Blood & Moonlight

Chapter 13 - The Escape

The river closed over Kael’s head like the jaws of a beast.

The cold hit him first—stunning, savage—turning every muscle to stone. He felt Eva’s hand slip from his grasp, and panic surged hotter than the icy water. Blindly, he reached for her, fingers closing around her wrist just before the current tore her away.

He pulled her against him, locking an arm around her waist as he kicked toward the surface.

The night roared above them, chaotic and violent. The water battered them, the current stronger than anything Kael had anticipated.

Behind them, faint but unmistakable, he heard howls ripping through the night—feral, furious.

Dorian would not give up easily.

Kael broke the surface, gasping for air. Eva sputtered beside him, her black hair, now wet, plastered across her face like shimmering silk threads. They fought the current together, letting it drag them downstream, away from the flashing fangs of the pack.

Every muscle in Kael’s body screamed in protest. The gash across his ribs throbbed, each heartbeat pushing fire through his veins. He clung to Eva and the last tattered shreds of strength he had left.

Survive now. Bleed later.

The river twisted and narrowed, the banks rising sharply on either side. The moon's reflection shattered on the churning black water, broken by rocks and eddies.

Kael steered them toward the shore, his boots scraping against submerged stones. He half-carried, half-dragged Eva onto the muddy bank, collapsing beside her under the shelter of a leaning willow tree.

For a moment, neither of them moved. They lay side by side, panting, trembling from cold and adrenaline.

The forest closed around them—dense, wet, and heavy with the scent of moss and iron-rich soil.

Eva sat up first, clutching her ribs. She turned to him, her face pale in the moonlight, her silver eyes flashing with something sharp and cutting.

"Kael," she rasped, her voice rough with anger and fear, "what the hell just happened?"

Kael pushed himself up slowly, every movement a symphony of pain. His ribs screamed, but he ground his teeth and forced himself upright.

"An ambush," he said, spitting blood onto the ground. "Set by Dorian and the Nocthollow Pack."

"And you were part of it," she said flatly, accusingly.

The words sliced deeper than any wound.

Kael looked at her—really looked at her—and saw not just the warrior, but the girl beneath the armour. The girl who had trusted him. Who had believed in him.

"I was supposed to be," he said quietly. "But I couldn’t go through with it."

Eva's fists clenched at her sides, the tension radiating off her like heat from a wildfire. She paced a tight, agitated circle, breathing hard.

"You hesitated," she said. "You put us both at risk."

"I chose you," Kael said. His voice cracked on the words. "Over them. Over everything I was raised to believe."

Eva froze.

The night pulsed around them. Somewhere, an owl hooted, and the river whispered secrets only the dead could understand.

Finally, Eva turned to him, her expression unreadable.

"You should have picked them," she said bitterly. "It would have been easier."

"Maybe," Kael said, rising unsteadily to his feet. "But it would have been wrong."

He took a step toward her, cautious, like approaching a wounded animal.

"I don’t regret choosing you," he said. "I’ll never regret it."

Eva searched his face for what felt like an eternity.

Then, to his utter disbelief, she laughed—a slight, broken sound that held no humour at all.

"You’re a damn fool," she muttered.

Kael smiled, grim and aching. "I’ve been called worse."

Her shoulders sagged slightly, the fight draining out of her.

Without another word, she moved to him and pressed her forehead against his chest, against the place where his heart thundered.

Kael held her fiercely, pressing his lips into her hair.

They stood like that, battered and bloody and broken, but together.

For now.

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"We can’t stay here," Eva said after a long while, pulling away.

Kael nodded grimly. "They'll track us. Scent, trail, blood. We need shelter. Fast."

Eva's eyes narrowed, calculating.

"I know a place," she said. "But we have to move."

Without waiting, she turned and darted into the woods, moving with the lethal grace of a born predator. Kael followed every step in agony, but it was necessary.

