*Ainslee*
Prince Rafe commands my attention while he speaks, but as he fades away into the shadows, and my thoughts return to what is about to transpire, I will myself not to think about him anymore. I have to concentrate on getting through the woods and out the other side.
Three hours.
We have an extra hour. When Nelson and Travis hear those words, they actually chuckle with glee. “We can do this,” Nelson whispers, and I nod. I know the boys won’t wait for me because it’s too much of a risk. I’ll be slower. My legs are shorter, and I’m just not as strong. But they’ll leave me footprints I can follow to the church, so I am confident I can find my way there.
Although, I might not stop. I might just keep right on running for freedom. I know that Prince Rafe said that the vampires will be pouring in from all sides, a rule he says he couldn’t alter for whatever reason, but I have a stronger advantage when it comes to smell than most of these wolves seem to have. I always know when a vampire is nearby.
As Kris repeats what Prince Rafe just told us, I wonder how it will work in the dark woods. Will the scent be as strong? Will it be so pungent with so many vampires in the area that I won’t be able to pinpoint where it’s coming from?
I think back to when I was sitting in the cart earlier and thought I smelled one of them in the woods. How close were they? Could it have been several of them giving that slight floral scent?
I have no idea, but I need to concentrate. My palms are sweaty, despite the cold, and my left leg is beginning to shake.
“Step up to the line of guards,” Kris tells us. Slowly, we all move forward. I hear Nelson hyping himself up on one side. On his other side, Annamarie seems about to burst into tears. “On my signal, you may begin. With the blessings of His Majesty King Axel Broadcraz and His Royal Highness Prince Rafe Poe, I, High Advisor to the Royals, Kris Moore, will begin this culling ceremony. Run!”
None of us move for a full second as he points to the trees and shouts the last word as if an angry mob of faepires is behind us. I look to my right just in time to see Nelson break out of his stupor. He is the first to move forward, and then, he’s off in a blur.
No longer stuck in place, I take off, too, noticing a few of the people in their human forms down the line from me bursting out of their clothing and into their wolf forms as they leap toward the woods. I don’t know what village has enough food for their citizens to be strong enough to shift, but I am impressed.
I can’t think about anything but where I put my feet as I enter the forest. It’s so dark here, I can hardly see a thing. The occasional ray of moonlight that breaks through the tight canopy above us shines down like a spotlight, but their beams can’t penetrate far through the darkness, so they only illuminate a small area here and there. The rest of the forest is shrouded in a darkness so thick it almost seems palpable. I imagine sticking my hand out and touching the darkness, figuring it would feel like thick velvet fabric.
I want to run like some of the others have been doing, but it seems foolish. I’d rather take a bit more time and pick my way through, looking out for the roots Prince Rafe mentioned. If I were to trip and go down, I could break a leg, and then it would all be over.
My hand trails along the rough bark of the trees as I step over the roots I can see and stumble over the ones that reach out to wrap around my ankles, almost like they are moving themselves. Cautious of the thorns we were also warned of, I stay away from vines and bushes the best I can, but I haven’t made it far when one of those sharp objects bites into my leg, leaving a scratch. When I bend down to examine it, I’m thankful it’s not bleeding.
That’s another worry. Vampires have an excellent sense of smell, much like wolf shifters, but they can smell blood better than anything else, especially the fresh kind, so a thorn scratch or other break in the skin could be extremely problematic for us. Once again, it seems better to go slowly and be more cautious than it does to take off like a bat out of hell.
“Shit!” I hear a voice in my head and know it’s Travis. We don’t use our mind-linking abilities much back home because the sheriff has forbidden it, not that he would ever know. But here, it may be necessary if we’re all going to get out. “Be careful. There’s a huge ravine up here.”
“Yeah, I know. I just skidded down it,” Nelson says. “Cut to the east if you can.”
I immediately shift my direction, heading east to go around the ravine. I’ll have to cut back southwest to find the church, but I don’t want to fall in a fucking ravine.
As I scurry between the trees as quickly as I dare, I hear breathing and pull up short just in time for Lucia to cross my path. I smell blood, and it sounds like she’s panting a little.
Since I can’t use the mind-link outside of the people who live in my own village, I have to whisper. “Lucia? It’s Ainslee. What happened?”
“I fell.” It’s clear she’s crying. “My arm is bleeding. Goddess, Ainslee, they’re going to find me.”
She’s panicked, and I don’t blame her. “Don’t go straight southwest. Nelson says there’s a ravine up there. We’ll have to try to skirt around it. Come with me.”
It’s stupid. I shouldn’t be telling a bleeding girl with light blonde hair that almost glows in the dark to tail me as I try to escape the creatures that literally want my blood, but I’ve said the words, and now, she is doing it. I listen to the directions of the others from Beotown as I make my way through the darkness. Nelson has escaped the ravine, Travis is further ahead than anyone else. Annamaria is hopelessly lost somewhere back toward the starting point, and Kevin only came a few feet into the woods before he turned and ran straight west, giving up the idea of trying to find the church and instead trying to make a beeline out.
