Her Merciless Prince

by Daniella Wright

  “Are you sure you want to go on the hunt?” Glast says. “I mean, there are dangerous creatures out there, stranger, and we have selected Jordain for the hunt. He can head there.”

  “I’m sure.” I offer. “I’ll go with Sybil.” I stand straight, look as regal as I can, as they have taught me, and see Glast shrink before me, as does Jordain.

  Sybil doesn’t, a slight smile tugging at her lips.

  They’re easy to scare off. I’m glad I walked in when I did. I can’t imagine Jordain trying to protect Sybil from any beast, considering how terrified he is of a mere man standing beside him. Well, perhaps not a mere man. But still, I’m certainly no monster

  Not at this exact moment, anyway.

  The forest smells of damp, but not a dampness I’m used to. I’m used to the scent of mushrooms and decay in the underbrush. But this forest smells damp from something different, like radiation and wild animals. Trees that are rotting already from the inside. That scent, just below the surface, just below their bark. I wrinkle my nose.

  Sybil laughs. “Are you alright?”

  “Can’t you smell that? This entire forest smells of decay.”

  She looks around, sniffs the air. Shakes her head. “It just smells like plants to me.”

  Of course, it does. Sybil doesn’t have wolf’s senses like I do. She won’t be able to pick up all the subtle scents that I can. The scents just underneath the surface of the forest. But it reeked.

  “Here are some of the markings,” Sybil says, bringing me towards one of the trees. I still can’t believe it’s just the two of us out here. On a hunting party, two-by-two, a bunch of people had gone out this morning. Sybil wanted to go to analyze the different trace elements left behind by the creature— if it’s even a creature at all.

  “I think I can smell it,” I say. The entire air is suddenly acrid, like a beast rotting from the inside out. I can smell it on the bark of the tree where the burn marks are. Sulfur mixed with decay.

  “How do you smell it?” Sybil asks, looking around her with concern.

  “It’s my senses,” I begin to answer, wanting to tell her about my wolf form, but before I can speak, my ears catch the sound of something thrashing nearby in the forest. I place my arm on her arm, that strange bolt of lightning crosses through us and I try my best to ignore it.

  I sniff the air.

  The animal is near.

  Sybil pulls out her crossbow, ready to fire. She senses how tense I am.

  More crashing through the forest, and it’s close. It’s about to strike.

  I change, calling forth my wolf form, feeling my limbs shrink and the muscles tightening, bunching up together to create stronger limbs, giving me the speed and strength that I need. My jaw extends out, becoming my muzzle, teeth sharpening. My eyes can now see in the darkness of the trees where I couldn’t before, and my ears are sharp.

  But not as sharp as my nose.

  The creature is almost on top of us by the time I leap for it, jumping towards its throat.

  We tumble together in the undergrowth. I hear Sybil scream and I try to close my jaw around its throat.

  One of us would not be leaving this forest alive.

  Chapter 10

  Sybil

  I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like Eron’s entire body just shifts to accommodate a new form. His limbs begin to shrink, he crouches down, curls his back. His skin becomes covered with dark fur. His jaw extends forward.

  His eyes keep the same intensity.

  I know it’s still him when I look into those eyes.

  I don’t even have a chance to react before that wolf leaps onto the creature that’s about to crash into me. I’d been so focused on Eron’s change that I hadn’t even noticed it.

  The wolf tumbles into this other mass, all sleek, dark muscle, and the two of them vanish into the shadows. I hear growling, fighting. I’m not sure what to do. Should I go towards the monster, towards the battle that I have no protection against?

  I clutch my crossbow more tightly.

  I can do this. I need to find this monster. I need to help Eron!

  I take a step closer, but the dark beast crashes out of the woods again. I stare at it. It’s huge. It’s as tall as I am, sinewy muscle supported by four legs, giant tail coiling and uncoiling behind it, like some kind of snake monster.

  Its eyes are red and it stares into me, freezing me into place.

  I can’t move, staring into those eyes. Staring at the teeth dripping blood.

