I turned my pleading gaze toward
Will. “Just once more. Come on.”
“Jane—”
“Please!”
He sighed and turned his back to
me. “One, two…”
I didn’t wait but bolted,
determined to do better this time. They’d thought I was a bother, and I had
been for two weeks. I didn’t miss the looks of pity from Kelly, or the glares
from Tony and the others. I was holding them back. I would prove them all
wrong. And whether Will could help me or not, I would figure out how to save my
friends and family. Or I would die trying.
The sharp pain in my side pulled
me up short. I stumbled, gritted my teeth, but continued. I would not give up.
The lives of my family depended on me winning. Will and his friends had one
goal in mind…survive. But I had another, not that I was going to share my plan with
them. They’d try to talk me out of it, or worse, forbid me. But I was going to
save my friends and family. Save them all, even if I had to do it alone.
I raced on my toes, making sure
not to leave footprints, and zig-zagged through the trees, leaping over fallen
logs. Will said people instinctively went right. I started to go left, but
paused. Yeah, he was teaching me the basics, but I also knew survival had a lot
to do with knowing your opponent, and Will would try to read my mind. I spun
around and darted right.
A few steps down the trail and my
legs were trembling so much that I found myself tripping over my own feet. At a
deer trail, I paused to lean against a beech tree, the bark smooth and cool
against my cheek. I heard no footsteps, no breaking branches, only the harsh
catch of my breath.
Slowly, I moved across the trail
and into a patch of brush. Where was he? Surely he should have found me by now.
Gently, I lowered down, peering through the spindly branches as I awaited
Will’s arrival. I was too damn exhausted to run. A surprise attack was my only
option, and Will wouldn’t expect me to fight.
A high-pitched howl pierced the
evening air. Although it sounded merely like one of the wolves or wild dogs
that I used to see roaming the hills outside the compound, the fine hairs on
the back of my neck still stood on end. Perhaps it was stupid of me to be out
here alone.
The snap of a branch behind me
had me stiffening in surprise. My determination quickly gave way to
disappointment. Would I ever win this game, or was it my lot in life to be killed
by a beautiful one? Bracing my hands on the tree in front of me, I managed to
stand.
“Well done, Will.” I turned to
face him. “How’d you…”
But it wasn’t Will’s familiar
warm hazel eyes that found me. No, an ice-blue gaze pinned me in place. As a patch
of fading sunlight pierced the trees, catching the stark paleness of that scar
across his cheek, I realized who stood there.
Thanatos.
I froze, my breath held. All the
nightmares I’d tried so hard to forget returned. Suddenly I was back in my
compound again, under Thanatos’ watchful gaze.
“Her, I pick her.”
He had started this endless
nightmare. Every drop of blood spilled, every death, every moment of fear that
I’d endured had been because of him.
“I’m sorry,” he said, taking a
hesitant step forward. “I didn’t mean to…”
Terrified, I spun around and burst
through the brush. My rational mind fled as I ran. He was a beautiful one. A
monster. He would kill me. He would kill us all. I had to warn Will and the
others. At the least, I had to lead Thanatos away from the group. How many
other beautiful ones were with him? Was this one of the infamous hunting
parties Will had warned me about?
“Jane!” he called out, close, so
close.
I knew in that moment I would
never outrun him. Barely pausing, I reached down and scooped up a branch. The
moment I felt his presence and saw him come up beside me out of the corner of
my eye, I turned and swung.
He ducked, but I wasn’t about to
give up. I dropped the branch, spun around and darted left through a patch of
elm trees. “Will!” I screamed, hoping I could at least warn the others. “Will, run!”
Thanatos suddenly hit me from
behind, sending us both sprawling to the ground. His heavy body pinned me to
the dirt, so like how they had pinned Sally to the tabletop before ripping out
her throat that instinctively I opened my mouth and screamed.
He slapped his hand over my
lips, those ice-blue eyes glaring down at me. “Stop screaming, you idiot. You
might attract them.”
Attract who? Will and the
others? The images of death and blood fled, and my anger surged to the
forefront. I needed that anger, clung to it in order to survive. Yeah, I hated
myself for screaming and panicking, for falling back into that helpless girl.
