Page 4

Raven

B y the time we made it to shore, the red sun of dawn was just coming into view on the horizon, and I pulled my hood up a bit higher on pure instinct. The dagger protected me from the sun, but old habits died hard.

"I think she'll be alright here unless we get another huge storm."

I had just finished pulling the small skiff onto the beach, hiding it hastily behind a sand dune near a copse of gnarled mangrove trees. From there, the forest only deepened, and the beach gave way to a dense jungle with no sign of a trail.

Diana strode back toward the beach, staring at the spot where it met the morning tide. The deep sense of anxiety rolling off her kept me from laying into Maverick yet again for putting us in this circumstance in the first place.

It was his fault our three friends had been taken–he hadn’t even had the sense to sound an alarm.

Diana jabbed her finger toward a spot along the shoreline, and I strode down the beach to meet her.

Chunks of wood, frayed rope, and a lifejacket that was torn in half washed up and down the shoreline.

“Must be from the Vanators’ ship,” she said, shaking her head as she stared at the remnants of a boat wreck. Based on the paint color and the freshness of the wreck, I agreed.

Irritation spiked through me as Maverick’s voice broke the silence, “That damn witch stranded us. At least the Vanators won’t be able to leave, either.”

Diana glanced at him. “Do you think our friends could’ve survived?”

“They’re probably fine,” Maverick said with a weak smile.

You better hope so.

I bit back my reply as my fangs found my tongue. It only took a quick scan of the ocean to make out dozens more pieces of wood that hadn’t yet floated to shore. When I met Diana’s gaze, I knew I had to give it to her straight.

“Nicholas is strong. Assuming he didn’t go down with the ship, he could’ve easily made it to shore. Hopefully he would’ve managed to keep his sun shield dagger you had made for him. And Kevin is strong as an ox. As for Myrr…”

I didn’t need to say the words. She was ancient and frail, despite her bold attitude and crazy behavior. It was unlikely she survived.

“Maybe she saw this coming and managed to avert it or something, maybe Nicholas helped her to shore–” she broke off, bowing her head.

I dropped an arm over her wordlessly as the scent of her skin and hair flooded my senses in a wave. I forced down the growing lust within me with every fiber of my being.

Not the time, Raven.

“If they’re here, we will find them. You have my word on that.”

When she pulled back a moment later, her face had been transformed. The troubled, distraught Diana was gone, leaving Diana, Queen of the Werewolves, in her place.

“Yes,” she said with a sniff. “Yes. We’ll start by combing the beach for signs of survivors, we can track them from there.” She reached for the hem of her sand and sea sodden shirt and the lust surged once again as she pulled it up and off in a single motion, leaving her in just her pants and black camisole that left her smooth, golden midriff exposed.

My fangs ached, and blood thrummed hotly through my veins as I looked her up and down. I could just reach out and–

“Eyes on mine, Raven,” she said, scowling as she tied the shirt around her hips. “You’ll have plenty of time to gawk later.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” I replied, turning to lead the way down the beach.

The three of us combed the area methodically, splitting up to cover more ground, but there seemed to be no sign of life anywhere. I sniffed the air, searching for blood, people, anything…

Mav’s obnoxious voice split the air once again, this time from a few dozen feet away. “Over here. Signs of travel.”

I spun toward him, fangs aching in an entirely different way, but I kept myself in check. He stood on the edge of the forest, jabbing his finger at a spot in the sand just where it met the beach. “The tracks aren’t clear, but I’m certain someone passed through here.”

I growled as I looked down, “Where?”

Mav squatted down to point to a few small divots in the sand, then stepped toward the forest. “Signs of entry here, too.” He gestured to a cluster of flattened grass and bent pieces of brush. “Hard to be sure, but it looks like they might be trying to conceal their passage…”

A part of me wanted to argue, but, looking at it more closely, it was starting to seem like he might be onto something. Someone had survived the shipwreck.

“The question is, are they friend or foe,” I said, craning my neck to stare deeper into the forest.