  Eron’s blood.

  It snarls, takes another step towards me. My crossbow is forgotten.

  I’m dead. I know I’m dead. My limbs are frozen, my heart is hammering, the rush of blood in my ears drowns out all other sounds, and so I don’t hear Eron as he leaps, growling, onto the back of the creature.

  The creature breaks its gaze with me for one second, and I break free of the trance as Eron manages to pull back on its neck, forcing it down to the ground.

  It would seem like more of a victory were the creature not twice Eron’s size.

  I grab my crossbow and try to aim, but their bodies are wrapped around one another as they fight for control. Sleek muscle and fur become entwined, but I still have to shoot.

  I steady my breath, aim. I get one shot and I fire, but I miss. I’m too worried about hitting Eron.

  The two break apart, Eron tossed into the shadows of the trees nearby. He yelps as he hits something. The creature stands again. I don’t stare at its eyes this time. I look down at the chest, right below its neck and I fire.

  A hit!

  It howls, but it doesn’t fall. It seems to have barely felt the blow. I load my crossbow again. Pull back on the string. Too long. The bolt is taking too long to get there!

  Paws land right beside me and I look up just as the great teeth come down towards my face.

  And then Eron comes out of nowhere and smashes into the beast again, desperate to push it away from me, tearing at the beast’s throat with his teeth. Some of the beast’s gray blood oozes out. But its tail uncoils and strikes Eron in his back. Eron yelps, but grabs at the creature’s throat again.

  I reload my crossbow. I fire, aim for the creature’s head. I strike one ear. It screeches again. Its cry is almost human in quality. It reverberates down my spine. It would freeze me in place if I wasn’t ready for it this time. Adrenaline fuels my limbs, I’m too terrified to stop, to stare at it too long. I begin to reload my crossbow just as Eron and the creature both stand up.

  The wolf jumps towards the creature’s neck again, but the creature expects his move and chomps down, tearing Eron’s shoulders, and the side of his ribs, red blood trickling through the dark fur.

  I scream, “Eron!” And I fire. I manage to strike the creature in the neck.

  It thrashes back into the shadows. I think I hurt it badly but I’m not sure. I listen to the surrounding forest, I can’t hear thrashing. I can’t hear anything except Eron’s labored breathing.

  He falls to his side in a pool of his own blood. I need to help him. I sling my crossbow on my back and I take Eron’s paws. I start pulling him away. I know that there are caverns nearby, if I can just reach them in time.

  I can hear the creature coming. Crashing. I lie low, pull out my crossbow again, and I wait.

  A shadow to my left! I fire. Did I hear a yelp? I think it connected. I reload my crossbow right away, sling it back on my back, preloaded. I’m ready. I can move quickly, more or less, if the creature comes back.

  Eron is bleeding heavily, leaving a trail too easy to find, too easy to track. I take his paws again, and start pulling him away. He’s not making any noises, but his orange eyes are staring at me. He’s in pain. He wants to help, but he can’t.

  “We’ll be fine,” I whisper, “just hang on a little longer.”

  He’s so heavy! Even as a wolf, he seems to retain the same mass of a person. I pull him, but my back and my arms ache. I’m sweating, and my breathing is labored. But I can’
t leave him behind.

  I won’t leave him behind.

  I reach the edge of the trees. Nearby is a hideaway, a cave safe from beasts and radiation storms. Made in case someone’s caught out here and can’t make it back to the village. Surrounded by lightning and radiation rods, it also features a few beast deterrents. We could be safe here. We will be safe here. There’s no could about it.

  This has to work.

  Eron shifts back, like his body can’t support his wolf form anymore, because it’s too wounded.

  His paws turn to hands and I grab them, and I pull him the rest of the way, hoping I’m not making his wounds worse. I cross the threshold of the cave, leave him there, and run to the lightning and radiation rods. I flip them on. I hear something nearby and pull out my crossbow.

  The shadows seem to be longer, thicker. I’m afraid of meeting the creature’s eyes and being bound again by its strange gaze. I take a step back. The control panel is so near.

