Page 97 of Walking in Darkness

Wailing, the man dropped his knife and gripped the wound with both hands. His voice dipped between his own and the rasped frenzythat the Kruen incited above. “You fuckin’ cunt. Whore. Bitch. I’m going to make you bleed. Slice you up. He’ll be pleased.”

Forgetting his injury, he snatched his knife from the ground, jaw clenched as he went for Dani. I found enough strength to catapult myself in their direction, and my hand clamped down on her shoulder to push her out of the way as I drove my palm forward and into his chest the second before he got to her.

I released the bare sparks of light at the same time.

He flew back at the impact, catching five feet of air before he slammed to the ground, his body cutting into the earth as he skidded another three feet.

Dani gasped in surprise and relief, eyes wide with disbelief. “Holy shit, Aria. Did you seriously fry that bastard with your bare hand?”

I swayed, and when Dani realized I was about to fall, she rushed forward and curled around my waist. “I’ve got you.”

Timothy kicked at the single man he was fighting. His foot connected with his stomach, and it sent him sailing back into the tree.

His skull knocked against its trunk. Hard enough that he slid down to the ground, giving Timothy a reprieve.

The second he realized both men were down, he came running for us, shouting, “We have to get out of here. This is something different than I can explain. These assholes have more than human strength.”

As if to prove a point, the man I’d just sent flailing through the air climbed back onto his feet, and the other one Timothy had been fighting pushed to his, the two coming together as they turned back toward us.

Their faces were twisted in the ruthlessness that oozed in their veins.

“We have to go.” Pax was suddenly there, gripping me by the hand. A shock of his energy rolled through me.

Bolstering.

Sustaining and fortifying.

“Can you run?” he wheezed.

“I think so.”

He whirled us around with the clear intention of racing us back toward where they’d come from.

But we froze when we saw that the men he’d toppled had risen, as well as the third one, who’d been so close to getting to Dani.

Their features distorted, and their skin seemed to crawl and writhe over their bones.

The air around them trembled. Whirring and whirring.

More Kruen.

They spun around their bodies in a violent, cataclysmic storm.

The men closed in on us from behind, moving around to create a circle.

Trapping us.

Fear raced.

Disbelief and dismay.

A palpable wave that rolled through us all.

Pax still clung to me, and Dani held on to my other hand. Timothy was behind us, his back pressed to mine while we all watched the men come closer.

The four of us remained connected.

Our spirits clinging to each other.