“We pursue, but stay on alert for Vanators.” Diana gestured into the forest and took the lead herself.

“Let me take point,” Mav cut in, entering the forest ahead of her. “I should be able to track them, unless they suddenly get a lot better at hiding their movements.”

I wanted to point out that Diana was more than capable, seeing as she was a damn werewolf, but I bit my tongue. She was safer between us than out in front. Let Maverick take whatever hits came at us first.

“We should mark our way back,” Diana said, grabbing a large stick and poking the ground in front of us with it. “So we can–”

“Go to the lighthouse? Yes, maybe we can try to find a way out of here. Maybe someone’s manning it,” I didn’t realize I’d finished her sentence. I was more focused on what was ahead of us. The forest was looking more and more like an untamed jungle, which could hide all sorts of beasts.

To his credit, Mav kept us at a good pace. Apparently, his ankle injury had mysteriously healed itself in his sudden need to impress Diana. As much as it killed me to admit, he was actually good at tracking. We had to stop to find their path a few times but never had to double back, and Diana didn’t have to shift to scent them with her keener wolf’s nose.

As we walked, the rainforest only got more and more dense. Vines hung from massive treetops, and the canopy was even thicker than I’d thought. Birds and exotic insects flitted all around, and the forest floor was thick with mushrooms and underbrush. But the fact that we could be ambushed by Vanators at any moment made it a lot harder to appreciate the wild beauty of the place.

“Do you have any sense of how many people we’re trailing?” Diana cut in, the first time she’d spoken in nearly an hour. An intoxicating rush surged through me when the curve of her breasts heaved up and down as she sighed, bare skin tantalizing me as she glanced around the jungle. The light sheen of sweat covering her made it possible for me to scent the heat on her even more.

And it was slowly killing me.

“Hard to say,” Mav answered. “More than one, for sure. Maybe it’s just Nicholas, Myrr, and the dog. Maybe it’s the Vanators. It would make sense for either party to cover their path. The former would want to hide from the Vanators. The latter from us.”

I tore my attention away from Diana’s half-naked body, looking to the forest around us instead. “Nick could get Myrr through this, provided he wasn’t too badly injured.”

Diana strode past me, a curious expression on her face as she jabbed her finger upward. “Are those… oranges?”

I whirled, a jolt of surprise spiking through me as I caught sight of them. Sure enough, there it was: a white-flowered tree studded with brilliant orange-red citrus.

Diana strode up to it, grabbing one and peeling the skin off of it hurriedly. Bright, crimson flesh poked through, like that of a blood orange, and she sank her teeth into it with a delighted sigh. “So good.”

I shrugged, shaking off a massive spider web as I pulled another from the tree. “We should save a few of them for later, in case we end up getting stuck here for a while.”

“Ack,” Diana sucked at her lip, frowning sourly. Seeing me looking at her, she added, “Orange juice, right into the cut on my lip.”

I stared hungrily at her, eyeing the cut. “You know… it looks superficial enough that I can probably fix it with a single flick of my tongue.” I looked further down her body, wondering if I couldn’t find a few more spots to give the same treatment. “You don’t want to get an infection.”

She shot me a dead-eyed stare. “I’ll take my chances with gangrene.”

I ignored the muffled laugh coming from my right. I’d have plenty of time to gut that bastard when this was all over, assuming we made it off this island in one piece.

I glanced onward, wondering how far we were from our quarry. The blood hunger had begun to pulse deep inside me, and I hoped the sole bag we had with us would be enough to get us through. I turned, fixing my eyes on Mav as I mentally amended that. Technically, I had two blood bags, if push came to shove…

A gentle sound pricked at my ears as I turned, one that broke my chain of thought entirely. “There’s water up ahead. Running water.”

That brought both of them to their feet in an instant, and Diana trudged toward me. “We should get the salt off of us and get a drink while we can. My waterskin is almost empty.”

Mav crouched, looking at a section of trampled flowers. “The path does seem to lead the way you’re saying. Maybe we’re in luck.”

