It is a mistake to fire the gun.

Zarius easily sidesteps as the bullet whizzes past his body and hits the wall instead. Leaving a hole in it. When his head snaps back towards us, he glowers at Jace, his wintersky eyes gleaming with rage and zero forgiveness. He says nothing, but his body speaks differently; guarded, sensitive, and furious. A low, inhuman growl rumbles deep from his chest and sends a shiver down our spines.

Sometimes, I forget Zarius isn't human like us. He can be an apex predator if he chooses to. And it is only in my presence that he doesn't do that, because he doesn't hate me.

But not for Jace.

And he—that idiot—has definitely added another enemy onto his list the moment he fired that gun.

"Delia!" He yells at me. "Get away from that thing!"

"Jace!" I stand tall in front of Zarius to protect him from getting shot again. The two of them are eyeing each other in revulsion. Standing between them, I feel like a deer that has accidentally trod onto the highway and is about to get hit by vehicles from both lanes. "Zarius is not a thing! He's with us!"

"No!" Their voices come in chorus, and they glare harder at each other. It's amusing how they are from different species, yet their behaviors are the same.

Hearing Zarius speak, Jace's surprise follows, looking utterly confused. "Wait, that thing can talk?"

I groan in annoyance. "Yes, and he can understand us! If you could just stop interrupting and let me explain—"

Before I can finish my sentence, the windows in the room shatter violently. I feel a rain of glass slicing my skin as dark masses burst through the openings, startling us all.

Zarius immediately reappears by my side. With impressive timing, he grabs the neck of an enraged siren and holds her at arm's length—one who's hissing and snapping her pointy teeth at me menacingly.

But it isn't just her.

There are at least three sirens in the room staring at Jace, and especially me.

Zarius did mention before that they hate females, right? Even if it isn't my intention, they've somehow perceived me to be their competition. But hell, I would very much like to slink back into the shadows and blend in with the walls. Thank you very much.

I hear him shout my name quickly. "Delia, run!"

His command has my legs moving. Likewise, Jace grabs my hand and we scuttle out of the room. In the hallway, we spot another siren climbing up the stairs and we both yelp in sheer terror. We backpedal into the bedroom, slam the door shut, and lock it. I don't know how long that will hold us.

Around us, we hear thumps and crashes. Tremors rock the entire house as the fight takes place in the next room.

I dart over to the broken window. Beckoning Jace over, I thrust my dagger into what's left of the glass pane to carve a bigger opening that might fit us.

Behind us, something rams against the door. Attempting to bust through any second now.

In a hasty manner, I throw out my backpack and crawl out of the window, ignoring the jagged edges of the broken glass cutting into my skin. I glance backwards once, just to check if Jace is still with me, and let out a thankful sigh when he is. He gives me a quick thumbs-up sign and I carry on.

Grabbing my bag, I inch closer to the edge of the blue-painted roof and leap off, landing on the ruined flower bed below. Jace mirrors my actions and falls next to me with a gruff groan.

The storm has stopped and fog envelops the town. At long last, I can finally assess the damage that the storm has left behind; ripped power lines, fallen trees and branches, overturned cars, damaged roads and houses.

My heart constricts with sorrow. It's devastating to see my hometown—the place where I was born—beyond recognition. Destroyed.

Where is home now?

Behind us, a siren gets blasted out of the house. Bits of debris and dirt fly everywhere. The siren's body crumples in the soil, broken and dead. At her death, her sisters let out a loud, painful shrill. Sorrow and grief meld in their unearthly voices, accompanied with a growing fury.

Undeterred, Jace grabs my wrist and drags me along into a run. Our shoes slap across the wet pavement. "I know a way out of here," he says quickly. "Take the car from the next house. I found the key earlier."

Worrying, I throw a quick glance back. "What? What about Zarius–"

Jace hurries me to a silver car that's parked in front of the neighbor's lawn and we climb in quickly. In the side mirror, I glimpse a view of the house we were just at a second ago. A mob of creatures has arrived on the scene, clearly attracted to the commotion that we've made. Half of the group descended on our trail and the other half crowd around Zarius to attack him—at least twenty against one. I see his hunkering form on the roof of the house and he launches himself into the pack to take them out. Even though he is clearly outnumbered, he lacks fear and exhibits monstrous strength.

If I'm strong enough, with better control over my abilities, I can be like that too.

Yet, time is just not in my favor.

Jace immediately pulls out of the driveway without waiting for Zarius to join us. I turn in my seat and snap at him.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"Saving our asses."

"Just us? What about Zarius? Turn back right now!"

"No." Jace presses his lips firmly together. Adamant. "We go back and we'll die."

So is Zarius if we don't help him. "Fine." I lean back into the seat. "Give me back the gun, Jace. You drive and I'll keep pests away from our tail."

Unsuspecting, he hands it back to me without a word. "Now," I sit straight and point the gun at him impassively, only to earn a look of disbelief from him. "Circle back to the house."

