“I’m okay.” Derek coughed.

“Are you still bleeding?”

He didn’t answer.

I grabbed his hand. Blisters bulged on his skin where the thorns had punctured it. The wounds still wept gray blood. The toxins from Nick’s magic were eating them from the inside out.

Desandra turned to me. Open gashes weeping gray blood marked her furry arms.

Behind us something screeched. The long ululating cry rose above the rooftops and hung somewhere between the sky and the city, braided from hunger, predatory glee, and mourning, as if the thing that made it knew exactly how horrible it was. Only a human being could be so self-aware. It chilled every bone in my body.

Ascanio whipped around. “What the hell is that?”

That was the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question.

“Can you walk?” Robert asked.

Derek staggered up and swayed on his feet.

I grabbed Cuddles’s reins and walked her over. “On the donkey.”

“I can walk.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Robert snapped.

“Get on the donkey. We don’t have the time for this shit.” I glared at Desandra. “You, too.”

Desandra vomited again. The stench hit me. My stomach tried its hardest to empty itself. I choked down the bile. “Obey me, damn it. Now!”

Desandra staggered to Cuddles and climbed into the saddle. Robert picked Derek up as if the seven-foot werewolf in warrior form weighed nothing and lifted him into the saddle like he was a child. Cuddles flicked her ears, unperturbed by two werewolves on her back.

Behind us, the howl rose again: heart-wrenching, hungry, filled with despair. Closer this time.

The trash on both sides of us moved. Dozens of small creatures dashed past us, their glowing eyes wide. Oh crap.

Cuddles brayed and dashed up the street, carrying the two werewolves with her. Robert, Ascanio, and I chased her. Pain stabbed my side with each step, as if my cracked ribs had turned into spikes and pierced my insides. I clenched my teeth. Fuck it. I’d beaten a lot of pain before; I would beat this one, too.

Behind us, a forlorn cry shook the night. I turned to look over my shoulder.