Luck was indeed with us. A white, picturesque waterfall, like something out of a postcard, came into view before long.

“What’re the chances?” Diana said, chuckling as she stepped hurriedly toward it, pulling off her waterlogged boots before moving to her pants.

Blood rushed to my cock as her hips came into view, and my fangs pulsed, yearning for that neck. The feeling was poisoned, though, as I noticed that Mav had also stopped in his tracks just to my right.

Every bone in my body was screaming at me to leap on him. To grab him and beat him until he realized that she was mine. She’d always been mine…

“We’ll need to start a fire at some point,” Diana called, pulling my attention back to her. “We can’t walk in wet shoes all day like this, or we’re asking for trouble. We have to dry them.”

I strode to the water, tearing off my own clothing. “We should be fine until we set up camp for the night, though it will be difficult to start a fire in these conditions.”

“We should start grabbing any dry sticks or tinder we come across,” Mav agreed, wading into the water.

Satisfied that I’d gotten all the salt off, I strode out of the water first, grabbing my clothes before heading to the beach-like patch of sand on the far side of the stream. Feeling the beginnings of hunger-borne weakness setting in, I tore the blood bag from my pocket and sank my teeth into it.

The rush shot through me like a jolt of electricity, consuming my entire body in an instant. Strength and vigor surged back in waves, and I let out a contented sigh as I drained it, doing my best, as always, not to compare it to the taste of Diana’s blood. The satisfaction waned as she came into view, still half-naked and dripping from her time in the stream.

I turned away, determined not to ruin a perfectly good meal by comparison to an even better one. My eyes fixed on a small copse of white-blossomed trees and shook my head in amazement. More oranges. We really had been lucky to land on such an island. If push came to shove, we could survive here for quite some time. It wouldn’t be comfortable for me to go long without blood, but the miniature paradise had everything else we needed.

Mav hobbled over to us, and I was forced to reconsider. He still looked pretty green around the gills, and his gait had worsened during our trek. An infection could eat right through him in this state. I cursed inwardly. Regardless of how I felt about him, he was still our only shot at finding Jade. If we didn’t want to leave it to chance, we were on a timer.

There was nothing for it, though. He’d be safer with us than without us, and we had to keep moving.

Was that–?

My eyes fixed in on a small patch of dirt I’d been gazing at, and I dashed toward it wordlessly. Sure enough, a small, charred log came into view, surrounded by a rough circle of stones. Not fresh, by the smell of it, but someone had camped here. And it wasn’t the lone person or small group we’d been following. This firepit was old, days at least.

A half dozen distinct prints led away from the firepit, and not like the shallow, well-disguised ones we’d been following. Deep, full-on boot prints that led into the forest beyond.

“Couldn’t have been from the Vanator ship. Too old,” Diana said, echoing my thoughts.

I stood, nodding. “We should keep following the other path if we can find it.”

“Mav is trying to pick back up on it now.”

It only took a few minutes for us to get back onto the path, and I felt the bite of anticipation as we strode back into the forest. Whoever it was we were following, I just hoped we’d catch up to them quickly, before I ended up having to carry Mav’s weak ass yet again.

“Strange,” he mumbled, slowing to a near stop just a few minutes from the stream.

“What?” I strode up to him, glancing at the small clearing he was looking at.

“It’s almost like some kind of game trail.” He stepped off the trail to examine it more closely, taking a long moment before adding, “There’s been some new growth since it was last used.”

I glanced around, more curious than worried. Whatever the beast was, it had more to fear from us than we had from it. No animal alive was taking down a party with a vampire and a werewolf.

Maverick shrugged, sparing a final glance at the game trail before getting back to tracking. A loud twang split the air, and I moved on pure instinct, yanking him into the air by his shirt as a spear shot through the space where his stomach had been a moment earlier.

He winced as I dropped him back to the ground, hand reaching toward his leg, but he voiced no complaint.

“What the fuck was that?” he demanded instead, staring wide-eyed at the ground he’d just been standing on.

