The Lost Warrior Princess

Man Down

When I woke up, the sun was just starting to rise and shine through the window. I was still laying on my side but when I opened my eyes Nicolas wasn’t in the bed anymore. I sat up slowly feeling a little stiff still and looked around to see if he was somewhere in the room but I was alone. I had spent both nights curled up in Nicolas’ arms. They were the best nights sleep I had ever had. He would just hold me close while we lay there. It was nice but a part of me knew that this little bit of quiet wasn’t going to last. We would have to go back to the real world and work out how all this was going to work.

My mind started to wander back to the first kiss we shared. I smiled to myself thinking about the feeling his touch gave me and the fact he was a gentleman. It was only day four into our journey and I was already feeling like I had known him for years. It was weird but I guess it was part of the mate bond.

I carefully stood up from the bed and stretched my back and limbs a little. I could feel a slight pull in my side from my stitched. I guess vampire saliva is some strong stuff. No wonder why they don’t advertise it, humans would try to take advantage of them.

My thoughts were cut shot when Alice came in, she seemed surprised that I was up out of the bed. But when a vampire prince tells you that you can’t be moving around much so my body can heal, I guess I should listen.

“Hey you’re up, I was just coming to wake you so we could get on our way.”

“Yeah I just woke up.” I replied. She came over and went to grab my bag but I stopped her. “I got it... hey where is everyone?”

“Riley and Max are out getting the horses ready and the guards are making sure that we have everything we need to make the journey to the next safe house.” She said to me but there was one person she missed.

“And where is Nic. . . the Prince?” I asked as we exited the bedroom.

“I’m right here.” I turned away from Alice to see Nicolas standing in the doorway of the cabin. He looked just as good as he did last night. “ you worried about me or did you just miss me.” He said with a smirk on his face.

“No... it just wouldn’t look good if I lost the vampire prince before we even got to the pack.” I said trying to hide my smile.

“Ok, if you two are ready we should get going.” Alice said sounding a little too cheerful. I was hoping she hadn’t noticed my reaction to what Nicolas had said.

“Let’s go.” I said but was stopped by Nicolas.

“I would like to check your injury before we leave, if that’s ok?” He said while gesturing for me to stay. I nodded and he came closer, I lifted my shirt enough to expose my bandages. He gently started removing my bandages to show the now scabbed over claw marks. There was still a little redness but they were healing nicely. After checking them over and putting fresh bandages on Nicolas told me I still needed to take it easy. I thanked him and said we should head out to the others.

Nicolas turned and walked out of the door followed by Alice and then me. I closed the door behind me and as I turned I caught sight of Riley looking at me. He looked like he was thinking about something and then his gaze moved to Nicolas and his expression changed from thought to pure hatred. I look at Nicolas who didn’t seem to even notice Riley at all as he walks past and mounts his horse. I look back towards Riley and our eyes meet and hurt flashes across his face. I quickly look away and make sure everyone is accounted for. After everyone is on their horses I mount my own horse.

As I look around I see that Riley is in the front of the group and Max is bringing up the rear with one of the guards.

“Riley! Move to the rear with Max!” I say in a stern voice. I then signal for two of the guards to move to either side of Nicolas. “Hunter, come and run point with Alice and I” I call back to him. He looks to the prince who just gives him a nod. He comes and takes his place between Alice and I.

“We need to travel faster today, we have a long way to go today and I want to be at the cabin before night fall. Is that understood?” I say loud enough for Max and Riley to hear me in the back.

“YES CAPTAIN!” Everyone says back in unison.

“If you fall behind you will be left behind.” I say looking directly at Nicolas, he knew I was still not impressed that my orders were disobeyed. He just gives me a smirk, I turn around and look at Alice and Hunter to make sure they were ready. They both nod and we took off, I look over my shoulder to make sure everyone is following. It was going to be a long ride today and we needed to make it to the cabin before sunset or we were screwed and with me being injured I needed to be in the front to set the pace, I didn’t want everyone moving slower because of me.

We kept travelling at a fast speed until we came to a stone bridge over a very wide river. We quickly stopped to let the horses drink and to let everyone stretch. After about ten minutes we all mounted up and were preparing to be on our way again when we heard a loud howl close by.

I signalled for everyone to get in formation and to get moving now and put some distance between us and the beast that was in the area.

