She shook her head and staggered towards Jonny before dropping to the ground beside him. "Jonny!" she called urgently and shook him. "Jonny! I need you to wake up!"
The Black God moaned.
She slapped him, and his eyes flew open.
"I need to know where the other knife is. The one … the one you tossed on the beach." Her words were slurring.
He struggled to sit up and collapsed onto his back. "Ash? What're you doing here?"
"Not now. Where is it?" Please don't say the beach!
Jonny shifted one hand towards his cargo pocket. He fumbled with the button before opening it. Two knives, including the bone one, dropped onto the ground.
"Okay. You need to … to destroy this … one." Ashley tried twice to grip the bone knife with clumsy hands.
Jonny reached for it. Rather than bend or break it, he sent a charge of red power through it. The bone knife shattered and crumbled into dust. He gasped, some life returning to his features.
"What the fuck just happened?" he asked.
Ashley checked the wounds in his arm. Her pants were soaked with his blood, and he still wasn't healing despite the bone weapons being gone.
"Where is he?" he whispered.
"He's here." Thus far, Valon hadn't recovered, but he would soon. "You're not healing."
"Too weak. I can heal or use what's left of my power and hope it's enough to keep him at bay."
She glanced towards the forest, her internal alarms warning her of danger she couldn't see. Valon had hundreds of vamps surrounding them. Jonny was recovering from the magic of the bone weapons but wasn't strong enough to hold off an army of vamps. "Can you fight?"
"Maybe."
"You need some uh, food," she said awkwardly. "Will that help you?"
"Don't even think about it, Ash. You're too weak. You shouldn't even be here."
"Whatever. Charles told me you wanted to send me away. You're a dick, Jonny." She lifted the knife to her throat and touched its razor sharp edge to her skin.
His head flew up, his eyes blazing red. With strength she didn't think he had, he snatched her by the neck and hauled her close.
"Whoa! Careful," she said, flinching as more of his lightning tore through her. "Just …" Anything she wanted to say died on her lips. The man holding her wasn't Jonny but his inner predator, a creature ruled by instinct rather than logic. He was dying and ravenous.
"Ash." Even his voice was inhuman. "You need to leave. Now."
Her frame was tense, her instinct for survival screaming for her to run. She reined in her panic. "I'm not going to let you die here, Jonny. You need to feed," she said. "These woods are teeming with vamps waiting to kill both of us. "And … I'm about to become completely useless to you anyway. I have an episode about to hit me."