N. Walters - Alexandra's Legacy

She also wished she had her grimy sweatshirt to pull on. But that was back in the wrecked truck, rolled up in a paper bag with the rest of their belongings. She hadn’t even noticed the bag when she’d crawled out of the truck. Obviously, it had gotten tossed somewhere during the accident. No matter where it was, there was no going back for it now.

Alex ignored his questioning stare as she carefully cut away the short sleeve of his shirt. She folded several of the strips she’d cut in to thick pads, placing one at the entry point of the wound and the other at the exit. She then used several more strips to wrap his shoulder, hoping this would stem, if not stop the bleeding. When she was done, she hauled her leather jacket on over her bra. “You should wear your jacket.”

He shook his head as he used the windbreaker to clean most of the blood from his arm. “I’m going to use it to try to lead them away from us.” His eyes softened as he cupped her jaw in his hand. “Thank you, Alex.” His thumb stroked her bottom lip before he pulled away and gathered his hunting knife, placing it safely back into his boot. He picked up his handgun and nodded. He was ready to go.

Alex grabbed her gun and checked her knives, which were still safely tucked in her boots. Joshua was already moving, but she stared down at the long broken arrow that lay discarded on the ground. The arrow was tipped in silver, which was deathly poison to werewolves. They’d meant to kill him and had come close. She could not allow that to happen. Tightening her grip on the cold metal in her hand, she decided then and there she would have to be more vigilant. He was prepared to protect her with his life. She could do no less for him.

They walked for about fifteen minutes, when he stopped and crouched beside a birch tree that had fallen in some storm. Using his hand, he scooped away some of the soft ground around the base and partially buried his windbreaker. As he stood, he swiped his dirty hand over the leg of his jeans. Then he had them backtrack for several yards before he led her off in another direction, telling her to make her steps as far apart as possible.

Time moved onward. She wasn’t sure how long they’d been walking, but it must have been at least an hour. Joshua was very careful. Every now and then he’d stop and listen. Neither of them spoke, both of them conserving their energy in case they had to run or fight. She ignored the worried glances that Joshua kept giving her and tried to look energetic and alert whenever she felt his eyes on her. But it wasn’t easy.

Every ache and pain in her body was making itself known. She felt as if she was one big throbbing mass. Her face hurt and her head was pounding. The muscles in her legs burned with the unfamiliar exercise and her feet hurt. She imagined she had more than one blister on each foot. Her boots had not been made with this kind of activity in mind, plus they were fairly new and not quite broken in yet. After spending all day yesterday walking, her feet were beginning to complain.

The gun in her hand was beginning to feel as if it weighed a ton and she kept flexing her arm, trying to relieve the strain. She wasn’t willing to tuck it away any longer. Their enemies were too close for her to risk it.

All she wanted to do was to lie down in the dirt and sleep. Right now, she could probably sleep standing up. Every now and then her eyes would start to drift shut and she’d have to jerk herself awake. She figured it was her head injury making her tired. She probably had a mild concussion, but there was no time to worry over that minor detail. They had much bigger problems chasing them through the woods.

Joshua held up his hand and she almost plowed into him before she could stop. She curled her fingers into the back of his shirt and held on for a moment, longing to just snuggle against him and rest. Grabbing her arm, he pulled her low, practically shoving her behind the trunk of an oak.

He held up two fingers and pointed off to their right and then one finger and pointed to the left. Gripping her right hand, he pointed her gun with its silver bullets toward the left. Werewolves. She knew then it wasn’t the bounty hunters who had found them.

Joshua then pointed two fingers straight ahead and shook his head. So it wasn’t just werewolves, but bounty hunters as well. She nodded so he’d know she understood. His dark eyes were fathomless as he leaned forward and dropped a quick, hard kiss on her lips before disappearing into the forest around them. One moment he was there, the next she was alone.

Cold sweat broke out on her body as fear filled her belly. She knew he was going out there to fight them, possibly even to draw them away from her. If she’d have known his intent, she could have stopped him.

No , she honestly told herself. She couldn’t have. The look in his eyes had told her that nothing could stop him. Not until all their enemies had been eliminated.

She shivered beneath the leather jacket, suddenly chilled to her bones. Only two days ago, she’d had no idea this world existed. Now she’d been plunged into the middle of a war that had apparently been ongoing for quite some time. Right now, she longed for her old life with its predictable, if slightly boring, routine. She wanted to work alongside her father at the garage and drink in his familiar, comfortable presence. She wanted to curl up in her living room and read a book while she sipped a huge mug of coffee or wander out onto the street and shoot the breeze with Divine.

But that was over. She knew those days would never return. All she had now was the life ahead of her and that included Joshua. She grasped her weapon more firmly and risked a glance around the tree trunk. A rustling sound came from ahead of her. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Her arm was steady as she extended it in front of her. Time seemed to slow down as the wait became unending. Her fingers flexed as she heard the faint sound again.

She blinked away the sting from a bead of sweat, not willing to move to wipe her eyes.

It got closer.

And closer.

Her finger caressed the trigger.

A small furry animal burst from beneath a pile of leaves and scurried across the ground in front of her.

Alex sucked in a breath and dropped her chin down to her chest. Her heart was pounding and she had the sudden urge to laugh. She could just imagine how she looked, the fearless hunter facing down a killer squirrel.

Swiping her free hand across her face, she shook herself.

She got no warning at all, but suddenly she knew there was someone, or something behind her. Instinct? Or maybe she felt the subtle shift in the air? Whatever it was, Alex suddenly threw herself to the right as she turned. A huge gray wolf was already airborne as she fell to the ground, raised her arm and fired off several quick shots.

The large animal yelped and jerked in midair before its heavy weight came tumbling down on top of her. All she could see was a huge muzzle with large teeth coming toward her. She fired again, but the wolf kept on coming.

The impact knocked the air out of her lungs. Frantic, she dropped the gun and shoved at the animal’s head. It took her a second to realize it wasn’t moving. It was dead. She’d killed it. Him. It.

She shook her head and tried to clear her vision. The impact with the wolf hadn’t helped her already battered body, but she knew she couldn’t stay like this. There were more of them out there and she was vulnerable just lying here.

Arm muscles straining, Alex thrust the animal’s head away and then concentrated on moving the heavy body off of her, but it took some doing. This was no regular-sized wolf and it was a deadweight. She half-pushed, half-squirmed out from beneath it, flopping onto the ground beside it to catch her breath.