by Martha Woods
“So, you’re with Farah now, aren’t you?” Leah looked over at him, smiling awkwardly as she attempted small talk. Thankfully, it was just what Cayden needed at that moment.
“Yep, I sure am.” He grinned, the weight of that statement making all sorts of feelings flare up in his chest. “It’s been a few weeks now, can’t say I’ve been this happy in a long time.”
“That’s wonderful! You both deserve to be happy, you’re such lovely people!” She narrowed her eyes at him, mouth forming a straight line. “Now you treat her right, you hear me? She’s too much of a sweetheart to have her heart broken, and I don’t care how much of a big, bad hunter you were, I’ll hurt you if you hurt her.”
He chuckled, though he knew she was deadly serious. “No plans on doing anything bad, honest. I’m not going to screw up one of the best things to ever happen to me, I’d probably kick my own ass if I did that.”
Leah nodded, apparently satisfied with his answer. “Good, I like you Cayden. Didn’t much at the start, but you’ve really grown on me. And Farah has been very important to me for a long time now, so I’m glad that she’s finally found someone that she can be happy with.”
“Finally?” He raised an eyebrow at her choice of words. “What do you mean by that?”
“She always seemed rather... Perky, if I’m being honest, but it didn’t always feel genuine.” A sigh sounded through the car as Leah stared off into the night. “I’d look at her every now and then and I’d just see... I’d see her making a certain expression.”
“What sort of expression?”
“The kind that you had when we first met. She was lonely Cayden, just like you used to be, and I was so worried for her. So please, and I’m going to tell her this exact same thing, please take care of her. Show her as much love as you can and spend the rest of your lives growing older and happier with each other.” She shook her head, grimacing in thought. “I made the mistake of loving a man who didn’t love me back, who didn’t see me as anything except a tool that he could use. Maybe in his own twisted way he felt something for me once, but by the end it was gone. I don’t want either of you to ever feel that.”
“I’m... Wow, I’m sorry Leah. I didn’t think...” Cayden wiped a hand down his face, groaning into his palm. “I’m so sorry that you had to go through that, it must have been awful.”
“It was.” She said, “It honestly wasn’t even much of a surprise when I found out, by then we had been drifting away from each other for years. Ever since our sons had been born it was like his focus just... Shifted.” She laughed mirthlessly, “I guess now we all understand why.”
“Well you don’t have to worry Leah, I’m not... Neither of us are ever going to do something so evil. I love Farah, and I-” His eyes widened in realization, as did Leah’s. “Holy shit, I love Farah.”
The light almost seemed to brighten as Leah smiled widely, her eyes shining with joy at such news. “Well, we could all tell already, but it’s nice that you finally realized. I imagine that Farah’s going to be even more happy to hear it.”
Contrary to her joyous reaction, Cayden was almost hyperventilating in panic. “Isn’t it too soon to tell her? What if I seem too clingy, or she gets creeped out by it? It’s been three weeks maximum, there’s no way that doesn’t seem like too much too fast.”
She laughed, her chest shaking with the force and her eyes swimming with tears. “Cayden, it’s so obvious that she feels the same way as you. I was worried that we would have to pry you two apart when we were waiting for Skylar, and that’s not just because of the honeymoon period.” She tapped his hand on the steering wheel. “I’m certain she loves you too Cayden, you just need to let yourself believe it.”
“I hope you’re right, I don’t want to have just fucked this all up for the both of us.”
“Trust me Cayden, my instincts are usually pretty good about this sort of thing. Not so much when it comes to myself evidently, but definitely with other people.” She sighed wistfully as she thought back. “Skylar and Liam... Now that was obvious from the word ‘go’, it was only a matter of time before they stopped being so foolish and saw the obvious.”
“I think even I realized that I didn’t stand a chance, and honestly it was for the best that things didn’t work out between us. She’s happier and has a family, and I’m... I’m a better person for not having gotten what I wanted back then. I got something even more amazing, and it’s something that wouldn’t have been possible if I was the same as I was when I first came to this town.” In the distance he could see the lights of a gas station, the last building they would see for the next hundred miles. He grimaced as he remembered something very important. “Shit, Abigail’s going to need some formula, right?”
“Her Mother’s milk would be better, but for one night at least... I suppose it will have to do, nothing much else we can do at this point.”
“Alright,” He said, pulling into the gas station. “I’ll be back in a minute, just gotta pick some up. You want anything while I’m in there?”
“I’m not that old you know, I’m perfectly capable of getting my own snacks.”
“I know that.” He nodded at the child held protectively in her arms. “But someone’s gotta watch her.”
“Well, alright then. How about a bottle of orange juice?”
“You sure you want orange juice?” He smirked deviously. “I thought you old people were all about prune juice.”
Leah narrowed her eyes at him, her tone deadly serious, “New rule. You don’t hurt Farah or talk about my age anymore. If you do then the consequence will be the same for both offences.”
He held up his hands, smiling widely and trying not to laugh when he said, “Alright, alright you got me. No more jokes about you being old. I’ll just get our orange juice and we can spend the rest of the night in peace.”
