I opened my mouth and chewed the bitter-tasting leaves.
The blond lad was hauling Tobias toward me. My friend’s face was pale and streaked with tear tracks.
I winced as my legs began to tingle in the worst case of pins and needles I’d ever had.
“We need to go, now!” the blond guy said.
The girl nodded, her eyes fixed on me. “Is it working? Your legs … Can you feel them?”
I wriggled my toes, nodded, and stood up.
The blond guy helped Tobias to his feet.
“It worked!” The girl clapped her hands together.
The blond guy’s lips twitched. “We can celebrate your skill later, Emily.” He glanced over his shoulder into the black maw under the bridge. “It’s here, I can feel it.”
Emily swallowed and nodded. “It won’t come out. Not into the moonlight.”
“Yeah, well, let’s not test that, ‘kay?” I began to climb the bank, eager to get the hell away from whatever had just been about to devour us.
Eager to get away from Tobias’s accusing regard.
Chapter Five
We were safe, or so Emily assured us. The rest of the town was busy fornicating … yeah, she actually used that word. Emily, Derek’s daughter, Emily. So, my words had made a difference. Good to know. It was an orgy to celebrate another month of survival. I leaned forward, hands braced on my thighs to catch my breath. We’d run non-stop until we’d cleared the village, and now we were hiding out in an abandoned house on the outskirts of town, waiting for Derek to slip away and join us. The plan was to wait till dawn and then make a break for the outskirts of town while the villagers were sleeping off their orgy hangover. We’d be safe from the monsters in the sunlight, and hopefully be able to reach the sanctuary before night fell.
We were hiding in the kitchen at the back of the house close to the safest exit. The back of the house looked onto a narrow garden with an easily jumped fence. Beyond was wilderness. Emily and Jerry had retreated, as if sensing we needed a moment alone. Had they seen what I’d been about to do?
“You okay?” Tobias asked.
I nodded, unable to look at him. Guilt twisted in my gut. I’d almost left him. I would have left him!
“It’s okay …” He brushed his fingers down my cheek. “I understand. Eva? Come on, you had no choice. Anyone would have done the same.”
I closed my eyes on the tears as his hand cupped my cheek. Shame was a bitter taste on my tongue.
“Would you?” My voice was a whisper.
“What?”
“Would you have done the same? Would you have left me?”
He was silent for the longest moment and then, “I don’t know … I really don’t know.”
I could taste the lie in his words. He’d have stayed, he’d have tried, and we’d both have died. It was who he was. It was why I lo—no. Not now. Not yet. Tobias was everything that was missing inside me. He was the hope, he was the goodness and the morality. But he would also be the death of me. My hand went to the key at my neck. Dad’s final task, his final wish. Stay alive, Eva. Deliver the key.
I’d acted to survive, but in doing so, I’d been about to abandon him to certain death. “What kind of person does this make me?”
Tobias sighed. “It makes you human, Eva.”
There was no anger, no judgment in his eyes. He wrapped me in his arms, and I inhaled his familiar scent, rankness and all.
“I’m so sorry.”
He stroked my hair. “Don’t be. If you’d stayed, I’d have kicked your arse. I want you to survive.” He pressed his lips to my forehead, lingering a moment, his breath warm on my skin.
What could we have been to each other, what could we be if life wasn’t about running? Would the haven we were running to provide a new life? Would we ever be able to stop pretending we were nothing more than friends? It was there, simmering beneath the surface, but we both knew that it wasn’t the right time.
The sound of the door being unlocked was followed by hurried footsteps.
We broke apart to greet Derek. His eyes were bright, his cheeks flushed. I wondered if he’d taken part in the orgy to blend in.
I blinked and looked away, not wanting to know.
“Change of plan. We need to leave, now,” Derek said. “The Chaos Order is in the village square rounding up a search party.”
“How did they find out so fast?” Jerry said.
