Primal Heat 05 - Darkness Reborn

the smarter one, so odds on her. Or not, but positive thinking was supposed to accomplish something , right?
    Her finger trembled over the button. Ready. Waiting.
    She forced her foot off the gas, slowing down, so they would think they had more time and get careless in their attack. Her instincts were screaming at her to floor it, to try to outrun them, but she knew she couldn't. This was her only chance—
    Then she heard it. Click click click. The rapid triple click, the only warning their prey ever had. Click click click from all around her, from each one as they prepared to attack.
    Game time...Now!
    Sarah jammed her foot on the gas, and the vehicle exploded forward at the same moment that the night filled with black shadows leaping off the trees, right at her. She had a split second of raw horror as she saw that bottomless mouth and the twelve-inch claws coming at her—
    Screw being afraid. "Leave me alone!" She slammed her finger down on the button, and the floodlights on the roof of her truck burst to life, lighting up the dark woods as if the angels themselves had unleashed heaven's blessings onto the night.
    The night screamed with their agony as the light burned them, and she swerved to the left as one catapulted past her in a helpless free-fall, his wail of agony like the worst suffering in the bowels of hell.
    She heard the thud of its body crashing to the asphalt behind her, rendered helpless by the light that he hadn't had time to shield against. Others hurtled past her vehicle, their equilibrium destroyed, the night filled with the scent of their burning flesh. Thud after thud of creatures that used to be men hitting the asphalt, screaming in agony.
    Nausea and regret at the harm she had caused flooded Sarah as she fought to regain control of the SUV as it careened across the road toward the woods. "Come on!"
    The vehicle finally obeyed, and she realigned it, jamming her foot on the accelerator the moment she had control, hurtling up the dark road again. Guilt burned at her as she drove away from the bodies, leaving them to rot and die from her attack. Although the backlash wasn't nearly as severe as if she'd used her own power to hurt them, the cost was still significant. A bad-ass warrior she would never be, as convenient as it would have been to have that be her professional calling.
    How many more were going to be in the next wave? And how soon? She knew they were coming, because she hadn't seen her brother go down. As long as he was still alive, he would be able to track her and bring them straight to her—
    "Sarah." The low male voice rasped in her ear, and she yelped, hit the brakes, and whirled around.
    Her brother was sitting in her backseat.
    Her stomach dropped, and raw terror knifed through her when she saw the blood red glow of his eyes, filled with the promise of death, torture, and a night of her begging for mercy she would never receive. His tousled blond hair was the same as it had been before his change, but his black tee shirt was torn and his skin was stretched taut across the bones of his face, like the demon within was about to break right through his skin. "Jacob, don't do this—"
    He lunged over the backseat at her, his claws bared as he went for her throat.
    She lunged for the door, but there was nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide. No mercy was coming for her tonight. Only hell.

Chapter Two
    Even with his chest heaving from exertion, his weapons burning in his hands, steam rising from his bare torso from the humidity, and the earth ruthlessly torn up from the battle, Calydon warrior Kane Santiago wanted more.
    He needed more.
    He needed to keep going until sheer, raw exhaustion dragged him ruthlessly into the sleep that wouldn't come, until he was so drained that he couldn’t think any more.
    Kane had been driving himself relentlessly for eleven days straight, but it hadn't been enough to chase away the gaping void trying to consume him. It had been coming at him for months, this great pit of darkness, stalking him at every moment, but now it felt like his entire soul had been sucked from his body and thrust into a bottomless void of blackness.
    He didn't know what was coming for him or how to stop it. He didn't have answers. All he had was a scarred body that looked like an artist had used his flesh for a canvas and a knife for a paintbrush, and a thousand unanswered questions about a past he didn’t remember.
    Kane's skin looked like ancient designs had been carved into it,