Just then, Dodge came out from behind a pine tree a few feet away from us. His hair blond hair was mussed, and he looked much less amused than he had when I met him in the woods. He had Jane in his arms, and he was holding his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. Her heart was pounding franticly, and I would’ve noticed it sooner if I hadn’t been so distracted by Gunnar. Her eyes were wild, and she fought at Dodge as hard as she could, but it didn’t do anything. He restrained her with ease.
“I’m not going after her!” I glared at Gunnar. “You can’t make me kill her!”
“That is true, but I can make it more tempting.” Gunnar nodded at Dodge, who responded by dropping Jane to the ground.
“Alice, I’m so sorry!” Jane cried. She was barefoot in that short green dress she’d stolen from closet, and she fell into the frozen grass. Her clothes were torn and her knees and cheeks were scraped and dirty. “I didn’t want to call you, but they made me!” She was half-kneeling and half-sitting on the ground, with her hands pressed down in the icy slush. As cold as it that must’ve been for her, she was too weak and too afraid to get up.
“It’s okay, Jane. Don’t worry about it,” I tried to reassure her. I wanted to go over to her, but I was too afraid about how Gunnar and Dodge would react. Jack and Milo didn’t know what to do anymore than I did, so we all just stood there, waiting until Gunnar told us what he wanted.
“Dodge, make the food more appetizing,” Gunnar commanded. Dodge reached into his pocket, and before I knew what was going on, he’d bent over and sliced open her arm from elbow to wrist, and she screamed.
“Jane!” I started to run towards her to save her, but Jack wrapped his arm around me and stopped me.
“Alice, no,” Jack hissed in my ear when I started to fight him. His grip was like an iron bar, and I was disappointed with how little I could do against it. I was even weaker than I thought.
I probably would’ve kept fighting against him anyway, but then I smelled her blood. She held it up, trying to stop it, but it was flowing hot and sweet. My hunger intensified, a painful burning that shot through me. I closed my eyes and swallowed it back. I did not want to bite her, and I wouldn’t.
Within a few seconds, I calmed down enough where Jack could let go of me, but he didn’t.
“Put pressure on the wound,” I said to Jane, and it surprised even me how calm I sounded.
“Tear your dress and put a tourniquet about the elbow, or you’re gonna bleed out.” Jane did as she was told, her hands trembling and tears streaming down her cheeks. She struggled tying it around her arm, and Dodge moved to stop her.
“No, let her do it,” Gunnar said, and Dodge straightened back up. He stood right over, watching as Jane sobbed and almost fell over onto the grass. “It’s not fun if she bleeds to death first.”
“I’m not going to bite her,” I insisted, looking back at him. “None of us are.”
“I feel a challenge growing,” Gunnar grinned at me, showing his teeth menacingly.
I heard footsteps approaching, and I quickly turned towards the trail. None of the lycan would be dumb enough to make a sound walking, and they moved too fast anyway. This was a human, taking a stroll through the park at midnight. Admittedly, it was a stupid human, but he was definitely innocent of any involvement in this. Then, I saw him. Just a chubby guy in his twenties with dark glasses. He was walking one of this ridiculous puggle dogs, and it sensed trouble before he did. It had been sniffing along the path, but then it looked towards us and barked. No sooner had the guy looked toward us, then Stellan burst out from nowhere and dove on him.
I wanted to scream, but I opened my mouth and nothing came out. The guy didn’t even have a chance to scream before Stellan ripped out his throat. Jane screamed, and she was the only one that made a sound.
His little dog barked angrily, and then realized the danger was too much for him, and took off down the path.
Stellan was gnawing at his throat, and I could see the blood spurting out around him, as well as smell it. His body convulsed and shook, and I heard the sounds of bone tearing as Stellan completely tore his neck, and the guy’s body stopped moving.
I shrank back from the sight, but I couldn’t look away. I wanted to throw up, and I hated myself for getting thirsty over the scent of blood. When I felt Milo’s hand, I almost jumped, but managed to stop myself.
He put his hand in mine and squeezed. I had never see anything so horrific in my life as Stellan ripping apart the guy, and when I finally managed to look away, I saw that Milo had tears in his eyes.
