With a grin, she thought of Eric’s lustful gaze and the pheromones his body had begun to give off when around her. At first, she’d thought it had been wishful thinking, but after the wolf pack had left, she’d been certain. For a second, she thought the scent of fear emanated from him, but she’d been wrong. She smelled his desire, clear as she inhaled the aroma of fir trees now.
Did he recall their past together? If so, would he go back to their world with her once they found the Moonstone? She hoped so, but also realized he had a life here. She was his past, and she didn’t want to get her hopes up of him being her future.
Only time would tell what his intentions were, or what they would become.
She heard movement to her right and came to an immediate halt as she dropped to her haunches and narrowed her gaze. The moon sat high in the sky, and a light breeze shook tree branches, making it difficult to detect the real cause of the noise she’d heard as shadows moved all over the forest floor.
She felt no fear, only the necessity to protect Eric at all costs.
After a moment, the intruder finally came into view.
His skin was almost as pale as hers, his long, dark hair pulled back into a pony tail that hung down his back. Wearing a black suit with a bow tie, he definitely looked out of place in the forest.
He tilted his head up, as if he sniffed the air, and that’s when she noticed what looked like blood caked on his chin. Had he been the one responsible for the death scream she’d heard a while ago?
Thankfully, she was downwind from him, but since he stood in between the camp and her, Eric’s scent would carry on the breeze. He grinned, revealing fangs, and moved toward where she’d left Eric.
With the fangs and bloody face, she placed him as a vampire, and nothing good ever came from one of those bloodsuckers.
She stood and raised her hands above her head, calling on her other half to emerge. Her body began to tremble, and she shut her eyes as the white light emanated from her. She knew this would draw the vampire’s attention, but at least, it would take his mind off Eric for a precious few seconds.
Her bones and tendons popped and snapped as her dragon form took shape. A few seconds later, the process was complete, and she opened her eyes, her night vision much clearer than it had been in her human form.
The vampire stared at her for a second, then took off running directly toward Eric’s camp.
She lunged after him, her lithe body able to move over the ground through the trees at a quick pace. As a Protector of the Forest in her homeland, she felt right at home in the deep foliage on the outskirts of Saint’s Grove.
Clamping her jaw shut, she fought the urge to roar and turn the vampire into a slab of ice. She didn’t want to draw attention to herself, and she certainly didn’t want to wake Eric. If he were tucked into that tent sleeping peacefully, it would be best for both of them. She didn’t need him investigating the noise and coming into contact with the vampire.
As she gained on him, she debated what to do. Did she rip him apart, or just toss him down the mountain and hoped he stayed away?
The closer she got, the stronger the scent of fresh blood became. Yes, he’d been busy killing, and it was then she decided to end his life.
She pounced on him, her heavy front feet holding him down by his chest as he stared up at her. To her horror, he bared his fangs and bit her in the ankle area. The pain ripped up her arm as his poison traveled through her veins. Heat flushed through her body as her nostrils flared. Gritting her teeth, she came to the conclusion that the world would be a better place with the deceased vampire.
Opening her mouth, she lowered her head and took the vampire’s head between her fangs as he tried to scream. The sound of flesh and bone ripping and tearing met her ears, the stench of the dead infiltrating her snout. After she’d ripped his head from the shoulders, she swung her neck and then let go of it, effectively sending it deep into the forest to the east.
Next, she pulled his arms from his torso, surprised at the lack of blood within him. No, she apparently knew very little about vampires.
Just as she had finished her dismemberment, she heard more sounds behind her. Turning, she found Celestria and her pack of wolves. Had Tirvu been correct in assuming they’d most likely been lying when they’d said they’d allow her and Eric to stay and pass through their land without issue?
With a sigh, she prepared to battle the pack and dole out the same fate to them as she had to the vampire.
The woman shimmered yellow and stood before Tirvu in her human form. Before, it had meant a sign of peace, so she decided to take the gesture that way now. She’d hold off on the mutilation until she knew her intentions.
“I see you have rid the world of a vampire,” Celestria said, a small grin on her lips.
Tirvu closed her eyes and willed her human form to come to the surface. Once again, bones, ligaments, and tendons snapped and reformed, and a moment later, she stood face-to-face with Celestria.
“Yes,” she said, wishing she had a drink of water to remove the putrid taste from her mouth. “He posed a danger to Eric and me.”
Celestria chuckled. “The only good vampire is a dead one.”
Tirvu looked over her shoulder at the torso, the bite in her wrist throbbing.
“We moved back up this way when we heard the death scream,” Celestria said. “Did you hear it?”
Tirvu met her gaze. “Yes. How could I not?”
“We found the woman in a campsite about two miles from here, dead from a vampire attack,” Celestria continued, not bothering to answer her question. “We tracked him this way and were going to kill him ourselves, but you beat us to it.”
“He bit me,” Tirvu growled, holding out her now swollen, purple wrist. “What does this mean for me?”
