When the first rays of the sun touched the sky, and the cries of the Savages died away, Willow undid her belt and slid it around her waist. Buckling it in place, she ignored the stiffness of her body as hunger burned her arid veins.
She hated the tremor in her hands as she descended the tree. When she reached the area where there were no more branches, she sat and, gripping the branch with both hands, lowered her legs over the side. She hung in the air before releasing the limb and falling to the earth.
Landing silently, she crouched and rested her fingers on the ground as she took in her surroundings. Too busy trying to stay alive, she hadn’t paid attention to where she was running while fleeing the Savages, and she had no idea which direction would lead her out of these woods.
In the end, she decided to go in the opposite direction as the Savages last night. She could survive in the woods if she stayed away from them. She had to avoid them until she could feed. At least then, she could take on more than a few at a time if it became necessary.
Willow kept her attention riveted on her surroundings as she ran through the woods in search of prey. The only problem was, the Savages had scared off the larger prey and made the squirrels so skittish they remained in trees.
The sun was high in the sky when the distant sound of trickling water drifted to her. She wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her arm and changed direction to head for the water. It wouldn’t quench her thirst, but it would wet her parched throat, and she could clean the sap off her hands and face.
The closer she got to the water, the louder it became. She suspected it might be the same river she’d plunged into a couple of days ago, and she ran a little faster. If it was the same river, she could follow it back toward the tunnels. From there, she could figure out how to get out of the forest.
She was almost to the water when the snap of a tree branch drew her attention. Her head turned to the side, and from the shadows, a pair of white-blue eyes blazed out at her.
Shit!
She hadn’t bothered to return her stake to her belt after leaving the tree; the second it would take her to remove it was one second too long. And now she gripped the weapon tighter as laughter came from the direction of those eyes.
A turned hunter.
That meant he was more lethal than a normal Savage. He’d most likely been a member of the group who split away from Nathan when he decided to join the Alliance. This Savage was probably held captive with Simone before Killean rescued her.
With his shaggy blond hair, average height and build, a hawkish nose, and thick lips, he wasn’t handsome or ugly. She wouldn’t consider him plain either, but more the type who blended into a crowd until he chose for others to notice him.
This man once despised everything he’d become, but when he gave a cruel, remorseless smile, she realized he’d embraced his new role in life. He didn’t deserve the fate handed him, but Willow couldn’t allow her sympathy for him to get in the way. He had to die.
The sun glinted off something at his side. She spotted the red-orange jewel in the hilt of his sword before another noise to her right turned her head in that direction. A pair of red eyes blinked at her from the shadows. And then, a rustling of branches sounded behind her. It felt like someone took an ice cube to her neck as the rustling grew closer.
When she chanced a glance behind her, she spotted three more red eyes and another set of white-blue ones that hadn’t been there before. She never should have climbed out of the tree, but she didn’t have a choice. Maybe she could have made it another day before her thirst propelled her out of it, and then she would have been weaker.
But would they have left if she’d waited another day?
That was a question she would never know the answer to, and she couldn’t turn back time. She was out of the tree, and they were closing in on her.
From somewhere deep inside, she found the strength to move faster. She pushed her tired legs as her lungs burned, and her heart thudded so fiercely, she was sure it bruised the inside of her ribs.
Not like this. Just one more day. Not like this. Just one more day.
The words became a looping mantra in her head. She wasn’t ready to die, but she’d welcome death if it meant avoiding the fate that had befallen these things.
Despite the creepy howls they issued all night, the Savages were silent as they stalked her through the trees. They already had their prey in view; there was no reason to terrorize it into making a mistake. The rushing sound of water increased until it became a crescendo drowning out all other noise.
The river grew so loud she felt like she could almost touch it, yet she didn’t see it until it was almost too late. She was so focused on escaping, she almost ran straight over the edge of a cliff.
Somehow, her brain shot the command to stop through her panicked body before she plunged over the side. Dirt flew out from beneath her feet and over the cliff when she skidded to a halt at the edge of it.
She was so close her toes hung over the edge, and the icy mist of the waterfall sprayed her face. Willow’s stomach plummeted when she leaned forward to peer over the five-hundred-foot drop to the boulders poking out of the rushing river below.
