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W es and I ran as fast as we could, knowing that our lives depended on it.

We had to reach the fence, gear up, and get far enough down the cliff that those creatures couldn’t get to us.

Everything rested on it. My heart pounded as I pushed my legs past their limit, pumping my arms, feeling the burn in my lungs.

Wes ran beside me, the exertion causing the drips of blood to become a steady trickle, leading the hellhounds right to us.

I heard them.

I heard the escalation in their cries, the excitement in every yip and yap that screamed victory as they caught the rich metallic scent that was Wes’s blood. They were onto us, and that meant they were only moments away from catching up. Because no matter how fast Wes and I were, they were faster.

We followed the curve of the building, Wes staying just a hair behind me even though I knew he was faster than I was.

I wasn’t stupid. If those beasts caught up to us, he wanted them to take him first. But I wasn’t going to argue with him.

As much as I didn’t want him to die before me, there was no use in wasting time arguing.

As long as he kept going, kept running toward survival, I’d deal with it.

Because Wes had to live, and I’d make sure of it.

I heard the howls, heard dozens of paws beating on the ground, giving me the impression of a stampede coming behind us. And just as I was about to turn over my shoulder to look, I saw the hole in the fence come into view with the others just on the other side.

“Go!” Wes screamed, waving his arms at the others.

Calista turned and started her descent as Matias double checked Jacob’s harness to make sure it was secured. Jacob looked out at me, the horror etched across his gaunt face.

“Go!” I yelled at him. “Get out of here!”

His grim look broke my heart because I knew he was afraid, but he nodded and allowed Matias to help him over the edge. Then Matias turned to see us before beginning to descend himself when his eyes grew wide.

“Look out!”

That’s when I went flying as something slammed me to the ground. The force of impact caused me to skid across the dirt, scraping my face and hands.

“Mara!”

I didn’t know who screamed, and honestly, it didn’t matter. Because it only took a fraction of a second for my attention to shift from the burning sensation all along my left cheek to the weight on my back and the hot, steamy breath that tickled my neck as a menacing snarl caused my heart to seize.

I moved, pushing up hard and fast. After all my training I was nothing but lean muscle and raw strength, and my brisk action catapulted the creature off me to the right.

I scrambled to my feet. No sooner was the hound off me when I was hit from the left, my body flying again and colliding with the monster that I had just pushed off.

But this time, I wasn’t so lucky.

The hellhound had its maw opened wide, and he sunk his teeth deep into my bicep, sending a searing pain up my arm, causing me to scream out. He shook his powerful head, throwing me across the prison yard to land on my back.

Pain jolted through my consciousness as the back of my head collided with the hard ground. My vision blurred as a dark circle threatened to close in, narrowing my sight.

No, no, no, no! I couldn’t lose my vision…

not now! I forced myself up on my legs, shaking my head and instantly regretting it as it pounded with the fiercest headache I had ever had.

I blinked several times, and the dark circle finally receded, my vision stabilizing just in time to see a hellhound leaping through the air right at me.

I threw myself to the ground, nearly missing the monster as he flew over my head. Quickly, I got up and reached for my gun, except…

Where the hell is it?

A quick glance at my holster showed it wasn’t there.

I scanned the ground and saw it lying on the floor several yards away.

But there was no time. The hound that I just dodged was making his way back toward me, maw opened abnormally wide, like the mouth of a snake eating large prey.

His glistening canines were stained yellow and red with a black tongue that looked like decaying flesh. And he was coming right at me.

I jumped, spinning in the air, leg outstretched as my booted foot made contact with the beast’s lower jaw, making a disgusting snapping sound as I broke his bone.

He lulled to the side as I landed back on my feet, my hand reaching for my other hip to grab my stunner.

The hound didn’t even seem to notice that his jaw was hanging open, limp and completely broken, as he gave me a gurgling snarl.

And right as he made another leap for me, I aimed my stunner and shot him, causing him to fall limp to the floor.

“Mara!”

I whirled around, catching Matias trying to hold the hole in the fence closed as several hounds slammed their bodies into the fence, causing the whole thing to rattle and bend.

I made a beeline for him, stunner firing off several rounds, each one catching a different creature that dropped to the ground.

Five remained, jumping at the fence, snapping their jaws, growling and snarling in frustration at the gate that kept them from Matias.

I fired my stunner again, catching one that was trying to climb its way up and sending it back to the ground with a hard thud. I fired once more, but this time, nothing happened.

What the—?

I tried again, and still nothing happened. Shit! I was out of charges. I needed another battery clip. I whirled around, looking for my gun, and caught sight of Wes. He was down on one knee, firing his gun in rapid succession as more and more hellhounds came rounding the bend of the tower.

Headshot, headshot, left shoulder, headshot, body shot, body shot, right shoulder, head shot.

Each shot pierced the night with a bang, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that, at that moment, I was incredibly turned on.

He was dirty, bloodied, scraped up to no end, and definitely at least one of those things had gotten a bite in his upper thigh.

But watching him nail those bastards, one after the other with such amazing precision, had me fired up like nothing else. Because Wes was one sexy badass.

And I totally loved it.

Wes pulled the trigger to fire off another round, only to realize that his magazine was empty.

A scowl consumed his face as he ejected his mag and reached toward his tactical belt for another.

I returned my attention to the gun lying yards from me, and took off running, sliding to a stop as I reached for it and snapped it up just as Matias yelled.

Looking up, I heard it just as I saw the fence beginning to collapse from the sheer weight and constant barrage of hounds against it.

Worst of all, one of them had managed to claw its way through the hole and was snapping its jaws at Matias, who was at the very edge of the cliff, about ready to fall off just as he aimed and fired his weapon at it.

