Free Genesis (The Legend of Glory Book 3) by Devin O'Branagan Page A

can do this.”
    As Rory started cutting again, she glanced over her shoulder at the mayhem. Dark silhouettes wrestled. Some seemed to leap and kick gracefully in slow motion, like wicked-looking dancers. Behind the wall of music, the feral sounds that filtered through weren’t only those of the resident wild animals. There were definitely more than five in the enemy gang. Bo had gathered allies since his last encounter with Zane and the Goth Girls.
    A fresh spurt of blood landed on Rory, and a disembodied head rolled into her. Jezebel? She whipped a cell phone from her pocket and shined its light, relieved to see the head of a stranger.
    “Pearl!” Bo yelled, his voice laced with anguish.
    Pearl. Bo’s girlfriend. Rory had heard about her. Score one for our team.
    Kaia scooped up the head and, with unexpected pitching skill, threw it over the high fence beyond the wolves, whose number had increased. It served to distract them.
    Rory hastily finished cutting an opening big enough for them to crawl through. They made it inside and were just a few feet in when someone slammed them to the ground. Rory rolled away from the enemy vamp, and Kaia came up swinging the tire iron at him. He staggered for just a moment, before advancing once again.
    Rory dropped everything and grabbed the silver stake from her hair. Jumping to her feet, she advanced and aimed the point at his face, plunging it into his eye. Screaming, he yanked it out and grabbed for her. She ducked and twisted, but he managed to rip her hoodie and sink his teeth in her shoulder. Hot pain blinded her vision. She rammed her knee up between his legs and found her target. He gasped, which allowed her to pull away.
    Kaia came at him again with the tire iron, and he ducked, then butted her in the stomach with his head. She went sprawling, but before Rory could go to her aid, wolves attacked him. A lot of wolves. Blood rained, shrieks split the night, flesh ripped, and the girls scrambled away from the mayhem.
    Retrieving her phone and bolt cutters, Rory’s light swept the enclosure looking for any sign of Joy. Her mind reached out, searching for the voice she had earlier heard, but couldn’t find it. However, she felt the terror and—like an intense magnet pulling on her—moved in its direction.
    “Can you sense her?” Kaia asked. “My mind is still working on the wolves. I don’t dare let go.”
    “This way,” Rory said.
    Through the fog still hugging the ground, Rory’s light landed on a small wire cage—like a dog crate—in the middle of the compound. Joy sat inside, her eyes wide, her expression full of horror. Rory flashed the light onto her own face. “It’s us, sweetie. Here to take you home.”
    Joy extended her arms toward them and began to cry.
    Rory cut off the cage’s padlock, and Kaia carried Joy as they stumbled back through the pen toward the opening. When they passed the wolves—now chowing down on their kill—one wolf raised its eyes and growled. Kaia issued a sharp, “Ah, ah, ah,” and with a grunt, it returned its attention to the body.
    When they emerged from the wolf pen, the sight that greeted them tore into Rory’s gut. In the glare of the truck headlights, Zane lay in a puddle of blood and Jinx knelt at his side. In the eerie silence, no other live vamps besides their own were in sight. They must have won, but at what cost?
    Zane! Overcome by panic, Rory ran to him. In the surreal, nightmarish moment, her eyes fell on his overturned cowboy hat lying a few feet from his body. Once beige, it now glistened red. Blood pumped through the fingers Jinx clamped to his neck. Blood pumped . That was a good thing, right? If it pumped, his heart still worked.
    Zane’s eyes flickered open. He glanced at Joy and Rory, whispered “Thank God,” and passed out.
    Jinx looked up, and her frantic eyes fell on Joy.
    Kaia patted the girl’s back. “She’s good.”
    Relief washed over Jinx’s face, and she turned her attention back to Zane.