How?I can’t do anything!
Oh God, I’m going to drown!
Calm down.
Be like Paul.
Would Paul give in to the panic?
Embrace the brick wall.Don’t let these emotions overwhelm yours.
You are in command here.
That was right! I was the one in command. I was the empath. I let that idea burn bright in the forefront of my mind before tearing at the endless ticker tape of horrors. It rippled just like film would, and I stumbled forward only to fall head-first through the awful storm into something... into something I had no words for.
All I knew, as I was enveloped in this new reality, was that everything washing over me was both real, and very, very old. Formative emotions. The kind that shaped entire personalities.
That was where I saw the pleasant pink of light kisses, the soft, grassy greens of dreamy picnics in the park. They rolled by like waves, occasionally cut into by the dark umber of loss and defeat. I pushed those out of my way, delving deeper, and I saw a romance that spanned years, hundreds of little moments of stolen paradise and quiet affection.
But what did it all mean?
I had no idea, but just when I felt like I was reaching the center of the furor, I was thrown back, both metaphorically and literally. My back slammed into the hard floor as the world spun around me.
It took a wheeze punching out of my mouth to realize I was back in therealworld, and not some abstract landscape my powers had teleported my mind to. Too bad I didn’t realize that before the assassin was on me, reversing our earlier positions.
“H—” I started to say, but that was as far as I got before his hand wrapped around my throat. While I was normally down for a little light choking during sexytime, this was not a situation where it was welcome.
I punched at him, scratched his face, but he had no reaction. Despite me having been nearly completely overwhelmed and mindfucked by everything the assassin was feeling and had felt, now there was absolutely nothing coming from him. No expression, no look in his eyes, and not a single color filling the air around him.
Fucking uncanny.
It really was like he was a robot, or that someone wasforcinghim to be a robot. Was that a thing? Because I felt like it was definitely a thing!
The edges of my vision began to grow static as his hands squeezed tighter, so I tried going for his eyes again. Clearly, he’d learned from the first time, because he leaned out of my range without loosening the pressure on my throat.
So, this is how I go, huh?
For some reason I had assumed my death would involve pyrotechnics. Or perhaps an overdose of caffeine.
Still, I wasn’t wanting to give up, even when the odds were stacked against me, so I brought my legs up around his arm and squeezed with my thighs, using my own grip to attempt a sort of armbar that would work against his elbow joint.
It was about as successful as one would expect, but I tried with whatever strength I had left. Even as the world went darker, and darker, and darker...
“Cherry!”
Had I actually heard that? Or was it just my imagination? I had no idea, but what I did know was that suddenly the pressure on my neck was gone as two dark shapes took turns knocking the assassin back.
I sat up, coughing, tears streaming out my eyes. Two wolves—I was sure they were Chris and Paul—commanded the assassin’s attention. They didn’t falter until the giant of a man roared something. But then, the two other wolves that had fought even when everyone else had been immobilized joined in as well.
It was an impressive display, and one I knew to back away from. My interference had been a Hail Mary more than anything else, and if I wanted to survive, I needed to back off. It was a miracle I was alive, and I wasn’t about to press my luck.
Still, it was incredible to watch the four drive the assassin back, and I realized he actually needed the retreat. Relief flooded me, and for a moment, I thought we might be able to capturehim and find out who the hell had started this whole goddamn nightmare.
Pride did always come before a fall.
Just when I was sure that he was outnumbered, multiple bleeding wounds closing just to receive more from the four huge wolves working together and proving why packs were so lethal, the assassin pitched forward. Steam erupted from where he had been.
Before today, I’d only ever seen a handful of people shift, and all those instances had been in the market. Now though, I was now more than familiar with the process. So, I got what was happening and dived to the side in time for the biggest wolf I’d ever seen to go barreling past me and out an open door. The security there was still pressed to the ground in what I assumed was submission. His run was scattered and uneven, but that was probably because he only had three legs.