(Sur)real

My head lay on someone’s leg. Fingers stroked my hair. Nothing touched my back, thankfully. The slight vibration under me assured me that we were once again in a vehicle and moving. Not that it would do any good.

“She needs to dream,” I said through pain-clenched teeth.

“Can you tell us what happened?” Winifred said. “Grey swears it looked like something removed the skin from your back.”

I wanted to snort. Now I could travel in the main vehicle? The time for secrets was at an end. And, my patience was at an end, too.

“I told you. There’s a fourth race. I see them. I talk to them. They help me in return for a piece of my flesh. What don’t you get?”

“What help did they just give you?” she asked.

“I asked them to control Blake for three days. Three days for three strips of flesh.”

Not nearly enough time. Had I been sure I could have endured more and still have been useful for the Judgement, I would have tried. Even now, I could feel Blake in my head, his anger at war with moments of soothing calm.

“Holy fuck,” Bethi said.

“Is it true that you Claimed Blake?” Winifred asked.

“Yes.”

“Why?” Her complete disgust and confusion annoyed me. Hadn’t she listened?

“Because I needed to live this time. Please, just leave me alone.”

No one spoke, and I drifted for the next several minutes.

“They’re just behind us now,” Gabby said, breaking into the peace-filled blanket of oblivion that had slowly begun to wrap around me.

“Where the hell is the city? This looks like Hicksville,” Bethi said.

Their conversation jolted me further into awareness.

“City? No. We can’t be by a city. We need a wasteland.”

“Well, that’s what this looks like,” Bethi said.

I struggled to sit up and grunted at the pain lancing through my back. Winifred’s hand on my arm helped me. That’s when I noticed I wore my sweater again. Weird that I couldn’t feel it on the wounds.

“I butterfly bandaged the gashes once we got the bleeding to stop,” she said. “I didn’t think we had time for stitches.”

Her words held little meaning as I stared at the nothingness around us. The Others outlined an occasional home within the distant whiteness. The rural area gave me hope.

“How close are they?” I asked. Blake didn’t feel close. He still felt like he waited on the east coast, where I’d put him.

“Not far.”

“I’m not asking you, Gabby,” I said, not unkindly.

The groans and moans of the Others filled the car. I listened closely, turning my head to watch the swirls of grey behind us.

“So many,” I whispered, more to myself than anyone in the car. “Please tell me you’ve dreamt something, Bethi.”

“Yeah. I died hung upside-down, throat slit. I’m not even sure which of us that was anymore. Not you. But one of us.”

She has the answer, the Lady whispered.

My anger almost slipped. I felt Blake’s emotions pull back. He’d felt it.

“What else about the dream, Bethi? Think. I said this wouldn’t be easy. The answer won’t be clear. What else was in your dream? She says you have the answer. Use your head.”

“You know what? Screw you. My throat still hurts.” The girl curled into her Mate’s side.

“Of course. Very insensitive of me to forget your pain.” Who was this bitter person I was becoming?

Facing ahead and careful not to lean against the seat, I exhaled slowly and forced myself to focus on my breathing and not the anger and frustration that wanted to well up.

“How long until they reach us?” I asked.

“A few minutes,” Gabby said. The Others confirmed her answer.

“If they kill any of us, the Judgement won’t be made. Do you understand, Bethi? What happened to me will happen to all of us when the time of the Judgement comes. The veil holding the Others back will disappear. They will flood this world and wear every human, werewolf, or Urbat like a pretty body coat. If you think having your throat slit hurts, wait until you’re skinned alive by the Others. They feed off your pain and agony. Even now, more swarm around you than any of the rest of us.”

“That’s enough,” Winifred said sharply.

I could hear Bethi’s ragged breathing and feel Luke’s angry gaze.

“No, Winifred. It’s not. The world will burn in their wild abandon, and Bethi will relive everyone’s pain because we will still be born again.”

Bethi began to softly sob behind me.

“There is no end for us. Not even at the end.” And that was the cruelest truth of our sorry lives. “We cannot die this time.”

“We’re almost there. I can see humans ahead,” Gabby said.

“We need to stop. We’ll risk them,” I said.

“If what you just said is true, the humans are at risk no matter what,” Winifred said.

I sat in suppressed anger and struggled to think what I could do to prevent us from being injured. I could call Blake now, but he wouldn’t believe any lie I told him, not with the Judgements right here listening.

Use Peace.

“This fight has to be Isabelle’s,” I said. “She needs to use her power to kill them all.”

“She can’t,” Winifred said. “It almost killed her last time.”

“The Lady said—”

The bite of my seatbelt robbed me of air as the vehicle braked suddenly. Loud bangs filled the interior. The Others were in such a frenzy, I struggled to see what was happening. I focused on my other senses. Growls just outside. The splintering sound of glass. Tires screeching on asphalt. As soon as the vehicle came to a stop, I unbuckled and reached for a door. A hand over mine stopped me.

“Wait here,” Winifred said. The growls grew louder, a sign the door had opened, and something brushed past me. The coppery scent of blood burst into the air.