We took off as quickly as we could over the bridge and into the forest on the other side. We wouldn’t be at the wolf packs boarder for another couple of days we were only into our fourth day now and we had nine days to get there for the meeting. As we raced through the forest the howls multiplied and got closer, they were hunting us and they had caught our scent now and if we didn’t make it to the cabin we would be dead. I look to my left at Alice and see she has a worried look on her face, she must have been thinking the same thing as I was. I catch sight of movement behind Alice and realise the rogues had caught up to us a lot sooner than I had hoped they would.

“Weapons ready! They’re on us!” I yell as I grab my bow from my back and an arrow from my quiver and knot it ready to let my arrow fly. I look back at Alice and yell “Get down!” And let my arrow fly straight into the eye of the rogue wolf that was moving closer getting ready to pounce on Alice.

I quickly glance over my shoulder and see three more rogues behind us, their red eyes glued to Nicolas. I quickly knot another arrow and signal for everyone to get out of the way and let it fly at the large mud brown rogue. It dodged my arrow and lunges towards Max and Riley, Riley swings the Axe he was holding and got the rogue in its neck.

As the rogue falls the other two lunge as I quickly knot another arrow and let it fly into the rogue trying to attack Max. I turn back around and look to my left and right to see that there are more rogues closing in.

There was no way we would make it to the cabin, I have to come up with a plan. I try to think of a way we could get away from the dozen rogues we now had on our tail, but nothing was coming to me. Suddenly I hear a blood curdling scream come from one of the guards behind me. I turn to see what had happened. Only to see that one of the guards had been pulled from his horse and the rogue wolf was flinging him around by his shoulder while he tried to scratch the beasts eyes out.

The screams got more and more distant as we kept moving forward. I look at the prince and then to Riley, Max and then Alice, we all share the same look of uncertainty. We were probably going to die before the day was out until I heard Hunter yelling to Nicolas.

“We have to go to her!” Hunter yelled. I look at him and then to Nicolas.

“No! We do not need her help!” Who ever she was, Nicolas didn’t want to get her assistance.

“My Prince, we don’t have a choice!” Hunter yells back. A rogue comes running towards us and lunged towards the Prince. I watch as he pulls his sword and sinks it into the rogues chest. It falls as Nicolas removes his sword from it.

“If you know somewhere we can go that will be safe you need to tell us!” I yell at Nicolas.

“My prince!” Hunter yells.

Nicolas lets out a growl at Hunter. “Fine! Hunter, lead the way!”

Hunter nods and takes off even faster and we all follow as fast as we can. As we race through the forest more rogues emerge from the trees snapping and growling.

We come to a V in the path, I know the cabin is to the right but Hunter heads to the left. I quickly glance over my shoulder and realise no one is in formation anymore, I frantically look for Riley, Max and Alice and see them just behind me. I then look to see where Nicolas is and see that his is right next to me, we make eye contact for a split second. We make the left following Hunter and just as we do another guard is pulled from his horse and torn in half by two rogue wolves.

“Don’t look back!” Nicolas yells to me. I turn back around to look at him and then in front of me again. We come over a hill and I see it, a small wooden cabin with a light on in the window. As we get closer the rogue wolves become more agitated. Snapping and growling more then they were already and started to become more desperate to take as many of us down before we can reach the cabin.

“Anya! Open the barrier!” Hunter yells. I wasn’t sure what was going on until we were almost on the cabin. There was a shimmering green barrier around the cabin. Anya must be a witch of some kind, as we got closer to the barrier hunter yells “They wont be able to follow us! They can’t get through the barrier!” As he crosses the barrier a flash of green light comes from where he entered.

I slow down to make sure everyone makes it through, as I move to go through the barrier I hit what feels like an invisible wall. My teams eyes widen as they realise I can’t pass through. What the hell was going on? Why was I the only one that couldn’t make it through the barrier? I turn around to see that the rogues were close, I knot an arrow and fire it, reloading to take as many of these beasts down. I could hear my team yelling for me to get inside the barrier but I just couldn’t get through. I kept firing arrow after arrow while I could hear Nicolas yelling to this Anya.

“Anya!...... Anya open the barrier! Let her through!” Nicolas yells. I took a step back and still felt the barrier against my back, I still wasn’t able to make it through.

Suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around my waist and tried to pull me through the barrier. I knotted arrow after arrow to get as much time as I could for the barrier to let me in. It felt like I was stuck there for eternity when suddenly the invisible wall that was stopping me disappeared.