Suddenly, he looked so young and scared, and he moved closer to me. I wanted to hug him, but I was afraid of how Gunnar would react, so I settled for holding his hand.
“It’ll be okay,” I lied, looking Milo in the eye. “At least it happened really fast. I’m sure he didn’t feel anything.”
“He probably didn’t,” Gunnar admitted. “But he could’ve. Stellan was a little hasty with him, but he can do it much slower. Shall I have him show you?”
“No!” I said too quickly, and Gunnar laughed. Jack had moved so he was trying to block both Milo and me from Gunnar, and we stood behind him, holding hands and shivering like two scared little kids.
“Stellan!” Gunnar shouted without looking at him. Stellan gave up on eating the guy and lifted his head. His face and chest were covered in blood, and he wiped at them absently with the back of his sleeve as he started walking over to us.
“What do you want from us?” Jack asked. He was as scared and sick as I was, but he could almost pass for calm and confident.
“How about… a game?” Gunnar smiled. Stellan had returned to his side, leaving the corpse in the middle of the trail like it was just a discarded piece of trash, like a half eaten apple or a pop can. Gunnar’s eyes moved to something behind, and when I turned, it was already too late.
This giant vampire had somehow crept up behind us, and he wrapped his massive bare arms around Milo. He yelped in surprise and fought against the vampire, but it was completely useless. He was the largest person I’d ever seen in my life, and he had to vampire strength behind it. Milo was still gripping my hand, and I clung onto him tightly, trying to pull him from the vampire.
“Alice!” Jack had his arms around me, refusing to let me be dragged along with Milo as the vampire pulled him away, but I wouldn’t let go. “Alice! Let him go! Alice!”
“Milo!” I screamed, but my fingers slipped, and I let go of Milo. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, and he was still reaching his arm out for me. His huge brown eyes had never looked so sad or scared in his life. I kicked at Jack, but he wouldn’t let me go. “Milo!”
“Alice, as you can see, my good friend Bear isn’t hurting him,” Gunnar interrupted. Bear, the gargantuan vampire, had Milo firmly secured in his arms, but he didn’t even appear to be squeezing him. Milo still squirmed and fought against him, but he didn’t look like he was in any real pain, just terrified. “Milo -
that’s your name, yes?” Milo didn’t say anything and kept fighting. “Milo, are you in any pain? Is he hurting you?”
“No,” Milo grunted, and finally started to settle down in Bear’s grip. He probably wouldn’t have answered if I hadn’t been there. He was saying it for my benefit, so I would stop fighting against Jack. He looked over at me and nodded. “I’m okay.” I did finally stop struggling against Jack, but smartly, he didn’t let me go. I would’ve taken off towards Milo the second he did.
“Let him go!” I screamed and turned my attention to Gunnar. “He has nothing to do with this! Just let him go! Peter doesn’t even like him!” He laughed at that, but I’m not sure how that was amusing. Jack said nothing, but he was trying to gauge the situation. He knew that Gunnar had some plan going on, and he was trying to figure it out. I knew that too, but I couldn’t keep my emotions under control.
“Mmm, yes, I’m sure, but Peter might not be arriving for awhile,” Gunnar said with faux sadness. “So I thought we would play a game u
ntil he joined us. Can you guess what it is?” I just glared at him. “Tag -
vampire style. You see, it’s just like normal tag, except you have to kill whoever you tag.
Since you’re new to this game, we’ll keep it easy and start with two players. How about… you,” he pointed Jane, “and you,” he pointed to me. “And since you’re the vampire, you’re It, Alice.”
“No! I’m already told you I’m never going to bite her!” I yelled at him, disgusted.
“But you don’t even know what the prize is yet?” Gunnar smiled widely at me. “It’s that Milo fellow.
If you win, you get him back. If you forfeit, then Stellan gets him, and we all know how he likes to play.”
Gunnar nodded to the corpse on the trail. “But since I am such a giving guy, I’ll give you a parting gift. After Stellan eviscerates Milo, I will personally give you his heart.” I just gaped at him for a moment, unable to do anything but try and not vomit. Either I would have to murder my best friend, or they would murder my brother. The only good thing was that I had a feeling I wouldn’t live very long to regret my decision, no matter what it was.
