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The thing about fighting a kelpie was that you never knew exactly what you were going to get. They could take the form of a mighty stallion, a beautiful woman, or even sometimes a beautiful man. No matter the appearance, the goal was always the same: to drag even the most skilled warrior to the nearest source of water before devouring them in the depths.
That was the best-case scenario. Sometimes they played with you a little first.
The first time Evie had seen one she’d been about eight years old, riding in the woods with her father. They’d stopped beside a pond to give their horses a drink, only to find a small herd of similar-looking animals lingering curiously on the other side.
“Look, Daddy!” she’d cried in delight. “Ponies!”
That’s when her father—her brave, fearless father—leapt back onto his horse and headed straight back the way they’d come, keeping a protective hand on his daughter the entire time.
There were days when you had to pick your battles.
This was one of those days.
“RUN!”
No sooner had the first creature unfurled its mighty wings than a hand grabbed Evie by the back of the cloak and yanked her out of reach. The men were shouting. The kelpies were baying. A volley of sparks fired into the air. Then a moment later, the friends were in full retreat.
Kelpies! Evie threw a look over her shoulder. I can’t believe they’re bloody kelpies!
As a single unit, the gang outpaced the people chasing them and streaked back up the road...only to realize that the caravan was a unit of its own. And they’d only met the first half.
“What the ...?” Ellanden panted.
An arrow whizzed past Evie’s head, catching in her long hair as yet another wagon appeared at the other end of the road, fencing them in. They screeched to a stop, staring in dismay. While this one didn’t appear to be pulled by anything more interesting than a pair of donkeys, that spilt second break in momentum had given the enemy all the time they needed to catch up.
The kelpies were upon them a moment later. The men were close behind.
“Shit!”
The princess would never know who had shouted, because just a split second later the two caravans reunited, trapping them together in the middle of the road.
That’s when the fighting got dirty.
It was hard not to panic when assaulted by a herd of demonic horses, and these seemed more badly-tempered than most. With expert precision they attacked the five teenagers at strategic angles, fracturing their attempts to stay together and driving them further apart.
Cosette was struck across the face with the back of a dagger. Ellanden flew forward to help, and was thrown clear across the road. Every time the friends tried to focus on the monstrous beasts attacking them, the men would take advantage of their distraction and launch coordinated attacks of their own. Every time they fended off the men, the kelpies would swoop in for the kill.
“Evie!”
The princess whirled around just as a pair of razor-sharp hooves pawed the air above her, coming down with deadly force where she’d been standing a moment before. The ground shook and she stumbled back, straight into the arms of the man she’d been chatting with before.
“So how about it, sweetheart...?” He clasped his arms around her waist, whispering in her ear. “Care to show me some of those talents?”
She flung her head backward, hitting him right in the nose. “I’d love to!”
As the battle raged on around her she turned to face him head-on, glaring with the strength of a nova as they squared off in the middle of the road. Even twice her age, even twice her size, he didn’t really stand a chance. The princess might have been outnumbered and unarmed, but she’d been trained by the best the realm had to offer. Just a moment later, he was bleeding on the ground.
“If only we had more time.” She dodged a knife-attack from one of the others, hurling it with precision aim right in the center of his stomach. “There’s so much more for you to see.”
She would have done more. The adrenaline was surging, the battle was raging, and for the first time in longer than she cared to remember she found herself armed with a blade. But no sooner had she lifted it into the air than it was kicked straight out of her hand.
“Son of a harpy!” she cursed, whirling around to find herself face to face with a gigantic black stallion. Her eyes widened slightly as she took a step back. “I mean...my mistake.”
There was a split second pause then, before her very eyes, the stallion vanished—melting and re-shifting into something that vaguely resembled a man. He stood just as tall as the horse and smiled at her invitingly, green eyes flashing as he held out a hand.
“Don’t struggle, child. It will only be harder if you do.”
Scattered about the road, the friends were finding themselves in a similar position. Most of the men had been dispatched, or at least knocked temporarily out of the fighting, but it was hard enough dealing with just one kelpie and the herd had them surrounded.
Most had remained horses. But as Evie cast a quick look over her shoulder, the one standing beside Asher shimmered suddenly. A beautiful naked woman appeared in its place.
“A vampire,” she murmured, reaching out to touch his hair. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a vampire. Most of your kind stay well away from these parts.”
He froze where he stood, momentarily stunned.
“Come with me, pretty vampire,” she purred. “Come down to the river. No one will harm you. You have my word.”
He took a bracing step back amidst the chaos, fangs sinking into his lip. But before he could make up his mind how best to attack, her hand flashed out and closed around his wrist.
From a distance, it looked like the two were merely standing there. Then the princess saw the muscles straining in the vampire’s arm. A look of panic flashed across his face when nothing happened. When he tried jerking back again, half the bones snapped in his wrist.
He let out a quiet gasp. The kelpie tilted her head with a smile.
“ASHER!”
Evie let out a scream as the demonic woman pulled him right off his feet—whipping around in the same instant and dragging him down the hill. She didn’t have to hear the river to know there was water nearby. And there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that the second Asher slipped under those murky waves...he wasn’t coming out.
Only a few seconds had passed, but those seconds changed everything.
In a daze she turned back to her own monster, glancing down at his outstretched hand. If they touched you, it was over. That much was clear. Asher was already gone, and judging by the screams and struggles she was hearing around her the others weren’t far behind.
