“Ella?”
“Totally power wasted. She lost it when she heard the shots being fired after you busted in here. Told you not to fucking come in. Now your girl is as crazy as Ella.”
I look down, but Leah’s black eyes are almost gone.
“You’re dead,” she whispers, reaching up to touch my cheek.
My lips brush hers, and I wipe away a tear that escapes her eye.
“Not anymore. Long story.” I kiss her, and her moan travels into my mouth as her hands curl around the back of my neck, pulling me closer.
“This feels like Thad and Roslyn all over again. This is so not the time for doe-eyes, make-out sessions, and love confessions,” Dice growls. “That shit only happens in the movies when they need a romantic element to keep the fucking chicks interested. Start killing people!”
Never thought I’d see the day where Dice was thinking more practically than me, but I push away from Leah to gauge the scene around us.
Several rounds of bullets fire, and I watch helplessly as Ella goes down, blood pouring from her wounds.
I start to chase after her, but a knife stabs into my leg, taking me down as pain shoots through me. Dice grabs my shoulder and drags me back, just as Leah jumps to her feet.
I pry the knife from my skin, cursing the pain it leaves in its wake. Wish I was knife-proof too. That’d be fucking awesome right now.
Everything blurs around us—bullets flying, knives launching, and no power against them. “Running low on ammo, and there aren’t any dead bodies close enough to thieve from,” Dice growls. “I’d rather not get shot again. It really fucking hurts.”
Leah slams into me, and my eyes drop to her stomach just as Dice fires three times above our heads. A guy falls off the balcony above us, screaming all the way down, but he already did the worst thing he could do.
Dice grabs the knife from her stomach, and as soon as he pulls it out, I push my palm against the wound.
“Blood,” I tell her, pushing my wrist to her mouth.
“Don’t think now’s a good time to be fucking, and that’s what will happen if she takes your blood,” Dice says. “And people think I’m the fucking crazy one.”
He fires several more rounds until his gun clinks empty.
“Damn it!”
Slade rips Ella away from the firing squad, tossing her across the room. She lands behind a partition wall of some sort, and he turns just as a woman tries to slam a blade into him.
Too late do I realize who the woman is, and Slade grabs the knife from her, turning so fast that he’s nothing but a blur. The knife slams into her heart, and Leah releases a bloodcurdling scream as all the hairs on my body raise.
“Nooooo!” Leah shouts, struggling to get up, but unable to move when I force her to stay down.
Slade’s brow furrows in confusion when Masie smiles and mouths, “Thank you.”
“NO!” a man with one eye roars, dropping close by before rushing outside.
Victor… That was him!
The militant madmen start retreating as Masie’s eyes roll back in her head, and then it dawns on me why.
“Gage! Light them up!” I yell.
Gage doesn’t get a chance to react. All the bullets and knives go still in the air as if they’ve been frozen in place, and my eyes trail over to Slade as Leah pushes my hand away.
She covers the wound herself, and I notice it’s already healing. Less blood is spilling, and the flesh is slowly pulling closed.
The hex… Her aunt said it changed us. Just like my wound healed, so is Leah’s… I wish it worked that way when Slade attacked her.
Deadly silence fills the air, and my eyes snap back over to where Slade’s silver eyes are full of menace and twisted delight. With one flick of his wrist, the bullets and knives fly through the air, slamming into every man or woman who was trying to kill us.