I pushed Ariana towards the bathtub on shaky legs. The heavy weight of the gun in my hand felt strange and extremely uncomfortable. I had no idea how to use it, but there had been no time to tell Lucas that.

"What's happening?" Ariana questioned.

"S-someone's at the door." I climbed over the rim of the tub and changed our positions. "Lie down on your side facing me."

Disgust filled me as my eyes fell on the dark ring surrounding the tub. Safety over luxury, I reminded myself as I followed Ariana's actions.

"D-do you know how to use it?" She glanced down at the gun.

I licked my lips. "No."

"Give it to me," she ordered as she reached for the gun. "I know how."

I blinked at her. She had to be joking. There was no fucking way Ariana knew how to use a gun. But as I watched her checking the gun over, I started doubting myself. I had no clue what she was doing but by the look of things, Ariana knew exactly what she was doing.

"When you spend a few days locked in a cage, you tend to pay extra attention to what goes on around you," she whispered. "We need to switch positions so I can shoot whoever enters."

My sister was someone I needed to protect. It went against my instincts to switch our positions and allow her to be placed in the line of danger.

Sometimes instincts were a bitch because they forced you to do something you didn't really want to.

Like protecting Ariana because she was weaker than me. She couldn't shift forms therefore she had no claws or sharp teeth to take out the enemy.

"Get down," I ordered when she continued to sit up.

"I can't shoot if I lie down."

I continued to glare at her even thought I knew that it was doing nothing. She could be a stubborn bitch at times.

The sounds coming from the room made me frown. It was silent but I could hear the low timber of male voices. There was no fighting or any signs of us being in danger.

Or so I thought.

One minute everything was calm and in the next all hell broke loose.

There was a cry of pain—one I knew belonged to Lucas—followed by shots being fired.

Had Lucas been killed?

My skin itched and my breathing sped up as the animal in me started clawing at my skin to get out. I wanted to go rescue him. I looked up at Ariana when she moved.

She raised her arms and aimed the gun at the door. For a few seconds doubt filled my mind again but I quickly pushed it aside.

"Check the bathroom!" a gruff voice ordered.

Ariana's eyes dropped down to mine. I could see everything that she couldn't voice out loud.

"I'm sorry for calling you a pussy," I whispered, "and for forcing you to go to that party."

Her lips parted but the words were cut off by the bathroom door opening. I couldn't see a thing but apparently it was a bad guy because Ariana's finger pressed down on the trigger.

Pain shot through my ears when the gun went off.

Her body jerked.

The gun was fired twice more.

And then everything fell silent.

I could feel Ariana's body brushing mine as she moved but by the time I opened my eyes, she was already out of the tub and heading towards the door.

Ariana walked out of the bathroom with the gun still aimed.

My eyes darted around the room, taking in the destruction and dead bodies. It looked a lot better than it had at Ethan's house. There it actually looked like those men had been slaughtered.

Movement had my eyes snapping to the left. I watched as Lucas rolled a body off of him and struggled to sit up.

"We need to go," he hissed. "Now."

"Who are they?" I asked.

Lucas pressed a hand to his side as he straightened. His eyes locked on me and then darted over to Ariana before dropping to the gun she held. If he was surprised he didn't show it.

"Can you fight with knives, Eva?" he asked me.

I shook my head but held up a hand to show him my claws. "I can fight with these."

"Won't do any good in public," he muttered.

"Are there more on the way?" Ariana asked.

"Probably." Lucas walked over to one of the dead men and bent to pull the knife from his neck. "I need to make a call so I can figure out what the fuck's going on."

"We all know why they're here," Ariana said.

"No." He shook his head as he moved closer. "This is about something else."

Lucas held out the knife to me; handle first after wiping the blood from the blade. I took it from him without question. It was clear that between the three of us, he had the most knowledge of things.

"Try to go for their neck. You need to kill them before they kill you," he explained. "Don't hesitate."

His eyes lingered on mine for a few seconds before he turned away.

"How many shots did you fire?" he asked Ariana.

"Three," she whispered.

"You have fourteen bullets left." He reached up and touched her upper arm. "Keep count of them."

Walking over to the window, he hesitated a moment and then pushed the curtain aside to look outside. Lucas quickly stepped back.

"Think you can fit through the bathroom window?" he asked both of us.

Ariana nodded but I hesitated.

The window was small and even if we could fit through it who's to say that they weren't waiting for us there? They could have the place surrounded and we wouldn't know it.

With a curse, Lucas ushered us into the bathroom.

My eyes dropped to the body on the floor. Ariana had shot the man three times—twice in the chest and once in the stomach. Lucas was fumbling with the window. He stepped back after a few minutes and muttered more curses as he punched the wall.

"It can't open anymore."

The space was definitely too small to climb through.

"Can't we sneak out?"

"We're outnumbered, Eva. There's only one fucking door and they're waiting for us right on the other side of it."

"So we—"

"We are not splitting up," he interrupted me with a glare.

I watched him as he glanced around. His shoulders were slouched and his movements jerky and slow. Blood dripped onto the floor at his feet as it soaked through the fingers of the hand he still had pressed to his side.

"You need to stop the bleeding," Ariana told him.

"Not now. I need to get you out of here."

I walked over to the door and peeked out. Nobody had tried to enter the room yet. An idea hit and slowly started forming. The walls were paper thin and I was sure that with the right amount of force it would be easy to break through it.

"I have an idea," I told Lucas.

***

Covered in dust, dirt, blood and sweat, we came to a stop at the side of a building in the middle of town. My plan had worked but we were still being chased by a bunch of killers.

A groan fell from Lucas's lips. His head lowered as he reached down to pull the hoodie up. The shirt he had tied around his waist was soaked through with blood already. His makeshift bandage hadn't done any good.

He was losing so much blood!

The guy could hardly stand on his own two feet. He was shaking and struggling to stay conscious, but it didn't stop him.

I glanced at Ariana and then back to Lucas. If we didn't get him to a hospital as soon as possible then we might risk losing him. We couldn't take him to a normal hospital, though.

I wasn't ready for a mate but that didn't mean that I wanted him to die. It would destroy Ariana. Besides, he'd placed himself in danger on numerous occasions to save us.

The least I could do at the moment to show my appreciation was to stop the bleeding.

"Here"—I held the knife out to my sister—"hold this."

She stared down at the knife, but made no move to take it from me. I rolled my eyes and reached down to grab her hand but she pulled it out of my reach.

"Ariana—"

"No," she whimpered.

She tried to move further away but I caught hold of her arm. Before I could push the knife into her hand, Lucas stepped between us.

"Don't push it," he breathed. "Ariana hates knives."

Oh. I looked at Ariana. She avoided eye contact and turned her head away but I caught the quivering of her lips before she pressed her face against Lucas's back.

"I'm sorry," I apologized.

With a nod, he turned around to face her. My hold on the knife tightened as I glanced around. We couldn't keep on running. Sooner or later we were going to have to stop because of Lucas's wound.

A familiar figure across the street caught my attention. Without thinking, I stepped out of our hiding place and called out to him.

"Grayson!"