A Gift of Three (A Shade of Vampire #42)(40)

“Guys?” I stammered. “What…What’s going on?”

They didn’t say anything, just continued to watch me. My body screamed out for me to stop moving—to turn around and run back as fast as I could toward the house. My mind tried to act rationally, moving my body forward. They were waiting for me, that was all.

They’re not my friends.

The thought came as a whisper through my mind, and I stopped moving. My limbs froze in complete terror. Field smiled at me, and it was all wrong.





Serena





[Hazel and Tejus’s daughter]




I heard a shrill cry to my left, up in the trees. I looked up, seeing a black figure jumping from one tree to another. It moved on its hands and feet, giving the impression of something that was almost human, but not quite. I stumbled back, my eyes shifting in horror to where Field and Jovi had stood. They’d vanished.

Before I could turn and run, there was another ear-splitting cry to my right. It sounded like a child screaming—a wail that was desperate, hungry. More figures, all moving on four legs, jumped from the trees. The boughs shook, and I could hear the soft thumps as they landed. This time I turned and started to move across the swampland, jumping to the small patches of land.

Another cry went up, closer this time, almost as it if was right behind me. I turned, silently screaming as a pair of fangs—large, and shining a brilliant white in the light of the moon—snapped next to my face. I could smell the putrid breath of the creature, like rotted meat, hot on my skin. In a split second it was gone, and the black figure jumped onto another branch.

I had been tricked—whatever these creatures were, they had lured me into the depths of the swamp to trap me. I started running again, my breath coming out in harsh pants as I dodged the roots of the trees in the soil, praying not to stumble. If I did, that would be it.

I could hear them easily keeping pace with my strides. They screamed down at me from the trees and splashed in the water behind me, some of them running through the water as they gained on me. I kept running in a straight line, heading to where I could just about see the house in the distance. Leaping over a wide stretch of water, I landed clumsily on the other side. I stumbled, just for a moment, and one of the creatures dropped down in front of me.

Its jaws opened in another shriek, its body crouched low on the ground, two arms in front of it, knuckles grazing on the earth, with its hind legs ready to leap up toward me. I couldn’t see the creature’s eyes—its face seemed to be entirely composed of jaw and muscle, attached to an almost bare skull, hairless like the rest of its body.

This time I screamed, dodging to the left and falling into a pool of water. I sent out a barrier of energy, trying to create a dome around myself that would block them. As soon as the barrier took form I realized it wouldn’t be enough—my mind was disordered and weak, too panicked to create anything that might save me. I scrambled to my feet, running on through the water to the nearest ground.

I heard their cries start up again, and the softer movements of them leaping up into the trees. They were enjoying the chase, toying with me, when I knew they could attack and kill me at any moment. I kept running on, seeing the edge of the swamp. Another howl came at me from the left, and I veered off the path to get away from it. I took another leap, but this time was yanked back—something had caught on my nightgown. I turned around, trying to pull it free at the same time. It was caught in the claws of one of them, and the creature yanked it back, swinging me around to face the others.

They had all crouched low in a semi-circle, as if patiently waiting for some signal to leap forward. Their cries had stopped, and all I could hear was my own panting and my heartbeat thudding in my chest. I spun around, back in the direction of the house, but silently, so silently I hadn’t heard a thing, more of them had crept around the back. They were crouched low too—waiting, watching.

I was completely surrounded.

Trying to focus my energy and adrenaline, I threw a barrier as forcefully as I could in the direction of the creatures that blocked the way to the house. It sent two of them reeling back, screeching again, excited that I was putting up a fight. I took my chance—running as fast as I could in the gap they’d left. They gave chase again. Branches whipped at my face and reeds at my legs, but I could barely feel the slices they were gouging into my skin.

Hardly looking where I was going, just praying that I could keep moving until I reached the lawn, I slammed into something hard and solid. Staggering back, I looked up to see the black eyes of the Druid.





Serena





[Hazel and Tejus’s daughter]




Shoving me aside, he threw a flurry of knives into the air—slim blades making contact with the ground and some of the tree trunks with heavy thuds. A split second after the knives had landed, flames flew up in their place, burning blue and silver as if the metal itself had ignited.

The creatures scurried to the tops of the trees that weren’t burning, screaming down at us—their jaws gnashing at the night’s air, running heavily with saliva. I watched in horror as one of them brushed past one of the flames, its body instantly becoming engulfed in the blue fire. It reared up on its hind legs, toppling backward, looking like a human being burned alive.

I turned my face away, ready to run, my legs shaking so much I didn’t know if I could move them. Without a word, the Druid lifted me roughly up into his arms as if I was no heavier than a feather, and started to run in the direction of the house. I tried to resist, insisting that I could run on my own, but he didn’t seem to be listening to a word I said.