I stumbled backward just as a large mangled wolf lunged with its large mouth open ready to snap shut around me. It’s head hit the barrier and the wolf let out a horrific howl, the area of its face that had touched the barrier looked like it had been burnt with acid. It flailed around on the ground before it let out a final cry of pain, the acid had eaten through its face and the wolf finally stopped moving. The other wolves looked at it and then back at us, the largest wolf came closer to the barrier and growled at us. It was the biggest rogue I had ever seen, its black dirt covered fur moving ever so slightly with the faint breeze. It turned to the others and howled as it ran off back the way they had come from.

The wolf that had hit the barrier was smoking and I could hear it sizzling from the magic that the barrier was made up of.

I realise that the arms that had wrapped around me and had pulled me through the barrier were still holding me. I turn around to see that it was Nicolas. Our eyes meet and I just stare at him, not because he was so close but because of everything that had just happened.

“Well.... I never thought I would see you again Nicolas.” A tall thin woman said as she stood in the doorway of the cabin.

“And I you, Anya.” His tone was harsh as he looked away from me towards her. His arms slowly fell from around me as he moved towards her.

“What brings you to my door?” She asks looking at me now, “having some love life issues?”

“No, we needed somewhere safe and this was the only place Hunter or I could think of.”

“Well.... what’s in it for me if I provide you sanctuary?” She asked with a smirk on her face.

“That depends on what it is you are wanting.” Is all Nicolas says to her.

“Hmm.... I want....” she pauses for a second with her hand on her chin looking like she was in deep thought. Her eyes fall back on me but before she can say anything Nicolas steps in front of me.

“No, you’re not getting her.” He says with a stern tone through gritted teeth. This was weird why would she want me?

“Oh foolish boy I don’t want her.” She begins with a sickening smile on her face. “I want some of her blood.”

“You want what?!” I hear Alice yell. She pays no attention to Alice and just continues to stare at me.

“No, you’re not getting any part of her.” Nicolas says, “if you want anyone’s blood it will be mine.”

“I don’t want yours, I asked for hers.”

“Why do you want my blood?” I ask as I move around so I’m not behind Nicolas anymore. All eyes fall on me, they all have the same confused and worried look.

“Oh, that’s not important is it? If it gets you and your friends sanctuary.” She says smirking at me like there was something more to it all.

“It’s important to me.” I reply, “how do I know you’re not going to use my blood for something evil?”

Her eyes flash a bright green as her magic starts to pulse out of her body towards us. “I am not some blood witch, I am respected in the witch community! Don’t ever make the mistake of confusing me with one of those life sucking demon summoning cowards!”

“Enough, what else do you want?” Nicolas says drawing her attention back to him.

“I told you what I wanted, now it’s up to the little girl to make a choice... give me a little bit of blood for sanctuary or..... you can all take your chances with the feral mutts out there.” With that she started to turn around towards the door. I start to feel a little panicked about the thought of everyone surviving the night.With how the rogue wolves were I didn’t think we would stand a chance with rogue vampires and the rogue wolves once the sun went down.

I don’t know what came over me but the next thing I said had everyone looking at me in shock. “Wait!.... I will do it!”

Anya turned just enough to look over her shoulder at me and gave me a strange smirk like she knew I would choose to give her some of my blood. She waved her hand for us to follow her and held the door open for everyone. I go to walk towards her cabin but my arm is grabbed in a firm almost painful grip. When I turn around to see who it is that has grabbed me I see it’s Riley and he is looking at me in a way that would have intimidated anyone else but all it did to me was make my temper spike.

“Let go of my arm Riley.” I say through gritted teeth.

“What the hell are you thinking? You don’t know what she wants your blood for, it could be for anything.” He says in an annoyed whisper.

“I was thinking of everyone’s safety, would you prefer to take your chances out there tonight?” I say as I point beyond the barrier that was shimmering green still. He keeps holding my arm as he thought about what I have said, “now if you don’t mind, i would like it if you could let go of my arm.” I say still trying to control my temper. I pulled my arm from his grip and turn to walk away to tie my horse up. I catch a glimpse of Alice and Max looking at me but I ignore it, I seriously didn't have the patience to have everyone try and tell me I was doing the wrong thing.

After I tie my horse to the railing out the front of the cabin I move to enter the cabin and can’t believe what I’m seeing.