Succubus Happens

Chapter Fourteen

I don’t know how long it’s been since we’ve started driving. This kidnapping thing is not really something that I want to be aware of. I think back to when I first met Carter and how nice he was to me. There’s so much that I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish if it weren’t for him. And now I don’t know if I’m ever going to see him again. For all I know, they’re probably going to kill me. I don’t want to die without being able to tell Carter that I love him.

I still can’t make out what Alex and Natalie are saying to one another. No doubt they’re discussing who gets to make the first cut. Granted, now that Alex is over town lines, he can just turn into a wolf and kill me like that.

I remember the drive up here and how much nothingness there was. Just a flat expanse of land for miles and miles. How would they hide the body? My body? I shudder at the thought of how a Gemini and a Werewolf would hide all evidence that they’d murdered someone.

I wonder if they’ve ever gotten away with something like this before. I’d like to believe that if they had, Aurelia would have kicked them out long ago. At the very least, I thought I would have heard about it from someone. In small towns, there are generally no secrets. Except of course, the major ones that are required to be kept from humans. Like my parents and the others in town that don’t know the truth about North Grove.

I have to just remember that they’re coming for me. I don’t know where we are or how far we are from North Grove. Chances are I might be dead before they reach us.

When the trunk finally opens, it’s dark out, which either means it’s night or early morning. I honestly wouldn’t be able to tell the difference at this point.

“Evening, sleepyhead,” Alex says, giving me a sickeningly sweet smile.

So it’s night. That means we’re probably only a hundred or so miles away from North Grove and the chance of anyone finding me is slim to none. What if Carter went in the wrong direction?

Alex reaches in and pulls me out the trunk and lowers the gag from my mouth, placing a bottle of water to my lips. He’s being such a gracious kidnapper. It makes me wonder what Natalie is like. She’s either sleeping, or just not interested in spending time with me like Alex clearly is. “I’ve got doughnuts if you want something substantial to eat.”

“Why?” I ask, once he’s lowered the bottle. My voice is a little rough due to its misuse over the last few hours. I clear my throat.

He looks confused. “Because you’re going to be running, and it wouldn’t be fair if you have no energy.”

Running? I look around at my surroundings and I take note that we are definitely not anywhere near North Grove anymore. We’re parked on the side of the road next to a hiker’s trail that leads into a forest. A freaking forest. I look back at Alex who’s holding a glazed doughnut in his hands and my entire body runs cold.

“You’re going to hunt me, aren’t you?” I ask, my voice quiet.

Alex laughs. “You really are a smart girl,” he says. “Here, take a bite.”

He pushes the doughnut to my lips and when my stomach growls, I know that I can’t avoid eating it. Given the situation, I have to assume that he wouldn’t poison me before sending me off into the woods. If he wants to keep it fair like he said, then he’d have to give me my best shot. And my best shot doesn’t include throwing up on the side of a trail. God, how am I going to outrun a werewolf? How is anyone expected to survive a werewolf chase?

Oh.

Right.

They’re not.

I’m not.

I finish off the pastry within a few bites and Alex holds the water up to my lips again. After I finish drinking, I meet his eyes. I’m not scared anymore. I’ve accepted this. I’ve accepted death.

“How much time do I get?” I ask him.

“Until I let you run off?” he asks. I nod. “Well, tonight is the full moon, which gives you a few hours at most. I’m stuck as a human until the moon hits its apex. But once that happens, I’m going to be coming for you.”

“I don’t understand,” I tell him. “Why would you do all this just to kill me? What did I ever do to you, anyway?”

Alex’s eyebrows come together and he’s looking at me like he’s really surprised that I don’t know the answer. “You turned me down, Daph.”

“That must happen every day,” I say.

“Not to me.”

“So the right thing to do is to kill me?” I ask.

“This isn’t about doing the right thing.”

“Clearly,” I snort.

Alex narrows his eyes at me before slapping me across the face. The blow sends a stinging sensation all the way through my body and I know now the best thing to do is shut up. Maybe that’s why he gagged me in the first place.

“Now that’s just a preview of what’s to come,” Alex says, his lips curled up in a sneer. He reaches around me and unbinds my hands and I bring them forward, shaking them out to try to bring some life back into them. Alex ungraciously shoves an unopened bottle of water into my hands. “Clock starts now. Run.”

I don’t waste any time. I take off running for the direction of the trees because I’m sure if I tried to run toward any type of civilization they’d find me and then slaughter the town. So I run as fast as my legs can carry me, which isn’t that fast. I inherited my mother’s genes, which mean my father’s athleticism did not take. I had never been ungrateful of that fact before, but now, it’s the only thing I wish I had.

