Haunted by Time

Chapter4

I regretted my decision as soon as I passed the first few trees. It was pitch black and my eyes took a moment to adjust to the shadows. The rain was lighter under the canopy of leaves, but every few feet it poured down on me through clearings. The lightning snapped across the dark clouds and sent me a few seconds of light before disappearing again. I struggled to get my eyes adjusted to the dark with the flashes of lightning ruining my progress every two minutes. I used another flash of lightning to check for tracks in the mud and found a few disrupted spots. He was heading deeper into the forest and I knew in my gut that this was probably a trap.

The muscles in my back started to protest from being taught for this long. My hands stayed steady and kept the blades up. The rain had long since washed the other vampire’s blood off and they gleamed once more, begging for their next kill. I tried not to think about the body bleeding out in the parking lot right now. I would be having nightmares for weeks after this trial. The rain’s patter on the leaves helped to calm and centre my thoughts for now. I focused in on the familiar sounds of the forest before pausing mid step.

It was subtle, but I heard footsteps. They were behind me. Did he manage to run into the forest and circle around to catch me off guard? I tried to keep my breathing even and felt the sweat leave my body regardless of the ice-cold rain. I took another step forward and heard his step a moment later. He was getting closer now. I took another two steps forward and my instincts took over. I swung my right hand back with the sword catching his shoulder. I needed to aim higher. He let out a hiss before breaking my wrist with a chop of his hand. I screamed and dropped the handle of my blade. He pulled it out of his shoulder and threw it to the side, unintentionally lodging it in a thick tree trunk.

Fear slowly trickled down my spine, but I will not die here tonight. My right hand might be my dominant hand, but Cynthia trained me for situations like these. My left hand was not completely useless to me in battle. I brought it up in front of my face and angled the blade towards him. His charming smile was long gone and he sneered at me, revealing his sharp fangs. His blue eyes bled to pools of black that looked horrifying and I focused on my breathing rather than the fear trying to seize my body and make me run. He took a step towards me and before I could swing my blade at his neck, he used his demon speed to slam into me.

The force knocked me back and the breath left my lungs when I collided with a tree. My blade slipped out of my hand the moment he slammed into me and laid in the pouring rain, catching the glint of lightning every now and again. It felt like mother nature was mocking me. I hissed when I tried to sit up. He definitely broke a few of my ribs. I glared up at his smirking face. He bent down and picked up my blade, turning it over in his palm as if admiring it, but I knew better.

I stared crawling to my left, spitting up blood and realised that I had some more internal injuries besides my ribs. I heard his chuckle behind me and moved my screaming body forward. I made it to a clearing and collapsed in the centre of it. The rain beat down heavily on my face and I heard the squelching of his shoes in the mud as he approached. He was walking tauntingly slow, making my irrational temper flare. Would he just kill me and be done with it already? At least I would be reunited with my parents soon. The thought made me feel pathetic. I wanted to avenge them, not join them as statistics.

Kale finally stopped at my feet and put his boot on my ankle, pressing down until he heard the snap of bones followed by my scream. I tried cutting it short and focused on my breathing instead. He was going to drag this out as long as he could. The realization made me sag in exhaustion.

“Giving up already, Little One?” He asked and he sounded much older that he did at the bar.

He picked me up by my shoulders and I took the glorious opportunity to spit in his face. His mouth twisted into an annoyed snarl but he kept his cool and took his thumb to the biggest splash of my blood on his face. He wiped it off and stuck his thumb into his mouth. It took all that I had not to puke all over him. The disgust must have been clear on my face because his rich laugh spilled out around me. I fought against his grip on my shoulders and his amusement just intensified.

He stopped abruptly and looked at something behind me to the right. I peered over my shoulder, unable to stop my curiosity from winning out. I couldn’t see anything, so I looked back at Kale and my blood ran cold. He looked worried and angry. He spun me around and pressed my back against his chest. The motion caught me off guard and my vision swam before steadying on a blurred figure stepping into the clearing. A pained moan slipped out of my mouth when the pain my body was in, finally caught up to my brain. Kale held me tighter and my ribs screamed in protest. Breathing was a painful battle and I could hear mine shallow out.

“Don’t you dare.” Was all that Kale said to the new demon.

I felt like dying on the spot. My chances of survival against Kale were slim, but now they were none. My vision started to dip and I fought to keep my eyes open. Kale let his grip loosen enough for me to get a full breath. I took a few breaths and when I felt steadier, I slammed my head back into his nose. He nearly dropped me like I wanted him to, but his arms tightened around me to the point of breaking my ribs all over again and a strangled moan slipped out of my mouth.

“Let her go.” The new demon said and his voice sent shivers down my spine.

His voice was deep and soothing even when it sounded deadly. My brows furrowed in confusion. Was this a side effect of dying? My head felt heavy and dropped against Kale’s shoulder. My head angled to the ground while the rain washed over us. I felt Kale’s chest vibrate with a growl before he lifted me. I could hardly keep my eyes open, never mind process what was happening. I heard the new demon’s responding growl and my stomach twisted, but not in fear. My head pounded and I struggled a sigh out of my lungs.

