Shit!

With the vehicles turned around in the grass and back on the narrow dirt road, the other truck was within sight ahead of her. Dusti gripped the edges of the truck bed and leaned back, trying to catch glimpses of her sister. It was a rough ride when the drivers accelerated. The wheels hit deep ruts and drove right over rocks.

“Stop leaning over the side,” Red ordered. “You’re going to fall over the edge.”

“I just want to make sure they’re taking Bat to the same place we’re going.” She didn’t want to be separated from her again.

“They are.” Red gripped her by the knee. “Just sit up straight.”

She straightened and followed his order, then pointedly stared at him.

He frowned in response, seeming unhappy with her still. “What?”

“Why are you holding on to me?”

“Because Drantos would be angry if I let you fall out of the truck. He’s not here to do it, thanks to you.”

They hit another dip and it did help having his big hand pressing down on her leg. “I didn’t know that was going to happen.” Dusti sighed. “You don’t like me.”

“Nope.”

“I hate Decker Filmore. It’s not my fault I’m related to him. I wish I weren’t.”

“That’s what I was told.” He leaned in closer, lowering his voice. “How could you do that to Drantos?”

“Do what?”

His eyes turned a weird color. It might have been a reflection of the sun that made them appear blue with golden streaks. “He’d die for you, yet you sent him away. How could you?”

“I just said I didn’t want to go home with him.”

“You renounced him.”

She grew frustrated. “I’m not even sure what that means here. One second we were having a little private argument and the next his dad ordered him away from me. Don’t you people have disagreements?”

“You really don’t understand, do you?”

“That’s what I said. Explain it to me.”

“He—”

All hell broke loose around them. Howls came from different directions, almost deafening Dusti, and something slammed into Red. One second he sat next to her, his hand on top of her leg. The next instant he was just gone. Then she saw one of those hell beasts slam into the ground behind the truck, Red beneath it.

She was pitched sideways as the driver hit the brakes. The blond kept her from being flung into the back windows of the cab as she hit his body instead. He was solid. He swiftly grabbed her and twisted, dumping her on her back on the metal bed of the truck, and then rose up, standing. Another hell beast landed in the back of the truck with them. Dusti gasped, seeing his sharp front paws just inches from her face. The blond tackled it and they both tumbled out of the back.

Dusti was in shock. The few other men still left in the back of the truck with her had bailed out. She lifted up, peering over the edge of the bed.

She wished she hadn’t. It looked like a war. Men from Velder’s side were wrestling and fighting with beasts. There had to be at least a dozen of them.

Bat! She pulled her body up to a crouch, keeping close to the cab. She spotted the other truck but it had been tipped on its side. A big dent had collapsed the upright side panel, as if something had T-boned it. Bodies were sprawled on the grass where the passengers in the back had been thrown clear.

A few of them moved, seeming stunned but alive. Two beasts suddenly leapt up on the side of the tipped truck and then launched at them. Their claws tore into the victims before they could even get to their feet. She watched in terror as two men tried to fight back.

Kraven’s body was sprawled flat in a bloody heap near the carnage. It looked as if something had already torn up his back, his skin shredded and stained red. Her sister lay trapped under his big body, just part of her thigh showing. It had to be Bat. She looked so pale against the green grass and all that bright red blood.

Dusti almost fell out of the back of the truck and frantically glanced around as she crouched next to the passenger door of the cab. The men who belonged to Drantos’s clan were shifting into beasts too. She watched Redson toss the beast he fought and rip at his own clothes to get free of them as hair sprouted along his arms and chest. His fangs looked huge, his mouth and nose elongating. Soon she wouldn’t be able to tell Decker’s men from Velder’s.

I need to get to Bat. She looked back at where Kraven lay so still. That was definitely Bat under him. She wasn’t even sure if her sister was alive or dead. Kraven didn’t look as if he’d survive with all that blood soaking him.

She took a few sharp breathes and prepared to sprint toward Bat. She refused to believe her sister was dead. She had to try to save her since all the men seemed occupied with fighting for their own lives. It would mean leaving the safety of the little cover she had but that was her sister. Bat would do it for me.

The sound of metal creaking caught her attention and she saw the driver’s side door of the tipped truck being pushed open from the inside. The hinges protested loudly but it finally gave way. A man tried to climb up and out of the cab. It was Velder. She recognized him despite the fact that blood covered the side of his face. He almost made it out but then another beast leapt up on the side of the truck, using one swipe of his claws to strike the struggling man. He fell out of sight, back inside the cab of the truck. The beast used those same claws to tear into the door and shove it closed, placing both front paws on top of it, as if it were purposely trapping Drantos’s father. But the creature didn’t stay there long, leaping off to attack someone else.

Dusti tensed, placing her hand on the truck to brace herself as she prepared to run like she’d never run before. She just needed to shove Kraven off Bat and pray she was alive. If she could move, they’d run like hell and hope none of those beast things followed them.

After a few ragged breaths, Dusti sprinted the distance to the other truck. She pressed her body against the back of it then slowly eased around, so close to her sister and Kraven that only about eight feet separated them.

A hairy beast suddenly stepped out from in front of the truck, just a feet away. Dusti waited for it to turn its head and see her. She held her breath, praying that didn’t happen. It stepped out more, blocking her path to Bat.

“Batnna?” it snarled in an inhuman, horrible voice. “Batnna?”