Running Scared

So, she shoved away any residual guilt and pretended that everything was fine. She wanted to be here, having a nice meal with Zach. She wanted him to take her to his home. She wanted to be friends.



Pretending was easier if she forgot why she was doing it, so that was what she did. Ninety minutes later, she was stuffed full and more at ease with Zach than she would have ever thought possible.



He hadn’t grilled her about her decision to become his partner, or talked about anything serious over dinner. Instead, he’d talked about small things, like how he’d found this place so far off the beaten path one night when his car had broken down, and how he and his buddies had a contest to find the best places to eat across the country.



He claimed he was the reigning champion, and Lexi had to agree.



But once they stepped out of the restaurant’s door, his charming, almost playful demeanor suddenly changed. His pale eyes were bright and watchful and he casually maneuvered Lexi so that he was between her and the open farmland around them.



Zach walked close enough to her she could feel the heat of his skin flowing between them, the tension cording his muscular body. He pulled in a deep breath through his nose, like he was smelling the air.



“Everything okay?” asked Lexi. Anxiety made her mouth go dry, and she was sure everything was most definitely not okay.



“No,” said Zach as he grabbed her arm and rushed her toward the truck, practically carrying her to get her to hurry. They were parked at the far side of the lot. The dinner rush was over and all the cars that had filled the lot before were now gone, leaving the place nearly deserted. The cool night air suddenly felt chilly against her skin, and only the heat of Zach’s strong fingers around her arm kept her from shivering.



“I think we might have visitors,” said Zach in a tight voice.



“Visitors?”



“Synestryn.”



She blurted out, “Your pets are here?” before she could stop herself.



Zach gave her a sharp frown. “They’re not our pets, Lexi. I don’t know where you heard that, but the Synestryn are anything but friendly, loyal dogs. They’re our enemy, and will kill us if they find us. I can’t risk you like that.”



Couldn’t risk her? What about him?



He unlocked the truck and pushed her up into the driver’s seat. “Take the keys,” he told her. “I need to keep my hands free to fight.”



He grabbed her arm—the one wearing the gold chain bracelet—and closed his eyes for a brief second. A hot spark of power shot through her wrist and the bracelet fell free. He grabbed it and shoved it in his pocket.



Lexi gave him a questioning frown.



“I don’t want you trapped by my side if things get ugly,” he said.



Fear skittered around inside her belly, threatening to shove her meal up and out of its way. “Ugly?”



An eerie howl split the night, silencing the crickets chirping nearby. “There’s a map in the glove compartment. On it is a dot in red ink northeast of Kansas City. That’s Dabyr. Go there. Tell them who you are and they’ll let you in. I’ll catch up with you.”



“You want me to leave you here?” she asked.



Sitting high in the truck, she had a good view of the cornfield. Tall stalks of corn parted as something big came closer. Several somethings.



“I can’t leave these people here to fend for themselves. I’ve got to stay and fight.”



“By yourself?”



He gave her a wink. “You’re not ready to help me yet, though I wished like hell you were. Go now. There’s no more time.”



Zach shut her inside the truck and drew a sword that had been invisible only a moment ago. He walked away, toward the edge of the cornfield, his stride confident and steady.



Lexi’s hand fumbled on the key, trying to separate the one she needed from the rest. It went into the ignition on the third try, and the truck started easily. Not at all like her ancient Honda.



Whatever was out there in the corn was getting closer fast—it was only fifty yards away now. Zach had moved to the edge of the tall stalks, putting himself between the people in the restaurant and whatever was headed his way. He lifted his blade to a ready stance, and stood there, waiting.



Lexi didn’t want to leave him here alone. He said those things weren’t his pets. The way he was acting proved he wasn’t lying.



Another deep howl make Lexi jump. Thick, oily fear closed around her throat until she could only pull in short, shallow breaths.



She needed to get out of here. Zach could take care of himself. He wouldn’t have gone out there alone if he couldn’t. Would he?



Her feet couldn’t touch the pedals, so she slid the seat forward. The first Synestryn broke through the field, coming into sight.



It was a huge, hulking beast, as wide as it was tall. Long tusks erupted from its jaw, dripping with saliva. It had a thick snout and was covered in long barbs from top to bottom. Its spiny skin glistened wetly in the dim light, and all those barbs rattled as the thing laid eyes on Zach.



Lexi’s body seized up in terror. She’d never seen anything like it before.



A loud hissing noise came from the thing, and Zach fell to the ground, flattening himself against the dry earth. Dozens of barbs shot out of the monster’s skin and some of them embedded themselves in a nearby tree. Only a fraction of an inch of the long spike remained sticking out of the hard bark.



Lexi didn’t want to think about what would have happened to Zach’s body had they hit him. He was hard, but a hell of a lot softer than that tree.