“You’re determined to test me.” She listened as his laughter echoed off the walls of the empty lot while he walked away, idly tapping his wallet through his pants. “Perhaps you and Liam really will be great friends someday.”
After a few minutes of waiting Leah noticed just how stiff her legs had gotten from sitting still for so long, her aging bones aching with a dull throb when she stretched them out. She poked Abigail’s nose, giggling when the child started to fuss, “You take after your father already. Come on, let’s get some fresh air.”
Stepping out of the car into the crisp night air, she immediately noticed something was wrong. The air felt electric, heavy, like she could reach out and grasp hold of whatever it was that she could sense weighing down the atmosphere. By the time she realized what it was she was sensing, it was already far too late.
“Don’t fucking move freak!” She turned at the command, seeing three men standing in a line, pistols pointed squarely at her chest. “You make one wrong move, you so much as even breath wrong and we’ll fire.”
“You know what I am.” She growled, teeth starting to lengthen. “What makes you think you could stop me with those?”
The leader smirked, chuckling darkly, “What makes you think we’d be aiming for you?”
She snarled in equal parts horror and rage, eyes almost black as she struggled to contain herself. “You... You’re animals! How dare you threaten someone so innocent!”
“You can call us whatever you want, doesn’t really matter that much coming from something like you.” He tilted his head, considering her eyes. “You might wanna calm down there, can’t exactly be gentle with a child when you’re in a blood frenzy can you?” He pointed over his shoulder towards a just concealed car. “Now what you’re going to do is get in that car with us, slowly and carefully, otherwise we waste the both of you.”
She growled lowly, knowing that he was right but still wanting to be able to put up some sort of fight. She remembered the pistol tucked into her waistband, if only she could get a second to pull it out...
“That’s it, nice and slowly...” The leader began stepping backwards towards the car
, pistol still aimed at her. “Just get in the car, and we can all-”
His words cut off as his head snapped backwards, a tremendous bang sounding in the empty lot as his body fell to the ground limp. Everyone present jumped, though Leah was quick to react and leapt behind Cayden’s car, the two remaining men firing wildly where she had just been. She looked over her shoulder to the entrance of the gas station, her eyes immediately falling upon the form of Cayden, a furious scowl on his face and sprinting towards them, firing at the two attackers all the while.
“Is Abigail alright?” He panted as he joined her, the two others forced to fall back behind their own car. “Did they touch Abigail?”
“If they had they wouldn’t be standing anymore.” She covered the child’s ears, pulling the gun from her waistband. “I’m sorry Abigail, this will be a bit loud.” Leah leaned close to the ground, looking underneath their car and spying a clear view towards one of the attacker’s legs. She looked back at Cayden, nodding as she took aim, counting softly to three.
She pulled the trigger, his knee shattering and the hunter collapsing to the ground screaming. Cayden took advantage of the moment, running out and sprinting towards their car, leaping over the hood and tackling the still standing hunter to the ground. He slammed his pistol into the man’s nose, the two of them grabbing hold of each other’s guns while they struggled on the ground, harsh grunts and curses issuing forth from both men.
Leah watched as the man she had shot started to take aim at Cayden, his pain making his hand shake and his aim unsteady. She took a deep breath when she leveled her pistol at him, centering her mind and only feeling the kick of the gunshot when she pulled the trigger, the man collapsing back to the ground and remaining motionless. Abigail shifted in her arms, cooing pleasantly even as she remained perfectly asleep. Leah raised an eyebrow, Cayden’s guttural snarls shifting into animalistic roars when he slammed his knee into his opponent’s stomach, using the moment of shock to take aim and fire three rounds into his chest, the man falling still instantly.
“Jesus Christ...” Cayden gasped, eyes growing wide while he looked over the three men. “I knew these guys.”
“What... What do you mean?”
“These men are hunters!”
Leah screamed when she felt something slide easily through her ribs, the most painful feeling of burning she had ever felt erupting from her wound, spreading throughout her body and igniting every single nerve ending. The gun fell from her hand, barely able to keep her grip on Abigail while she fell to her knees, only stopped from slumping forward by the arm wrapping around her throat.
“Leah!” Cayden started forward, stopping when a revolver was leveled at his chest over her shoulder. His eyes went alight with recognition, his tone disbelieving, “You?”
“Cayden!” Christian grinned over her shoulder, like he was greeting an old friend. “What are you doing here? Can’t say I expected you of all people to cooperate with these savages. You even let her touch my gift to you, I woulda preferred if you just threw it out.”
“She’s my friend Christian, and you are going to let her go right fucking now!”
“I don’t think I will.” The revolver cocked, Leah too weak from pain to do much else than gasp in horror. “And I don’t think you’ll stop me.” The roar of the gunshot deafened them all, Cayden falling backwards screaming, clutching at the gaping hole in his shoulder.