"What? Are you insane?!"

"Am not," I answer calmly, even though my heart is plummeting to my stomach at the thought of us abandoning Zarius. I've only known him for a short period, but I find myself fearful of losing him. How many times has he saved my life? "But I might go crazy if you do not bring us back. We need to pick Zarius up. We can't leave him behind—he saved us! Come on, Jace!"

"Delia," Jace groans. "Are you listening to yourself? This is nuts! That thing is one of them!"

I grunted at his words. "Did you forget he saved us back there? Would we have made it out of the house safely if he didn't distract the creatures from us?" When Jace continues to shake his head at me, I groan in annoyance. "You know what? You can leave the car with me. I'll drive this thing back myself."

What on earth am I saying? I can't drive at all!

Failing to persuade me, Jace's anguished eyes flicker between me and the road several times. His jaw is rigid and his hands clutch the steering wheel tightly. "Fine," he huffs begrudgingly. "If we both die, my restless soul will haunt you down in the afterlife."

That doesn't scare me at all. "Sure, I will keep you company when that happens. We can have a ghost party." I nudge Jace's shoulder with my gun, knowing that the safety lock is on. But he doesn't need to know that. "Drive."

Jace revs up the engine and swerves the car around. We bolt forward like an angry train into the mob of creatures. With the bright headlights switch on, they blind the creatures in pain and they duck out of our path immediately. We race straight back to the house and I roll down a window to shout a name.

"Zarius!"

With impressive timing, the merfolk lands on the roof of our car, clutching his side. "Get moving," he grunts and knocks once to alert Jace. "Do not stop until I say so."

Jace slams on the pedal and the vehicle charges forward. I pop my head out of the window to fire a couple of shots behind us. One creature even tries to jump onto Zarius, but I got a lucky shot straight through its head and it vanishes out of sight.

Zarius is using his other hand to clutch onto the side of the moving car. Surprise flickers in his eyes as he witnesses what I did.

"Put your head back inside, Delia. It's dangerous."

My disheveled hair is flying all over the place. "Only if you get in too," I retort. "How many more creatures are chasing us?"

It's faint, but I can hear Jace's voice murmuring to himself from inside the car. "Can't believe I'm hearing a pair of lovebirds fighting while we're on the run."

I almost roll my eyes at his words, but maintain my focus on Zarius. "Just three more," he tells me, still clutching his left side, and that's when I notice bright red blood seeping through his fingers.

That doesn't look good.

The wheels in my head are turning. I slip back inside the car and run my eyes over the electronic dashboard, tapping a couple of buttons to switch on all the taillights and change the colors from red to a bright white. I pop my head out of the window again and yell at Zarius over the wind. "Does this help?"

His head turns away from me to survey the back, nodding once. "They're gone."

"Awesome." I slip back into my seat, roll up the window and head to the backseat of the car to open the door. "Get in!"

He does as I say. His tall, powerfully built form leaps in and he finds himself sprawled across the seats. Because of the constricted space, his head naturally falls onto my lap. He lies there stiffly, panting through his mouth as his eyes flutter. His body muscles tighten and a small tremble runs through him.

He's in tremendous pain.

My hands clutch onto his head and arm as Jace swerves the car a few times to avoid obstacles on the road. "Zarius," I call his name gently. "Are you alright?"

His eyes flutter open slightly. "Fine," he breathes out. "Just keep moving."

I watch him as he endures the pain, trying to rack my brain to come up with something that might help him. And it clicks.

Water is the answer. He needs it to hasten the recovery of his wounds. I don't know when the last time he ate or entered the waters was, so he might be considerably weak right now. If we drive the car to a nearby water catchment area, there's a chance he might heal and survive.

I glance up. "Jace, can you drive us to Milliken Pond?"

For the umpteenth time today, he stares at me in horror through the rearview mirror. He must have regrets about encountering me today. "What am I? Your personal chauffeur?"

I grimace in response. "Please, Jace. Help me and help him."

Jace tightens his hold on the wheel. "You know I can dump you on the side of the road, right?"

"I know, but I know you aren't that kind of person." I send a pleading look in his direction. "Jace, please. But if you drive us to Milliken Pond, I'll get out of your way. Oh, and you can have the vehicle too."

He lets out a sigh of exhaustion. "Fine. You're a mean negotiator, Delia. Oh—and a terrible planner too. Your plans suck."

"At least I've a plan instead of sitting around and having none."

It doesn't matter how much he criticizes me because I've already achieved what I wanted. I glance down at a bleeding Zarius. His eyes are closed, but he shifts uncomfortably in my arms, no doubt feeling pain from the deep bite I've glimpsed in his ribs. Like a wolf had eaten a chunk of his flesh. His skin feels hot, like he's running a high fever, and my heart instantly aches at the sight.

Don't die on me, Zarius.