by Stead, Nick
Once He had Leon’s attention, He raised His hand to His shoulder, where a tarantula crouched. The spider crawled onto her master’s hand, and at another whispered command she rubbed her abdomen, flicking the bristly hairs into the image of Leon’s eyes. The hairs didn’t burn in the flames but instead passed through, into the mortal realm, and flew into those crazed blue discs.
The demon didn’t wait to see what happened next, instead moving the image on to another part of the woodland with a lazy flick of His hand, in the same way a mortal would swipe a touchscreen device. The flames centred on a deer, its nostrils flared and its ears pricked. He smiled and whispered another command, this time to the boa constrictor coiled around His body.
Scales slid across His flesh as the snake slithered through the fiery window. She reared up and struck her prey before it had chance to react, sinking fangs into its neck and wrapping herself around the animal, squeezing the life from it. But instead of swallowing the carcass, the snake’s form collapsed into a shadowy mist, much like the barghest’s had done. She reappeared at her master’s side moments later.
Satisfied the night’s events were back on course, the demon refocused the fire on the two undead and returned to watching and waiting. His time would soon come.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Hunted: Part Two
Leon’s nails were starting to bite into the flesh of my scalp, slowly drawing closer to my vulnerable brain tissue. I had no doubt they would dig through my skull with ease. The pressure was building and I couldn’t help but imagine the death that was surely only minutes away – seconds if he wished. I could see the moment where the bone shattered in an explosion of blood and brains, bringing my life to a grisly end. And I was powerless to stop it.
Just as the pressure was becoming unbearable, something whispered through the trees. It couldn’t be felt physically and yet the woods were suddenly bursting with life, animals who’d been cowering in their dens now fleeing from an unseen terror.
Leon whipped his head round at the sudden disturbance as he listened to voices only he could hear, probably telling him to kill them all. But his grip on my head remained strong. Then he hissed in pain and the pressure lifted from my fragile skull. His hands were raised to his own face now, pawing at his eyes as though something had lodged in them.
He soon gave up on trying to rub the irritation away and started shaking his head, like the animal he still believed himself to be. It was all I needed to break free.
I’d been given a second chance at life and I took it, heaving my body with every ounce of strength I had. Leon was thrown off balance and I wriggled free. Then I was up and running again, desperately trying to think of a plan. I didn’t look back but I knew I had only moments before the vampire recovered and resumed the hunt.
My legs were starting to slow. Muscles ached with exhaustion, my energy running low. The cold air started to sting as my chest heaved, and there came a feeling of lightheadedness. I was going to collapse if I pushed myself much further.
I came to a stop behind the thick trunk of an ancient tree and leant back, keeping myself as flat against it as I could. There was no telling if Leon had followed over the ground this time or whether he was back in the trees, but I did my best to shield myself from his field of vision. It would only be a matter of time before he located me with his other senses though. As soon as I’d caught my breath I was going to have to push on.
Had he been any other creature, I could have laid in wait and ambushed him this time. But he was a vampire. He had all the advantages. It wasn’t just his superior senses or greater speed and strength but the fact that, when it came to hunting each other down, he could evade me far more effectively than I could hide from him. His body didn’t need to breathe like mine did, nor did his heart need to pump. He only needed the blood of the living to keep him going, and if he had any control over his other bodily functions, he would surely turn them off.
My breathing grew quieter and my heart began to calm, yet Leon could still listen for these tell-tale signs of life and use them to pinpoint my location, whereas I might as well have been blind to my surroundings again. He could be feet away, utterly silent and downwind, and I would never know he had drawn so close until he struck – again. And there would be no second chance this time, of that I was certain.
There was no hope of him brushing against a leaf or snapping a twig either. Vampires just weren’t that clumsy, and with his training and centuries of practice, he really was the perfect predator. The wolf in me might have felt we ruled these woods, but we paled in comparison to our adversary.
It took all my willpower to force my aching body onwards. I was going to have to pick somewhere to make my final stand soon, or I wouldn’t have enough energy left to fight. My situation was growing increasingly desperate, and I racked my brains for any parts of the woods I’d come across that might offer some advantage in a fight. Then it came to me, the one place that might offer the advantage I needed. A surge of hope flooded my veins, and my pace quickened.
A plan was forming as I ran. Foolproof it wasn’t, but it was the best I could think of in such desperate circumstances – my one shot at coming out of this alive. So I forced myself to keep going, vowing to myself that if it was my fate to die that night, I would at least take the crazy bastard with me; he who had pretended to be my friend, only to prove as false as the rest of them.
Just when I felt I couldn’t run any further, the mental image of my surroundings indicated I had reached the right place. I sagged to my knees, grateful for a brief respite. And a welcome smell reached my nostrils.
At first I didn’t dare believe my luck. Was my mind playing tricks on me? I had a quick feel of the ground and my hands passed over something solid. Not another hallucination then. How had I not picked up the scent sooner? Unless my subconscious had been aware of it all along, and it was no coincidence I’d settled on this part of the woods for the fight.