I felt Kale throw something and realized that he must have thrown my blade at the demon. A second later I felt two sharp fangs slice into my neck and a searing pain spread through my neck and shoulders like a wildfire. I screamed as he started sucking his venom back along with a mouthful of my blood. He moved his hand away from my ribs, supporting my weight by pressing my shoulders against his chest. His other hand angled my head to the side. I could feel myself slipping and before I could rest in the peaceful darkness of unconsciousness, time seemed to freeze around me. Kale stopped gulping down and stood frozen with me dangling in his arms like a little ragdoll.

The rain drops also seemed to pause mid fall and hung like tiny diamonds in the sky. A flash of lightning was frozen over the clouds, making the drops shimmer. I turned my gaze to the approaching demon. I felt both scared as hell and an emotion I didn’t think I would feel when looking at a demon, relieved. He came closer and I could faintly make out his dark wet hair, curling at the ends. His jaw looked sharp and before I could get any other details from his face, I crumbled down to the floor. He caught me by my shoulders before I could completely fall and held me gently against his chest.

He tipped me back into a comfortable position before moving the hair out of my face that made its way out of my braid. The lightning illuminated his face as he looked down at me. I could hardly make out any of his features besides his silhouette. I could feel his muscular chest and strong arms against my body and felt oddly safe. Death must be close now. I hardly had any strength left to blink as it was.

“You’ll be alright.” He spoke and I wanted to laugh at him.

Instead of getting anything out, my body sagged further into him before darkness finally took my hand and pulled me under.

❦

Overwhelmed. I felt overwhelmed from all the noises around me. Loads of shouting and beeping. I heard sirens blaring and doors opening and slamming shut. People were touching and grabbing at various parts of me and the pain was unbearable. I heard them slow to a blur before I tried to open my eyes. I had to blink a few times before I could manage a peek at what was happening. My body felt heavy and frozen to the bed. The first thing I saw when my eyes opened properly, was a face hovering over mine. Dark brown eyes looked down into mine and it felt like my breathing stopped for a moment.

My eyes followed the path down his sharp nose and stopped at his plump pink lips. They were moving but I was having trouble understanding what he was trying to say. He snapped his fingers in front of my face and that seemed to do the trick. I noticed dried blood on his fingers and blinked a few times before focusing on his words.

“Hey, can you hear me?” He asked and I slowly nodded my head.

I noticed a hand reaching for the IV bag above my head. It was moving very slowly and a frown settled on my brow. It was attached to a man in blue scrubs and he had a blue hairnet on his head. The demon snapped his fingers in front of my eyes again and I turned my gaze back to him. He looked a bit worried but kept his focus and tried to get me to do the same.

“I need your name, surname and age. The doctors need the information to contact your family.” He said hurriedly.

I felt like he wanted the information for more than just the doctors wanting to contact my relatives. I tried to focus on my name but the realization of where I was, struck me first. My mind was a jumble of thoughts ranging from my name and ending at the fact that this gorgeous demon brought me to a hospital instead of killing me on the spot.

“You know I’m a Hunter, right?” was the only sentence to leave my lips.

He lifted a brow at me before taking a breath to probably calm his irritation at this point. I felt my cheeks heat up in embarrassment at the thought.

“I’m aware, yes.” He said.

He looked exhausted at this point and I thought about cutting him some slack. He did save my life after all. Maybe I shouldn’t count my eggs before they hatch considering all the doctors around me were frozen in slow motio…My thoughts came to a halt. He’s the high-class demon sighting that I read about. We locked gazes and he seemed to read the realization on my face.

“Yes, I am a demon and I am the one keeping everyone frozen as much as I can handle at this point. I’m also trying to keep you from bleeding out and dying right now, but it is absolutely draining. So, I suggest you give me the answers I need before my power gives out and you die.” He said and the strain in his voice sent a stab of guilt through me.

“Kara Hartley and I’m 19. Blood group O+” I said softly and he nodded before everything around me sped up again.

The pressure on my body lifted slightly and the pain intensified again. A strangled moan left my lips as darkness started to eat at my vision once more. I heard his deep voice giving my details to the doctor before the pressure was back on my body again, easing some of my pain. The gurney they were pushing me on, knocked open some doors with a loud bang that left my sensitive ears ringing. I could hear a nurse telling him that he couldn’t go into the room with me. There were shuffling noises as if he was putting up a fight and they had to restrain him before the doors slammed shut again and took with it the momentary pain relief that he provided.

A mask was pressed against my face before the smell of permanent marker invaded my nose. The nurse asked me to count back from ten, but I was already too far gone for words. I needed to introduce this nurse to Kim and Ash after I recovered so that they could attend classes on how to do their jobs properly together. The thought made my brain feel fuzzy and before the darkness rose to claim me once more, two dark brown eyes flashed in my mind.