Nelson warned us against that earlier saying that the forest is larger east to west than it is north to south, but Kevin has his own path to choose. I hope he makes it.
I hope we all make it.
The forest is more alive than I would’ve guessed, considering the darkness of the trees. Owls hoot from above us. The flapping of wings reveals other nightbirds. Occasionally, they call to one another, too. Glowing eyes in the darkness frighten me initially until I realize they are the furry bodies that live here and not vampires. It’s still too early for that. In the back of my mind, I’ve been trying to count to give myself a meek indication of how much more time we have, but I’ve lost the number so many times, I’m probably way off. I think our time is about half up when I hear Travis say, “Oh, fuck me it is real.”
“You found it?” Nelson asks him. “You found the church?”
“I did, and it’s scary as fuck,” Travis tells him. “Holy shit, I’m afraid to walk inside.”
“More afraid than you are of being eaten by those bloodsucking vamps?” Nelson chides.
Through all of this, Annamarie continues to beg one of us to come back for her. We’ve all wished her well but told her it’s not going to happen. I can barely concentrate on Travis’s directions to the church because she won’t stop crying.
“You’ll see the forest begin to open up a bit before you get there,” he tells me, “then the shadow of the structure will be visible, like an outline. One beam of moonlight is glowing off the top of the crumbling spire. I’m going in. I’ll check out where we can hide.”
“Thank you, Travis,” we all say, and the promise of possibility ignites a spark within me. I pick up my speed, relying on the fact that my eyes have adjusted a bit to the dark, and angle myself more to the southwest now, hoping I haven’t gone too far out of my way in my attempt to avoid the ravine Nelson tumbled into.
“Ainslee!” Lucia’s voice is too loud for my liking when she whisper/shouts my name. She’s far behind me now, and before she even gives the command, I understand what she’s about to say. “Slow down. I can’t even see you.”
“Sorry.” Part of me does regret that I’m leaving her behind, but the rest of me just wants her to hurry up. I think we have less than an hour now before the vampires are released, and I know they will not be tiptoeing between the trees like I feel I have been. “Travis is at the church,” I explain to her. “If we hurry, we can make it there before the vampires come after us.”
“I don’t know.” Lucia’s tone is full of doubt. “I’m not sure it’s the best strategy. I feel like it might be a good idea to just make a run for it and try to get all the way out of the forest before they find me.”
Her arm isn’t bleeding anymore. At least, I can’t smell fresh blood. But I can smell the dried substance from before, which means the vampires will be able to, too, so it might be a good idea not to bring her with us. If the vampires find all of us, and the others from Beotown are captured because they smell her blood, this will be my fault.
The impulse to run away from her digs into my brain, but I don’t do it. Instead, I consult with Travis and the others, explaining what happened. Immediately, Travis says, “There’s a place here we can put her that’s away from the other hiding areas. You can bring her. There’s a rock enclosure near the back that has an area underneath it. From what I can tell, someone’s hidden there for a long time before. The ground is dug out, like someone buried themselves to a degree, and there are a bunch of stinky leaves that could hide her scent.”
“That sounds perfect, Travis. Thank you.” I continue to listen to their discussion as I explain to Lucia what he’s told me. She asks me to thank him, and I return to the conversation as Nelson arrives at the church.
“Let’s go in the crypt,” he says to Travis but uses the mind-link so we can here. “There’s room for six or seven of us down here.” Not everyone from our group is planning to use this strategy, so that should be almost enough room.
“Whoever gets here last can hide in the floor boards beneath the alter,” Travis says. “There’s enough room for a person or two in there, I think. I can’t tell how far back it goes, it’s so fucking dark.”
That will be me, I think before anyone else even says anything. By the time I get there, with Lucia practically limping along behind me like her leg is hurt, not her arm, I can only imagine that I will be the last to arrive.
If I make it at all.
“Come on,” I urge her. “I think we’re almost out of time.”
“How do you know?” she asks. “It seems like we’ve been doing this forever.”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “But I was trying to count in my mind, and I really think it’s almost time for the vampires to start hunting us down.” And we haven’t even reached the church yet.
As the thought enters my head, I see a shift in the ground up to my right. It seems like the trees are slightly further apart there. It doesn’t seem right that the church should be in that direction. I was expecting it on my left. But I’m so turned around, it’s very possible that we need to head that way.
“Why does it look different over there?” Lucia asks, drawing even with me now that I’ve paused to consider my next move.
“I think that’s the clearing around the church,” I explain. “Let’s go see.”
We can walk faster through here because the trees aren’t quite so close together, and the further we go, the more space there is, the faster we can run.
Then, up ahead, a form cuts through the darkness. It’s there.
I can finally see it for myself—and it makes my blood run cold.