"I thought you said there weren't any fucking wolves in Germany!" Evalynn hissed in my ear.
"I said there was 120!" I snapped back.
We were currently up in a tree with Tony and David rested securely in branches high above us.
Wolves were currently on their way to the tree, being drawn to the scent of David's blood pouring out of his leg.
"I"m gonna go see how close they are." I whispered.
"Be careful," She gave my shoulder a squeeze, and then turned around to make sure Tony and David were still safe in the tree.
I slid down the tree trunk, and landed on my hands and knees. As soon as I landed on the ground, I knew I had made a huge mistake. They were close-really close.
Fear paralyzed my muscles, and suddenly I could no longer feel the vibrations through out the earth. I was unrationally afraid, but then again, this wasn't a controlled clone with a gun; this was a pack of wild, unpredictable animals complete with sharp teeth and claws.
And I had never fought something like this before.
Eyes widening, pulse quickening, my eyes flicked all around before landing on a dark shape, roughly fifty feet away. My breath caught in my throat, and my mouth went dry as I tried to make out the shape under the cloudy sky and shadows of the trees. The dark shadow moved and turned to face me. It became all the harder to try and get back up in the tree, when two pairs of green glowing eyes met mine.
"Diamond?" Evalynn called down. "How close are they?"
"Eva." My mouth moved but no sound came out. "Eva." My heart was pounding in my mouth, my tongue feeling like lead.
More glowing eyes joined the one pair. One, turned to two, which turned to three and then there were so many glowing eyes I lost count.
"Diamond?" Evalynn called out sharply. "Diamond! What do you think you're doing? Get up here!"
I wrenched my stiff muscles off the gound, and placed my hands on the trunk, ready to climb, but immediately froze again as a low growl met my ears.
I cautiously turned my head, just in time to see one of the wolves break free from the pack and begin running toward me. Anyone else would have had the sense to climb back up the tree, but when I get scared, I tense up and freeze. So that's exactly what I did.
I squeezed my eyes shut, ready for the blow, and within a fraction of a second I felt it; only it came from the wrong direction. I was roughly tackled to the ground, and a split second later there was another thud as the wolf ran full force into the tree.
The dark blur that knocked me over, spun back around and smashed something thick and heavy down onto the wolf's back. The wolf's spine snapped with a sickening crunch, and it collasped heavily on the ground. Derek's face appeared above mine. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? What the hell was the matter with you, why didn't you move?"
"Scared." I gasped. "How'd you move so fast?"
A muscle twitched in Derek's jaw. "Tony isn't losing you again. Get up in the damn tree, and stay there."
***Skylar's POV
You would think I would be afraid. Of the wolves. For my friends lives. For Jamie's life. You would think I would be happy. Happy that we survived. Happy that Evie was okay. You would think I would be feeling some sort of emotion, any emotion. But I wasn't; I felt numb.
After Derek saved Diamond from the wolf, and sent her back up in the tree, Evie took Jamie and stayed up there to be with David and the others.
Everyone else stayed down to fight off the wolves.
Harry covered his arms and legs in spiky icicles and quickly formed a long, thick one in his hands. Evalynn jumped out of the tree, her arms in her fighting stance. I held out my sword that Harry had recovered for me, and out of the corner of my eye, I realized both Derek and Thomas were unarmed.
"Need a weapon?" I offered Derek my sword, but he refused with a grin.
"Nah, Skylark. I got this."
He raised his hands above his head, and slowly squeezed his hands into fists. A loud snapping sound filled my ears, and two thick branches flew into his hands. He handed one to Thomas and held his several feet in front of him with his powers.
"When did you learn to use your element?" I asked, surprised. I had never seen Derek use in element before.
He gave me a sideways grin, the very one that had reeled me in at the homecoming dance. "I've been practicing."
I simply shrugged, and glanced around at everyone else, ready to fight the slowly advancing pack of wolves. "Everybody ready?"
Derek sent his branch flying through the shadowed forest. There was a yelp, a snarl and a thud as a wolf body hit the ground. The branch came back and and landed in Derek's hand with a satisfying smack. The tip had obviously been sharpened on its trip to the wolf, and it was soaked with blood and fur. He gave me a wicked grin. "Hell yeah."
"Okay, guys." Thomas brandished his thick branch. "We gotta keep the wolves away from the tree they're in, okay? The smell of blood up there will just make them all the worse, got it?"
"Skylar?" Diamond called down from the tree. "Can you come up here please?"
"I'm about to kick some wolf ass, Di, can it wait?"
"No, it can't."
"Diamond," I sighed angrily, holding my sword out in front of me, ready to follow Derek, Evalynn and Thomas into the woods to keep the wolves at bay.
"It's Jamie...he's asking for you."
