Page 47 of Donovan

Which meant her people had been so far removed from our world that the Guild hadn’t even touched them. Lucky them.

But none of that mattered right now. All she cared about was that we could fight. That we could help.

“Let’s go,” Declan said, already at the door.

The three of us slipped into the night.

The woods swallowed us immediately, the darkness pressing in from all sides.

The moon hung low, its silver light just enough to illuminate our path as we moved quickly through the trees.

Lena led the way, her small frame darting ahead with the practiced ease of someone who’d spent her whole life navigating the terrain.

She kept her voice low as she spoke. “We’ve always been peaceful,” she told us, her steps light despite the urgency. “We don’t take sides, don’t get involved in things outside our land. We trade with the villages nearby, we hunt, we live. That’s all.”

A simple life. One that had nothing to do with vampires, hunters, or whatever the hell was happening now.

“What changed?” I asked.

Lena hesitated, her shoulders tensing. “It started two weeks ago,” she admitted. “At first, it was just missing animals. Then it was our scouts. Our people started vanishing, one by one.” Her breath hitched. “We thought maybe it was another predator. Wolves, maybe.”

She stopped short, her entire body going rigid, and I didn’t even have to ask why. Because I heard it too. A sound drifted through the trees, faint at first, but growing, sharpening.

Screams. High, panicked, raw with terror.

And then, cutting through the night like a blade, came the eerie, bone-deep howl of something that had once been human, but wasn’t anymore.

My stomach clenched. That sound wasn’t natural. It wasn’t even animal. It was hunger, madness, a nightmare given voice.

Declan and I exchanged a look, tension snapping taut between us.

No more talking.

No more hesitation.

We ran.

CHAPTER TWELVE

DONOVAN/ DECLAN

DONOVAN

The scent of blood hit me first.

Thick, metallic, and far too fresh. It coated the air, sharp against the cold night, making my stomach twist.

The village was in chaos. Fires flickered through shattered windows, and bodies, some human, some shifting mid-form, were strewn across the dirt paths.

The scent of predator and prey clashed, filling the air with an unmistakable stench of violence.

And over it all, the sounds of battle raged. Shouts, screams, the guttural growls of the rabid vampires as they tore through the settlement.

We were already too late to stop the first wave.

But we could stop the next.

Declan was at my side, silent and coiled tight like a loaded spring. His eyes gleamed in the dim light, sharp as a blade’s edge, his fangs peeking from between his lips.