The Jump

LORELAI

“We should stop,” I said breathily as Kai’s mouth traced down the lines of my neck. Kai nodded, grunting as he ground his hips against me.

“Seriously, Kai, we have to get out of here,” I said before meeting his mouth, kissing him as feverishly as he kissed me.

I was making no move to stop either. My body was on fire, begging me to sate it, begging me to rip Kai’s clothes off, to mate. I wanted to give in so badly.

The taste of him was intoxicating; it had my head spinning, and I was lost in it.

I moaned against his tongue as he palmed my breasts.

“One more kiss,” he mouthed against me. I knew he didn’t mean it by the way he dragged his hand down my body, squeezing my ass as I rocked against his hard cock that was pressing against my center.

“Just one,” I gasped out, my whispers in the silence making the noises harsher than I intended.

“Or two,” he said, kissing me again.

“We have to get out of here,” I said, running my fingers through his dark hair, my fingers getting caught in the knots. I yanked, and he growled, nipping at my lip with his sharp teeth.

“In a minute,” he said, starting to tug at my clothes.

The heat flared, and I whimpered against him. It was so damn strong—stronger than I had expected, as strong as they had warned me it would be.

“Kai,” I moaned.

Kai pulled back, taking a deep, heavy breath before bringing his eyes up to look at mine.

He was shaking, sweat beading on his forehead.

“I have to get you out of here,” he let out through a clenched jaw.

I breathed hard, my chest rising and falling with an aggression I felt in my soul.

I wanted to touch him again, to have his body against mine. But instead of closing the gap between us, he took another step back.

“Start walking before I rip your clothes off,” Kai growled, shaking as his fists clenched.

I let out a breath and leaned against the wall.

I knew I should be rushing; I should be so damn ready to get out of the hell Silas had put me in. But all my stupid heat-filled brain could think about was how deep Kai’s voice was, how masculine his muscles looked, how low the pants on his hips hung.

“If I risk a step right now, I don’t know what direction I’ll take,” I said, still breathing heavily. And it was the truth. I didn’t feel in control of my body. The heat was.

My shadows were still stretched out of my body, lining our way to the exit they had found. They were more urgent than I was, hissing at me, trying to pull me where I needed to go. But Kai’s mating link was brighter.

My magic swirled inside me. It wasn’t angry; it wasn’t lustful; it was hungry. And its only focus was the vampires at the front of the castle. My magic wanted them, wanted to consume them, take them down. I wanted to take Kai down.

All three parts of me were conflicting, and it was confusing the fuck out of me. I couldn’t think, breathe, or move, and I knew I had to do all three—and fast—or we were definitely going to die.

~“Close your eyes, beautiful. Concentrate on your shadows; they’ll lead you out. Concentrate on your magic; it’ll tell you when the vamps are close. Use those senses, not the ones that let Kai in,”~ Derik said in my head.

His warmth and comfort filled me as much as his panic did. He needed me. He was losing it, but he was Derik; he would never show it. And he was hiding it as much as he could. I felt it, though, and it was enough to break through the clusterfuck that was happening inside my head.

I did what he said.

I calmed the hell down, made myself concentrate on the power inside me and what they wanted, rather than what I wanted.

Derik was right.

Everything was clearer the longer I connected to my shadows, detaching from myself. I shook with the exertion it took to ignore the heat, but it was worth it because I could step forward—in the right direction.

“Follow me,” I whispered, then used my magic as a vamp detector and followed my shadows.

“Oh sure, you get nice words of encouragement from D, and I get an ear bashing from Brax,” Kai rolled his eyes. I smirked at him. Sometimes being the favorite had its perks.

Or they just knew me well enough not to send Brax in guns blazing when I was fucked up with the heat. Our shadows would connect; the challenge in him ordering me around would set in, and I’d be a goner. It was tempting but stupid.

~“Exactly, beautiful, now get out of there. Adrenna and the beast can’t distract them forever, and I need you out of there before I remember the wolf in me is the most starved one you’ll meet,”~ Derik said, his voice breathy in my head.

~“Starved wolf? Aren’t you all during winter?”~ I teased, but neither Kai nor Derik laughed. I kept my eyes closed, using my shadows to know where I was going. I kept my magic sensing the vampires, promising them kills later so they continued to do what I needed.

“Not like D, Little Luna. He’s an idiot and keeps his wolf on lockdown most of the time, even when it is not winter. He barely runs his wolf, so when he does let his emotions get too much and his wolf feels it, neither of them know how to handle it,” Kai whispered as we moved through the dark halls, following my trail of shadows.

Derik scoffed in the link. ~“As opposed to letting the wolf take over rational thought at any time without concern for consequence?”~ he said.

Kai grinned. “Both fucked up. But we found our center, so while I get her out of this hell hole, go back and look after Brax until I can get her to him,” he said, moving closer to me.

“How is he?” I whispered as we rounded another corner, almost at the room with the window.

