Chapter 24 #2
Her thoughts raced. How could she make this stop before Leo and Stephen succumbed to the silver poisoning them?
A small poke urged her to start shooting, but that would only make things worse.
The first shot would alert the guards on the perimeter.
If she could find a way to release Kellen and Grace from their chains, that would increase their odds, but could silver bullets splinter silver chains?
Silver wasn't that strong of a metal in the first place.
Josiah gave Stephen a last kick to the face before turning back to Leo, who despite the silver poisoning had managed to heal enough to almost stand. It just made Josiah smile as he resumed beating him. As he raised his fist high, Samara saw a keychain flopping around his belt.
That was what she needed. The keys to the chains. But how could she get them from Josiah and release at least one of the others? The only way she could get close to him was to confront him, but before that she needed to even the odds.
Shimmying back down to the ground, she opened the backpack and removed the drone. With some creative pulling, she released the camera from the mount and replaced it with the bottle of silver. Then she retreated farther away from the camp, but not before hearing another howl of anguish.
About twenty feet from the camp's edge, she set down the rifle and took out the laptop.
Pulling up the screen she saw an icon of the drone's brand.
She had expected the usual complications of learning new software, but suspected Stephen had streamlined it to make it easier for himself.
In a matter of minutes, she started the drone's engine and maneuvered it high enough so that it would be hard to see against the forest's canopy.
When she had it hovering over the guards nearest her, she set down the control, stood up, and positioned herself so she could aim for the drone.
She remembered the lessons in control her grandfather taught her and prayed they were enough. Line up the sight, breath out, and gently pull the trigger.
The bullet hit the bottle under the drone, sending a spray of silver far and wide, hitting four of the guards.
Their screams gave her strength, but she’d forgotten about her own sensitive hearing.
Ignoring the harsh sounds stabbing at her eardrums, she marched forward, using the hand gun to pump the falling guards full of silver bullets to make sure they were dead.
By that point, two of the other omegas had shifted and ran toward her back, but she whirled around, found her rifle and sent a burst of bullets in their direction, stopping them dead in their tracks.
Josiah turned to the rest of his omegas. “Shift, damn you! Use your damn guns, but don’t kill her!”
Before they could fire on her, Samara retreated behind the outhouses and hauled herself back on top. From there, she quickly shot two more of his omegas.
How does it feel, Josiah? Do you even have a taste of what it's like to get ambushed, to watch those around you die? No, of course not. You don't care who dies as long as it isn't you. You know how powerful my grandfather’s wolf shadow is. You won’t even risk casting a spell to immobilize me because I might have the same power to transfer it to Kellen, and you know with two alpha shadows, he’ll kill you faster than you can run.
Not waiting for another one of the omegas to take a potshot at her, she jumped off the outhouse ready to fire at the last two of Josiah's pack.
"Cripple her! Aim for her legs!" Josiah hollered, distracting the two.
It gave her a beat to pick them off. That's when she saw Josiah's strategy.
He used the last of his omegas to distract her so he could slip on a pair of gloves, slide behind Kellen, and yank the chain attached to the silver collar around his neck.
By the time Samara had him in her sights again, he'd hauled Kellen off the ground with a gun to his head.
To the end of her days, she would never forget the look Kellen gave her. Against the pain of silver, he looked at her with pride and mouthed I love you.
"Throw down the gun, little girl, or your boyfriend gets a silver bullet to the head."
She held the gun steady as if she wasn't shaking with both anger and fear on the inside. "No."
He yanked Kellen's chain higher, choking him, but he still mouthed new words: Do it. She knew what he wanted her to do, but she'd be damned if she'd shoot through him just to get to Josiah. Not with silver bullets.
"I mean it," Josiah shouted.
"So do I."
"I will kill him!"
"You'll try; now drop the gun and the keys."
Josiah smiled showing his nasty teeth. "Oh, what keys would those be?"
"I said drop the gun and the keys."
"You seem to think you're in control here."
Didn't they just have this conversation?
"I am in control. I have the one thing you can't live without, because if I die, you'll have lost the one thing that gives your life meaning.