  Something flashes to my right. I fire a bolt before I can think, and then I turn on several of the beast deterrents. One for sound: emitting a high-pitched sound outwards towards the forest, that would frighten any predators. I look towards Eron. He’s not reacting— he’s completely passed out. And then I turn on one for smell, sending out the scent of predators to any animals nearby. Hopefully that would be enough, although I doubt that there’s anything that would frighten this creature!

  I step into the cave. My hands tremble as they hold my crossbow, but I wait. One minute, two… I can hear Eron’s breathing behind me, it’s growing erratic, irregular. My own breath is harsh and labored in my ears. Sweat drips down my forehead, cling to my eyelashes. I blink it away, refusing to put down my crossbow.

  I’m terrified and I know it. But I don’t see the creature. At least not yet…

  I finally lower my crossbow and turn my attention to Eron. He won’t make it unless I tend to his wounds. I pull him deeper into the cave. There are some safety doors here, but I’m not sure if they’ll actually keep this creature away. I close them, metallic shutters linking rock edge to rock edge. It’s not solid - it wouldn’t keep anything like a bear out. And this creature is much stronger. But unless it throws itself against the metal, we should be safe.

  I can’t think about that now. I have to focus on Eron. All of my attention has to go towards helping him. I examine his wounds— they’re deep. One on his side. One near his neck, on his shoulder. One of his arms is badly wounded, too.

  It’s not as bad as it could have been. Maybe his wolf form helped heal him more quickly. His skin feels cold and clammy to my touch.

  I hesitate. He looks human enough, but I know nothing about his physiology. I’ve never seen anyone able to do what he does. What if my balms make him worse?

  I can’t worry about that. I can’t think that way, because he’s similar enough that I can see he’s dying. And so I take out some healing herbs and apply them.

  I hope that I’m not hurting him.

  Please let this work.

  I apply balms over his cuts, and I stitch the deeper ones closed. The blood stops flowing, finally. I listen, in case I hear anything outside that tells me that the creature is returning. But it’s completely silent out there.

  Too silent.

  The birds no longer sing. There’s no sound of insects or other animals. It could just be the animal repellents. Or maybe the creature is waiting out there. But I can’t worry about that. I have Eron to worry about.

  If the beast breaks in, I can’t do anything to stop it. I’m as good as dead. But if Eron lives, he can help me stop it. I did the best I could with his wounds. Bandages and stitches and balms hold them together now. He seems to be sleeping peacefully.

  I touch his forehead. He’s not cold and clammy anymore, so I don’t think he’s heading into shock. He might be getting a bit warmer. I hope a fever or an infection won’t develop. I’m still not sure how to treat him, I can only hope that I’m doing right by him, but his body is foreign.

  I mean, he shifted into a wolf! I’ve never seen anything like that. I trace the contour of his jaw. My fingers graze across his lips. I still feel that electric jolt, but less so. I wish I could see his eyes.

  My arms shake. I’m exhausted, the adrenaline leaving my body. Only morning will tell if he lives. If we both get to live.

  I curl up beside him, hoping to lend some of my heat to him so that he stays warm and heals overnight, and I fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.

  Chapter 11

  Eron

  I can’t tell if I’m dreaming or awake anymore. Reality crackles in my dreams like the lightning in the clouds, bits of reality jumping from dream to dream, linking them like the lightning links the cloud cover. But the reality and the dreams have the same intensity, indistinguishable one from the other.

  One moment, I’m tumbling with Sybil, wrapped in her limbs, sharing her kisses and breath. The next, the creature is near me again. Attacking. I have to fight it off.

  Now I’m receiving news of my parents’ death. Miama’s tender eyes are crinkled with grief. The pounding of my paws under me as I run, trying to lose the pain, the blood-red moon above me.

  I’m in the forest, with its unfamiliar scent of decay, the ground spongy under my paws. There is death in this world. I can taste it in the air.

  I’m human again, and I’m not alone. I sense the danger before it strikes, dreams woven in reality or reality woven into dreams.

