“What’s that?” I shouted over the trumpeting wail.
Dillan grimaced. “The Manticore.”
I stood still, shocked for a second, then took off. Dillan grabbed my arm and yanked me back.
“Urgh! Dillan? Kyle’s running into that thing! Let me go!”
“In case you’re forgetting, that thing is after you.”
I twisted out of his grip and ran full tilt toward the sound on the other side of the hill. He cursed a blue streak behind me. I didn’t check to see if he followed. I knew he would. My main focus currently involved how to get Kyle away from the man-eating thing.
Adrenaline-laced blood roared in my ears, muffling the voice that asked me to turn and run. It annoyed me to no end. At Valley View it asked me to fight; now it wanted me to run? I was no coward.
At the top of the hill, I had a clear view of nothing but grass. A solitary pine in the distance, then more grass. The growling had stopped.
I turned to the left. “Kyle!”
I scrambled down the hill toward him. I didn’t care where the creature was. Kyle needed my help. He lay on this stomach, unconscious. I skidded to a stop beside him and knelt down. Breathing hard, I couldn’t get my brain to work properly. All the First-Aid training I’d learned in school went out the window. My hands hovered over his back without really touching him.
Dillan knelt beside me, feeling for a pulse on Kyle’s neck.
“Is he…” I couldn’t say it. The word refused to come out of my mouth.
“He’s alive,” he said.
I didn’t like the harshness in his tone. My heart in my throat, I asked, “But?”
“Help me turn him over.” He grabbed Kyle by the shoulders while I held on to his legs. In one quick heave, we flipped him over.
“Oh, God.” My hands covered my mouth so I wouldn’t scream.
Four diagonal claw marks ran from his left shoulder to his right hip, like a large cat had swiped a paw at him. He bled, soaking his tattered shirt and jeans. His skin had turned ashen.
Dillan removed his jacket and bunched it into a rough pillow, then placed it under Kyle’s head. “He needs healing.”
I flashed him a quick glare for stating the obvious. To argue with him wouldn’t help Kyle, so I tamped down the temper and worry twisting my insides and focused on the more important stuff.
“Can’t you—”
“His wounds are too deep,” he interrupted.
I worried my lip to keep from screaming my frustration. “You’ve got to do something.”
“I will…but you have to promise not to freak out.”
“Why would I—”
“Selena?” The voice, silky smooth, sent goose bumps through my body.
At the edge of my field of vision stood the one person I didn’t expect to be in that prairie with us. I slowly turned my head, lips parting in amazement and mounting fear. It couldn’t be.
“Bowen?” My tongue felt thick in my mouth.
He stood a few yards away. Completely naked. Oh. My. God. “You’re here.”
Dillan spoke before I could answer Bowen. “Selena, I need you to get out of here.”
My heart felt like a fist knocking on my chest. Every beat hurt. Every breath a struggle. My head groped for reasons to explain why Bowen was here of all places.
“Don’t tell her what to do.” Bowen cracked his knuckles. “Or you’ll end up just like Hilliard over there.”
The mention of Kyle’s last name snapped me back. I focused on Bowen’s face. “Why are you naked?”
He smirked. “Like what you see?”
I stifled the urge to shake my head. Built like a Greek god, nothing about Bowen’s body was ugly. I’d seen him in the pool enough times to know. But I was beyond staring at him. I put the pieces together. I trembled to my core when I realized what Bowen being naked meant to Kyle’s injuries.
I had to force the words out of my mouth. “Did you do this to Kyle?”
His coffee-colored eyes barely glanced at Kyle. A cruelty I’d never seen before crept into his face. “You’re coming with me.”
Dillan tensed at my side, a tiger ready to leap.
Cold sweat trickled down my back. Forcing myself to keep calm, I said, “I can’t right now. I have to help Kyle.”
“I don’t care about Kyle. You’re coming with me.”
“No, she’s not,” Dillan said.
“Dillan. Don’t.” I touched his rigid forearm.
“Enough.” Bowen grimaced. “If you don’t want to give her to me, I’ll just take her from you, Illumenari.”
A gust of wind forced me to look away, but I glanced back after a series of pop, pop, pop.
Bowen’s body contorted. He doubled over on his hands and knees. His arms and legs morphed into the front and hind legs of a large cat. Golden fur grew out of his skin. His sun-kissed hair formed a full mane around his head. A long tail lashed out from behind him, thudding on the ground. I couldn’t blink even if I wanted to. My eyeballs were dry, but I continued to stare anyway. His head remained human except for his mouth where three rows of jagged teeth dripped saliva. The boy I’d known for years transformed into something that shouldn’t even be real.
“Manticore.” Kyle shuddered.
I tore my eyes away from Bowen to look at my best friend. “Hey, you,” I whispered. “Stay with me, okay. Everything’s gonna be fine.” My smile broke before it could fully form.
He raised a trembling hand and I took it in both of mine. “I’m sorry,” he whispered back.
“For what?”
“Not telling you.” He coughed then fainted.
“Kyle?” I patted his cheek. “Kyle? Open your eyes. Please, please open your eyes. Don’t you dare die.”
“She’s coming with me,” Bowen said in a trumpet-like voice. I looked up from Kyle’s increasingly pale face. His scorpion tail aimed threateningly at Dillan. Long needles stuck out from its tip, dripping with a sticky, purplish substance.
In my worry over Kyle, I hadn’t noticed Dillan move. Now he was standing between Bowen and me. Sword in his right hand. Stance wide. Shoulders squared.
“Bowen.” My voice shook more than I thought it would. “Why are you doing this?”
“The Maestro wants you.” He licked drool off his lips.
“What about the dogs?” Dillan hissed out.
Bowen’s face crumpled into a bizarre reproduction of a frown. “A diversion. To keep everyone in town occupied.”
Dillan charged Bowen. The creature roared and jumped aside to avoid the incoming blow from his sword. Dillan took the momentum of his charge and used it to dodge the spiked tail coming at him. Then he sidestepped a swipe from massive paws with razor-sharp claws. They moved so fast, all I could do was watch. All this time Bowen worked for the Maestro. I couldn’t believe it.
“You gonna wipe the grin off my face now?” Dillan taunted.
Three rows of jagged teeth snapped at his head. I gasped. He ducked and lunged forward, landing a blow on Bowen’s left shoulder. Black blood oozed out of the wound, but Bowen stood as if he felt no pain.
“The last thing you’ll feel is my teeth squeezing your head like a zit.” He snapped his mouth. He brought his tail around and shot poison needles aimed at Dillan’s chest.
Dillan tucked and rolled, only evading half of the volley. Six needles embedded themselves along his arm. He grimaced, and a small scream escaped my throat before I clamped my mouth shut. In the movies, bad things always happened to the guy when the girl couldn’t keep her mouth shut or stay put. I reminded myself that as he struggled to his feet. With preternatural quickness, he circled Bowen and lopped off the tip of his tail. It bounced a few feet away. Bowen screeched and bounded over to Dillan. He stood on his hind legs while his front paws struck out like a lion ready to collide with another head on. Dillan took the opening Bowen provided and lunged forward. He plunged his blade deep into the creature’s chest.