I turned slightly in my seat.  Her eyes were wide and her face pale.  I sent a wave of reassurance and love over our link.

“How close are they?” I said, watching her.

“Very close.  Wait.  There’s a small opening.  Here!  Grey, turn here!”

Grey jerked the wheel hard, and I faced forward to watch the trees lining the old side road.  I spotted movement to the right a second before four half-shifted men sprinted from their cover.  They ran straight for our car, the leader jumping up on the hood and hitting the window with his fist.  As the glass splintered, Grey slammed on the brakes.

All hell broke loose.  The man on the hood went flying over the top of the car as we came to a stop.  Wolves poured from the trees.  The glass beside me folded in as an arm reached for me.  I growled, my half-shifted mouth and extended canines ready for the fight.  Claws raked my skin as the owner of the arm tried to grab my shirt.  I thrust the arm down, hearing a quick snap of bone.

Glass splintered around us as more crashed upon the car.  Arms reached through glass while others pulled at the windows to make bigger openings.  Grey growled and thrust his door open, using it to push men and wolves back.  Behind me, a passenger door opened.

Gabby screamed.  The sound tore through me.  I turned my head in time to watch her disappear into the crowd of urbat.  My control slipped.  The change consumed me as I burst from the car.  Men grabbed at me.  I clawed and savagely tore into anyone trying to stop me from reaching Gabby.

She yelled again, further away.  I roared.  A wave of love washed over our connection.

I fought harder.  Bones snapped and blood poured.  Still they came.  A wall of bodies determined to keep me from her.  Until, suddenly, the wall was gone.  And so was Gabby.

I howled at the same time someone else did.  Turning, I saw Grey near a gore covered Carlos.  Carlos was shaking, the tremors so violent, I wondered how he was still upright.  I realized I wasn’t much better off.  They’d taken Gabby.  I hadn’t protected her.

“We’ll find her, but we need to move, now,” Grey was shouting at Carlos.

Bodied littered the ground.  Sirens howled in the distance.  With a shudder, I pulled back the change.

“Here,” Bethi said, thrusting a package of baby wipes at me.  “I’ve learned it pays to start carrying something for cleanup with you guys around.”  Her voice warbled as she spoke, and I noted the long bloody blade in her other hand.

I took the package and quickly swiped the blood off my face.  Luke tossed some clothes at me.  I tugged on the pants then finished dressing as we moved away from the scene.

Carlos moved beside me.

“Where are they?” he asked.

I concentrated on the connection Gabby and I had.

“East of us.”

He nodded.

We stayed within the cover of the trees as we jogged east.  The sirens were a distant wail when we stepped out onto another street.

“We need to move faster,” Carlos said.

I glanced at Bethi, the one slowing the group down.

“Go.  Get them.  If you don’t, everything we’ve done so far will have been pointless.  They can’t have them.”

The girl was shaking hard now.  Seeing it scared me.

“Let’s go,” I said a second before I took off.  I didn’t care who witnessed my unnatural speed.  Only Gabby mattered.

*    *    *    *

My heart nearly stopped when we found a van pulled over on the side of a road.  Two men lay on the ground, and the redhead was slowly crumpling to join them.  Carlos rushed to her.  I barely paid them attention.  My focus was riveted on the interior of the van.  In the shadows, Gabby lay still on a bench seat.

“No.  Gabby.”

Moving into the van, I gently lifted her into my arms.  Her heartbeat reassured me, but only a little.  She was so pale and still, her shallow breathing barely moving her chest as I carefully stepped out of the van.

“What happened to her?” I said, looking at Isabelle.

The redhead had puke stains on her shirt and looked just as pale.  She also looked guilty as hell.

“Is she breathing?”

I nodded.

“I happened to her.  We couldn’t go with them.”

She sounded like Bethi.  I glanced at the men on the ground, the ones who had taken Gabby.  I wanted to kill them.  One of them moved, and I growled but before I could even think of setting Gabby down, Carlos stepped forward and finished them.

“Thank you,” I said softly.  He nodded once and went back to Isabelle.

It took some persuading, but once he had her in his arms, we ran back to the group.  The whole time, Gabby didn’t move.  Not even a twitch.  Fear clawed at me.  Would she ever wake up?  Just what had Isabelle done to her?

I’d watched Gabby lay sick and motionless too many times in the short time we’d been together.  The helpless fear that consumed me the first time it had happened hadn’t eased with each occurrence.  It had only gotten worse.  How many times could she lay in my arms like this before there came a time when she wouldn’t wake up?

Sam.  Gabby’s out again.

What do you mean?

Like at the Compound.  She’s breathing but not waking up.  She doesn’t look good.

We’re close, son.

A few seconds after we joined the others, three vehicles pulled up.  Winnifred and Sam both rushed over to check on Gabby.

“What happened?” Sam asked.

Before I could answer, Isabelle spoke up.

“I couldn’t kick open the door without help.  She’s not hurt.  Just the opposite.  She’s floating so high, it’ll be awhile before she’s back.  As long as she’s still breathing, she should be fine.”

Fine?  I didn’t like Isabelle’s attitude, or the fact that she was walking toward us.  She’d knocked Gabby down twice now.  It was hard to be mad at her, though, when I knew she’d saved Gabby by also knocking out the men who’d taken them.

“She’ll be okay.  I promise.  I accidently did this to my parents a ton of times while growing up.”  She absently swiped at her bleeding nose, watching me with her pain-filled in her eyes.

I nodded, realizing she felt guilty about what had happened to Gabby.

“We need to go,” her friend said.

“Clay, put Gabby in the back with you,” Sam said.  “Bethi and Luke, there’s room for you, too.”

While the rest figured out a new seating arrangement since we were down a vehicle, I climbed into the SUV.  Cradling Gabby in my arms, I waited for the rest to join us.

We drove for an hour before pulling over.

“What’s going on?” Bethi asked.

“Ethan is saying Isabelle needs to stop.”

Bethi quickly exited with Luke right behind her.  I stayed where I was, watching Gabby’s peaceful face.  I couldn’t feel anything over our link.  If she was “floating high” shouldn’t I feel something?  Gently, I brushed a piece of hair back from her cheek.

“I need you, Gabby.  You need to wake up.”

She continued as she was.  Unaware and unreachable.

Several minutes later, everyone was moving back to the vehicles.

“We need to listen to him,” Bethi said.  “I know Carlos is thinking he knows best for her, but in this case, he doesn’t.  Ethan is her friend.  When it comes to her ability, he obviously knows how to help her.  Carlos needs to chill out and start paying attention or she will die.”

I lifted my head to glance at Bethi.  She was talking with her hands and Luke was doing his best to contain most of the wild gestures.

“We understand,” Sam said from the front.  “Carlos is trying to be patient.”

“No, he’s not.  He’s going all caveman on her.  He can’t do that.  This Mate crap isn’t what’s important here.  Hasn’t anyone been listening to me?”

“Luv, of course we have.  Come here.”  Luke wrapped his arms around her, and she started to cry.

Turning away from them, I went back to watching Gabby, looking for any sign that she was ready to wake up.