But the next second, he let go of me.
I heard the thumping sound as his head jerked forward, and I stepped back—right onto the dead body of the soldier. The half-shifted werewolf turned around to see who was behind him, who had hit him in the head like that…and I saw him, too.
Derek Dane, sporting a bright smile on his face.
“Hi,” he said to the growling werewolf, before he raised his bat—that same one with the spikes and chains he’d had with him in San Francisco. And he slammed it on the werewolf’s face. He must have put his back to it because the werewolf moved to the side instantly, giving me a clear view of the wraith who’d been shooting the machine gun…and Dominic holding him up by the neck so high even the shadows didn’t touch the container top.
My eyes were stuck on the way the shadows of the wraith crawled up Dominic’s arm as he gritted his teeth and growled, obviously in pain. Without really thinking, I turned around and moved to the side to get away from Derek and the werewolf, still fighting. I found the dead body of the ODP soldier, the one I’d stepped on just a minute ago, and I grabbed a gun from the holster strapped to his shoulders.Please be loaded, please be loaded,I chanted to myself, and aimed the gun at the wraith tormenting Dominic with his shadows that had reached all the way up to his shoulder. I aimed it at the wraith’s head that I couldn’t see at all through his shadows, and I shot the gun six times.
The shadows disappeared within a few seconds, leaving way for the body, whose neck was still in Dominic’s hand. The body of a man with his skull wide open, his brain on full display.
Bile rose in my throat again, and I looked away when Dominic let go of him and he fell on the container top.
“Teddy!” Derek called cheerfully from behind me, and I turned to see the werewolf was already down, his face smashed in completely, though his chest rose and fell still. Derek with his bat coated in blood right over his shoulder approached me, green eyes sparkling as if I was his favorite person in the world.
“Hey,” I said breathlessly, struggling to return the smile. I definitely didn’t feel like smiling right now.
“Get down there,” Dominic growled, and I turned to see he was on his knees, breathing heavily. I remembered what wraith shadows felt like perfectly—and it must have hurt him more than he let show, but he made it to his feet all the same.
His eyes never even met mine. He only turned to the front of the ship to see the soldiers and the men still fighting, but without the machine gun shooting Crackdown at the ODP soldiers from a distance, things had already changed.
I put my hands on my chest as I watched—the Chief himself head-butting a man, sending him to the floor before he pulled out his gun and shot him three times. More ODP soldiers were coming, these full of magic with nobody to shoot them with that drug.
“Sure thing, man,” Derek said, and with a wink at me, he ran and jumped off the edge of the container without hesitation.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, moving closer to the edge myself. The fight wasn’t over yet, and the soldiers still needed our help. But…I just needed a second to catch my breath.
“I heard about the fight,” Dominic said his voice low and dry, and now I didn’t want to look at him, either. I didn’t want to remember. “I came to help.”
“To help or to get your hands on that thing?” I eyed the modified machine gun. In the cartridge case, instead of bullets, there were tiny syringes coming in and out of it, and there were a lot more of them in the boxes next to the tripod holding the machine gun, enough to supply a few neighborhoods for a long time.
But Dominic finally turned to me, and it was impossible not to meet his eyes. Dark green and alive, vibrating with emotion. “I don’t need these anymore,” he said, then flinched, as if the sight of me disgusted him. My stomach twisted. “Stay safe.” And with his head up, he ran just like Derek had and disappeared behind the container’s edge.
My poor heart kept squeezing, but I didn’t let myself lose control. Nothing was over yet. So what that he flinched at the sight of me? It didn’t matter. I’d already made my choice that morning. Everything between us was already done.
I made my way to the front of the containers before I jumped straight into the fight again and began shooting the remaining bullets of that dead soldier’s gun. They didn’t need my help, though. Out of all the people who’d been on that ship, only about ten remained, and there were more than enough ODP soldiers to handle them. Still, it was something to do, and shooting from a distance was fun. I shot another two men before I ran out of bullets, then I threw the gun to the floor and sighed.
What a night. What a mess. All this blood, all those bodies…I held my breath until my eyes found all my friends, as well as the Chief and the Dane brothers, and I saw that they were all standing. All of them alive.
There. My firstrealmission. It was over. We’d won.
And even if I didn’t feel it right now, I was more proud of myself than ever before.
ChapterNineteen
I lookedat the side mirror of the ambulance van for at least two minutes, but I still couldn’t believe what the reflection told me. I narrowed my brows and went closer and closer until I touched it with the tip of my nose. The reflection still didn’t change. Huh.
“It’s not so bad, is it?” I wondered.
“Well…” Hunter said, releasing a long breath. “I mean you’re notpinkanymore, so…”
I flinched—just like Dominic had at the sight of me on that ship. Because I wasn’tpinkanymore, just like Hunter said. All the pink—all of it—was gone. My hair was white. I don’t meanblonde,I mean Daenerys Targrayan white. My eyes were white, too. Completely white—not a hint of color in them. And my eyebrows, and skin…oh, God. Itwasbad!
“Hey, now, don’t freak out,” Hunter said, raising his hands as if to protect himself when I turned away from the van. “It’s okay. You look kinda cool. Really. You do.”
“I lookdead!” I pointed at my face. “If zombies were real, I’d beit!”
“It’s not so bad,” Hunter tried again, putting his hands on my shoulders. “I promise, it’s not bad. You look like an ice queen—like Elsa. You know, with the weird magic ice castle shit.”