Derek shrugged. “I always thought they were somehow connected to … it.” He ushered us toward the back door. “We have no choice, we either stay here and risk discovery or we make a run for it and risk being killed by what lies outside of the village.”
If we stayed, we were dead for sure. If we left, at least we were giving ourselves a fighting chance. The coordinates were less than five miles away. We could do this if we stuck together, if we worked together.
I stepped away from Tobias. “Let’s go.”
* * *
The trek from house to wilderness went without a hitch, and once we were under cover of the trees, I switched from worrying about one threat to worrying about another.
I turned my attention to Emily. “How far before we pass the protective barrier around this place?”
“There’s no barrier,” Emily said.
She couldn’t be that naive surely? “There’s something keeping the Claws and Feral out.”
“Is that what you call them?” Jerry said. “We call them the Hungry.”
Hungry? Yeah, they were certainly that. But Feral summed up the nature of these beasts. Creatures that had once been members of society, had lived amongst us, been our friends. Now they were monsters … Feral, hungry beasts.
“So, you think the thing under the bridge managed to erect some kind of barrier around the village?” Derek asked.
“It seems the only rational explanation, although nothing about how we live now is rational.”
“We find they hover on the outskirts,” Derek said. “About half a mile into the woods. We’re safe for another half a mile.”
“Safe from the Feral but not from the Chaos Order,” Tobias said.
True.
We moved in silence, quick and wary. We were at least four hours off dawn, which meant four hours of danger and four hours of staying on the move. The wilderness was the worst place to be. Wooded areas were the Feral’s favorite haunts. They excelled in hunting in this environment; strange, considering that six years ago, they’d been living the urban life.
The moon dappled the ground with silver, lending the landscape an eerie feel. I kept low, moving quickly while scanning the area to my left. Tobias was beside me, his eyes on the right, and behind us were Emily, Jerry, and Derek. Their movements were clumsy, and as a group, they were uncoordinated.
The urge to give instruction was an itch, but keeping the noise down and staying undetected was a priority. So, I pressed my lips together, crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best.
A sharp snap, like a twig breaking, had me freezing like a startled hare. I cocked my arm and raised a fist, scanning the forest around us. The sound had come from in front of us, but the way ahead was wreathed in more shadow than was natural based on the luminance and height of the moon.
“What? What is it?” Emily’s voice was much too loud in the silence.
Tobias turned on her. “Hush!”
A flash of movement in the shadows and another further to our left.
“Shit!” Tobias moved closer to me on instinct. Keep together, stay alive was our motto.
“The barrier …” Derek moved up behind us, his eyes on the air up ahead. “I think that’s it.”
The shadows parted and one of the Feral stepped through. It was a Claw, a huge beast that bore no resemblance to the wolf it had once been. I’d seen many in my time, all colors, shapes, and sizes, but this was by far the largest one I’d ever had the misfortune of coming across. It paced back and forth, its eyes scanning the air before it, but never once did it lock onto us.
>
I cocked my head and took a step toward it.
Tobias grabbed my arm. “What the hell? Are you crazy?”
I shrugged him off gently. “He can’t see us. Look at him.”
The Feral continued to pace, its viscous lip curling as a low growl reverberated in its throat. His red-rimmed, pale blue corneas were stark and bright against the whites of his eyes. His body was fluid ink, powerful haunches moving sinuously as he wore a mini trench into the ground with his pacing. Compared to the other Feral, this one seemed cleaner, less … feral, but he was a Feral nonetheless, they all were. The sickness that had swept across the globe had claimed every supernatural, turning them into monsters. Dad had told me so.
“You’re right. He can’t see us,” Tobias said in awe.
Of course I was right. “It explains why they stay out of town.”
“But, can’t he hear us? Smell us?” Tobias asked.
Tobias sounded perplexed by it all, but I’d learned long ago not to dwell on the little things. I’d learned to simply trust my senses and instincts and file away any anomalies in our world for later examination.