“Get out of the way, Luke,” Bethi said. Their steps and the whisper of clothes said they’d left the vehicle, too.

I turned my head, ignoring the pain in my back in my search to see if I was alone. Fixated on the fight, the dancing grey of the Others had left the vehicle, so it was hard to tell.

“Move it, albino!” a rough voice yelled nearby. An Urbat, given the pet name.

I reached forward, releasing my hold on my fear, and got out of the car.

Bits and pieces of the scene flared to life as the Others danced within the chaos. Beast attacking beast. Some falling. Some moving on to the next. One moved faster than all the rest and killed more quickly.

“Where are the Judgements?” I asked.

Some of the Others focused their swirls around a group of people who stood in the center of a protective circle. One stood apart in the pandemonium, kicking and punching, moving with a fluid grace that seemed at odds with the killing going on around her.

“Shields!” Isabelle yelled. Something tugged at my chest. I put a hand over it, but felt nothing. The tug came again, harder. All my fear left me, weakening me to the point that my knees gave out. I fell to the snow and closed myself off.

No one touched me. The fighting continued around me as if I really wasn’t part of that world. I stood on shaky legs and moved forward.

“You can’t hurt them,” I yelled. “The Judgement is too close.”

Something knocked into me, and I fell onto the snow.

“Stay down!” a voice snarled at me.

Ignoring the warning, I pushed myself to my hands and knees.

Do not fear. There is Hope, the Lady whispered.

GABBY…

Olivia fell beside the SUV, one of the Urbat having pushed her over. Isabelle pulled hard again, knocking the dick to his knees, and stealing some of the fear I’d tried to keep bottled. It wasn’t easy when there were so many of them. Just like that night we’d lost Ethan.

I closed myself off from the guilt and concentrated on the sparks flooding my mind. I knew what would happen with too many of Isabelle’s pulls and couldn’t afford to pass out now. Everyone needed me.

Within the confines of the protective circle, I watched Bethi gut another dog in front of me. She yelled angrily and turned toward the next attacker, Luke protecting her right and Clay protecting her left. Grey, Emmitt, and Thomas stood on the other side of the circle with Sam beside Clay. Winifred moved around us, keeping away the majority. Further away, Isabelle and Carlos fought in the sea of Urbat, for our protection.

“More coming from Grey’s side,” I called out. Winifred moved to that section, leaving Bethi and Luke more exposed. The Urbat pressed in, trying to take advantage. Bethi moved quickly, ending that attempt.

The sparks continued to reposition in a flurry of movement. And, not just the Urbat numbers gathered in force on the other side of the mountain range. The fighting at the outskirts of Logan had called the attention of humans, too. Traffic no longer passed us. Cars had stopped miles away, up the pass. The soft yellow-green of their sparks pooled around us much like our immediate protective circle.

The Urbat on the other side of the mountain range began to move.

Seeing the movement of the fight around me and tracking the movement of the sparks converging on us created a dull ache between my eyes. I blinked slowly. Exhaustion pulled at me. The naps I’d been living on since leaving the Compound before Thanksgiving had begun taking their toll long ago.

“More coming over the mountains!” I yelled. In less than fifteen minutes, we’d be hopelessly outnumbered.

Without meaning to, my fear slipped. Blake knew we had either Claimed or Mated with werewolves, and he had proven that he would remove that obstacle without hesitation. I glanced at Clay then returned my focus to the sparks in my mind. So many yellow-green sparks. Enough to outnumber the blue-grey of the Urbat now surrounding us. What would they do if they knew the future that faced them if we couldn’t complete this Judgement. Their fear of the werewolves would dim in the light of their fear for the things that hurt Olivia.

“Shields!” Isabelle called again.

I wished she could pull the fear from the humans. With their help, we could survive this.

Isabelle’s pull touched the center of my chest, and I quickly tossed my fear to the side, focusing on the sparks.

They moved. Not all of them, but at least half of the humans within the Logan mountain range started toward us.

“Humans,” I yelled. “They’re coming!”

I didn’t know whether to panic or cheer. The way they moved seemed like they were controlled by something. I turned to look at Charlene.

“Are you controlling them?” I asked.

“No,” she said, focusing on the Urbat trying to get to Thomas. Some of them flew backward as if hit by an invisible force. Without a doubt, that was her. I didn’t care what she did as long as it helped keep us all safe.

Clay twisted in front of me, dodging a swipe of a clawed hand and coming back around with a swing of his own.

The first of the humans reached us. I couldn’t see them, but did witness the light of their sparks abruptly extinguish. More came. And more. A few of the Urbat focused on them. Not enough to give the werewolves a break, though.

Not a single human spark lasted more than a moment once it met with an Urbat…until the first loud bang. One of the partially shifted Urbat yipped.

“The police are here and have guns,” Michelle called out.

“I’ll make sure they don’t shoot at us,” Charlene added.