That’s a lie. The only thing I wish I had was a weapon. That’s also a lie. I wish I had Carter. Carter would be able to protect me. I’d be safe with Carter. Then again, maybe he wouldn’t want to protect me anymore after today. Thinking about him and all of the could-have-been statements are the only things keeping me from actively falling apart. It’s keeping me focused. But then I fall over a root in the ground and skid across the forest floor. Pain spreads through my entire body and I lay there, trying to find the breath that has been knocked out of me. I pant and roll to my back so that I can assess the damage. My jeans are torn and both of my knees are bloody. My face stings, so I’m sure there are scratches there as well.

Well s**t.

I don’t have time for this. I take another deep breath before getting to my feet and I continue to run. I run until I can physically run no more, and I rest against a tree, trying to catch my breath.

There’s no time for resting. Not when I’m running for my life. I look up and see the moon through the treetops. Carter told me that it takes a good fifteen minutes to fully transform into a wolf once the moon is at its highest. So I’m guessing I have about twenty before I’m dead. Which means, I really have to find some kind of place to hide. In the middle of a forest. That should be easy.

I try to get my eyes to focus enough so that I can check out my surroundings and then it hits me. I can climb. I look up at the tree that I’m leaning against and wonder if I could get up high enough to evade Alex. I contemplate for only a few moments. I don’t really have much else of a choice. I stuff the water bottle into my jacket pocket and look at the base of the tree to see if I can find any rocks to take with me. I stuff a few of them into the pocket of my jeans and I jump up to grab to first branch.

☽

It takes me about eighteen minutes to climb to the highest point of the tree. It would have taken me fifteen, but my upper body strength was never what my dad wished it was. It was difficult to pull myself up, but let me tell you, I’m sure my eighth grade PE teacher would have been impressed with my pull ups tonight.

I have no idea how high up I am. Or even if a werewolf knows how to climb a tree. If this turns out to be worthless, then at least I’m postponing my death as long as I can. I hug the trunk of the tree as I try to catch my breath. At least there is no more running to be had for the night. I look down at my bracelet and play with the fabric. I wonder if they’ll find remnants of this bracelet when they come looking for my body. The thought sends a chill down my spine and I close my eyes, resting against the cool bark of the tree. My entire body stiffens when I hear a wolf howl.

So it begins.

Alex is fully transformed and is now coming for me. I feel the panic start to set in because I know that if he can climb the damn tree, I’m dead for. And even if he can’t as a wolf, when the sun comes up he’ll be a man again and just kill me with his bare hands.

So either way, I’ll dead come morning. That’s a real nice sentiment there, Daph. Good job.

I hear a rustle in the leaves and I realize that it’s not just the wind. It’s what’s causing the wind. Alex is running through the forest trying to find me and the closer he gets, the faster my heart pounds in my chest. I wonder what Natalie is doing while Alex is on this great big hunt. I wonder if she thinks she’s going to live happily ever after now that I’ll be out of the picture.

It’s only a few moments later when I hear the snarling down below. I hold my breath and out of morbid curiosity, I look down. Alex, in complete huge wolf form, is staring up at me and practically foaming at the mouth. He jumps up, aiming for the first branch and I let out an involuntary scream, even though he doesn’t actually have thumbs to grab the branch. Alex lets out a bark that highly resembles his laugh. Great, now I’ve got a laughing wolf down below who’s planning on killing me. I honestly don’t think this night could get worse. I take one of the rocks and throw them down at Alex. It doesn’t do much, considering his size, but ultimately just pisses him off.

Another howl cuts through the night, but it doesn’t come from down below. It comes from the mouth of the forest. Why do I have to keep saying things like that? Obviously my night could get worse and is about to! There are more wolves coming for me. Wonderful.

A whine comes from Alex and I glance down at him. He’s nervous, and I can tell that because his tail is between his legs. These definitely aren’t friendly wolves. Maybe this land already belongs to another pack. Alex lets out another howl and then glances up at me before taking off running. I watch him disappear through the trees and then am surprised when four more wolves tear through the forest after him.

I don’t know that much about wolves, so I don’t know what normal behavior is if there’s an intruder on someone’s territory, but it seems like odd behavior.

I hear growling and snarls and a lot of whimpers of pain. They’re attacking Alex. They might be killing him. I know that he was planning to hunt me, but if they would do that him, what would those wolves do to me? Some part of my messed up psyche, I am okay with Alex killing me, but wolves I don’t know? That’s apparently where I draw the line? God, I’m so messed up.

I hug the tree tighter and know that in a few moments, after the group kill is over, they’ll be coming for me. I close my eyes and wait for the sounds to die down. And once they do, I hear a whimper coming from just below. I open one eye and peek down, seeing a lone wolf staring up at me. I can tell it’s not Alex by the way it’s not snarling at me. It begins to paw at the tree and then every so often, it looks up at me again.

I’m not wrong…this is really odd behavior. And then it hits me. Kate said they were coming. Is that…could that really be….

There’s a whistle that comes from my right. A human whistle.

“Come on, boys, get your clothes,” a familiar voice calls out. Aurelia! Oh my god, Aurelia is here!

