Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“I’ve got this,” she murmurs, stroking my nose again with her soft, soft hands. “Trust me, all right?”
I do trust her. You are the only one I trust.
I know. Now trust me a bit more and change to human form so I can help you and we can hide. Her eyes are deep pools of the warmest, most caring shade of brown I have ever seen. I lose myself in them once more, and it is only the gentle tap of her fingers that reminds me of what she wants.
Trust her. Change to my more vulnerable form. Yes, I will. I set her down carefully onto the ground and make sure she is comfortable before I give in. The shift to two-legged form—human form—is instantaneous, but this time, with it comes an intense wave of pain that moves up my back and shoots through my limbs.
I groan and collapse.
15
EMMA
I never thought I’d be so relieved to see Zohr pass out.
The last few hours have been straight-up hell. He’s completely snapped. No matter how many times I called his name, he wouldn’t answer. It’s like he’s lost inside his own thoughts and can’t pull himself free. Constantly growling and snarling and wild-eyed, I feared he’d squeeze too hard and kill me. Or drop me. Or anything, really. He’s bigger than a city bus and he could crush me easily. But he’s never once hurt me, and eventually my fear fell away to tears of frustration. How do I get through to someone that’s mindless? Even with a mental connection, there’s no way to reach him.
In the pre-dawn hours, he starts to stagger through the streets, and that’s when I realize just how much blood he’s losing. My fear over my own safety changes to fear for him. He’s risking his life to save me, and I can’t let him die. When he pauses with exhaustion, I’m finally able to connect to him.
When he changes to his human form, his eyes roll back in his head and he slumps to the ground. I panic as he topples forward, and it’s only when I see the messy ribbons of flesh that make up his back that I realize he’s not much better off in this form. I was hoping that transforming would make his bleeding stop, but maybe not so much. I hastily rip off my shirt—from two to zero tonight—and dab at his wounds, trying to stop the bleeding.
I need to get him somewhere safe. I don’t know if Azar’s men are following us, and I don’t know how long Zohr will be in his right mind, but I need to do something. I’m not the kind to sit around and wring my hands. Jack taught me how to take care of myself, and now I can use what I’ve learned to help someone else.
But first, safety.
I press the fabric of my shirt onto Zohr’s wounds as gently as I can, doing my best to stave off the worst of the bleeding. It looks like it’s slowing, which is good. I slip my jeans off and then put my boots back on. Another thing that Jack taught me? How to move a heavy object. I’m never going to be the strongest person in the room, and he helped me realize early on that it didn’t matter. I just need to be the smartest. I lay my jeans down horizontally and roll Zohr onto his back, on the waist and thighs of my jeans. I have to ignore his groan of pain, even though it kills me. I don’t have a choice. I’m sorry, Zohr, I send to him even as I knot each leg to make a handle and then use them to drag him along down the street.
To my frustration, the fabric starts to tear—Zohr’s heavier than I’d hoped. I glance around, scanning the streets of the Scavenge Lands. I don’t know where we’re at after hours of Zohr’s wild racing and mad stomping. We could be in Oklahoma for all I know. The buildings are thinning out, which tells me we’re out of the worst cluster of downtown, and in the distance, past trees and broken buildings, I can see regular little triangular roofs. Toward the suburbs, maybe. Those don’t interest me as much as the buildings around us. I scan them, hoping for something useful. Old restaurants and salons in a nearby strip mall don’t hold my interest—I’ve learned from experience that those won’t have much of anything good in them. A bit farther down, there’s a pharmacy that looks like it’s been completely raided. I head toward it, and as I do, I see the remnants of an old hardware store sign off in the distance.
Jackpot.
I drag poor Zohr over to a sheltered spot between two long-crashed cars and nestle him there, out of the way of anyone’s view. I don’t like leaving him alone, but I’m not going to get him very far if my jeans rip. I jog to the hardware store and race through the broken shelves and scattered contents. Some of the good stuff’s been taken, but there’s still enough for me to be happy with. I grab a hammer off an endcap to use as a weapon, tuck it into my belt, and then head to the garden department.