~“He’s…”~ Derik hesitated, and I tensed for the answer. ~“He needs you,”~ It was as close to a “he’s doing awful” as I was going to get without him actually saying it. I needed to hurry up.

I tugged on the Brax link in my head, but he shied away from it. So he couldn’t even handle a slight peek?

~“He’s trying to keep it together for the twins. He’s doing okay at the moment, beautiful, but don’t test it,”~ Derik reassured— a much better answer. I nodded, even though he probably couldn’t see it, then darted over to the next hall.

My shadows disappeared into the room with the window.

I looked either side of the hall, then moved through the dark. I kept my eyes trained ahead of me, refusing to look at Kai. I didn’t want to risk the heat taking back control.

Kai stayed behind me, keeping close enough in case anything happened but far enough to keep our scents from triggering the mating link and the heat. It was so much more powerful than the other heats.

I wasn’t sure whether that was because I now had three mates or because I had turned, but whatever the reason, it was super inconvenient.

I went into the room with the window. It was ajar slightly, with a clear view of the black sky. Kai moved behind me and slid the window up, looking out and down.

“A cliff and a drop? Are you serious? That’s too high; you’ll break every bone,” Kai growled.

“Shh,” I snapped back, my magic flaring as vampires started moving around. They were filtering back into the castle, and my heart raced faster than it already was.

I was already damp with sweat; my body ached, and my head throbbed, but I had to get over it until I was out. That was seeming less likely as vampires moved closer.

My magic warned me like an alarm in my head, and I knew we were out of time.

“We have to go; we’re about to get caught,” I urged, and Kai shook his head.

“You won’t make it, Little Luna. You can’t fully turn, and that means you won’t heal as fast as you need to for a jump like that,” he said stubbornly.

I huffed and shoved him out of the way, looking down at the drop he was so worried about.

I gulped.

It was one hell of a drop.

But we didn’t have a choice.

I weighed up the options with my hands set as pretend scales, lifting one then the other.

“Break a few bones that hurt like hell or get captured and tortured again?” I said, and we both knew the second option wasn’t one worth contemplating.

Kai sighed and looked toward the door, frowning as he heard what I already sensed.

The vampires were getting closer.

If they got close enough, they would sense us. Not to mention that any minute, someone could discover we were gone and let the hive mind know to hunt us down. If we were still in the castle when that happened, we were more than fucked. We were dead.

“Fine,” Kai bit out, then moved over to the window. “But I’ll jump first. I’ll shift mid-air and catch you on me so you don’t hit the ground.”

I raised a brow at him. “You haven’t shifted in a while, and it’s winter. My magic only just came in again; are you sure you can shift fast enough to catch me?” I asked.

His hesitation made me tense.

He peered over the window again, then nodded. “Yeah.”

I was about to answer him when my magic flared, burning me, warning me.

“Fuck, they sensed us,” I snarled, as the vampires raced toward the room we were in. Not just one or two of them—all of them.

Kai’s eyes widened a second before he ran at the door and shoved himself against it. Just as he did, it tried to open. He growled and held it closed against the ferocious banging and hissing on the other side.

“Go!” Kai snapped at me, nodding toward the window as he held the door. I looked between the open window and him, struggling with the door. No way was I fucking leaving him.

“Don’t you dare, Little Luna. I’ll hold them off; you get the fuck out,” he ordered.

I shook my head, smirking at him.

“Not a chance, psycho. Would you leave me?” I countered. Kai narrowed his eyes; we both knew he wouldn’t.

“It’s not the same,” he grunted, as the vampires grew more vicious, bashing harder to get in past Kai’s body barricade.

I grabbed his chin, then kissed his lips softly, walling the heat away behind my determination. “You are my mate as much as I am yours. I protect what is mine, Kai,” I said, then turned to the door.

I reached out and put my hand on it.

“Get ready to run and jump,” I said, my magic glowing from my hand against the door. “And turn if you think you can,” I added. Kai went to argue, but something in my expression stopped him. Instead, he nodded once and looked toward the window.

“Ready?” I asked. He nodded, still eyeing the window, leaning against the door with his back, his hands on the heavy wood.

The room had a huge bed to the left, but it was the only thing in there, which left a clear shot to the window. That meant I should make it in time before the next wave of vamps took over. As long as my plan worked.

“Good,” I said, looking toward the door with narrowed eyes. “Go!” I cried out.

Kai moved fast, running at the window and jumping forward as I screamed and let my magic explode from me. The purple mist turned into a ribbon of lethal magic that wove through every vamp that tried to get to me. Each one went down.

One by one, my magic stole the energy from them. I wasn’t sure if they were dead, just like I hadn’t been in my connection with Silas, but just like then, I wasn’t sticking around to find out.

I ran past the bodies of vamps, my magic happily swooning inside me as I fed it. Then I flung myself out of the broken window. Kai hadn’t fit, but I shouldn’t have expected him to; the guy was huge.

I sailed through the air, turning back to the window, throwing my magic at it. My magic latched onto the window pane and created a mini border. The next wave of vampires ran straight into it.