She turned back and edged away from the cliff as more Savages emerged from the trees.
***
The panic clawing at Declan’s chest while he ran confused him. He hated being in these woods, with these things, and not knowing where Willow and Lucien were, but he’d never felt frightened. Ready to tear the head off something, yes, but not terrified. Even when they encountered and slaughtered eight Savages last night, he never felt an ounce of panic.
He glanced at the others, but their faces remained set in stone. He was aware of how impassive someone could look, while inside they were a turmoil of emotions, but these feelings weren’t coming from them. They emitted a mixture of fear, desperation, eagerness, and dread, but no panic.
Where was it coming from then?
Declan came to an abrupt stop. The others, not expecting his sudden halt, ran on for a few more feet before they realized he wasn’t with them. Turning in a circle, Declan surveyed the woods. A small breeze caused the trees to sway, but it was the only movement as the woods were devoid of life. The squirrels and birds had fled the monsters hunting their area.
“What is it?” Vicky asked him.
He held up a hand as he listened for anything unusual. Then, he caught the distant murmur of water. When he turned toward the sound, his heart rate picked up a little as the overwhelming sensation of impending doom descended over him.
“This way,” he said.
He didn’t wait to see if they would follow when he took off in search of the river. The panic grew with every step; as he ran, he realized his empathic ability was drawing him toward Willow. But if her emotions were any indication, he might not make it there in time.
***
Willow’s mouth went dry as more Savages materialized. There were ten now… No, twelve… Fifteen…
A cold bead of sweat slid down her back when the number swelled to twenty with an unknown number slipping through the shadows behind them. Her fight-or-flight instinct was all for the flight option, but there was nowhere for her to go.
Glancing behind her, she tried to see through the plume of mist the waterfall kicked up, but it was impossible to tell what lay directly beneath her. If those boulders a little further down the river were any indication, she would not be in for a soft landing. A couple of hundred feet away from where the waterfall spilled into the river, the water calmed as it twisted around the rocks.
Only a few feet to her left, the river was a raging monstrosity, looking to suck up anything in its path before plunging it over the waterfall. She could jump into that river and take her chances.
If she landed on one of those boulders, the fall wouldn’t kill her unless it knocked her head off or tore her heart from her chest. She’d survive the drowning sure to follow, but the fall might injure her so severely that these things would track her in no time, and she wouldn’t be able to fight them.
The only problem was, she didn’t have much choice.
She would have fought her way through five or six of them, but twenty? She couldn’t fight off twenty… No, make that twenty-three.
If she tried to fight them, they would catch her. And maybe they would do her the favor of killing her outright, but she doubted it. She wasn’t going to give up, but to have any chance of survival, she had to take the chance of breaking every bone in her body.
She edged back until her heels hung over the edge. She could do this. Bungee jumping and sky diving had never appealed to her, but she could still do this. And on the bright side, she would learn what it was like to fly before she splatted.
Motion in the trees caught her attention, and her eyes met a pair so pure a gray, they were nearly silver. For a second, everything stopped. She didn’t see the Savages, didn’t hear the roar of the waterfall, and didn’t feel the icy spray as everything inside her focused on him.
Declan, the word was a breathless, hopeful whisper in her head.
She had to be dreaming again. But the chill of the water felt so real, and goose bumps covered her flesh. However, she could have sworn she felt the heat of that Savage’s breath against her in the tree too.
But this was impossible; he couldn’t be here. He was in Mexico. He left months ago! And how had he found her?
When someone stepped forward to stand beside him, Willow was finally able to tear her gaze away from his. She’d thought her heart was racing before, but it was nothing compared to what it did when Vicky started to step toward her. Declan gripped her arm and pulled her back.
She wanted to run to her sister, fling her arms around her neck, and hug her so bad that her knees trembled with the impulse, but she couldn’t let the Savages know her sister was here. What was Vicky doing here? She should be at home, safe with her son, not in these woods with these foul-smelling, soulless creatures.
Willow was so focused on the two of them that it took her a minute to spot Asher, Saber, and Logan. Where was Nathan?
She kept waiting for her brother-in-law to appear, but no one else emerged from the woods. It was only them versus these monsters.