But mostly I hated him. I grabbed the dagger on my right thigh and swung my arm
upward. Thanatos rolled off me just at the right moment, jumping to his feet.
I surged upright, dagger held
high.
He was breathing harshly, the
anger apparent in his flashing pale eyes and the whiteness of that scar across
his cheek. I’d never thought to see him again, rarely thought about him, even
wondered if he’d been a dream. Having Thanatos so close was too much, as if I
relived that evening over and over… the day Sally had been murdered right
before my eyes.
“What the hell is your problem?”
he demanded. He didn’t wear the colorful silky outfits of the other beautiful
ones, but instead wore dark and dreary clothing similar to what we wore. For
some reason the clothing annoyed me, as if he was trying to distance himself
from the beautiful ones and pretend to be one of us.
“My problem?” I repeated through
clenched teeth. “My problem is you, you murderer!”
The sound of someone crashing
through the vegetation had me stiffening in surprise. Thanatos didn’t even bat
an eyelash.
“It’s merely Will,” he muttered.
How he knew, I wasn’t sure. But
I believed him. I doubted a beautiful one would make so much noise. No, they’d
be stealth and quiet like the tigers I’d read about in one of my books.
“Jane?” I heard Will’s voice a
moment later. My relief was immediate, but I didn’t dare turn my back on Thanatos.
“What’s wrong?”
“Him! He’s one of them!”
Thanatos stepped toward us. Unable
to hold back any longer, I lunged forward with the dagger.
He jumped back, a primitive
growl escaping his lips. “Damn it, Will, control her before I do!”
Startled, I almost dropped my
knife. So, he and Will were on a first name basis? I flushed, feeling as if I’d
been duped. How wonderful for them. I wasn’t so easy to charm. I narrowed my
eyes, not trusting him in the least.
Blood
drinker. Murderer.
A variety of hateful names burst through my mind, but I
managed to keep them to myself.
“Jane,” Will said soothingly.
“He’s not like them.”
I almost laughed at that
ridiculous statement. Yeah, maybe he’d saved me after all, and it hadn’t been a
dream. But he was still one of them, and he’d let hundreds, probably thousands,
die.
“Just calm down.” Will walked
hesitantly forward, placing himself between me and Thanatos as if he meant to
protect the blood drinker.
Frustrated, I dropped my arm to
my side. “What is this?” I demanded. “Why are you protecting him after everything
his people have done?”
Thanatos released a wry laugh.
“Protecting me?”
I didn’t bother to glance at
him. He didn’t deserve my attention. “What’s this about, Will?”
“Will?” Kelly cried out. He
looked almost relieved when she and Tony came panting up the hill, interrupting
us. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s all right,” he said to
them. “She’s not hurt.”
I wasn’t hurt, at least not
physically. As if that made all the difference. They knew as well as I did that
mentally I was a mess and it was the blood drinker’s fault. His fault that I
couldn’t sleep at night. His fault that for two weeks I’d been a shell of the
person I’d once been.
“What happened?” Kelly asked in
that motherly voice she used on the children.
“Him!” I pointed my dagger at
Thanatos, ignoring the flash of anger in his eyes. He reminded me of a snake,
coiled and ready to attack. Not to be trusted…ever. “He’s one of them.”
“Yes, Jane.” Will held up his
hands as if to ward me off, as if I was the threat here. “But he’s on our
side.”
Confused, I shook my head. “He’s
a blood drinker. He’s a beautiful one. He’s the enemy.”
Will sighed and raked his hands
through his hair, looking completely flustered. “It’s not a clear-cut issue.
Yeah, he was born there, but he’s not one of them.”
“Oh really?” I shoved my dagger
back into the sheath, my hands trembling with anger, annoyance, and yes, even
fear.
Traitors
, I wanted to scream at
them. They’d dishonored the memory of the dead by merely being near him. “Because
I think it’s pretty clear. He’s a beautiful one, therefore he’s the enemy. He’s
watched plenty of people die. Who knows, maybe he hasn’t killed them, but he
certainly didn’t do anything to stop them.”
“Because I don’t want him to!”
Will snapped in frustration.
Stunned, I merely stared at him.