“No,” Jack said firmly. “Let me play. I’m much quicker than Alice.” I’m not sure if he had a plan to save Jane, or if he was only trying to save me from killing her by doing it himself.
“Well, Jane doesn’t seem much in the running mood, so I don’t think speed is really an issue.” Gunnar had a point.
Jane had finally tied the tourniquet around her arm, but not before she lost quite a bit of blood. Her only consolation is that her body was used to running on less blood, and she had spent the last few days building her supply back up. But she was barely even holding herself up, and she hadn’t screamed or protested when Gunnar told me to kill her. Her skin was completely ashen, and the blood had started freezing on her arm.
“There has to be something else!” Jack shouted. He let go of me so he could step forward to Gunnar, challenging him. Stellan stepped towards Jack, defending Gunnar, but Gunnar held his hand out to him. His hand was the only thing preventing Stellan from ripping out Jack’s heart, and we all knew it.
“I have other ideas, but I’m certain you wouldn’t like them anymore than this one!” Gunnar growled.
I exchanged a look with Milo, his eyes wide and uncertain. If I had to choose, I would pick him.
Without a doubt, I loved him so much that I would do anything for him. But I didn’t want to kill Jane. She hadn’t done anything to deserve this, and I couldn’t imagine taking anyone’s life, let alone someone I cared about.
“Just do it, Alice,” Jane mumbled, her voice barely audible. Her heart was beating so slowly, I didn’t know how she was still awake. She had herself propped up with her good arm, and she still held the wounded on up, trying to keep the cut above her heart. “I’m dying anyway.”
“No. I can’t.” I shook my head and tears filled my eyes. “I can’t do it.”
“So be it.” Gunnar shrugged and nodded to Milo. Stellan stepped towards him, and I shouted.
“No! Wait!” I shouted. Bear tightened his grip around Milo, and Milo clawed at him. “Milo!
No! Stop!
Let him go! I’ll do it! Milo!”
“Do it, and we’ll let him go,” Gunnar said through gritted teeth.
“Fine! Just stop hurting him!” I pleaded. “Stop! Milo!” Gunnar rolled his eyes, and nodded at Bear again. Instantly, he loosened his grip on Milo, who gasped for breath.
My panicked screams for my brother had carried farther than I thought. I heard him before I saw him.
Bobby was racing through the grass towards us. He fell and slid on his ass towards us, and I wanted to scream at him, but I prayed he wised up and realized what he was up against. I would’ve felt some relief that he was still alive if he wasn’t running to his death.
“Milo!” Bobby shouted, and I winced. His only hope for survival had been going undetected, but he had just drawn attention himself. He fell again and scrambled to his feet. “Milo!”
“Run!” Milo screamed as loudly as he could, but it was already too late.
Stellan had started moving towards Bobby, but only a split second before he got there, another lycan came out and wrapped his arms around him. Bobby screamed in surprise, but the lycan held him tightly.
Stellan growled in protest. If he had caught Bobby first, he would’ve gladly torn him apart.
Then the lycan holding him looked at me. His brown eyes were sad and disappointed. It was Leif, the kind lycan that had helped Ezra and I find Peter. I realized exactly what he’d done, and I suspected from the way Gunnar glared at him that he thought the same thing. Leif had just saved Bobby’s life by intercepting him before Stellan did.
“This has all gotten rather tedious,” Gunnar said wearily, and looked Bear. “I’ve tired of this game.
Kill the boy.”
Before Jack could stop me, I dove at Bear. I jumped onto his back, clawing and biting at him. Dodge came towards me, but Jack managed to fight him off. Milo bit into Bear’s wrist, and a bold move, started drinking his blood. Bear howled, and even though he was weakened, I could do little against him. Stellan was on me instantly, pulling me off Bear. He threw me onto the ground and sat on top of me, pinning my wrists back. His mouth was stained red, and he bared his teeth at me, showing his bloodied incisors with bits of flesh still clinging to them.
