Chapter 6: Hunted in the Woods
1348 Words
POV: Nixie
The woods swallowed me whole.
Branches lashed my cloak as I ran, knotted hands tearing at my skin with fiery, burning welts. Each gasp burned my throat, each step thudded through my bones like a terror-hammer. Behind me, the pack's howls etched the blackness—high, keening howls that intertwined into a univocal promise: We will find you.
I drove my legs harder. Ground dropped and rose, a treacherous weave of roots and hidden holes. Moonlight filtered through the canopy in shredded slivers, glinting on frost. My lungs were afire, but I could not relent. Not when every noise of claw on ground sounded closer.
Trixie's face was in my head—those golden eyes burning with something new and sinister. The Execution Blade was glowing in her hand like it was where it belonged. Sister, do we finish what we started? She'd spoken in a velvet over blades tone. I still remembered the taste of the blood on my cheek where I'd bitten it out of shock as I barged the cell door into her and bolted past the wrecked-over guards.
I'd thought I'd recognized betrayal when Hunter retreated. I hadn't. Not until Trixie.
A howl, closer now, cut through my head. My brother's voice? No—too high and too breathless. A scout. They'd released the hunting parties.
I stumbled over a slick root and sprawled. Cold earth came up and punched the wind out of me. Fire burned in my palms and knees. I rolled over onto my back, gasping. Behind the black maze of limbs I could see the moon, plump and unyielding, painting the world in silver.
The Execution Order gave every one of the wolves the right to kill me. Pack, friend, stranger—none would hesitate. And I had no wolf to protect me.
The wind shifted. Pine, smoke… and another thing, something darker. My stomach tightened. They were close.
I pushed to feet, gritting against the sting of scraped skin, and ran.
The forest thickened, trees bunched so that moonlight barely filtered through the underbrush. My breathing was rough, each exhale slicing cold into my lungs. Far ahead, there was water echoing—a creek. Good. Running water would destroy a scent trail.
I pushed toward the sound, leaping over felled logs, weaving around low-slung branches. My ears tuned for chase. Between the thud of my heart I caught it: paws pounding earth. More than one set.
I splashed into a clearing where the creek churned white on black rocks. I walked through it, teeth clenched against the cold bite, and plunged upstream, remaining in the center where the current would scatter my scent. Water soaked into my boots, numbing my feet, but the thrashing of the hunt behind me propelled me forward.
Minutes—or centuries—elapsed before I shoved off a thin bank and fought to the surface. I cowered among thorn thickets, trembling. The woods were too quiet now. Even the crickets drew breath quietly.
Growling reverberated through the darkness.
My head jerked up. Across the creek, a wolf stood in a ring of moonlight. Enormous. White as bone. Its eyes shone gold.
Hunter.
For one beat of his heart the world contracted to those eyes—familiar and totally chill. He did not growl. He did not need to. The stance was enough: Alpha. Executioner.
"Hunter," I breathed, aware that he would not be able to hear in this form. "Please—"
He leaped.
I threw myself to the side. He struck where I had been, jaws shutting with a snap like dry branches. I sprang up to my feet and fled deeper into the woods, leaves striking my face. Behind, the impact of his charge shook the night.
I didn't look back over my shoulder. Turning around would impede me, and impeding was dying. I zigzagged among the trees, seeking to lose him, but he was more agile. Quick always.
The ground dropped away abruptly into a ravine. I slid, tried to restore balance, and slammed hard into the gully. My palms tore on rough rocks. I struck against a fallen log, pain shooting up my ribcage.
Hunter's silhouette loomed above at the edge. He strolled along the edge, searching for a safe path down. His eyes glinted with moonlight like coins.
I lurched up on my feet, pounding heart. The ravine sloped towards a narrow tunnel of trees—beast path. I thrust my aching legs forward. Each gasp was like iron.
How much longer could I keep this up? My body begged for sleep. My wolf—if she existed at all—remained silent. Silent as the grave. I was nothing but meat and will.
Bare branches stretched out before me. I saw the glimmer of a light, not moonlight but a more amber light. A cabin? My heart lifted a tiny fire of hope.
I stumbled into another clearing and braked.
Not a cabin. Fire. A ring of torches blazing around a huge ring of bare earth. People moved in the light—tall, too refined to be wolves. Their scent reached me a second later: cold metal, off.
Vampires.
I stepped back, but a voice glided through the darkness, as smooth as poison and twice so lethal.
"Trying to outrun the wolves, little Luna?"
My pulse spiked. Shadows detached themselves from the treeline—three, four, five figures, pale faces gleaming in the torchlight. Their eyes glowed faintly red, like embers in snow.
One stepped forward, a man with hair black as midnight and a smile that promised nothing good. “You’ve led quite the chase. And brought a hunter to our doorstep.” He tilted his head, listening. “Ah… yes. He comes.”
Hunter's distant snarl responded, closer than I'd hoped.
The vampire's smile broadened. "How convenient. We were a little hungry."
I moved back toward the trees, but two of them flanked me with impossibly quick gestures, their limbs blurring. The leader's gaze skated over me, intrigued.
"You carry the scent of both worlds," he breathed. "How intriguing.".
Hunter's bellow echoed in the clearing as he burst through the underbrush, white fur bristling. He slid to a stop at the sight of the vampires, hackles up.
The leader smiled warmly. "Shall we play?"
I felt the tension ease like a drawn bowstring. Hunter charged—not at me, but at the vampire closest to him. Bedlam broke out: fangs, claws, bursts of superhuman strength. I retreated, shielding my head as dirt and ash danced.
Amid the confusion, a hand clamped about my arm—gripping, cold, but not cruel. I looked up into eyes clouded like thunder.
"Come if you want to live," a low, urgent voice commanded.
I struggled before I could, but the stranger hurried me toward the trees, moving at inhuman pace. The flash of branches and the sounds of war receded behind us.
I fought to free myself. "Who—
"Shh," he breathed. "Before they both catch you."
We ran deeper into the forest until the darkness engulfed the battle whole. My breathing was jerky gasps, half of fear, half of the dizzied speed. At last he let me go and slowed down.
I swayed away from him, grasping for a tree for support. Moonlight poured across his face—sharp cheekbones, black hair in a ponytail, eyes that appeared almost… melancholy.
"Who are you?" I shouted.
He looked at me for a moment, weighing the truth against some secret bet. "Vlad," he replied at last. "And you, wolfless Luna, are in more danger than you know."
There was a conscious snapping of a branch behind us. Loud.
Vlad's head snapped around at the sound, his eyes snapping into a tighter concentration. "They followed."
Another c***k, nearer. Hunter's low growl vibrated through the blackness, accompanied by a hiss that raised all the hairs on the back of my neck.
Vlad stepped in front of me, shoulders bracing. "Stay behind me," he breathed.
Out of the blackness ahead, golden and red eyes glowed up—wolf and vampire, both, advancing
- Writer