The odds were far from even, but the humans with guns did distract the Urbat enough that—

Clay grunted, the sound oddly concerning in the din of all the other sounds. I looked his way and caught him stagger a single step back toward me. He immediately snarled and lunged forward at the half-shifted dog grinning at him. The grin didn’t last long. Blood sprayed when Clay’s claws sunk into the man’s throat and, with a fisted hand, pulled out his windpipe.

The Urbat clutched his neck, gurgling his last breaths. Clay didn’t make any move to fight the other Urbat pushing their way toward us, though. I watched in horror as one knee gave out, and he sank to the ground. Everything slowed when he turned slightly, and I saw the red blossoming on the front of his shirt.

Flashes of Ethan’s death filled my mind.

“Help me!” I screamed, breaking formation and rushing toward him.

A wall of bodies surrounded me. I didn’t look away from Clay. He sat heavily on the ground, one hand bracing his weight and keeping him from laying back completely.

“Don’t do this,” I said, shaking. “Don’t die. Don’t leave me.” I took off my jacket and pressed it to his stomach.

“Shh…it’s okay,” he said.

He reached up and smoothed his bloody fingers over my cheek.

“No, it’s not. I saw Ethan.” I remembered Isabelle’s reaction to Ethan’s death. Fate had been smart to make her Peace and not me. Everyone would die when Clay did.

“Sweetheart,” he said, brushing the tears streaming from my cheeks. “Lift the jacket and look. It’s not the same as Ethan.”

He pulled back the jacket and showed me the long gashes that had ripped open his stomach. It wasn’t a bloody hole, but it wasn’t good either. I could see intestine.

“Fuck. Shit. Fuck.”

He collapsed all the way to the ground. A spray of blood painted his face. I looked up, searching for help. A strangled gasp escaped me. Carnage lay around us. Human men. All dead. Clay lay in the center with me kneeling at his side.

Around us, with the help of the remaining humans, the rest of the group still fought a losing battle against Urbat. I focused on the sparks crossing the mountains. They were almost here.

“Isabelle, you have to end this,” I yelled.

She glanced at me and saw Clay on the ground, my jacket once again pressed to his stomach. Rage filled her features.

“Shields!” she screamed.

I felt the tug, but gave nothing. The Urbat fell to their knees with her inhale and completely collapsed with her exhale. Blood seeped from their noses and their sparks faded in the darkness of my mind.

The humans had remained standing, though, oddly unaffected by Isabelle.

“Thank you for your help,” Charlene said. “Once you return to your homes, you’ll feel happy that you helped defeat the Urbat and protect innocent women.”

None of them moved. I didn’t care. I stared down at Clay’s pale face. He’d closed his eyes.

“We need to get him to a hospital,” I said.

“You know we can’t,” Winifred said.

I choked on a sob.

“I’ll be fine,” Clay whispered.

I looked away from him to Olivia. I didn’t know what I wanted from her. Help? Hope? Answers? She stood from her place on the snow and came toward me.

“Gabby, now you. Release them,” Olivia said.

For a second, I thought she said him. Then I realized she was talking about the humans still standing there, not doing anything but staring at me.

Me? I looked at them again in shock. I’d called them.

“I don’t know how.” Yet, even as I said it, I knew I did. I focused on my fear for them, instead of myself and Clay, and touched their sparks with that fear. Those closest turned and ran away.

OLIVIA…

The Others played with the bodies of the dead, making them lurch and twitch on the ground as the rest of the group surrounded Gabby and Clay. I let my fear and anxiety pour from me.

“Show me Gabby’s phone,” I said. A few of the Others raced back to the vehicle we’d abandoned.

I turned and followed. Inside the vehicle, I felt along the seats until my fingers touched an object on the back seat. Her phone still had buttons, making it easier to dial Blake’s number. He picked up on the first ring.

“Father,” I said.

“Olivia. Stay there. They are coming for you.”

“If they do, we risk everything.”

Snow crunched behind me, and I held up my hand for silence.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“They are starting to trust me. They know they cannot Judge in favor of the humans. With me here, the Dreamer is piecing together the answer to the final Judgement. A day, two at most, and she will know. Sending your men forced Gabby to call the humans to her. This close to the end, their powers will only evolve with each attack, risking not only our men, but the Judgements when they fight against us.”

“And they just let you call to tell me this? Do you think I’m a fool?”

I could feel his growing anger.

“No, Father. They are caring for one of the men, Gabby’s Mate, who was injured during the attack. Gabby left her phone in one of the vehicles, which is where I am. You know I’m not lying.”

He was quiet a moment.

“What are you suggesting I do, then? Nothing?”

“Use me to follow them at a distance until the Dreamer has the answer. I’ll find a way to let you know. I need to go before they notice me.”

“Stay in touch.”

He ended the call. I turned and handed the phone to whoever stood behind me. The Others continued to play with the bodies of the dead as someone carried Clay to a vehicle.

“You’re playing a dangerous game,” Winifred said, accepting the phone.

“A game I’ve been playing since I bit Blake’s neck. The only game that might keep us safe and buy us the time we need for Bethi to find the answers.”

“What happens when she does?” Winifred asked.

“We tell Blake and meet him somewhere far from any humans. Then, we will pass our Judgement.”