30. Max
Max
“ W here are you, baby?”
I keep my voice quiet as we move through another stretch of trees. The others follow, all of us deciding that I had a better chance of reaching her than anyone else.
But we’ve been out here for more than an hour. Red spruces stretch up into the sky above us, keeping the air cool even as the sun rises, scattering light across the floor in lines.
Pausing, I pull out my compass, using it for a sense check.
I know this area. And so does Kenny. We came up here more than once. I showed her how to light fires and how to put them out safely. How to wait for fish in the river, staying completely still.
My eyes flick around. We’re not far from the clearing we used to go to.
Maybe—
I set off in that direction, deciding it’s better than any other. I haven’t caught any sign of her for more than forty minutes, the few footprints she left vanishing beneath the forest floor.
And then I stop, throwing my hand up into the air.
“What—,”
“Hush.” I snap at Oscar without meaning to, my brow furrowing as I tilt my head. That noise…
That noise does not belong here.
I take off at a run. Heavy footsteps pound through the undergrowth after me, as I dodge around the thin trunks and weave my way toward her.
My heart pounds in time with my footsteps. I’m coming.
The screaming rings out. Enough that the rest of the forest is completely still, as if realizing that something is terribly, terribly wrong.
Behind me, someone stumbles.
I don’t stumble. I don’t fucking stop.
I race into that clearing, my eyes running over the pit I used for fire building and landing on her.
My legs buckle. But I drop down beside her, my hands already roving over her as Kennedy bucks and screams and twists, her body arching unnaturally.
“No,” I lean over her in a panic, trying to hold her face. “Kenny, baby, it’s us.”
She doesn’t see us. Her eyes are blood red and wide, as if she’s locked inside her own body, fighting to get out.
“Fuck.” Oscar falls to his knees opposite her. His hands shake as he lifts them, unsure where to put them. “What do we do?”
“Kenny?” She arches again, and I lose my fucking mind. Every tendon on her neck stands out in stark, petrifying clarity, as if she’s choking.
“Breathe,” I choke out. My hands behind her neck, lifting her. “Please, baby. I need you to breathe. Just breathe.”
She can’t.
Desperate, I seal my lips over hers, trying to force air into her lungs. And her lips… they taste like blood, and something rotten. “Fucking breathe, Kennedy!”
Oscar holds out his hands. “Give her to me.”
There’s so much blood. It’s everywhere. Her exposed skin is a patchwork of red and oily black as I tumble back and Oscar grabs her. He lifts, pulling Kenny into him until her back rests against his chest. His eyes meet mine. Desperation shines out of them.
“Breathe.” He barks it, his hand curling around her throat. “Now, Kennedy. Take a fucking breath .”
Her choked inhale sounds like music. Oscar is breathing heavily against her as he tips his face up, his eyes briefly closing. They’re glistening when they open. “ Again .”
We wait in agonized silence as he forces our mate to pull air into our lungs. Her eyes flutter, flickering as I lean in to see.
Brown. Deep, beautiful brown. She blinks, and I see red again.
Back and forth, the colors of her eyes switch.
As if she’s fighting a war with herself that we can’t see.
“Kenny,” Jake chokes on her name. He crouches in front of him, his hands cupping her face. “Keep breathing, okay? Can you hear me?”
Her head jerks as if in confirmation, and I suck in a breath. “You keep fighting, Kennedy. Don’t you give up.”
Because she’s faltering again. Her body jerks against Oscar, twitching as her eyes begin to roll. Oscar’s hands move, gently, not pinning her. “She’s fucking seizing .”
And his voice cracks.
“We need help.” We can’t carry her like this. I glance around for Theo. And he looks almost as bad as Kennedy, his knees buried in the ground and his eyes on her. As if he’ll never look away.
“She’s not dying,” Oscar says harshly. But his hands are so gentle. His eyes wet. “She’s changing .”
“What do you mean, changing—,”
“Into a feral,” Jake breathes. And that understanding burrows between my ribs, shreds me, fucking wrecks me.
She’s disappearing in front of us.
Jake leans forward. Her bandages, the ones she hid from us with those fucking sweaters, are unravelling with the force of her movements. Leaving ripped, bleeding, fucking bite marks on display.
As if she’s made of nothing but broken parts. Every single piece of her.
Jake flinches back from the sight of it, from the trauma written across her skin in brutal explanation.
We all do. Except for Oscar. He closes his arms around her, whispering something I can’t hear in Kenny’s ear as her jerking slows, and stops. His eyes close, and he rocks her. I focus on his lips as my vision wavers.
Stay.
He’s begging her.
Because we’re losing her to this poison. She’s slipping away in front of our fucking eyes, and we can’t stop it.
Her blink is slow. Once, then again. And her voice, it’s so slurred. Slurred, and broken. “Jake?”
He picks up her hand, pressing blood-soaked fingers against his cheek. “Right here, baby. Not going anywhere. How are you doing?”
His voice only breaks once. Kenny’s eyes clear slightly. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t,” he croaks. “You don’t have anything to apologize for, okay? Nothing, Kenny.”
I fold over. Just… fold, catching myself on the ground before I shift to be beside him. Oscar has his face turned away. His fingers are soft in her hair, pushing tangled strands away from her face. But I can see his shoulders shaking.
“Hey,” I breathe, even as my heart breaks. “Hey, sweetheart,”
“Max,” she breathes. “I got lost.”
I shake my head, my eyes wet. “No, you didn’t. We found you, Ken.”
Her lips barely move. “Knew… you would. Where’s…Oscar?”
He pushes his jaw out, as if it might stem the flow from his eyes. “Here. Got my arms around you, Kenny. We’re going to take you home, okay?”
“Home.” Her lips barely form the words. “That sounds… nice.”
Her eyes move. Searching.
“Here.” Theo’s voice sounds. “I’m right here, Ken.”
Her eyes seem a little more unfocused. She coughs, choking on nothing as her back arches again. “Still… hate me?”
Theo’s face is pure devastation. “Never. I never hated you, remember? You were – you’re everything , Kenny. We need you to hold on, okay? We’re gonna get you help.”
“Everything.” She murmurs it. Her eyes close. “I think… I would have liked to be your everything.”
She doesn’t see Theo’s face crumple.
“It would have been… nice,” Kenny whispers. Almost to herself. “To be someone’s everything.”
My hand slams against my chest as her head tilts to the side. It feels like a cord. Stretching. Thinning.
Oscar stiffens. He shakes her. Just once, and then harder. “Kenny? Breathe .”
Jake has his head in his hands.
“No.” Once, then louder. Theo, cupping her face, tilting it up. “No. She – she’s not. She’s not. Fuck, Kenny. Come on. Come on .”
But her chest isn’t moving. She’s not breathing.
She’s not fucking breathing.
And that cord in my chest gets thinner. I squeeze my hand against my skin, clawing at it. Fuck, I can almost see it. Wrap my hands around it in my mind, as if I can hold her here by sheer strength of will.
Theo chokes, pressing his forehead to hers. “I’m sorry, Ken. I’m so sorry.”
But my hand shoots out, pulling him back. “Wait – look .”
My heart turns over as her eyes fly open, locking on Theo.
Kennedy’s eyes aren’t muddy red anymore. Her pupils are a bright, vivid scarlet, lines breaking off and bleeding into the whites of her eyes.
But she’s breathing.
Slowly, her lips peel back, revealing sharp, pointed canines. A low, rolling snarl ripples up her throat and out into the stunned silence.
“Shit,” Jake breathes.
Our mate lunges directly for Theo’s throat.