The bag fell from my fingers, a soft sound in the oddly quiet room.  The man turned his head to look at me, and a smile curled his lips.  Another man sat on the bed, watching the pair.  He too turned to look at me.

“With a human?” the lounging man said.  “That’s worse than being with the werewolves.”

Ethan’s face had already turned an unhealthy red.  His hands were still pulling at the hand at his throat.  Yet, I felt no fear from him.  He knew what was coming.

“Put him down.”  I bit out the words, anger surpassing my fear for Ethan.  I didn’t wait for them to comply.  I pulled deep.  Both men grunted.

“Stop or I snap his neck,” the one holding Ethan said.

I laughed bitterly and pulled again.

“I’m not stupid.  He’s dead either way.”  I exhaled and was about to pull again when the sound of splintering wood interrupted me.

Before I could turn to look at the door, the man on the bed reacted.  His teeth erupted from his mouth while his nose stretched and thickened.  The mountain flew past me.  He reached the bed as the man’s clothes split apart.  In a blink, the mountain grabbed the man by his newly formed fur and tossed him at the window.  The glass shattered, and the wolf cried out as he fell two stories.

The other man dropped Ethan and moved toward the mountain.  I ducked around the pair and rushed to Ethan to grab his arm and start dragging him toward the door.

The mountain caught the man by the throat, causing an abrupt stop to the charge, and lifted the man up so his feet dangled like Ethan’s had.

I gave Ethan’s arm another urgent tug as I tried to get us out of the room.  Then, I looked at the damaged door, and my heart plummeted.  The other five people from Ethan’s house stood in the doorway.  I stopped tugging and glanced at the only other exit, the broken window.

The mountain caught my attention.  He wasn’t focused on the man clawing at his arms.  He watched me.  When I met his gaze, the man he held went flying through the window, too.

Silence reigned in the room for two heartbeats as we stared at each other.

“We need to leave,” he said.

The sound of his voice made my stomach twist.  Was it fear?  Maybe.  Or maybe it was preparing for what I would need to do next.  Pulling would be easier if I knew what the giant was feeling.

Ethan, knowing what I was about to do, gave a feeble tug; and I realized I still held his arm.  I dropped it and prepared to draw more.  Ethan attempted to get to his feet, but I didn’t move to help him.  Touching him while I pulled would be so much worse.

“Come on, son,” the older man said, moving to help lift Ethan.  His tone and choice of words stopped me from trying to bring them to their knees a second time.  I watched as he wrapped an arm around Ethan’s back and gently lifted him to his feet.  Ethan looked pale and shaky.

“Isabelle, I’m Bethi,” the dark-haired girl hurriedly said, drawing my attention.  “I dream our past lives.  Mine, yours, hers.”  She nodded toward the other woman in the doorway.

“More of them are coming,” the blonde said.

“Gabby can see their locations and the locations of the others like us.  We need to leave.  We can’t let them find us.”

Her words were so close to what the letter said.  Did one of them write it?  I glanced at Gabby then back at Bethi.  There were obviously two groups here: the ones who went out the window, and the ones who got to stay in the room.

“Yes, let’s leave,” I said.

Maybe these people really were here to help, but I didn’t care.  I didn’t want anything to do with either group. Ethan and I needed to get away from whatever madness was stalking me, and the faster we got out of the room, the faster Ethan and I could escape.

The older man helped Ethan walk toward the door.  I stayed right behind them both and grabbed my bag from the floor on the way past the bathroom.  The mountain took the extra bag from the bed and followed me. The skin on the back of my neck prickled as I imagined his eyes tracking me.  I struggled to remember what the older man had called him.

One of the men held the hotel door open as we filed out—the one with the russet hair.  He had a very faint bruise on his chin and watched me closely as I passed.  In fact, they all kept looking at me.  They were probably waiting for me to run again.  It was tempting.  But I wouldn’t make a run for it and leave Ethan.  And if others were coming, I couldn’t afford to pull more emotion than I could handle without Ethan on his feet to help me run afterward.  That meant I needed to have patience for just a little longer.

The group walked to Ethan’s car, and I opened the front passenger door.  Ethan’s eyes met mine as he slid in.  He tried to say something but only managed a broken rasp.

“Keys?” I said.

He stuck a shaky hand into his pocket and fished them out.  Before I could grab them, a hand reached around me and plucked them from Ethan’s fingers.

“I’ll drive.”

I turned and met the brown eyes of the mountain.  Sure, he’d saved Ethan.  But did he think that meant I’d suddenly had a change of heart?  I didn’t know these people, and I sure as heck didn’t like any of them.

“No thanks.”  I held out my hand for the keys.

His eyes flicked to the palm and the cut there.

“We don’t have time for this,” the blonde said.  “They’re grouping to the east.  We need to go.”

I didn’t know what she was talking about, but the panicked look in her eyes influenced me; I’d let him drive for now.  If I needed to, I’d siphon again.

“Fine.”  I moved to open the back door, but he beat me to it.  He held the door as I got in and closed it gently as soon as I settled.

“Hang in there, E,” I said quietly to Ethan as I watched the man walk around the car.

The big guy opened the driver’s door and bent low to get in.  He looked ridiculous behind the wheel, cramped and uncomfortable in the small space.

He pulled out of the parking lot, trailing the other vehicle heading west.  He drove well for someone who wasn’t looking forward.

I met his eyes in the mirror.

“What’s your name, again?”

“Carlos.”

Something about his voice made my insides twitchy.  I didn’t like the feeling.

“Eyes on the road, Carlos.”

He held my gaze for a moment longer.

“You should buckle up,” he said.

I ignored Carlos and reached forward to squeeze Ethan’s shoulder gently.

“You okay, Ethan?”  He’d kept himself closed off since the hotel.

He turned his head, winced as he did so, and gave me a what-do-you-think look.  Faint blue marks punctuated the red skin of his neck.  I rubbed his shoulder, and he reached up to pat my hand before facing forward once more.  He would wear bruises for several days, a constant reminder of how I’d put him in danger.

The vehicle we followed took a sudden sharp turn onto a pitted side road, and I fell over in the seat when we mirrored the move.

“What was that?” I said, pulling myself up and buckling in.

“Gabby is trying to avoid—”

Brake lights came on and tires screeched a moment before something flew over the front vehicle and hit our windshield.  A startled cry ripped from me.  The glass splintered but held.  The body rolled to the side and fell to the road, a smear of blood the only sign of its passing.

Everything slowed down as I gripped the seat and stared out the windows.  Large dogs poured from the trees on the left.  Like a wave, they washed over our car.  The roof dented in as something heavy landed on it.  Carlos floored the gas.  I couldn’t see a thing through the white web of the broken windshield.  The back window shattered.  A furred hand reached in, ripped the seatbelt from me, and yanked me backward through the opening.

A long jaw filled with teeth greeted me.  I didn’t think...I pulled.  Hard.

Something hit the side of my head.