Leticia (43 page)

“Do you think so?”

“
I don’t know, maybe.
”

“
Well then w
e should be prepared for anything
anyway
.”

“Oh I intend on being. But, right now, and for the next few minutes,” he said wrapping his arms around my waste. “I intend forgetting about everything that
’s
going on, and
I’m
just
going to
enjoy kissing you.”

I smiled at him slightly before his lips were on mine. He backed me up against the wall and I wrapped my arms tightly around him. We hadn’t been like this
for ages it seemed, s
o I decided to enjoy it
while
it lasted.

“I want you,” he breathed.

“You’re not having me
in here
,” I giggled
.

“Well then I suggest we take this upstairs.”

“Jackson I don’t think...”

“Shhh, stop
thinking
.” He picked me up and wrapped my legs around his waist. “Thinking is dangerous,” he smirked.

He moved us away from the wall, kissing me again.

“Jackson, behave
,
” I laughed, freeing my legs and standing
an
arm’s length
away from him.

“Stop playing so hard to get, I know you want this as much as I do.”

“Of course I do, I just...”

“I want you, I want you now, and nothing is going to...”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence. All the windows burst, and a stream of bullets came flying at us. Jackson threw himself at me and we went crashing to the floor. We heard what sounded like an explosion;
the entire
house shook violently and pieces of plaster from the ceiling fell down on top of us.

“Come on
,
” Jackson said. “We need to get out of here.”

We crawled out of the room as quickly as we could and into the hallway. There were dozens of men running into the house. I heard Nancy scream, followed by the sounds of men shrieking and choking. Jackson pulled two guns out that were tucked into the back of his jeans and started firing at the men. But for everyone he shot, two more would come through the door.

“Screw this!” he shouted.

The next minute he had morphed into the form of a tiger. The men shot him several times
but it didn’t stop him, or even slow him down
;
he charged at them, shredding some of them with his claws
.
The house was filled with screams of agony.
Tristan was ripping their throats open, moving around at vamp speed. Nancy had also transformed, only she had turned into a panther. Now it was my turn. I ran over, changing more and more with every step and pounc
ed
on a couple of the men
who were
firing their weapons at Jackson. They tried to push me off but they didn’t stand a chance, they looked frightened to death. It’s not every day you have a 6ft tall, when on all fours, wolf pinning you to the floor. I sank my teeth into his neck, then ripped his head clean off
, before tearing the throat out of the other guy.

We fought as hard as we could, taking heads off, ripping throats out and tearing some of them limb from limb. Some of them ran, scared they would meet the same fate, but the others, the ones that were left, were strong. It became apparent that they had been injected with either mine or Tristan’s blood.
Still we fought them. There was no way we were going to make this easy for them. If they wanted to kill us, it would take every bit of strength they had.

Nancy had changed form again, this time
to
a black bear. I watched for a few seconds as she grabbed some of the men and crushed then. Blood poured from their mouths and I heard all their bones breaking, shattering as she squeezed them to death. Tristan was covered in blood,
it
ran
from his mouth, all down his chin and onto his shirt. Jackson was attacking hard and fast, anyone
who
got within a foot of him died instantly.

I had just torn the head o
f
f another man when
I had a sickening thought. Where was Luke? Had they got
ten
to him? With all the commotion going on
would I
have heard him shout or scream
?
I was about to
run to
try and find him, w
hen something hit me in my back
.
I screamed out in pain. It hit me again and again, until Jackson jumped on my attacker.
I fell to the floor.
Everything started to go
hazy
, the room was spinning; although I fought against it, I started to change back to my human form. I could taste blood
and was now choking on it. My hearing was muffled, everything seemed to be echoing. I could hear Tristan shouting my name, gunshots, men’s screams; all of them becoming quieter and more distorted by the second. I couldn’t move, I tried and tried but to no avail. My vision was reduced to almost zero, everything was a jumbled mass of color...

I could hear Nancy’s
voice
but
couldn’t quite make out what she was saying. It was as
though
she
was
speaking to
me
while
I
was
under water.
I tried to open my eye
s
, but they felt so heavy, like I had ten ton weights hanging from each eyelid.

“Leticia come on sweet, open your eyes.” I heard her say, more clearly this time. “Come on, I’ve been waiting long enough, open them, you can do it.”

After a few minutes I managed to open them just enough to catch a glimpse of her.

“Keep trying, come on.” She took hold of my hand. “Please, please keep trying.”

Finally I managed to open them and
keep
them open.