Before she’d had time to even make sense of what she was seeing, Zach was back on his feet, sword in hand, closing in on the monster. His sword flashed as he attacked, but Lexi didn’t watch. A movement farther out in the field demanded her attention.



There were three more things out there closing in fast. She didn’t know if they were the same things that Zach was fighting or not, but she was pretty sure that it didn’t really matter. Four against one were not the kind of odds a man survived.



She tried to convince herself it didn’t matter if he survived. She didn’t need him anymore. She had his truck, money, a map to Helen and her car on its way. She had everything she needed to get to Dabyr and blow it up. He’d even unchained her, freeing her to run away without getting sick.



Why had he done that? Because he didn’t want her hurt? Or because he knew he was going to die?



Lexi didn’t know. She didn’t understand why he would free her when he’d been clear that he intended to imprison her for life.



What she did know was that until she separated the truth from the lies, she couldn’t let Zach die.



She put the truck in gear and floored the accelerator. Gravel spun out from the wheels, but the truck got moving in a hurry. It careened toward the field, and she aimed it at the paths two of the monsters were making in the dry corn. They were the only two close enough together she could get them both at once.



A quick glance Zach’s way told her he’d taken care of the first monster, leaving it in gory pieces on the ground. A second one sprang from the corn, shooting its barbs as it went. Zach’s body arched as he dodged the spray, but his shoulder lurched backward as one of the spikes hit its mark.



Oh, crap. That couldn’t be good.



Lexi pulled herself back to her driving just as the front bumper hit the first monster, followed closely by the second. The truck jumped into the air a couple of feet, and she heard a popping hiss come from at least two of the tires as the barbs punctured them.



A loud sound, like hail hitting the truck’s roof, ricocheted from below. Three of those nasty spikes shot up through the floorboards only inches from her feet, flew past her, and lodged in the truck’s headliner.



Lexi shrieked, and instinctively jerked away from the attack. Without her foot on the gas, the truck slowed fast, sweeping a wide swath of cornstalks beneath it.



She checked the rearview mirror, looking for signs of movement from the two she’d crushed. They were lying in wet heaps, twitching, but not getting up.



She shoved the accelerator down, pulled hard on the wheel, and turned the truck around for another pass. Frantically, she scanned the area where she’d last seen Zach and saw nothing—not even movement in the corn or the tip of his blade reflecting above the stalks.



Panic took a tight hold of her, hollowed her out, like she was floating just above her body. It seemed like it took forever to get the truck headed the right way.



Was Zach hurt? Dead?



The thought left her cold and shaking.



She steeled herself against what she was going to do next just as the deflated wheels crunched over the monsters’ bodies. If they got up now, she knew it was time to run.



Lexi pulled the truck to a stop, worried that Zach might be hidden in the corn. Lying broken and bleeding. If she hit him, she’d never be able to live with herself.



She left the truck running and jumped down from the cab. A wet, dripping sound came from beneath the truck, but she told herself that it was just condensation from the air conditioner, not squishy bits of monster guts.



Weaponless and desperate, Lexi pushed her way back to where she’d last seen Zach. The corpses of two monsters were lying there, slowly leaking thick, black blood into the soil.



Zach was nowhere to be found.



“Zach!” she yelled. She didn’t even care if any of the people left in the steakhouse heard her. The Defenders and her mother had always told her they had to keep all this monster stuff hush-hush, but she didn’t give a shit about that right now. She needed to find Zach.



She called his name again, but got no answer. Then she thought she heard something. A deep moan.



Lexi stopped in her tracks, letting the rustle of cornstalks settle around her.



There it was again. It was definitely a moan.



She moved toward it, chanting Zach’s name, praying he was okay—better than he sounded.



He wasn’t. His big body was sprawled on the ground, his sword lying a few feet away. Blood wet the shoulder of his T-shirt. She couldn’t see the barb, and didn’t know if it was embedded in him, or if it had gone all the way through. His dark skin was shining with sweat even as his body shook with chills.



“Zach,” she breathed as she went to his side.



He opened his eyes and the pupils were tiny pinpoints of black. Not a good sign. “Go, Lexi. They can smell my blood. More will come.”



“You’re nuts if you think I’m leaving you here. We’re leaving together.”



She pulled on his good arm, trying to get him up onto his feet. Man, he was heavy, but she managed to get her shoulder under his and, with his help, she got him up. He was wobbly and she gritted her teeth against the strain of keeping him up. The man was packed with heavy slabs of muscle and probably weighed twice what she did.



If she didn’t get him into the truck while he could still help, she never would.



“Sword,” he said, sounding almost panicked.



“Leave it. You can get another.”



“No!” He veered toward the thing and Lexi had no choice but to help him get there or let him fall. Apparently it was too important to leave behind.



She steadied him with one hand while she picked the weapon up, but had nowhere to put it. Frustrated, she shoved it under her arm and pinned it to her side, praying she didn’t slice one of them open on the wicked blade.