I froze after two steps, and glanced over at Harry who was next to me.
"Go," He jerked his head back toward the tree. "But give me your sword. Thomas will need some better protection"
I tossed Harry my sword, and turned to go, but I heard metal clatter to the ground and in an instant I was wrapped up in Harry's arms. The ice covering his arms made my back achingly cold, but I didn't care one bit. I buried my face into his chest, and let out a shaky breath.
"He never loved me." I mumbled into his chest.
"I know, Sky."
"You always loved me. Right?"
"More than anything." Harry pressed his cold lips to the top of my head.
I pulled back a little, and looked up into his caramel brown eyes. He ducked his head a little, and I brushed the little curls on the top of his head to the side. "Harry?"
"Yeah, Sky?"
"Yes." Then I gave him a quick kiss on his lips, and scaled my way up the tree.
***Derek's POV
Fucking hell, they were everywhere. Sure, playing baseball with a couple wolves and a tree branch roughly the size of David was fun. Really fun. But it was also kind of hard, because I had to cover Thomas' back as well.
Eventually Harry joined us, throwing Thomas Skylar's sword. He assured me Skylar was fine, and then proceeded to nail a wolf to a tree with a huge icicle.
"Badass," I grinned at him, smashing another wolf back.
He grinned back at me. "Badass." He agreed. He thrust his icicle covered arm back, and caught a wolf directly in the heart. He grimaced as blood dripped onto his arm, and he shook the wolf off. "By the way, Der." Harry grunted as he thrust another long icicle into a wolf's side. He shot me a wicked grin. "She said yes."
***Skylar's POV
"Jamie?" I slowly climbed up onto the branch he was lying on. Diamond was holding him, making sure he wasn't going to fall out of the tree.
"Skylar.." His voice was raspy, and my heart lurched in my chest. He looked terrible. "Skylar, I-" He was aruptly cut off as started coughing. Blood dripped out of his mouth, and before I knew it, I was pulling him out of Diamond's arms and into mine.
"Oh, god, Jamie." My voice hitched in my throat, as Diamond climbed down branches to be with Tony.
Jamie grabbed my hand with his blood covered one. "I'm dying, Skylar." He whispered weakly.
"No," I said firmly. "No, you are not. I won't allow it."
"Skylar, stop, just listen to me."
"But, Jamie-"
"Skylar, please."
"What?"
"I lied."
"Yeah, I know that, why are you telling me again?" I said, suddenly bitter.
"No, I mean I lied about lying."
My heart skipped a beat. "What?"
"I lied about pretending to be in love with you."
"What?" I wasn't sure whether or not to be angry or relieved. "Why?" I sputtered, not trying to sound angry.
"Because," Jamie coughed weakly again. "You have to be with him."
"Wha- With Harry?"
"Yeah, you have to be with him. Your children." Jamie let out a very shaky breath. "Your children are going to be very important someday. You have to be with him."
"I told him yes, Jamie. I'm going to marry Harry."
A faint smile flickered over Jamie's face, his eyes half-closed. "Good." His word came out as a weak breath.
Before I could reply, a snarling came from down around the tree. I glanced down to see four wolves circling the tree.
"Shit," I muttered. "I'll be right back, Jamie. Stay awake, okay?" I demanded. He simply nodded.
I jumped down out of the tree, and landed directly on one of the wolves backs. The wolf collapsed with a crunch.
"Skylar, what the hell are you doing?!" Evie yelled down at me. "You don't have a weapon!"
"I don't need one!" I grunted. I found the water inside a wolf's body and used it to slam the wolf directly into a tree. As the other one advanced, I picked up the branch Thomas had abandoned and swung it with all my might at a wolf's head. Hot blood spattered onto my arms, clothes and face. The branch had snapped when it smashed the wolf's head, and I was left with half a foot of splintered wood, and one wolf left.
I took a step back to gain more ground to throw the final wolf by the water in him, but I tripped over a root. My head slammed into the ground, and for a few seconds my vision went black. C'mon, I yelled at myself. Concentrate!
My head felt like it was split in half, and I couldn't see straight. I could sense the wolf walking closer to me. The low snarling was getting louder, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. My arms wouldn't obey me, and my world kept spinning.
"Skylar!" I heard Evie shout, her voice pure terror. "Skylar, move please! Do something!"
Sit up, sit up, sit up. Using all my will power, I managed to sit up, causing everything to spin even more. I could vaguely see the wolf crouching low, ready to pounce on top of me.
"Skylar, please! Do something!" Evie sobbed from up in the tree.
Everything that happened next, seemed to happen in a single second. The wolf pounced. A tree branch above me rustled. Somebody tumbled out of the tree right as the wolf jumped, and landed right in the wolf's jaws.
It was Jamie.