They plunged deeper into the forest, weaving through tangled underbrush, jumping over fallen logs slick with moss. Branches whipped at Kael’s face, but he barely felt them. Every part of him was locked in keeping up with Eva—and staying alive.

Behind them, distant howls echoed—growing fainter, but still too close for comfort.

The woods thickened, the trees crowding together like ancient sentinels. The air grew colder, the mist rising from the earth in ghostly tendrils.

Kael stumbled, catching himself on a tree.

Eva immediately circled back, grabbing his arm.

"You’re bleeding too much," she said, her voice tight with worry.

"I’ll manage," he gritted out.

"You’re stubborn."

"You’re one to talk."

A flash of teeth—a genuine smile, fleeting and feral—crossed her face.

They pressed on.

********************************************************************

It took nearly an hour, but finally, they reached a clearing half-swallowed by ivy and shadow. At the far end stood a crumbling cabin, long abandoned, half-collapsed under the weight of time and neglect.

Eva led the way inside, forcing open the rotted door with her shoulder. The place smelled of damp wood, mould, and old ash, but it was shelter.

Kael staggered to the hearth and collapsed onto the floorboards, gasping for breath.

Eva moved quickly, ripping her cloak into strips to bind his wound.

"You should've told me sooner," she said, scowling as she pressed cloth onto the gash.

"You were busy not killing me," Kael said through gritted teeth.

Eva snorted. "Still might, if you don't sit still."

He obeyed, watching her nimble fingers work.

There was tenderness there, buried under the sharpness. He memorised it—the way her brow furrowed in concentration, the gentleness of her touch.

When she finished, she sat back on her heels, studying him.

"You could've handed me over," she said quietly. "Claimed your place back in the pack. Why didn’t you?"

Kael exhaled slowly, the weight of it all crashing down on him.

"Because when I looked at Dorian, at the pack... I saw everything I hated. The blind loyalty. The bloodlust. The hatred passed down from generation to generation, like a birthright."

He reached for her hand, rough and calloused.

"And when I looked at you," he said, his voice breaking, "I saw everything I could be. Everything I want to be."

Tears shimmered in Eva’s eyes, but she blinked them away fiercely.

"You’re a fool," she said again, but softer this time.

Kael smiled faintly.

"Maybe. But I’m your fool."

********************************************************************

Eva set a small fire in the cracked hearth, the flames casting a weak but welcome glow across the ruined cabin. They huddled close, wrapped in the tattered remains of their cloaks.

Kael watched the flames dance, his mind spinning with everything they had lost—and everything they still stood to lose.

"You know they’ll keep hunting us," Eva said, her voice low.

Kael nodded.

"They’ll bring the full strength of the Nocthollow Pack," she continued. "And the Valemont Council won’t sit idle either, once they find out you were in their vault."

He winced.

"We’re fugitives to both sides now," Eva said bluntly.

Kael chuckled dryly. "Romantic, isn’t it?"

Eva elbowed him lightly. "You’re impossible."

He caught her hand, threading their fingers together.

"No," he said. "We’re impossible. Together."

A long silence stretched between them, comfortable this time, heavy with meaning.

Kael leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes.

Memories flickered behind his lids—the night he first saw her, moonlight pooling around her like a crown. The flash of her blades. The heat of her touch.

He hadn’t meant to fall.

He hadn’t meant to betray everything he was for a vampire.

But here he was.

And for the first time in his life, he didn’t regret it.

**********************************************************

Outside, the forest creaked and shifted. The leaves whispered secrets too old for mortals to understand.

Tomorrow, the world will close in on them again.

Tomorrow, they will have to fight against their past, their enemies, maybe even themselves.

But tonight, they had each other.

Tonight, in a crumbling ruin forgotten by time, they carved out a fragile sanctuary.

Kael tightened his arm around Eva, feeling her heartbeat against his side.

He didn’t know how long they had.

Maybe days. Maybe hours.

But he knew one thing for sure.

He would fight for her until his last breath.

And if the world wanted to tear them apart?

It would have to kill him first.