I shrugged. “If he could smell us, he’d be going wild.”
I took another step toward the barrier, and the Feral paused in his pacing. I froze, heart in my throat, as he turned his head to look at me … No, not at me but in my direction. There was no focus in those crazy eyes. I took a step back, and then another, until I was back with the group.
No point tempting fate.
“Okay, he can’t see, hear, or smell us.” I turned away from the beast. “But he definitely senses something.”
The sound of bracken being crushed underfoot, voices, and the scent of smoke had us turning to each other in panic.
Emily grabbed her dad’s arm. “What do we do?”
Derek looked at Tobias, and Tobias looked at me.
“The old railway station!” Jerry said. “It’s pretty much on the barrier. They won’t look there, and the Feral may not be able to see it.”
It was the best plan we had. “Lead the way.” With one last glance at the Feral, I followed Jerry.
Chapter Six
The old, abandoned railway station sat on a rise with the tracks down below covered in weeds and bracken. There was a seating area for passengers, a ticket booth, and an old vending machine that stood battered and empty. It was a great lookout spot. I’d seen pictures of trains, awesome snake-like motors that carried hundreds of people across the country. I’d watched old movies on the projector in the compound’s cinema room—footage of a life that seemed more fantastical than running from monsters. We’d eradicated most diseases by the time the supernaturals came out to the world. No one ever considered that there could be a virus to touch these awesome beings—the werewolves and vampires, the fey, the djinn, and everything in between, and by the time we realized we were wrong, it was too late. Maybe if they hadn’t been such an integral part of our society, we could have contained it, but who could search for a cure when the top scientists were werewolves, who would organize a quarantine when the head of the country’s security were vampires? It was a mess, and one that never got cleaned up. The virus turned the once-valued members of society into rabid beasts, able to infect a human with a bite that killed them within forty-eight hours.
The compound had been one of the shelters set up on short notice to house the small population of humanity that survived long enough to get to them.
I peered out the grimy window at the track below.
“Sun should be up soon,” Tobias said.
“Can’t wait.” There was no sarcasm in my tone.
Tobias sighed and slid to the ground by the window. “You think they’ll take us in?”
I didn’t want to think about that. Resources were scarce, and what if this sanctuary had reached its limit on residents? No way I’d say that to Tobias, though. He needn’t worry until we had to.
“Yeah. They’ll take us in.” I smiled, injecting a little sun into the action.
Tobias’s shoulders relaxed. Great, I’d managed to lie convincingly to my best friend.
“Hey, guys, you want something to eat?” Emily approached us and my eyes zeroed in on the plastic box of what looked like homemade cookies she was holding.
My stomach was a hollow space, but I focused better on an empty stomach. “Maybe later.”
She looked to Tobias, who glanced at me and then shook his head. Sometimes, I wished he didn’t follow my lead all the time. Leading was great, but it was also exhausting, and I’d give anything to hand over the reins once in a while.
“You better eat something, Tobias. You work better on a full stomach.”
He nodded and accepted a cookie from Emily.
I settled back against the wall. “So, Emily, what’s your story?”
She shrugged. “Pretty boring actually. I was born in the town under Chaos Order rule. It’s all I’ve ever known, and aside from the human sacrifice stuff, it’s a pretty safe place to live.”
She was right, it was a boring story, but I smiled and nodded anyway. If they hadn’t saved our lives, I’d be tempted to dump them. It was obvious that they’d had it cushy, and out here, in the real world, survival was something you had to fight for. The idea of Emily fighting off a Feral was preposterous. How far could she run on her twiglet legs? And no, that wasn’t bitchy, it was called being a realist, something Dad had drummed into me. Survival meant no heavy baggage, and Derek, Emily, and Jerry were a ton of heavy baggage.
I turned back to the window to catch a flash of movement at the tree line below. We were still at least an hour and a half off dawn, but we may not have a choice about making a move beyond the barrier.