Cosette was holding two of them off, but at this point it was clear she was simply trying to escape. Freya had been knocked unconscious the second it became clear she could throw fire. And while Ellanden had managed to slay one of the beasts, the others had rallied around him in a vengeful rage—pawing the ground in fury, screaming how they were going to punish such a crime.
No one had seen the vampire disappear. No one had much time left themselves.
Evie lifted her eyes to the kelpie, staring in silence as her body went suddenly calm. Strands of black, brackish hair were dripping down the sides of his neck. His green eyes glowed hypnotically as they swept over her, reaching a bit farther with his outstretched hand.
“Come, now,” he soothed. “We’ll go down together—”
But the princess was no longer there. A wolf had sprung up in her place.
You want to go down together?
There was quiet gasp as the man dropped his hand, stumbling back towards the others.
The way most people weren’t fond of snakes, most kelpies had an instinctual aversion to snarling dogs. Especially when those dogs came with a set of razor-sharp, fang-like teeth.
It wasn’t much of a fight. The princess didn’t have time for much of a fight. Careful not to let the beast lay a hand on her body, she vaulted up into the air—slashing out at his exposed neck in the same instant. There was a screeching howl as he fell to his knees, twitching and writhing as the man vanished and a dying horse appeared in his place. The sight was enough to draw the shocked eyes of the others, but before they could launch a counter-attack the wolf was upon them as well.
Her friends dropped to the ground, ducking out of the way as she leapt from one creature to another. Biting and scratching as she went. Savaging whatever bit of flesh she could as giant arches of blood flew into the sky. The screams that followed became less and less human. After only a few seconds, there was nothing human about them at all.
That’s right...run.
There was pandemonium as the herd scattered, flying in every direction as the wolf leapt after them, continuing its vicious assault. She dodged the frantic kicks and easily outpaced them, slashing at their exposed legs and driving them away from her friends.
It could have gone on forever. In a bloodshot haze the princess saw only moving targets, with not much room for any other rational thought.
Then Ellanden let out a sudden shout. “Where’s Asher!”
The princess stopped dead in her tracks. With a sudden chill she looked over her shoulder, heightened senses zeroing in as she heard the sound of a distant splash.
In a streak of crimson fur, she was gone.
* * *
IN HINDSIGHT IT MUST have taken only a few seconds for a wolf to reach the base of the mountain, but Evie would swear it felt much longer. She lived and died with each passing moment, springing through the underbrush with her own frantic breaths ringing in her ears.
There had been splashing once, but there wasn’t any longer. Everything was quiet now.
She could only imagine what that might mean.
With a final burst of speed she leapt over a fallen tree and cleared the last of the ferns, only to come screeching to a stop on the shore of a river. There was no sign of them. The vampire and the kelpie had simply disappeared. Yet there was a violent progression of tracks leading down to the water. Every so often, those tracks were darkened with a splash of blood.
The princess didn’t think. She simply leapt into the water.
It might have been harder to think clearly as a wolf, but it was easier to run and it was easier to fight. It was easier to swim as well. With effortless speed she cut through the choppy waves, paddling out to the very center before taking a deep breath and plunging down into the depths.
It was like stepping into a dream.
At once, the chaos of the world above vanished and things went strangely still. The picture around her shimmered, then cleared. The mist of bubbles faded, and for a brief crystalline moment she was able to see everything in perfect detail.
...starting with the two people standing on the riverbed.
It was utterly bizarre—as if they were merely having a conversation. A beautiful girl and a beautiful boy, chatting together at the bottom of an alpine river. Only, if one looked closer, it was clear that she was actually keeping him there. That instead of devouring him immediately, as was the eventual goal, she’d decided to play with him a little—allowing him to drown instead.
Ash!
For a split second Evie watched in horror, floating twenty feet above them.
His kind might have been gifted with speed and strength, but they had no special talent when it came to avoiding asphyxiation. And the lack of oxygen was already starting to show.
That deadly grace had vanished. His movements were awkward and slow. His already-pale skin looked almost translucent, reflecting the blue waves, and after each faltering attempt to free himself he stilled even more dramatically, like he was nothing more than a lovely reanimated corpse.
“I’m sorry to do it this way...”
Those dark eyes widened as the kelpie pressed a sudden kiss to his lips, raking her claws down his cheeks. She lingered a moment, then pulled back with a wicked smile.
“...but I think you’ll appreciate the irony of what happens next.”
His head jerked back a second later as the monster sank her teeth into his skin. There was a silent scream, a cloud of swirling crimson as he thrashed frantically, trying to dislodge her from his neck. But there was no fighting such a thing. It was a simple move, designed to kill. One that the vampire had used countless times himself. But he’d never known how it felt until that very moment.
Of course, kelpies weren’t interested in drinking blood. This one had come to feed.
There was an abrupt burrowing motion as the last of the charade fell away and the creature tore away a chunk of flesh. This time, she heard the scream. Asher’s eyes flashed bright with pain before dimming just as suddenly. His pale hands relaxed abruptly and drifted up into her hair.
From that point on, his memory failed him.
He scarcely even saw when the giant wolf appeared between them, didn’t notice when it bit the kelpie in half with a single jerk of its head. The most he could do was keep his eyes open as it batted the body away and swam towards him, staring in surreal wonder at the giant wolf.
At this point, there was no way to tell what he was thinking. Had he made the connection that the predator was actually his girlfriend? Did he simply think the stars had aligned against him, and one way or another he was to be devoured on a forgotten riverbed?
It was anyone’s guess.
But he lifted his arms obediently when the princess nudged her head against him, letting them circle around her neck. Letting himself be lifted up through the waves as they left the nightmare behind them, heading back towards the light...