The beast collapsed to the ground. But that didn’t stop the next one from trying to push its way through, curling the chain link back as the remaining hounds fought to get through the hole.

“Matias!” I screamed, racing toward him as I pulled the slide back to load a bullet into the chamber. Only feet away, I pulled up, aimed, and fired one, then two rounds, killing the two beasts still on my side of the fence.

But I was too late.

The third scrambled through the hole just as Matias fired at him, lodging the bullet into the creature’s shoulder. But these things felt no pain, and it launched itself at Matias, sending him over the edge of the cliff.

I screamed.

Matias was gone, over the edge, and the hellhound with him. And I lost it. I felt the tears flood my vision as fear consumed me. I took off racing, not wanting to believe that Matias had just fallen to his death. It couldn’t be true! It just couldn’t!

Oh god, please no!

I reached the fence in seconds, grabbing at the hide of the hounds that stood in my way, pulling at their heavy limp bodies, trying to create enough space for me to crawl through the damn hole.

Slowly, I pulled one aside, dragging its mangled body over the dirt, always aware of the constant sound of gunfire behind me.

A quick look over my shoulder showed me that the onslaught was still coming, and Wes was doing everything he could to hold them back, but he was on his feet now, walking backwards toward me, toward the fence, as he kept firing away, ejecting mags, slamming new ones into place, and firing some more.

There was no way he was going to hold them off much longer.

I grabbed onto the second dead hound and mustered all my strength from my damaged body to drag it out of the hole as I prayed.

“Please,” I whispered under my breath. “Please don’t let him be dead…

please!” I grabbed the final carcass and pulled, gritting my teeth, feeling my right arm scream in pain as blood oozed from the bite wound.

My body ached as my fatigued muscles begged me to stop, begged me to give up.

But I kept pulling, kept pushing my body to the limit.

And time kept ticking… Every second I spent trying to move the disgusting, bloodied creatures was another second Matias was possibly clinging onto the side of the cliff or trying to swim in the waters of the ocean.

But either of those was better than the far greater possibility that he was already dead.

Please, please, please…just let him be alive!

As I finally cleared enough space, I let out an exhausted breath as my muscles cramped and begged for rest. But I pushed past it, gritting my teeth as I urged my body to listen, to keep going, to keep fighting.

I scrambled through the cut in the fence that had now become a large gaping hole, and raced to the edge of the cliff, looking down.

Calista was most of the way down, screaming up at Jacob to move out of the way.

And there, dangling by his safety harness, was Matias, in an epic brawl with the beast that was caught up in his harness and ropes.

Matias had a hold on the hound’s jaws, fighting to keep them open and away from his face.

“Mara!” Jacob screamed up at me. “The anchor!”

I shifted my gaze and watched as one of the three safety anchors just a few feet below me snapped, flying out of the rock face, and sent Matias flying down another several feet, causing him to lose his grip on the snout of the creature.

“Matias!” I screamed.

His body jerked as he reached the end of the line, and then yelled out as the beast flipped over and snapped its jaws onto his shoulder, dangling from Matias’s suspended body. Matias gripped at his shoulder.

Jacob yelled at me again. “It’s too heavy!”

Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, my brain chanted as panic consumed me.

“Shoot it!” Matias screamed. “Shoot it now!

Calista aimed her gun. “I can’t! I can’t get a clear shot!”

“Mara!” Jacob yelled. “Do something!”

I gripped my pistol and aimed, trying to get a clear view of the hound. But the creature kept wriggling and writhing, all the while causing Matias’s body to swing. I couldn’t get a clean shot. There was no way I was going to hit that ugly thing! Not without potentially shooting Matias instead.

“Do it!” Matias yelled, gripping his shoulder, his face contorted in pain.

“I can’t!” I screamed back, still trying to find a shot.

Chink!

The second safety anchor came flying out of the rock, and Matias flew down several more feet.

But this time, there wasn’t enough line, and the force and sheer weight of Matias’s body and the hound, yanked on the safety line that was attached to Jacob, pulling him off the cliffside and down six feet, smacking into the cliffs as he fell.

“Jacob!” I screamed.

He tumbled down further, past Matias, until his body snapped as the line went taut. Matias screamed out as the hellhound thrashed its body, causing too much strain on the flesh and bone of Matias’s shoulder.

Blondie screamed this time. “Mara! The anchor! It’s coming out!” My heart hammered itself against my ribs as I caught sight of the last safety anchor slowly coming loose from the rock, centimeter by centimeter, slipping out of place.

“Shoot it!” Matias said in a desperate cry. “Now!”

I swallowed hard, and took aim, watching as his body moved with the force of the thrashing hound attached to him, and then seeing my brother’s limp form just past him. Jacob wasn’t moving at all. He must have hit his head in the free fall.

Oh my god…what if he’s already dead?

I felt paralyzed, my mind screaming to do something, anything ! But my body was completely frozen in place. It was too much! Too much pressure. What if I shot him? What if I became responsible for Matias’s death? I couldn’t…I wouldn’t !

“Do it now!” he screamed again just as I heard the anchor give another centimeter.

With a shuddering breath, I took aim one last time, watching as my brother and Matias dangled hundreds of feet from the ocean as the single, last safety anchor was about to break.

I watched as the creature thrashed, causing Matias to writhe in pain as his flesh tore from his body.

I had to try. I placed gentle pressure on the trigger, prepared to pull as the creature’s body swung to the right, just out of view, and then came swinging back as it flailed out to the left, away from Matias.

I exhaled and pulled the trigger.