“Welcome back
,
” she smiled.

“What...
what happened?”
I croaked.

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Erm
I don’t know
,
” I said, attempting to sit up a little.

“
H
ere, let me help you.”

She held on to m
e
while
I pushed myself further up the bed. It was when I looked around I
realize
d I wasn’t in my room, in fact, I didn't
recognize
the room at all.

“Where are we?” I asked, once comfortable.

She passed me a glass of water and sat beside me. “I’ll explain that later. Now, can you remember
anything
?”

“I remember talking with
you in the kitchen, having lunch... and that's it.”

“You don’t remember the attack?”

“
W
hat attack? When?”

I turned silent, trying to remember, but nothing came to me.

“Not long after
we’d had lunch
we were attacked, well actually, more like ambushed. I was in the kitchen with Tristan, quit
e
happy, deciding what to make for tea. You were with Jackson in the study, probably being all
loved up...
we heard gunshots...
windows smashing. The front door was pretty much blown of
f
its hinges and this...
this...
small army charged into the house. We fought, killed, transformed. Tristan ripped their heads off, literally, but no matter how many we seemed to take out, more would follow in their place
.”
She
described
the fight. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. How could I not remember all this? “The
next
thing I knew
,
” she continued
.
“You were on the floor, back in human form
and lay in pool of your own blood
. Jackson went
berserk;
I’ve never seen him fight like he did before. He killed more than any of us, but anyway
,
when they s
aw we could stand our ground...
they fled”

He
r
voice changed as she said the last sentence, and she looked away from me quickly. One thing was for sure
- s
he was lying to me.

“We grabbed you and
took
you upstairs. You were unconscious,
and blood covered more or less every inch of you...” she informed me
.

“What happened to me?”

“You’d been stabbed repeatedly with a
silver blade, and... injected
with liquid silver
.
”

I couldn’t speak, I was in too much shock.

“Tristan...
bit you, sucked as much of the silver out of you as he could. Then all we could do... was wait.”

“How long have
I
been out of it?”

She took a deep breath and held my hand. “You’ve been like this... for almost three weeks.”

“
W
h...
what?”

“Tristan thought you’d stay like that forever, but I knew you wouldn’t give up, you wouldn’t leave us so easily
,
”
s
he smiled
,
a tear
rolling down her cheek.

“Nancy, I don’t understand any of this, it’s not sinking in properly.”

“That’s understandable.”

“Where are we?”

“Maybe you should get some strength back before I tell you anymore.
”

“I don’t...”

“Let me make you something to eat then we can get you showered and talk some more.” She said without taking a breath and quickly exiting the room. I started to worry
even more
now;
she was uncomfortable and clearly upset. What else had happened?

After slowly getting off the bed, I made my way over to the window. We were still in the hills, I could see them stretching for miles, but everything else was different. Why were we here? I was still looking outside when Nancy returned.

“Here get these down you
.”
she said putting a plate of sandwiches on the bed. “
S
hout me when...”

“Oh no, don’t you go anywhere. You need to tell me what’s going on.”

“I just think you should wait until...”

“No, now Nancy, not knowing is making me feel worse.”

“
You
best sit down
,
” she waited for me to get comfortable again, and took a deep breath before speaking. “Leticia, Jackson had just picked you up and was about to carry you upstairs, when one of the men returned and threw something in the hall. There was an explosion... when I came too, half the house was missing.
We were all hurt, but you and...” she lost her voice.

“Nancy?”

“The explosive
thing
, whatever it was, it was packed with fragments of silver... and iron.”

“Iron?”

“Iron is as deadly to shifters a
s
silver is to a wolf.”

My heart
and stomach sank,
my mouth water
ed
and I feared
I
might vomit right there and then. “Where’s Jackson?” I panicked.

“Leticia,” she cried, tears running down her face.

“No, no he can’t be, he can’t...”

“He’s not dead
.
”

“Oh thank god
,
” I cried, putting my hand over my heart.

“But he’s...
he’s not with us...”

“They took him?”

“No I mean, well, why don’t I take you to him. You’ll see what I mean.”

I didn’t speak, I just sat there nodding.

Even though it was only a short distance to Jackson’s room, I was tired by the time we got there. It also became apparent that there was still silver running through my bloodstream. My bones ached, and my blood was burning. By the time I reached his room, I felt like I could have slept for another week.

Jackson was
lying
on the bed, under the duvet. He just looked like he was sleeping. It wasn’t until I got closer to him that I saw how pale he was. I sat on the bed beside him.