Page 79

Too few of us.

I could hear the car start from nearby, and I prayed that Tamson had made it to safety. It was a futile prayer, but a prayer nonetheless.

“We need to go!” Ryder shouted. He stood behind the throng of Ragers, fists raised as he prepared to fight.

But there were just too many. Swarming us. Surrounding us. Gnawing at us. Calax let out a scream as a Rager bit down on his arm, blood spewing from his mouth. I gagged at the pungent copper scent.

I could see the exact moment that he came to the same conclusion I had. His brow had been furrowed, but just then, it smoothed over. His eyes turned warm as they traced my face.

“I love you so much, Baby Girl,” he whispered, brushing his lips against my forehead. I trembled in his arms, the realization that we were going to die drowning me. I wanted to check out, to leave this horrible place mentally, but I couldn’t leave Calax alone. At the end, we only had each other.

The rest of the world fell away. The Ragers’ inarticulate cries, Ryder’s scream of agony, the car engine only a wall away. Nothing mattered but the arms of my first love.

We had survived so much together. Our lives were forever interwoven. He held a piece of my heart in his large, calloused hands, and I held a piece of his. They may have been broken individually, but together, they became whole.

“I love you too,” I whispered, knowing that those would be the last words I ever said. I could only hope that the others would forgive me, forgive us, when all was said and done. Hopelessness settled over me, over us, like a death shroud. My heart was beating so rapidly it sounded like a snare drum in my ears.

Steely determination crossed Calax’s face, and his arms tightened around me. Before I realized what was happening, we were moving.

The Ragers clawed at us, their fingers gnarled, keen knives. Calax bellowed in agony, but still he continued to trudge forward. Before I could blink, before I could beg, I was flying through the air. That was the only word I could think to describe it.

My body soared, slamming into Ryder’s a few feet away. Agony speared my stomach as my stitches came undone, and blood seeped through my new shirt.

And…

“Calax!” I screamed, scrambling to my feet. Ryder immediately picked me up bridal style, turning towards the doorway.

But I still saw.

I saw the Ragers converging on a fallen figure, tearing through his flesh. I saw the tip of his brown boot, now soaked with blood. I heard his anguished screams as the monsters ate away at his flesh.

“Calax!” I screamed hysterically. Ignoring the pain, I buckled against Ryder’s hold. Pounded on his chest. Sobbed. Begged. “Calax! We have to get Calax! We have to go back!”

His face was pained, tears forming in his golden brown eyes. He finally met my gaze, even as he carried me further and further away.

“There’s nothing we can do,” he whispered.

I refused to believe that. Calax needed me, needed us. He had to be okay. He just had to. The alternative was too horrible to even consider.

I was screaming, agony piercing my chest as my heart broke into thousands of pieces. I struggled futilely against Ryder’s hold, Calax’s screams still haunting me.

No. No. No.

“Calax!” I screamed into the night sky. “Calax!”

Darkness crept along the edges of my vision. Blood soaked through my hands that were now resting on my stomach. I didn’t care about the pain. When more Ragers ran towards the house, bypassing both Ryder and me, I realized that Calax wasn’t coming out.

“CALAX!”

Darkness consumed me.