“Be careful where you walk,” I said, irritation burning hot at having been forced to save him yet again. “There are traps set.”

“Maybe the Vanators know we’re trailing them.” Diana stepped forward, catching the spear on the next backswing. The thin vine it was attached to stretched far into the canopy above, and it had clearly been rigged to fire with some kind of tripwire.

I examined the spear closely. “I’m not so sure that’s who set these.” The trap was crude in a way that didn’t seem very Vanator-like. Why had the spear swung so low to the ground? Even if Maverick had been struck there was a very real chance he would’ve lived, at least for a few days. Why not rig it to swing at chest height? And, though we were in a rainforest, the wood of the spear was extremely wet and waterlogged.

A sign of age?

Diana shrugged. “Regardless, we need to keep moving, let's just stay on guard.”

I nodded, shifting my focus to the sounds all around us as we continued walking. Small, climbing creatures rustled the canopy overhead, and frogs chirped all around, but I did my best to ignore all that, listening for human sounds.

None came.

Maverick stopped suddenly in his tracks just a few minutes later. “What the–”

I stepped up next to him, feeling a rush as a subtle scent pricked at my nose.

Blood.

Our trail came to an abrupt end, marked by the huge, muddy pit that’d opened right into the forest floor. The rocks that lined the bottom were streaked in red, and a single line of blood led out of the trap like someone had managed to climb out.

Diana appeared at my side, glancing all around us as she spoke, “Pitfall. At least one survivor.”

I nodded, leaning over to get a better look inside. Who the hell lined a pitfall with rocks, rather than sharpened spikes or something else like that? Maybe someone short on time?

I crouched down even lower, pulling a deep whiff from the pit. “Well, I can tell you this much: it’s all human blood. No vampires involved.” It was good news since it meant that Nicholas hadn’t been down there, but my uneasiness deepened nonetheless.

There was only one trail out of the pit, but there was too much blood down there for them to be the only one who’d fallen. “Be on guard. Something happened to the others who fell. And the blood is quite fresh.”

I followed the trail at a half-jog, eager to get to the bottom of who it had come from. Though the blood droplets grew further and further apart as we went, I was able to use my nose to keep track of it. And, before long, I was picking up on the smell of the human himself. He smelled familiar, the faint whisper reminding me of the scents on our boat after we’d had Nicholas, Myrr and Kevin snatched.

“Vanator. Be careful,” I whispered, gesturing toward Diana as I padded softly toward the massive, dead tree the scent was coming from.

I unsheathed my sword silently, holding it in front of me as I crept around the tree, preparing to lunge at the first sign of movement. A caged rat was often the deadliest, and the Vanators were strong enough in normal circumstances, never mind now that they had Lilis’ power aiding them. The last thing I wanted was to be caught with our guards down.

As I approached the other side of the trunk, I leaped forward in a flash, ready to gut the man waiting for me on the other side. Rather than waiting in ambush, the Vanator was crouched down inside the hollowed-out tree trunk, his face sheet-white as he stared up at me.

“St-stop,” he whispered, holding up a quivering hand. “Please.”

“Where are our friends?” Diana asked, stepping up to my side.

The terrified Vanator sank down even further, and whispered a plea. “Don’t. Make. Any. Noise.”

I opened my mouth to press further, but he cut me off with a gesture, jabbing his finger out and to the right.

Was it a bear or something? How had our crack-shot tracker Maverick missed those fucking signs of a beast large enough to terrify the Vanator?

I turned, following the Vanator’s finger, and a cold chill ran through me as I caught sight of what he was pointing at.

A spider the size of a cargo van stood across the swampy ground, massive, spindly legs working in tandem with its silk as it wove a cocoon around what appeared to be a person.

Suddenly, the creature paused in its work. I froze, stock still as it turned. The morning sun backlit its profile and I was finally able to see it in all its terrible glory. Fangs the size of lopping shears dripped with saliva, but far more horrifying?

Its human face.