The only thing that gets you out of bed in the morning.
The only purpose you've set yourself up for, and you can't live without a purpose in life. No one can."
"That's a lotta words for a stupid girl."
"I'm a lot smarter than you think. If I wasn't, I wouldn't have escaped the first time. Now drop the gun and the keys."
"You say I have no purpose without you." Josiah shook Kellen's body like a rag doll as if to prove how strong he was.
"But what do you have with this one? You're a rogue wolf with nothing because I took it all away from you.
Except this." He shook Kellen again. "He's all you've got. Are you sure you can live without him?"
The next word she uttered almost choked her, but she had to say it. "Yes."
That wasn't what Josiah thought she would say, and it rattled him. Clearly he was running out of taunts.
Kellen's words from yesterday came back to her.
"I will weep for him,” she said. “I will mourn him, I will hate myself for not having the ability to rescue him, but if you go through with killing him, then you will not know a single second of peace for the rest of your life, however short it may be, and trust me when I say it will be very, very short. "
Was Kellen laughing at her speech? It was hard to tell because the blue had risen from his neck to his face, turning his lips bluer than hers had ever been, continuing on to his cheeks while his breathing became more labored.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Grace slumped forward in her own chains, her hair freed from the ponytail and spilling over her head and legs.
She could only imagine what condition Leo and Stephen were in by now.
Josiah must have figured out she was as honest as she was serious. Moving faster than she could even see, the bastard twisted around, shot Leo as he lay on the ground, then shoved Kellen at her before running away. Kellen stumbled forward.
She loved Kellen, but if she let Josiah go, they would never have peace. Twisting away to break Kellen’s fall, Samara then let him go and shifted. Her clothing tore and fell away. Fur sprouted all over her body. Her vision changed as her joints twisted awkwardly in their sockets.
None of that changed her focus. The moment her paws touched the ground, she charged at Josiah, teeth bared ready to taste blood as if she'd done this all her life.
Churning her muscles, she launched herself at him before he could shift.
She aimed for his belt loop, the one with the keys dangling from it.
Grabbing hold of the man's hip, she sank her teeth in and ripped the skin off his body along with the fabric of his pants with the keys attached.
Josiah shifted so he could run faster, leaving a trail of blood behind. Samara started to chase, determined to kill the wolf shifter who had destroyed so many lives, but then another part of her brought her to a screeching halt, her paws skidding across the dirt of the camp.
Kill him!
Save Kellen!
No, kill Josiah first!
Kellen won't survive!
Which was more important. It wasn't even a contest. Ignoring Josiah's retreat, Samara shifted back and ran into the camp before scooping up the remnants of her destroyed shirt to protect her hands from the silver chains. Racing toward Kellen, she found Grace already free and using her strength to pull apart the collar around Kellen’s neck.
While Josiah had been busy taunting Samara, Grace must have used the pins hidden in her hair to discretely pick the locks of her own collar and chains.
Samara wanted to hold Kellen in her arms, but there was no time. She shoved the keys into his hands along with the cloth to prevent the silver from burning him more. "Can you free Stephen? I need to get that bullet out of Leo."
"Yes," he whispered, his voice horse. "Go. Do what you need to do."
She scanned the ground and found her knife still clipped to the remains of her bra.
Then she ran over to where Leo lay. Nearby, Stephen, ignoring the silver’s blue poison spreading from his neck up to his lips and cheeks, had reached out toward his friend as far as his own chains would let him in a desperate attempt to help.
C’mon Kellen, hurry. Unlike Stephen, Leo’s body shook violently as he struggled between his human self and his wolf.
“Leo, shift to human. Please, I need you to stay human so I can get the bullet out.”
Leo seemed not to hear her as another painful howl ripped from his throat, but his body rippled, and the fur disappeared.
As soon as the wolf disappeared, Samara ripped open what was left of his shirt but couldn't see the open wound where he'd been shot, which meant he'd healed with the silver bullet inside him.
Without an open wound, she could only guess that the blue spreading from just under his ribs had to be the entrance.