I was too exhausted to be suspicious of the offering. The odds of me making it through the night alive weren’t that great anyway. I might as well take the risk.
The smell of blood was thick in my nostrils as I lowered my face to the deer’s carcass. It was fresh and mostly intact, other than the two large puncture holes I could feel in its throat. Bite marks? I couldn’t be sure what exactly had killed it, but it didn’t seem like it was Leon’s doing, at least. He tended to be considerably messier, judging from the state of the victims Ulfarr had found and revealed to us all. Maybe it was connected to the supernatural force we’d felt earlier?
I ripped my way through to the deer’s organs, knowing I didn’t have long to eat with Leon surely not far behind now – if he wasn’t already here. The heart, liver and kidneys were the richest in vitamins and other nutrients, and I gulped them all down, hoping they would give enough energy to defeat my opponent.
Fresh strength coursed through my veins with every bite. I remembered from biology that digestion wasn’t instant, yet I felt better just for having a full stomach. It was one of many things I’d never questioned though. The usual laws of nature didn’t exactly apply to the undead – all I knew was that I had to feed between transformations, and doing so gave me the energy to change again. How it worked so quickly had never really crossed my mind before – I was just grateful that it did.
I felt strong enough to return to my hybrid form, but first I crept into the ditch I’d been searching for, out of sight and, I hoped, downwind from Leon.
There was nothing I could do to hide the beating of my heart or inhaling and exhaling air through my lungs. All I could do was try to keep calm while I crouched there, waiting for him to come stalking by.
It seemed my luck was in once again. Leon trod so softly over the bed of dirt, twigs and fallen leaves that his approach could easily be mistaken for little more than the stirring of a faint breeze. But I recognised the faint shifting of earth for what it truly was, and I bunched my muscles in preparation for the ambush I planned to make.
Leon came to a sudden stop, as if he’d sensed my presence. I held my position. There was no room for mistakes now. If my timing was even slightly off, I would lose the advantage of surprise – the only thing currently in my favour.
He raised his nose to the wind, breathing in nature’s secrets. I silently willed him to creep closer, my muscles beginning to burn with the discomfort of being tensed up. The minutes dragged by and it began to seem like my one chance at victory wasn’t going to work after all. But then he tilted his head and started forward again, padding nearer as I’d hoped. And my moment came.
In a rush of fury, I burst from the shadows, lunging at the vampire. The successful ambush meant he wasn’t quick enough to react before we hit the ground, and I was able to sink my fangs into the arm he threw up to protect his head. Teeth tore through flesh and blood splattered my body and the surrounding vegetation. But this was no mortal victim and it would take much more than a ruined limb to stop him.
Leon threw me off with his three good limbs, sending me crashing into a tree. I yelped and wheezed from the impact, winded, and Leon charged before I could recover.
Fangs sank into the base of my neck, but my fur offered some protection, his elongated canines not quite as lethal as the lion he imagined himself to be. They were still long enough to pierce through skin, but he only had upper fangs, and they would have to nick my jugular vein to weaken and subdue me. Until then, the sensation of them tearing into my muscle was merely a painful irritation. I ignored it and twisted my head round to savage his collar bone, on the side of his good arm.
Leon was forced to pull away, blood gushing from the wounds I’d dealt him. But he wouldn’t give up his hunt so easily, and we circled each other in the slow dance of two great predators, each looking for an opening in the other’s defences.
The back of my neck was also bleeding profusely, but it seemed vampires suffered the effects of blood loss much quicker than creatures with living bodies. Starving his dead heart of the blood he’d taken from his prey, the very life he’d stolen from his victims, put him in a state akin to if he’d been starved all night. It was giving rise to his hunger and the need to feed, I could see it in his eyes. Even in his crazed state, Leon was well aware that time was no longer on his side. He needed to subdue me and make the kill he craved before he grew too weak, or he was going to be the one facing certain death.
Leon lunged again, slightly slower than he’d been when the fight began. I was ready for the attack and braced myself. My claws dug into the soil as I planted my paw-like feet in a defensive stance, like he’d taught me for hand to hand combat. His body crashed into mine but I stood firm, grabbing his thin frame in my monstrous hands. Now evenly matched, he struggled to wrestle me back to the ground, and I was the one who succeeded in throwing him down. I leapt on him and pinned him to the forest floor, holding him there. The world around us went quiet, save for my heavy panting.
“Finish it,” a familiar voice hissed from behind.
“You came back,” I said, surprised. She was the last person I’d expected to see, given the way I’d treated her over the last year. Especially as she’d already given me a second chance after the first time I’d left her during the full moon.
“Finish it!” Lady Sarah repeated, more urgently.
“No,” I growled, after a pause. Leon remained silent, as emotionless as ever.
“He is a murderer, Nick. The only way to stop him is through death. If you do not end it, then I will.”
“No. I can’t take back the atrocities I’ve committed, but I can resolve only to kill for survival from now on. If we take his life, how are we any better than him?”
“This is survival! He will not hesitate to kill us, the next chance he gets.”