“Stellan! Don’t kill the girl!” Gunnar shouted. “We need her! Just scent the ground with her blood!”
Keeping his dead black eyes locked on me, Stellan yelled something back at Gunnar in Finnish, and Gunnar responded wearily in Finnish.
I tried kicking at Stellan, but he refused to budge, and he had my wrists locked into the cold slush.
Dodge and Jack were still fighting, but now Dodge was holding Jack back from getting at Stellan. Milo had managed to get Bear to the ground, but he wasn’t free yet. Through it all, Gunnar didn’t enter the mix. He just stalked around, observing our futile attempts at escape. Bobby was screaming at us, but I doubted that Leif was hurting him.
Stellan bent down and head butted me incredibly hard. Shooting pain shot through my skull and everything went black for a second. Had I been human, I’m sure he would’ve killed me with that. I could hear him saying something to me in Finnish, but I couldn’t see him or understand him. When my vision started clearing, I was holding my head, my natural reflex. Belatedly, I realized that that meant he’d let me go. He was standing over me, repeating the same word over and over again.
“He’s telling you to run, Alice,” Gunnar told me. I was curled up on the ground, and I could see Gunnar through Stellan’s legs. His expression was blank, and that was strangely disturbing.
“I suggest you listen to him. Stellan loves a good chase, and believe me, you want him happy when he catches you.”
I didn’t give a shit what Stellan wanted, but if I ran, he would chase me. I was what they were really after, so maybe they would all follow me away. They would leave Jane and Bobby behind for sure, since carrying humans along with them would just be cumbersome, but maybe even Milo and Jack. And even if they didn’t it was the only plan I had.
My head had stopped hurting, but I still felt dazed. I tried staggering to my feet, and immediately slipped and fell onto my knees. Stellan laughed, so I tried again. This time, I got up, and I ran.
Chapter 26
Sliding through the grass, I fell more than I actually ran. Stellan was clearly giving me a head start, because I wasn’t making it very far. He was going to be awfully disappointed when he caught me, but I didn’t know what more I could do. I was running as fast as I could. If he hadn’t head butted me so hard and the ground wasn’t so slushy, I might’ve actually made it somewhere.
As it was I only made it about twenty feet before I felt him pounce on me. It how I imagined a tiger attack would be. His claws dug into my back, and then I was the ground, the wind knocked out of me. He pressed my face into the ground, so I was drow
ning in the watery snow and grass. When he finally let my head up, I spit out chunks of grass and dirt. I tried to push myself up, with him on my back, but he was too strong and the ground was too slippery.
In the distance, I heard police sirens wailing. It seemed very far in the distance, but that was just because my level of consciousness was changing. The adrenaline and panic changed my thirst into something different. I wasn’t blacked out exactly, but I felt like I was fighting underneath water. Stellan laughed, and I felt the weight move off me. His hand went between his legs, and I scrambled to crawl away from him, but that just made him dig my fingers into my inner-thigh. When I saw “dig into” I mean literally dig. His claws and fingers tore through my jeans and flesh into the muscle. I screamed as the searing pain shot through me. I turned around to fight him off, and he jerked his hand back, taking a chunk of my leg with him. He laughed, and then disappeared.
I tried to sit up and look down at my leg, and it was then that I realized what he’d done. The femoral artery runs through the inner thigh, and if severed, a human would bleed out in a very short time.
Unfortunately, it’s not that much different for vampires. In an ordinary situation, my heart would be beating my slower, which would give my body a chance to heal before things got out of hand. But I was scared as hell and my heart was beating to match that. My blood was spilling out all over the ground, and I could feel it.
When I bled as a human, it had never felt like this. It was pressure and pain and weakening.
It was almost like a vacuum, and I could feel my life being sucked out of me with every drop of blood.
“Alice!” Jack appeared at my side. I might’ve noticed him approaching if I wasn’t so focused on the blood. I held my hands over it, trying to stop the flow, but there was a big gouge in my leg.
My hand wouldn’t cover it. The blood just flowed out over it, and it was coming to fast for me to heal. “Oh, hell, Alice.”
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