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When I opened my eyes, I was staring up at the night sky. Everything was so silent, that I wondered if I had died.
Then I felt heard someone groan. I sat up and wiped my face when I felt something tickling my cheeks.
When I pulled my hand away, it was smeared in blood. I looked around and expected carnage. I expected to see the entire town was laid flat and I was the only survivor.
Instead, the first thing I saw was the man collapsed at Eli's feet, with the muzzle of the gun buried in his own throat.
That's where the blood came from, as I looked down at my blouse, ruined by that man's blood. Eli had received the worst of it and he was panting and looked like he had just seen a ghost. His green eyes, a mirror of my own, were wide and his face was bloodless. When he raised his hands to his face, to wipe away the blood dripping from his nose, eyelashes, and lips, they shook.
I looked around at the people gathered and they were in various stages of standing up themselves. But, other than the man that had Eli shoved against the wall, no one was hurt. Somehow, it seemed like even Marcus had escaped the blood spray.
Marcus stood there and stared down at the body of the man that had just threatened all of us. Then he placed his gun in his holster and took three steps away from the man's body.
Of all the townspeople, the only one still standing was Artie. He also appeared speechless, like what he had just witnessed was something that he would never be able to put into words.
Then my eyes settled on Dante, who was also struggling to stand. There was a flash of worry between us as we turned to the spot where Lou had been standing.
He was gone.
Marcus, Dante, Artie, and I all looked around for him but there was no trace of Lou. From down the street, I heard people running for us. I could smell the cinder bullets in their guns and started pulling people to their feet.
"Go. Run. Head for the forest, don't come until one of us comes for you," I ordered.
It was Mrs. Martinez who gripped my hand and did not let go. She was a witch and one with considerable power. Even now, I knew that she knew what Lou was. Instead of asking questions about him she met my eyes.
"And what if one of you doesn't come for us?" She asked.
That wasn't her real question. I could hear what she was asking underneath those words.
What if you die? Who is to protect us and our spring then?
"It is as it always was. If we don't come for you, don't come out," I said.
Her expression was grim but she nodded anyway. She fled with the last of them. That left Marcus, Dante, Eli, Artie, and myself to face the dozens of Ascendancy guards that were headed straight for us.
Marcus stood beside me and pulled his gun out once more. "I knew it would be these bastards that would ruin our town," he muttered.
I heard him flip the safety off his gun as he took aim. "We can't let them ruin any more than they have," I said.
Marcus looked over at me. When I met his eyes, I wondered what we could have had. I wondered if he had been able to work through his issues and asked the questions that he wanted to know if we could have been good together.
But there are too many what ifs and could-have-beens to risk going down that road.
As they came within earshot, Artie cried out, “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry! I thought they were going to kill him!"
My attention was pulled away from the Ascendancy and I understood what he was doing. He was pulling the attention away from Lou, or the fact that he wasn't with us. He was still trying to cover for Lou, even though it was too obvious what was going on.
Obvious to me, anyway. Then, I realized what else he was doing.
Like Eli, he was putting himself on the chopping block. He was making himself bait.
"Don't –" I started.
But it was too late. They heard him and they knew that that sort of magic and that sort of savagery could only have come from the person that the magic chose.
"What are you doing?" Eli demanded.
Too many things were happening at once. Marcus was shooting and one guard reached for me and I picked him up and threw him at the wall Eli was pressed up against just moments earlier.
There was more power now, and I could feel it. It was mine for the taking.
It was intoxicating.
I had to pull myself back from that option, mentally. Now was not the time to test those limits. Seeing what was happening to Lou was enough of a warning.
That and the man with the gun shoved through his throat.
"Eli, take him and Dante. Go home!" I ordered.
Eli hesitated, looked between the people coming closer and weighing his options of protecting Artie and helping me. As two more guards reached for me and Marcus pulled out his baton, he hesitated and one guard got too close to Artie. Dante was there in a flash and I saw him grab one man and hurl him.
It would've been funny, cartoonish even when the man landed almost at the end of the block.
"Now!" I screamed, putting all the alpha order I could behind it and then Eli was gone. Artie was in his arms and Dante was being jerked along as well.
Someone tackled Marcus and after that, it became a blur of teeth and bullets and knives and claws and blood. There was so much blood.
But there was only one of me and dozens and dozens of them.
When they finally were able to hold me, Savannah showed up. They shoved me to my knees and I looked up at her. She didn't say a word and I thought she looked sad. Then they took out the chains, created just for alphas, and cuffed me.
Without a word, I was jerked to my feet once more and taken with them.
I glanced over my shoulder and I saw Marcus, laying in the middle of the street.
They left him there, bloody and unmoving.