Surely he didn’t mean what he’d said. Or maybe I’d misheard him. “I don’t
understand.”
Tony snickered as if he expected
nothing less of me. I ignored him.
“He’s our inside source.”
I threw my arms wide. “And so
innocent people die, and it doesn’t matter to you?”
Will frowned. “Don’t be stupid.”
His words hurt, not that I would
admit as much.
“That enemy saved your life,”
Kelly said, looking just as upset by my unwillingness to accept Thanatos. Was I
the only one who saw the blood drinker for what he truly was? “He brought you
to us.”
“So what?” I wanted to laugh at
the absurdity of it all. They were friends with a beautiful one. They trusted
him. Slowly, I looked around the group, studying their sincere faces, trying to
make sense of the situation, and realization hit…they were actually taking his
side over mine.
“He’s a blood drinker. A
murderer. He’s one of them,” I hissed. “He let my friends die, people I cared
about.” I could feel the burn of tears in my eyes, but I refused to cry in
front of them. I’d looked weak enough in the past two weeks. But what I blamed
him for most of all was that when I’d wanted to help Sally, he’d forced me to
leave. I would never forgive him for the guilt I carried.
Still, they remained by his
side. And Thanatos held no expression what so ever on his beautiful face. He
didn’t even had the decency to mock me. Damn him. He was the reason I had been
chosen, the reason Sally had died. He, and his people, were the reason we were
hunted down like animals, killed without second thought. He himself had torn
the head from his friends without showing an ounce of remorse. What sort of man
could do such a thing? What sort of man could stand by year after year,
pointing out people for slaughter and then watching as they were murdered,
drained of life?
A monster. He was a monster.
“As far as I’m concerned he’s
the enemy and I won’t stay here with him.”
“Thane is our friend, Jane,”
Will said softly, but leaving no room for argument. “He helps us, risks his
life for us. We won’t kick him out of the group.”
“Fine.” There was one thing they
didn’t know about me, I was stubborn. Very stubborn. “Then I’m leaving.”
With that said, I spun around
and started back toward the camp to get my bag. I didn’t need them anyway.
After all, we had different agendas, and would eventually part. We were merely separating
sooner than I’d hoped. They were here to survive, I was here to protect my
family and friends, no matter what the cost. And the only way to protect them
was to kill the beautiful ones.
“Jane!” Will called out, the
shock in his voice annoyed me. How, exactly, had he expected me to respond? They
seemed to think I was the one acting irrationally, when they were the ones
befriending a blood drinker. I ignored his call. I ignored Kelly’s cry, begging
me to return. I shoved aside a low-hanging branch and found the trail back to
camp.
Yeah, maybe I’d die out there on
my own.
But I’d rather die alone than
work with a beautiful one.
Chapter
5
I knew I was being watched.
Not that I heard the intruder.
No, it was more of a sensation: the tightening of my gut, a shiver that
whispered over my body and raised the fine hairs on the back of my neck. It was
a
knowing
.
While living in the compound, I
would have dismissed the feeling. But now even the tiniest oddity yelled at me.
And this, whatever it was, definitely screamed. I swallowed hard, my hands
beginning to tremble as I racked my brain, trying to come up with a way out of
the situation, preferably with my life still intact.
After only about thirty minutes
of walking, exhaustion had forced me to stop at the river to get a drink and
cool off. Once again I found myself cursing the fact that I had done nothing
but sit those first two weeks. If only I’d accepted my fate immediately. If
only I’d started training that first day.
The sun had almost set and the
woods were an eerie gray in color, the birds loud as they chirped their good
nights. Their songs and the gurgle of rushing water made it hard to hear. Will
was right, I was an idiot. It was too much too soon for my weak body, and I
knew too little to traipse out into the world on my own.
The only thing I could do was hope
it was a deer, and if it wasn’t…flee.
But I didn’t run because I had a
river in front of me, and the hill and whoever followed were behind. Another
stupid move on my part. Instead, I cupped my trembling hands, dipped them into
the clear stream, and sipped the cool water, waiting for the attack. My fingers
itched to grab the dagger attached to my thigh, but I didn’t want to make a move
too soon. Common sense told me a surprise attack was the best and only option.