Christian shook his head in disapproval, clicking his tongue, “Disappointing. Now as for you...” He reached down, twisting the knife stuck in Leah’s back, the woman biting her tongue to stop her scream. “Much as I think you are revolting, I don’t have much of a problem right now with that kid. So, we’re going to walk over to that car, and you’re going to put her in slowly, alright?” She nodded, the two of them starting their slow trek past the writhing form of Cayden. “You’re probably feeling it right? That burning feeling, feels like battery acid’s been injected straight into your bloodstream. That’s Wolf’s Bane, and it means that you’re nothing more than a feeble little woman. So don’t get any ideas.”
“I’m going to kill you.”
“How threatening.” He rolled his eyes as he opened the door. “Put the baby in the back, you’re sitting up front and the wonder kid back there is driving.”
“And why are we going to do that?”
“Because even though I don’t have a problem with the kid doesn’t mean I won’t put a bullet in their head if I think it’ll prove a point.” He cocked his revolver again for emphasis. “You want to try your luck?”
Slowly, she placed Abigail in the back seat, focusing on the sound of Cayden’s screams from Christian digging his hand into his wounded shoulder and dragging him over. “Alright kid, get in and drive. You stop where I tell you to stop, otherwise thing’s get bad.”
“Stop right there!” The three of them looked behind them, the clerk from the gas station holding a cell phone up into the air. “I’ve called the cops, they’ll be here in a few minutes! Just put the gun down and we can work everything ou-” The top of his head erupted into a red mist, body collapsing limply to the asphalt below.
“Fucking heroes.” Christian closed the door behind him. “I’ve fucking had enough of them.”
Chapter 8
The group approached the meeting place slowly, elected to not take their cars in case they needed to quickly escape into the forest. Liam and Michael sniffed at the air, they had gotten rid of the bodies from their battle weeks ago, but the blood and stench of death had remained, seeping into every crack in the building and soaking the dirt. This was a place that would be forever marked by death by any who could sense it, even Cassandra looking around amazed at the strength of the feeling.
“If my instincts are correct, and they usually are, then this Sarconi definitely has a reason to hate you two.”
“I’d much rather that I’d killed him, but I suppose knowing he hates me will have to do.” Liam ran his fingers over a set of three grooves carved into a nearby tree, blood soaked into the bark from where they had been dragging the bodies.
“There must have been at least a dozen bodies here...” Farah glanced at Liam and Michael. “What did you do with them?”
“We buried them, more or less in the same place.” Michael shrugged. “Some of them weren’t exactly in pieces big enough to bother dragging, so we just dumped them in a hole somewhere.”
“How charming. If I step into a torso tonight then I’m going to be very pissed off with you Michael.” Hayley crossed her arms, looking down at her feet with every step she took through the brush.
“Don’t worry Hayley, if you were going to step in any of them you would have already. I think we buried them back there somewhere.”
“Knowing I might have already stepped into a corpse isn’t exactly a better thought you know.”
Beside them, Skylar kept herself focused, feeling herself swimming in the darkness, each length of blackness feeling like an extension of herself, an extra arm for every tree that shone in the moonlight. She closed her eyes, breathing with the forest and shifting her senses forward, feeling everything that was both living and dead that touched the shadow.
“He’s right, the bodies are back there.” She smirked at Hayley. “Don’t worry, you don’t have anything on your shoe.”
“Great, now you’re getting in on this too. I can never win, can I?”
Though they were all happy that they could still joke around together, none of them could deny that they were all on edge, the prospect of anything happening to Skylar’s father put a pit in all their stomach’s, regardless of how they felt about him as individuals. They just hoped that they could get there before anything more happened to him, there was a limit to how calm Skylar could remain in the face of all this.
They started to crest the hill, the scent of blood getting stronger and stronger in the brother’s noses, that familiar scent of the man they hated growing in intensity and setting their teeth on edge. Liam could feel
his teeth lengthening, his claws starting to emerge as his rage increased.
“I’m going to tear him apart, if any of you don’t want to see that then I suggest that you look away when it happens.”
“No complaints there, let’s just get this over with brother.”
The six of them approached the abandoned garage, blood still coating the walls, though it had faded from a vivid red to a dull brown. They all stayed silent, sure that at any second they could be attacked, every one of their senses focused on seeking out any possible threats they could find. Liam placed his hand on Skylar’s chest, stopping her before looking over at her.
“Whatever happens in there, however this goes down just know that I love you, that’s never going to change.” He grabbed both sides of her face, pulling her lips against his. Her eyes closed in momentary bliss, gentle moans issuing forth from the both of them while their friends looked away, granting the couple a moment of small privacy. He pulled back, looking tenderly into her eyes and saying, “Whatever you choose to do, you have my support, no matter what it is. You’re a part of the pack, a part of my pack, and the pack looks out for each other.”
Skylar nuzzled into his palms, eyes swimming with emotion when she replied, “That goes for you as well Liam, you’re the man that I married, the man that I love. I’m not going to turn my back on you, we are going home together.”
After a few moments passed with them making no effort to move, Cassandra sighed, stepping up and placing her hand on Skylar’s shoulder. “I’m sorry to have to do this, but we need to hurry. If we are late I have no doubt they will kill your father, and no amount of killing is going to bring him back after that.”