  The creature. It’s near. It’s ready for the attack. I sense it lurking in the shadows, leaning back on its haunches, drool dripping from its fangs as it prepares to attack... it hungers for blood. For death. To damage the world that has damaged it.

  Sybil is behind me. The creature is nearest to her. It smells her as I do, as something fresh and new. As something not quite of this world, like a blood moon apparition.

  The creature wants her, and she will die unless I can save her.

  I said I would protect her. I promised her parents. I can’t imagine a world without her, even though we’ve just met.

  No.

  I’ve known her forever. She’s walked with me in my dreams. She’s held me before. She’s been with me my entire life since I was old enough to remember my dreams.

  Now I’m running with her through a sunflower field, holding hands with her as we run and laugh, her hair billowing behind her, a gentle blonde contrast to the sunflowers.

  We’re safe. I know we’re safe.

  I reach her, take her in my arms, kiss her. The sunflowers sway in the breeze and hide our embrace.

  We’re safe because the creature is not here, but she is. She’s here, and I won’t allow anything to hurt her. I hold her tightly, but an ache at my side makes me look down.

  My vision is crooked, broken by lines, and flashes of light.

  I hurt. Sybil is no longer in my arms.

  I don’t remember where I am.

  My mind is fevered hurt, so it no longer knows. Through the flashes of light in my vision, I see bandages and strange herbs on me.

  I may be reacting the herbs. It doesn’t matter. I slip into my dream again; the sunflowers swaying around us as I embrace her more passionately.

  I smell Sybil in the air around me, like a gentle summer breeze.

  She’s safe.

  She’s on top of me, looking down at me, telling me I’ll be okay. We’re in a cave. No, we’re in the sunflower fields.

  It doesn’t matter as her lips lower to mine; her tongue slips into my mouth. My arms wrap around her, feeling her warm flesh, her loving embrace.

  I’m hungry for her.

  She wants me, too, pushing against me, making demands of her own with small moans escaping her mouth.

  Am I dreaming? Am I in the cave or in the fields?

  I’m no longer sure. All that I feel is this hunger, this need, the drugs and fever coursing through my blood, melting the barriers between reality and dreams.

  I roll over, and Sybil is there. I kno
w I can feel her. I smell her hair, her body, her breath.

  I want her. I want her so badly.

  Like so many dreams before now, I reach for her, letting the hunger of my body lead me to her.

  Chapter 12

  Sybil

  Hands travel up and down my body. I’m dreaming of Eron, in a sunflower field, kissing as the wind sways... hands roaming up and down my body greedily as usual in my dreams.

  I kiss back as he kisses hard. I moan, feel pressure on me. Something is different.

  The threads of sleep began to unravel. The rock is hard under my body and the world isn’t filled with the usual light. It’s dark, and I’m in a cave.

  Why do I still feel someone kissing me?

  I jerk awake as Eron nibbles my neck, licking it, his tongue warm, easily earning a gasp from me. His hands wander to my shirt, undoing the front clasps.

  “Eron, what?” I say, and he looks up, his eyes glassy with fever. I reach up to feel his forehead, but he grabs my hand, kisses the inside of my wrist.

  My breath catches in my throat. “Eron, you’re sick,” I say. He looks at me, but his eyes are still glassy. Maybe the herbs are affecting him. “We have to make you better,” I say just as he manages to undo the last clasp of my shirt, revealing my breasts, the air cool on my exposed skin.

  I gasp, try to push him off, but he’s still holding my wrist. His grip is like iron, his palms sweaty from the fever.

  His mouth leaves my neck and finds my breast. He doesn’t hesitate, lowering his head to it, as though familiar with me.

  Which, dream-Eron was. This Eron? Well, he seems just as familiar, his mouth hard at work on my breasts.

  A slight moan escapes my throat. He feels just like in my dreams, his lips, his teeth, the suckling of my nipple…

  “Eron,” I gasp and try to pull away.

  This isn’t a dream, and he’s badly hurt. Not the time to undertake a vigorous activity.