on Dyson, but Kenzi kept screaming. Dyson looked into its black eyes and only faltered for a second before he attacked. The thing struck out fast, a single sharp claw caught Dyson's throat, but didn't cut deep. Dyson pulled back before more of its claws could latch on. The room was small, too small to launch a full fight, but each was armed with supernatural tools. Luckily for Dyson, he had a much longer reach than this thing. When he struck out, his claws cut a lot deeper and the thing dropped like a bag of cement. When the thing dropped, Kenzi fell silent and her body dropped back to the table. Dyson didn't spare a second to look at it as he ran to her. He didn't know what to do first, her eyes were fluttering so he quickly grabbed the chains at her ankles and broke them away from the table, followed by the ones at her wrists.

"Dyson." his name was a whisper on her lips.

"Yeah, yeah, it's me, I'm here." he took her face in his hands and turned her eyes toward his.

"I told you not to come." She whispered. Dyson chuckled, even now, she was being stubborn.

"And I told you that I'd never leave you here. Now rest, I'm getting you back to the hospital."

"I don't think I'll make it that far."

"Don't you dare say that. You're going to be fine." he said. He jerked her up off of the hard table and ran out of the room. He ran past Aros' dead body and down the staircase. Tamsin met him at the bottom. She had blood on her, but it wasn't hers.

"Kenzi." She said quickly.

"She's going to be ok, we need to get her to the hospital." Dyson rushed past Tamsin but when he felt Kenzi's small hands fall away from his clothing, he knew something was wrong.

"STOP STOP!" He shouted. He looked down and saw that Kenzi's eyes were closing slowly and she was unable to hold her head upright. Dyson dropped to the ground. They had to do something now, they didn't have time to get her to the hospital.

"Dyson, we've got to get her back." Tamsin said.

"We don't have time!" he shouted. Dyson's hands clutched her face as her eyes fluttered slightly.

"Kenzi don't you dare close your eyes you hear me." he said. A small smile played across her lips and she reached up with a shaky hand. Her small fingers slipped in between his and she held his hand against her cheek. Her grip was weak and Dyson felt his heart pound painful against his chest. He wasn't going to lose her right here.

"BO!" Dyson screamed. Where was Bo, she could help, she could give Kenzi chi, she could feed her until they made it to the hospital.

"Tamsin, find Bo, now!" Dyson yelled. Tamsin was already gone, he didn't even need to tell her. Kenzi coughed hard and Dyson lifted her into a sitting position. He slid his other arm around her back and held her against his chest, tilting her face up so that he could keep his hand against her cheek and look at her.

"Dyson." she said softly.

"Shhh, don't, everything's going to be fine. No goodbyes right now, you're going to be fine."

"Always the optimist wolfman." She laughed and then coughed again.

"I didn't think it was possible for a guy to like me until you came along, so thanks for that." Dyson shook his head and kissed her forehead as tears threatened to spill over.

"I don't like you Kenz, I could never just like you. I love you. You mean so much to me and I can't lose you, I just can't." he was crying now, just a few tears escaping.

"I can't function without you, I won't let you die, I won't." he clenched his hand in hers as her eyes closed. No, no, this couldn't happen, not like this. He couldn't lose her, he promised her, he swore to her. He couldn't just let her die.

"BO!"