Page 42

Behind the line of attackers loomed a shadow. I squinted at the darkness as this thing moved with a fluidity that seemed otherworldly. Smooth and haunting, powerful and in control, the creature stalked forward with death by its side.

Not a leaf crunched beneath its footsteps as it emerged from the tree line.

It raised its chin, and that same mask flashed in the silver light of the full moon. A shiver stole down my spine, replacing the fear with something else entirely. A trace of adrenaline? Maybe. Excitement? Possibly. Whatever it was pushed a smirk upon my face.

Two men lunged at the creature, brandishing their knives. It didn’t even flinch as the first one dove in with a wild slice. The blade hissed through the air. The creature leaned out of the way and countered with a punch against the assailant’s ribcage.

With a grunt, he doubled over. The second man latched a hand around the Rougarou’s right wrist, stopping the second jab. Fabric twisted in the man’s grip, and the creature’s arm slipped through the sleeve.

“Colette!” my mom shouted, and I briefly glanced away from the fight. The two men dropped their knives from my parents’ throats and darted toward the single creature. Mom and Dad raced toward me, freed by a thing of legends.

“Let’s go!” my dad instructed as my eyes latched back on the fight. Azelie raced out from behind me. My mom threw an arm around her shoulders as they ran to the left. But I lingered. For just a moment. The Rougarou twisted the sleeve of its jacket around the throat of the man who had ripped it off in the first place.

My heart stopped. Shock jolted through me like a bolt of lightning, stilling every sound of the fight. Nothing moved. Nobody moved. Everything froze as if I’d hit the pause button on the remote in the middle of a movie.

This was no creature. This was no Rougarou.

I knew those tattoos. I knew that arm.

I knewhim.

“Ford?” I whispered.

Time resumed, and he tightened the noose around his attacker’s neck.

Another man drove my knife into his trap. He grunted and stumbled forward. Tightening the sleeve even more, I heard a small pop, and the man he’d choked crumpled.

“Colette!” my mom shouted.

Ford’s eyes flew my way as another man landed a blow to his side. As if concrete had hardened around my feet, I was unable to move. In a rather beautiful movement, he unwrapped the noose from around the one guy’s neck and caught the wrist of the man diving in for a second punch.

He twisted, throwing the assailant into another brute. With his free hand, he ripped the knife from his trap and stabbed the blade into the eyeball of the man he’d caught in his jacket.

The squelch roared my body back to life. But instead of sprinting toward my family, I raced toward the fight where the final two men remained.

Nobody stabbed Ford but me.

Especially with my own knife.

Ford unwound the jacket from the screaming man’s wrist and shoved his arm back into the sleeve. He ripped the blade out of the eye and plunged it into the side of the neck of his incoming attacker.

I tore across the gravel road just as Ford’s eyes met mine.

Red? From this distance, I wasn’t sure what color they were, but I swore they were red when he passed me in the hall and broke down the door to save Azelie.

Ford shook his head, removing the bloodied blade and jabbing it again in quick succession. Blood pulsed across his jacket with every beat of the man’s heart. Ford had hit his target. That man would bleed out in a couple of seconds.

He dropped the body and pointed at my family as the final man raced at him.

I slowed. I should listen.

As if peeling Velcro apart, I turned to face my family. That is where I should be going. I should be racing over to them and disappearing into the woods. That was where the Rougarou wanted me. I meanFord.I mean…

I shook my head.

My family. My daughter.

Right.