Celestria took her hand and studied the bite. “Most of my pack has been bitten before, including me. It is an unpleasant sensation. For us, we became very ill. I don’t know what it will mean for your kind.”
Tirvu winced as Celestria pushed down on the area.
“I would suggest you head back to camp and rest,” Celestria continued. “The morning sun will dispose of the body.”
She briefly thought of returning to her own land to use many of the healing herbs that grew from the rich earth. However, if she returned, the Grand Dragon may tell her this realm was too dangerous and she was needed on the battlefield.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go home to protect the forests, but if she left now, she may fail at her mission of retrieving the Moonstone.
That simply wouldn’t be acceptable.
She would do as Celestria suggested and return to their camp. She would rest and hope that her strong body would be able to fight the vicious bite of the damned undead.
“I will follow your sage advice,” she said, suddenly feeling dizzy.
“Go now,” Celestria answered. “You’re turning even more pale than usual. Two of my pack will accompany you to ensure you arrive safely.”
She turned, the world spinning with each step. Determined to get back to camp, she walked carefully and hoped she didn’t look as unsteady as she felt. She was not used to feeling so vulnerable, and she did not want the wolves to sense her weakness, although she didn’t believe that they’d actually do anything to her. In fact, she was beginning to think of them as allies, but that didn’t mean she wanted to appear feeble. She’d learned long ago that one’s friends could turn into enemies in a flash.
Just as the camp came into view, her stomach began to heave, and a chill rushed over her. Her teeth began to chatter as her skin quickly turned into gooseflesh. Each step became more and more painful, her joints feeling as though they had caught fire.
She eyed the tent and noticed the flames had been put out. Determined to make it into the camp, she pressed on as her breath became labored and her throat constricted. Finally, after what seemed like a small eternity, she stepped over the log where she’d left Eric sitting. Crumpling to
the ground, she shut her eyes and immediately lost consciousness.
12
Eric woke as the first rays of sunlight filtered through the trees. He’d waited up for Tirvu to return the previous night, but had finally fallen asleep after countless hours of worry, only finding solace in the knowledge she could take care of herself. He unzipped the tent, hoping to see her beautiful dragon curled up near camp, ice crystals spraying from her nose as she breathed.
Instead, he found her sprawled on the ground with two naked men sitting on the log, staring at her.
What the hell was going on here?
Both men glanced over at him and stood. The one with blond hair nodded while the one with black hair kept his gaze on Tirvu.
Shit. Was she dead? Or just hurt?
He rushed to her and got to his knees, keeping the two men in his peripheral vision. Reaching down to her neck, he found her pulse and breathed a sigh of relief. At least, her heart beat.
“What happened to her?” he asked through gritted teeth, his hands fisted at his sides. He stood and placed himself in between Tirvu and the men. “Are you two responsible for this?”
All sorts of ugly scenarios played out, most of them having to do with Tirvu being sexually assaulted. If these two had laid a hand on her, he’d kill them both.
He guessed them to be part of Celestria’s pack, but he had no idea what had gone on for all of them to end up in their campsite without clothing and Tirvu being unconscious.
“She was bit by a vampire,” the blond one said. “She’s suffering the after-effects.”
He glanced down at her, wondering what that meant for her future.
“S-so what happens now? Does she turn into a vampire?”
He tried to recall any movies or books he’d read about the undead. Some said that the bite would change a human while others said it wouldn’t. However, those stories were also fiction, relying heavily on the storyteller’s imagination. This was as real as it got, and here he was asking a werewolf about the effects.
Shaking his head, he tried to focus on the problem at hand. It didn’t matter who had an answer. His only concern was that Tirvu was alive and she would be fine in the near future.
“I’ve been bitten before,” the male with the black hair said. “It hurts, but one survives. Celestria told her what to expect, but we don’t know how it will affect her kind. We survived it, but we’ve never met a dragon shifter before.”
I’ve never met any type of shifter before.
Although that certainly was the truth, he found himself becoming more and more comfortable with the whole idea of someone being able to change into an animal … especially one that didn’t exist except in books and movies.
“I’ll watch over her,” he mumbled, not sure what to do except just make sure she stayed comfortable.
“She should be fine,” the blond reassured him. “When it’s happened to one of us, we dealt with fever, chills, vomiting, hallucinations … like we told you, it’s not fun, but it’s survivable.”
He rubbed his hand over his face and glanced back at Tirvu. She laid on the ground in a fetal position, her whole body trembling. Her dry, cracked lips quivered, and he simply couldn’t imagine her looking any more vulnerable.
What if the wolves were wrong, and she was dying?
He bent forward and placed his hands on his knees, the thought hitting him as though he’d been punched in the gut. His chest ached as he shut his eyes, trying to catch his breath.
Tirvu dying simply wasn’t an option, and he wouldn’t consider it again.
“We’ll stay in the area out of sight so you don’t have to worry about intruders while she heals,” the blond continued. “Once she is conscious again, she’ll need water and food. If you want us to hunt a rabbit or squirrel for her, let us know. We’ll check back with you in a few days.”