I look down at the wolf who seems to be grinning at me before taking off in the direct of Aurelia’s voice. A few moments later, Carter is running through the clearing and toward my tree, wearing only his basketball shorts.

“Oh my god,” my voice comes out as a whisper, because I’m far too emotional to actually speak. I let go of the branch I’m holding onto and start to climb down. But I’m shaking so bad, I slip when I reach for the next branch. I let out a scream, expecting to hit the hard forest floor again, but I hit something else. Carter. He caught me.

We stare at each other for what feels like forever until I throw my arms around him, burying my face in his neck.

“Whoa! Easy there,” He says, holding me tightly against him.  I can’t keep back the flood of tears that overwhelmed me since I realized he was here. “It’s okay. I’ve got you, Daph.”

“I didn’t mean it,” I sob into his shoulder. “Any of it. I didn’t mean it.”

“I know you didn’t,” Carter says, his voice soothing. He sits down on the ground and leans up against the trunk of the tree with me still in his arms. “It’s okay.”

I pull back to look at him. “If you knew, why did you run off?”

“I know now, but I didn’t know at the time. Stupid, stupid, emotions,” Carter mutters, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against my own. After a moment he’s looking at me again. “I didn’t remember that you were wearing your bracelet until I got to the cabin.”

“You ran all the way to the cabin?” I ask, surprised. That’s on the complete opposite side of town.

Carter shrugs. “I was not in any type of mood to be around anyone.”

“Neither was I.”

“What did she tell you?” Carter asks. I didn’t think he was going to let this go.

“Uhm…” I don’t want him to know just how stupid I am.

Carter narrows his eyes at me. “Daphne, I think the time for keeping secrets is past.”

I let out a breath and my shoulders fall. “She said that if I didn’t break up with you that you’d be dead within a week.”

“And you believed her?”

“They haven’t really given me any reason not to believe her,” I say. “She had obviously tried to Doubt me for a reason and I wasn’t not in a place to…well, doubt her.”

He bites his lip and reaches up to brush my hair behind my ear. “So you sacrificed yourself for me?”

“I didn’t know they were going to kidnap me!” I protest. “I was just trying to make it so I didn’t lose you.”

“By breaking up with me?” Carter raises a brow at me.

It’s my turn to narrow my eyes at him. “You’re teasing me!”

He laughs. “Yes,” he says. “But you sacrificed yourself to save me?”

I nod once.

“Don’t you ever do that again.”

“What?” I ask, shock filling my voice. I thought I had done a good thing.

“I’d die a million times before I’d let something happen to you.” Carter pulls me into another hug, clutching me tight against him. “I thought I was going to lose you tonight. I could feel everything you were feeling the entire way up here. I almost shifted three times in the car.”

“That would have been messy.”

“It would have.”

“Wait, how are you human right now? The moon is still out.”

“And that is why Aurelia is here,” Carter replies. “I didn’t want to have to wait until morning to communicate with you, so she’s…distracting the magic of the moon.”

“Distracting?”

I feel Carter shake his head. “Don’t ask. It’s a long story.”

I don’t question him. From what I’ve heard about Aurelia, there is a lot that I still don’t know about her.

I pull back from Carter and look up at him. “You felt everything?”

“When I wake you wake.”

“And what I feel, you feel?”

Carter nods.

“That doesn’t seem entirely fair.”

“I don’t care about fair, Daphne,” he tells me, pressing his lips to my forehead. “You’re alive, and that’s the only thing that matters.”

I start to smile and then meet his eyes. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, sunshine,” he says.

“Good,” I tell him. “Can we please go home?”

Carter’s eyes light up when he hears the word. Home. It’s finally home to me, because that’s where Carter is. And I don’t ever want to be where Carter isn’t. He laughs. “Yeah, baby we can.”

Carter presses his lips to mine and everything from the past few hours melts away. I am completely his and he is mine.

I pull away when I feel a sting on my wrist. Unsure if the pain from my fall is finally caught up with me, I pull away and look down at it. And what I see confuses me.

“What’s wrong?” Carter asks.

There’s tattoo of a moon on my left wrist. I stare at it in shock. Intimate moment obviously doesn’t mean what I think it means.

“Uhm…” I shake my head, unable to find words. So instead, I grab his wrist and flip it over. There, on his skin, is a tattoo of the sun. I look up at his face and he’s grinning.

“Wow,” he murmurs, running his fingers over the marking.

“Is this what I think it is?”

“Depends on what you think it is,” he responds.

I bite down on my lower lip. “Are these soul mate tattoos?” I ask him. “Does this mean you’re my soul mate?”

His eyes are bright. “Yeah, it does,” he says kissing my again. “I didn’t need a tattoo to know that.”

“But it’s still nice to have,” I say. “But I thought they were supposed to be matching.”

He shrugs. “They don’t have to be,” he says. “Regardless, they fit.”

I laugh and throw my arms around him to hug him tightly.

“I love you, sunshine,” he says.

“I love you, too, moon boy.”