Hunted

Chapter 50: The Battle, Part 2

I was still kind of frozen in my state of processing that I actually pulled off sending those knives after those wolves when Francesca let out a breathy laugh. A breathy laugh that turned into a full blown laugh. She clutched her arm where the werewolf dug its claws into her and shook her head. "That was incredible."

"Are you okay?" I asked, wondering if her or the little boy's life was more at stake here.

"I'm fine," she nodded. "Katie was getting something for the little boy when the wolves showed up. They must've found a way to sneak by," she said, turning and walking towards the porch. She froze and her eyes widened. "Kora, behind you!"

I turned and there was someone behind me, arm raised with a knife coming down right towards me. The glass of juice slipped through my hand and an instinct I didn't fully know was there until that moment, kicked in, and my threads wove together like a shield in front of me, stopping the knife inches from my head. The woman holding the knife frowned in confusion and tried again but the threads moved, blocking that hit as well. She backed up and tilted her head to the side then slid the knife into a holster at her side. She raised her hand and with it, threads of her own. Oh shit, another witch? I needed to learn how to tell the difference between everyone.

Her threads came towards mine, wiggled through the interwoven threads and towards me but mine wrapped back around and cut hers off. She gasped as if my threads cutting hers off somehow caused her pain and I looked down at the orange juice spilled all over the floor.

"I needed that," I said, narrowing my eyes at her. My woven threads pulled back towards me and snapped forward, knocking into her and sending her flying back, through the doorway and against the wall in the hallway.

Damn, my threads were stronger than I realized.

I carefully walked towards her while she groaned and grabbed her head. Francesca ran in the front door and the girl scrambled to her feet, taking the knife out and throwing it towards Francesca. I remembered the way my magic wove together for me but sent it in front of Francesca instead, blocking the knife from hitting her. I looked over at the intruder and sighed. "Dude, I just killed five people and I'm still processing. Please don't make us hurt you," I said, holding my hands up in surrender.

She didn't listen. She pulled another knife and lunged at Francesca. I directed my magic to the first thing I saw available which was a huge potted plant by the doorway. My threads lifted it and smacked it against the intruder's head, knocking her to the ground. I really should've followed that through because then the pot itself crashed to the floor and cracked.

"At this point the amount of money I owe Addie and Xander for breaking their stuff is astronomical," I sighed, staring at the cracked pot.

Francesca just looked at me with wide eyes then ran towards me, pulling me into a tight hug. "You are amazing," she said. "It's coming to you just as naturally as I hoped it would."

"I killed people," I informed her. I wasn't sure why I informed her, she witnessed it. I just was still processing, I guess.

"You protected me," she said, pulling back from the hug and setting her hands on my shoulders, looking at me seriously. "Don't let guilt take over. They started this, not you. You're only doing what you have to do to protect the people around you."

"Right," I nodded, taking a deep breath. Well, at least thanks to Addie I'd already witnessed someone shot in front of me so the shock wasn't as terrible as it might've been. I also may have been operating on adrenaline to keep myself going without thinking about it too hard. "Is she...?" I asked, looking around Francesca at the woman on the floor.

"It was a heavy pot," she said. "It's all right. Now we know how they snuck by."

"She was a witch?" I guessed.