“Thanks,” Eric said, standing upright. He would remain hopeful that Tirvu would pull through this, and that she’d do it quickly. He didn’t bother to tell the wolves that he hadn’t seen her eat anything but blueberries and was most likely a vegetarian. “I’ll see you then.”
A yellow shimmer appeared around the men, and Eric heard their bones, muscles, and tendons pop as they shifted into their wolf forms. Once they had turned, they bounded into the forest.
He got to his knees next to Tirvu, unsure what to do with her. She should probably be wrapped up in the sleeping bag to fight the chill, but it also seemed incredibly wrong to touch her naked form without her permission. His fingers tingled at the thought of grazing her skin, and he couldn’t simply let her lie out here on the forest floor. She was too defenseless and exposed. Although she’d been at the top of the food chain before, she now lay as helpless as a newborn.
His mind made up, he reached under her and began to lift her from the ground. Her whole body began to heave, and vomit spewed from her mouth.
Sitting down, he pulled her so that her back lay against his chest. He gathered her hair behind her and tilted her head to the side to keep her from choking on her own throw-up.
As she trembled and lurched, the steady stream of bile seemed never-ending. He wrapped one arm around her waist and kept his other hand twisted in her hair to keep it out of the way. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel terribly disgusted by her illness, only worried.
Tirvu would get better … there simply wasn’t another option. He considered what he should do about the Moonstone. Should he go and try to find it without her and leave her with the wolves?
He thought he could trust them, but his gut told him not to abandon her. If she didn’t get well before the window to the Event closed, what would that mean for her?
She’d be trapped on this realm, just as Eorricris had been, and she wouldn’t be able to get home. She said if she didn’t return with the Moonstone, those in her realm would destroy each other, ending her world. Even if she wasn’t able to return, he had a feeling she’d be happy knowing peace had settled over her land.
So … did he stay with her, or go and try to find the Moonstone?
As she threw up again, the certainty of his answer settled over him. He didn’t fully trust the wolves, and he couldn’t imagine them doing much for her but make sure she was allowed to expel the vampire poison in peace.
He, on the other hand, would care for her.
There was a big difference between the two.
“Come on, Tirvu,” he murmured. “Get all that crap out of there. Once you do, I’ll take you into the tent so you can rest.”
She groaned as her head lulled backward. He pulled her closer into his chest and wrapped his arms around her, pushing her head so that it rested in the crook of his elbow.
He didn’t know how much time had passed while he held her trembling body, but despite her discomfort, his worry calmed.
As he stroked her hair and the side of her face, he knew that even though vomit that smelled like rotting flesh covered his leg and arm, there was no place he’d rather be.
Three hours later, Tirvu lay quietly against him. Her whole body quaked, but at least she hadn’t vomited in about a half-hour. Her breathing was steady, and he thought it might be a good time to get her bite cleaned up and then have her rest inside the tent.
He moved slowly so he wouldn’t wake her or give her reason to begin the heaving again, and laid her down on the forest floor. After what she’d been through, he imagined just even the slightest movement felt like a high-grade roller coaster.
Grabbing his pack, he found the first aid kit and was relieved that he’d remembered to bring it. He sat down next to her and dabbed some antiseptic on a cotton ball, then reached down and gently took her bitten hand in his.
He noticed the puncture marks at the wrist. They’d scabbed over but still remained red, purple and angry. Her whole hand had swelled so much it reminded him of a baseball glove, her arm having also thickened. He worried he would injure her further if he tried to clean the bite, but it had to be done. If it became infected, she wou
ld only hurt worse.
Even though she was still unconscious, she groaned and tried to pull her hand away as he gently dabbed the area with the cotton.
“Got to do it, Tirvu,” he muttered, holding on so she couldn’t slip away. “You don’t want this infected.”
She acquiesced, and he was able to clean it and also bandage it without any further protest.
After putting away the kit, he tried to figure out how to get her into the tent. Dragging her was out of the question, so he bent down and lifted her into his arms. She was a big woman and heavy, but as his arm slipped under her full hips, he couldn’t fight the very visceral reaction his body had to her soft flesh.
Leaning down, he brought her into the tent and laid her out on the sleeping bag. She curled up in a fetal position, her hair falling down the side of her face.
He pushed it back, then sat down at her feet.
The tent was made for two people, but that didn’t mean there was a lot of room. He thought of it as a studio tent … one that would fit two people, but one would be much more comfortable.
He studied her pale skin, her dry lips, and all that white hair that lay in a trail on the pillow reminding him of clouds.
Eorricris.
Her voice rang as clearly in his head as if she had whispered it from her own lips.
“I’m here, Tirvu. I’m not going anywhere.”
He lay down beside her and zipped the sleeping back up around them. He held her close, spooning her, and nestled his nose in her hair. It smelled of the forest, and he inhaled deeply. Could that be her natural smell, or was it because they were deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains and the scent was ‘stuck’ on her?
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