chapter 2
1182 Words
✓✓✓✓✓✓✓ CHAPTER 2 ✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
LUCIO NIGHTBANE
We found her!
Luca hated the woods behind Ravenglen. Said they were “too quiet, too bitter, too full of ghosts.” But I liked them. The silence was something I could breathe in. No judging eyes, no whispers about the Nightbanes, no fake smiles from people who feared our name more than they understood it.
Just the trees and hunger.
“We shouldn’t go tonight,” Luca muttered as he zipped up his jacket and hovered near the porch like it had answers. “You know what happens when it rains. Smells get messy. The ground turns slick. You lose footing.”
“I don’t lose footing,” I said flatly, shoving my hands into my pockets. “You do.”
He scoffed. “One time. I slipped one time and you’ve never let it go.”
“Because your fall almost scared off dinner.”
“You mean the doe?”
I shrugged. “Food is food, brother.”
Luca wasn’t wrong, though. The woods were always tricky in the rain. But my skin was crawling with that familiar itch — the one that came before the shift. It wasn’t a full moon. It wasn’t instinct. It was something else. Restlessness. Rage. That thing in my chest I couldn’t name.
I didn’t want to talk about it, so I changed the subject.
“You coming or not?”
He hesitated. “Can’t we just… I don’t know. Go with someone else? Maybe bring Caleb. Or Ryan.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I still remember what happened the last time we took Caleb. He whined the whole time, chased a rabbit for twenty minutes like it owed him money, and nearly got us caught by the Silvershadow patrol.”
Luca’s mouth twitched. “Okay, that was funny though.”
“Not when I had to pull a tranquilizer dart out of your shoulder.”
“Oh. Right.” He paused. “Still think we should tell someone.”
“No.” I looked him dead in the eye. “Just us, like always.”
His shoulders fell. “Fine. But if we get ambushed by a pack of rogue raccoons, I’m blaming you.”
The woods were darker than usual.
The clouds rolled low and thick, swallowing moonlight. Branches snapped under our boots, and the cold, damp air clung to our skin. My senses were sharp, but… not sharp enough. Something buzzed under the surface. Something electric.
“Weird night,” Luca whispered.
“Yeah.”
I didn’t like it either, but I wasn’t about to admit that.
We moved deeper into the forest. No talking. Just breathing. Listening. Letting the woods tell us where to go.
That’s when I saw her.
She stumbled into a clearing not twenty feet from us, soaked to the bone, hair clinging to her face, her knees hitting the mud like she was collapsing under the weight of her own soul.
A girl. Human.
I stopped moving. Luca noticed and followed my line of sight.
She didn’t see us. She was too busy sobbing — full-body, choking sobs that echoed through the trees like a dying animal. It wasn’t the kind of cry you fake. It was the kind that came after something shattered inside you.
Luca took a cautious step forward. “Should we…?”
“No,” I said quickly, holding an arm out. “Wait.”
“But she’s—”
“I said wait.”
I didn’t know why I stopped him. Maybe it was instinct. Or maybe it was because something didn’t sit right. No one — no human — came this deep into the woods during a rainstorm unless they were running from something.
And that’s when it happened.
The growl.
Low. Predatory. Not hers.
Luca tensed beside me. “Did you hear that?”
“Yeah.”
A shadow moved along the tree line. I narrowed my eyes. Massive shape. Wrong gait. Too fast for a deer. Too slow for a wolf on patrol.
Rogue.
The girl looked up — eyes wild, shoulders trembling — just in time to see the thing lunge from the trees, snarling. She screamed, but it wasn’t loud. It was sharp and strangled, like she’d lost her voice from crying too long.
She tried to run. Slipped. Crawled backwards.
I didn’t wait for Luca this time.
But he didn’t wait either.
He darted out first… a blur of motion… claws out, teeth flashing. He hit the rogue mid-air with a growl that sent birds flying from the trees. I followed instantly, shifting half-form… enough to slice, not enough to lose control.
The fight lasted seconds.
The rogue didn’t stand a chance. Two Nightbanes against one starving mutt? It was over before it began.
Its body hit the ground with a wet thud. Luca stood over it, panting. I wiped blood from my jaw and turned to the girl.
She was frozen.
Mud on her hands, blood on her face, eyes wide with terror.
I didn’t blame her. We probably looked like monsters.
But there was something about her…
I stepped closer. Luca moved beside me, cautious.
She looked up at us like she wasn’t sure whether to run or beg.
Her face was pale, her lips trembling, but her eyes — gods, her eyes — they were full of something more than fear.
Fury…
Grief…
Power.
I knew those emotions. I lived them.
I turned to Luca.
“It’s her.”
He blinked. “Who?”
I pointed subtly with my chin. “The girl from school. The one who was always with Ethan. You saw her two days ago, near the lockers.”
Luca’s face paled. “Oh no.”
“What?”
“This is a setup. It has to be.”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“What if this was a trap? What if the rogue was bait to draw us out? Maybe Ethan’s watching.”
“I didn’t smell him.”
“Doesn’t mean he isn’t near. We can’t afford a scandal, not after what happened with the council. If anyone sees us with her—”
I looked at the girl again.
She was trying to sit up now, clutching her ribs, still shaking. Still watching us like she wasn’t sure whether we were wolves or angels.
No. Not a trap. This girl didn’t plan anything. She was breaking in real time.
Still…
“Then we must leave immediately!” Luca hissed.
I hesitated.
One more glance at her. The way her hands clenched into fists. The flicker of silver in her eyes. The smell of rain and heartbreak on her skin.
There was something about her.
But I nodded.
We turned without another word and vanished into the woods.
She didn’t even get the chance to ask who we were.
And we didn’t give her the chance to find out.
“This was a mistake,” Luca whispered.
- Writer