I laughed.

Then I realized I was falling to my death. I probably should have climbed down the cliff first.

Too late. I turned my body mid-air, gasping when I saw Kai passed out on the grass. He hadn’t turned.

Fuck.

I smashed into the ground, taking the brunt of the fall on my shoulder. I heard the pop before I felt it.

It fucking hurt.

I tumbled over the ground, my shoulder the pivot point, before crashing onto my stomach. I groaned as I rolled onto my back, holding my limp shoulder. I couldn’t feel my arm properly, and pain streaked across my collarbone and chest where it pulled.

“Kai,” I said through my clenched jaw as I looked over at his still body. It was moving, which meant he was still breathing. But there was no way I could carry his big ass body as we ran from the vamps.

The vampires were bashing at my magical border against the windows. It was slowly wearing me down, especially since all I could feel was pain. So much aching and heaviness in me. It almost had me blacking out, but I refused to let it.

I yanked on my shadows, and they helped me shuffle over to Kai, giving me the strength to scramble to my feet so I could turn him with one hand.

“Kai.” I shook him.

“Little Luna,” he huffed out, then his eyes slowly opened. It took him a second to get his bearings, then his eyes widened.

“Fuck!” he cried out, then sat up. I moved back, wincing as the blinding pain in my shoulder got worse. The border weakened, and a vamp tore through it. I made my magic eat him.

Well, knock him out, but it really felt like the magic was consuming him. That made me happy, and the magic.

What didn’t make me happy was the fact that I could feel the vampires drawing closer. They knew that we had gone out the window and we were in the valley on the other side of the castle.

There were also other exits out of the castle, which meant they could still get to us. I hadn’t bargained on having to run directly from the vamps; I was hoping to have the distraction for a little bit longer, but luck was not on my side.

“You’re hurt,” he gritted out.

“Yeah, we’ll take inventory later; let’s go,” I said, standing up. My head spun, and I fell into Kai as he stood up. He caught me, and I clenched my eyes shut, drawing more on my shadows to stay upright.

“I can’t turn yet; I need to heal,” Kai grumbled as he pulled me against him and started hauling me away from the castle and the forest.

“I thought that might happen.” I stumbled over and over again, glad he had me in his grasp.

“Save the ‘I told you so’ speech, Little Luna.”

“They’re coming after us,” I said, looking over my shoulder, but I couldn’t see any vamps following us yet. The good thing about diving out of a window and over a cliff? Vamps had to get around the castle to the cliff and jump off too.

They were probably much more elegant about it, but it did give us time.

Kai was limping; I was stumbling; we were both covered in scratches and bruises. We were healing, but it was slow. Kai’s body worked faster than mine, though, and it only took him a few minutes to find his rhythm and pick up speed.

Then he was running us. I mostly hung there, my feet getting in the way of him getting us out of there. We just had to make it back to the city.

The vampires were still chasing us, though, and my eyes were growing heavy. I needed rest. I needed to heal. My magic was buzzing with happiness despite my waning strength and waved out behind us.

Any vamp that got too close went down. It was satisfying, but each time it happened, I felt the aches and pains that much more. I was wearing out, and fast.

“We need to mate,” Kai said suddenly, veering off. He wove us through the trees, along the cliff line.

“Kai, as much as the heat is still there, hurting everything inside me because we haven’t fucked, I don’t think now is the right time,” I breathed.

Kai laughed and kept searching for something, holding me close as he peered along the cliffs.

He found what he was looking for and started climbing the cliff, hauling my exhausted ass up with him. The man was all strength, and it had the heat flaring again. I sucked in a breath and leaned into him, breathing in his scent so I could feel closer to him.

“We mate, feed the heat; it means we both heal faster, and so does the pack. We won’t make it back if we don’t,” he said seriously, turning to meet my eyes as he helped me up the next part of the jagged cliffside.

“How hurt are you from the fall?” I asked wearily.

He shrugged. “Enough that I know we need to find somewhere safe until we can run faster than we are,” he said. I frowned and looked over the cliff that he was eyeing up and down.

“And the cliff is safe?”

“Not the cliff. Just over this part of the cliff is a small cave. It’s not much, but if you can do that border magic thing to seal us in there and hide our scent, they won’t know where we’ve gone. And you can’t see the entrance from down there, so they should lose our trail,” he said, hands on his hips as we stood together on the tiny ledge.

I reached out with my magic to see if the vamps were close. They were, but they weren’t moving as fast. We were already losing them.

“How do you know where the cave is then?” I asked.

“From when I escaped last time. I spent a few days healing in there. I had to go back strong, or they’d kill me. I waited until I was good enough to survive the attacks I knew they would give.” Kai shrugged as if it were no big deal that his parents had set his pack on him.

I moved into him and kissed his naked pec.

“I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have had to do that alone,” I whispered.

“This time I don’t. I’ve got you. Now c’mon, we’ve got a bit further to climb before the entrance,” he said, then climbed a little bit further up the steep slope.