“Perhaps, but tonight I choose to spare him. We are not creatures of peace, but we don’t have to indulge in mindless slaughter either. My bloodlust is in check, and I choose not to lower myself to this vampire’s level.”
I released my grip on Leon’s head and stood. Lady Sarah made a lunge for him, but he found a last burst of speed and slipped away from her, disappearing into the night. I placed a hand on her shoulder before she could give chase, and she turned on me in a fresh wave of anger.
“This is foolish! Your actions will only lead to more deaths.”
When I didn’t respond, she studied me and her expression softened.
“There is something different about you. Am I right in thinking you have finally seen sense? You have fully embraced your wolf side now?”
I nodded. “Why did you come back this time? And if Leon was the killer, what were you doing crouched over that dead vampire? And come to think of it, why the hell did you just suddenly stop helping me when Ulfarr put me on trial, and all these times since then when I’ve needed you? Why wouldn’t you even offer to help clear my name when it looked like the witch might be behind the killings?”
“I told you before, there is much you do not understand. But I suppose you deserve the truth.
“The first thing you should know is that Ulfarr is not just an Elder to me, and it is not the mere respect for an Elder that binds me to him and commands my obedience. You see, Ulfarr is the vampire who made me.”
“What? But you told me you never knew the name of the vampire that turned you, which kinda sounded like you never even saw him again.”
“I was not completely honest with you. It was some time before our paths crossed again but perhaps it was inevitable, with the blood ties that bind us, even as those same ties bound me to Vince.
“Given Ulfarr’s attitude towards werewolves, I had hoped to keep you away from my allegiance to him and thus I deemed it safer to lie about this aspect of my past. But it is not within my power to go against his wishes. I had to obey whenever he ordered you to be brought before him, and his hold over me meant I was forced to hold my tongue while you were subjected to his cruelty.”
I narrowed my eyes and opened my mouth to argue, not entirely satisfied with her answer. But she didn’t give me the chance.
“I did try to help where I could,” she continued, “making sure you had some comforts while imprisoned, no matter how small. Ulfarr would not allow you the luxury of fresh meat but I convinced him to at least provide you with some water and the bucket to keep the floor clean.”
As she spoke, I heard someone else approaching, and I caught Selina’s scent. I growled in alarm, but the witch came into view with her hands raised, palms facing outwards.
Lady Sarah eyed her, before continuing “And the other thing you should know – this is my younger sister.”
“What? You have a sister? Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” My body was still pumped for fight or flight, and it was all too tempting to unleash the anger again.
Lady Sarah almost looked apologetic then. “When you came to me before, you never gave me the name of the witch you suspected and I was not yet aware that the two of you had met. But just as eternal youth was granted to me through vampirism, so she gained power through her witchcraft to halt the ravages of time.”
I realised I was staring. “But then that would make her the next in line to the throne after you had to fake your death, right? How does a queen end up turning to witchcraft?”
Lady Sarah glanced at her sister. “Her story will have to wait. Ulfarr still believes you to be the killer and there may still be Slayers on the hunt in this area. We should not linger here too long.”
“Okay, but answer me one more thing. I ask again, why did you come back? Why did you even choose to help me in the first place, during my first full moon and since then, before your ties to Ulfarr got in the way?”
Selina answered this time. “I told you before, you have a great destiny, should you choose to embrace it. The future is not set in stone, but I have seen many things – enough to convince me that the last werewolf must not die so young and full of unfulfilled potential. And I shared the nature of my visions with my sister, who agreed to await your comin
g and watch over you where possible while you adapted to your lycanthropy.”
“So all those times you go off on your own, have you been meeting with Selina?” I growled at the vampire. “After letting me give up everything from my old life, you get to see your sister? How is that fair?”
“Whoever said life was fair?” Selina said.
“So you two what, meet up in that cottage on the moors?” I continued, ignoring the witch.
“Sometimes,” Selina answered. “But that place isn’t my home. I go there when I need to perform rituals away from the prying eyes of mortals, but the rest of the time I’m free to live among them. There was a time when I had to isolate myself from the rest of humanity of course, just like you undead, back when the Church had people in a panic and the witch hunts began. But once mortals turned to science and forgot about the existence of the supernatural, there was nothing stopping us witches from living among them again, since we are technically still human. I’m not known to the Slayers, and there are spells that can cause illusions which allow me to ‘age’ over the years, then I simply fake my death and move on. I’m currently living on the outskirts of a town not far from where you grew up, and I’ve invited my sister over a few times to keep her updated on the modern world she refuses to be a part of. Films seem to be going down well though.”
She gave Lady Sarah a warm smile. I hadn’t really paid attention to how she’d dressed before but I noted that night she was wearing a modern top and jeans, which fit with her story.
“All this time struggling in a world with no place for us, when there was somewhere we could have gone to shelter after all?” I snarled at Lady Sarah, unable to believe what I was hearing. “You let me give up everything I’d ever known, when I could have at least carried on in a human lifestyle?”
