Chapter 190
Clementine:
After Suki cleverly diverted attention to Valerie’s body, Jessie could no longer stand it. She opened the door and ran out again, trying to fight the fleshmingos off her sister’s corpse.
Before, it had been hidden in the bushes, but because Jessie had found her and dragged her out, she now lay on the side of the road. The fleshmingos heard Jessie coming and rushed toward her. There were six of them. Jessie had no chance of fighting them alone.
I grabbed my sword and ran for the door.
“Clementine!” Troy shouted after me, but I didn’t stop or look back. Even if Matthias hadn’t asked me to take care of Jessie, I still would have gone after her.
One life might not mean much to the others, but I knew how much it meant to the people who loved her, to those who truly knew her. I sprinted faster than Jessie, trying to overtake her so I could reach the fleshmingos first.
Behind me, I heard more footsteps. Troy, Haiden, Yorick, and even Oriana were rushing out. We formed a line between Jessie and the fleshmingos, swords out, swinging at them.
One by one, we fought. They managed to bite us here and there, but their long, unwieldy beaks made them dangerous even when we faced them head-on.
They raised them high and tried to strike from behind, forcing us to stay cautious as we fought with everything we had.
I glanced back at Jessie. She was sitting beside her sister’s body, holding her in her lap and sobbing. Of course, it was a twin bond. The two had always been deeply connected.
I only wished I had paid more attention earlier. When we accidentally left her behind, I should have stopped the train and made sure she boarded with me.
That guilt weighed on me now, and I fought with all my strength. Every fleshmingo that tried to get close to her, I struck down, cutting off their heads. I would not let them touch Jessie.
As we kept fighting, I realized the sky was filling with darkness until it covered the world again. We all knew what that meant.
Screeches and screams echoed from every direction, rushing toward us. We stood in a line, swords ready, staring at the danger ahead.
I began to notice the Wendigos’ patterns. I recognized a few of them by the marks left when I had tried to cut their skin, or when the others had attacked them.
It seemed there weren’t infinite Wendigos, but there were still far too many. And if we didn’t stop them, they would keep multiplying.
I counted four at that moment. They darted from tree to tree, leaping unpredictably. They never ran in a straight line, and that made them even more frightening.
One of them ran faster than the rest. She leapt high into the air, and as she began to descend, I realized she would land on all of us. That was how massive she was.
“Hold up your swords!” I shouted, and we all raised our blades. She couldn’t react in time. The moment she crashed onto our swords, she screeched, and the force of her weight knocked us down as she twisted above our heads.
She landed behind us, even behind Jessie. I could tell we had only pierced her skin.
“We need fire!” I yelled, warning those in the mansion that we needed help. We had come out with the wrong weapons.
I didn’t expect much support from inside, but I was shocked when everyone started to show up carrying burning wood or anything else they could set on fire.
“Come on, Jessie, we need to go.” At that point, I realized we would keep fighting endless waves of monsters until she returned to the mansion.
I slipped my hands under her arms to drag her up, but she refused to let go of her sister’s body.
“Jessie, please, it’s dangerous here!” I shouted as I pried her hands loose. She screamed and struggled, refusing to move, but I pulled her from behind, dragging her with me.
My squadmates were quick to shield us. They surrounded me on all sides, fighting both fleshmingos and Wendigos.
But once the Wendigos’ screeches grew louder, the fleshmingos began to retreat. Even they feared these creatures.
Mira, Sebastian, and Renee were setting the Wendigos on fire. Jessie, however, forced herself free by sliding out from under my arms.
She rushed back toward the fight, and we all stopped, chasing after her again.
While Oriana fought one of the Wendigos with a burning piece of wood, I ran over, grabbed another from her, lit it, and struck a Wendigo on the back. I wanted to show the others that they didn’t just have to scare them.
If they hit them directly, they would ignite. That was how easily they burned. One by one, three Wendigos went up in flames.
I grabbed Jessie again. At this point, we had to retreat. Screeching noises echoed all around, and I feared more Wendigos were on their way.
“We need to go!” I shouted.
We were running out of fire, so we started running back toward the mansion. Haiden held Jessie’s hand on one side, and I held the other. We were practically dragging her. Then, as he often did, Haiden pulled her over his shoulder. But this time, she bit him. She sank her teeth into him so hard, using all the strength of her wolf, that he dropped her.
“Damn it!” he yelled.
Even as an alpha, he was badly hurt. She had bitten him in a vulnerable spot on the neck. He tried to grab her again, but she clawed at him with her werewolf strength. Then she began to transition, and I froze in disbelief.
She turned on us. When Troy tried to calm her and pull her inside, she bit him on the arm. The fleshmingos had returned, charging in our direction. I saw one of them sink its beak into Sebastian’s back, knocking him to the ground and pinning him there.