“What did you see?” Tobias asked. He’d clocked my expression from his perch on the floor.
“Movement.”
Derek cocked his gun.
I flicked a glance his way. “How many bullets you got?”
“Enough to hold them off for a while.”
I shook my head. “Nah, I’m not worried about them.” I glanced across the railway line, the line that marked the protective barrier around the town. “I’m thinking we use those bullets out there, to slow down the Feral.”
Derek nodded. “Good call.”
Yeah, that’s what I did. Made good calls. Another flash of movement, a little left of where I’d spotted the first one. This time I caught the pale smudge of a face.
“Okay, time to make a run for it. We take the back exit, swing round the building, and sprint across the railway line. No stopping, not for anything.” I locked eyes with each of them, even Tobias just to make it fair.
My steely-eyed glare must have worked because their faces drained of color and their eyes grew wide. Good, ’cause I wasn’t messing around, and I wasn’t getting killed because of someone else’s incompetence.
Tobias pulled himself to his feet. “Emily, you stick close to me. Jerry, you stay with Eva and Derek; take the rear.”
Ah, I did so love it when he jumped on the leadership wagon.
Gathering my wits, because I had no other supplies, I moved to the back door. “On the count of three. One. Two.” I flung open the door. “Three!”
Chapter Seven
It was over quickly. Just a few exclamations of surprise from our pursuers, a few Halt there’s shouted out as if we’d actually abide, and that was it, we were over the barrier.
“Well that was disappointing,” Tobias said, amused.
The five men sent to capture us stood on the other side of the line, glaring at us, but made no move to follow. Honestly, I’d expected more of a challenge, but then maybe I’d given these townsfolk way too much credit. It was one thing when you drugged and tied up your prey, but another to have it run from you and actually have to catch it.
Pricks!
Derek snorted. “I’d say it was damn good luck.”
“Don’t count your chickens yet, Derek, we’ve still got a way to go.” I turned away from the stat
ion house and began to walk toward the tree line on the other side. The sky was still dark, but if we stayed out in the open, we’d be inviting trouble. Best to keep moving. There’d be no sleep for us until we reached our destination.
Tobias fell into step beside me. “Lucky we got drugged, huh?”
I shot him an incredulous look. “What?”
He winked. “At least we got some shut-eye.”
I stifled a chuckle. “Glass half full, eh?”
“I have a great role model.” The mirth bled out of his expression. “Thank you.”
Thanks for what? Leaving you under the bridge to die? Dad’s voice filled my mind. “You did good, Eva. You did good.” Then why did it feel so crap?
* * *
We were making good time through the wilds. Less than an hour till dawn and hope was a live, fluttering thing in my chest. Should have known it was too good to be true.
A crack, sharp as a gunshot, ripped through the air, reverberating around us, making it impossible to tell which direction it had come from.
I froze.
The others froze.
Not a sound but our erratic breath, but the hunter was out there, and there was no way I’d be its prey.
It was time to fire some instructions. “Derek, make sure that thing is ready to fire. Everyone else get ready to run. We head east. If we get split up, keep moving east.”
We had no weapons. We couldn’t fight. One gun between the four of us. Pah. But a few shots may slow it down and give us a chance to make a run for it. The sound of the gun being cocked was way too loud, setting my teeth on edge. Let’s hope we hadn’t just given away our location – nah, who was I kidding, the Feral had exceptional senses.
Another sharp crack – from our left this time. I gestured for the others to get back, to get behind me. My protective instinct, the one that warred constantly with the voice that said sod them and look out for number one, had taken the wheel.
Emily moved closer to me, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. I didn’t need to look at Tobias to know his eyes would be narrowed, his jaw clenched as he prepared to jet. We were fast on our feet. Tobias and I could outrun this threat if we left the others as cannon fodder. It’s what Dad would have told us to do. It’s what my survival instinct was screaming at me to do now.
For the Blood: For the Blood Book 1 Page 4
