Page 2 of The Zagorath (Shadowed Dreams #3)

Chapter

Two

E ven though the early evening light outside was bright enough, the light within the cabin was awful. The front windows, draped with ratty stained curtains made from what looked like recycled flannel blankets, barely let enough light in to cast a dim, murky illumination in the dusty interior.

“Such charming facilities at our disposal,” she muttered as she headed to the kitchen.

Of course, no one had bothered to show up earlier to clean the cabin and prepare it for occupation over the weekend.

Motes of dust filled the air, catching sunlight, and every surface was thickly coated with dust from the table and chairs to the countertop, and the overstuffed and worn furniture sitting within the gloom.

Cobwebs liberally clung to the corners of the ceilings, and she gagged as she caught sight of a spiderweb over the kitchen sink from which a large roach dangled.

Not only that, but there was a putrid, musky scent that seemed to be ground into the rugs and furnishings that made her stomach turn.

“Un-fucking-believable. And we are supposed to sleep here?” She shuddered visibly as she visually sought out the cooler.

“This is unsanitary as fuck. I guess the guys are expecting the girls to tidy up. Fat chance in hell. Jessie, I love you, but you’re taking me home in the morning.

I didn’t sign up to play weekend housewife for a bunch of frat boys. ”

Her eyes drifted over the table where partially full grocery bags were spilling all over the place before finally landing on the cooler. With one finger, she shifted a sweat-stained shirt off the top of the cooler and let it fall to the floor.

“Disgusting.”

Wrinkling her nose, Liv kicked the shirt further away and lifted the lid on the cooler to the sight of beer bottles nestled among partially melted ice.

She reached in to grab a few bottles when a dozen crows burst from the tree branches just outside the window, their loud caws and the cacophony of their beating wings startling her.

A bottle of beer fell out of her hand and shattered on the wooden floor, splashing its sour contents over her ankles and feet.

She didn’t even look down at it. An ominous pressure was rapidly filling the air as everything suddenly went very silent.

The door banged open, making her jump, and she whirled toward it as Jessie hurried toward her with an anxious smile.

“Are the beers coming? You know how the guys get when they are barbequing. They are all complaining that they are parched, like they haven’t had a thing to drink all day,” she said with a little laugh as she went to the cooler and pulled out several more bottles.

She glanced at the broken bottle on the floor and Liv followed her gaze. “What happened here?”

A cold tickling sensation crawled up her spine and Liv shivered as she glanced toward the window and the heavy silence just beyond it before looking back to her friend. “Don’t you think that something is… off?”

“Off?” Jessie echoed, and her head tipped as she briefly considered the question. “Not really. How do you mean?”

“Everything is just so… quiet,” she observed as an almost static sensation filled the air with the increasing weight in the atmosphere.

The hair on her arms stood on end and there was a low-pitched sound, as if the woods were bending and moaning.

“Wh… what is that?” Jessie whispered and then dropped to the ground with a scream when the floor pitched and began to shake violently.

Trees groaned louder and everywhere there was the sound of them breaking and falling as if something surged deep within the woods.

The ground rolled as if releasing some great force beneath it.

From outside they could hear the screams of the coven.

Jessie went pale, her eyes going round in her face as she stared out the window.

A roar shook the air, making the windows vibrate as the screams grew louder.

“Gray!” She bolted for the door, but Liv latched onto her arm and pulled her away from it.

“Are you crazy, it’s dangerous!” she hissed.

Jessie shook her off, her eyes wild with desperation. “We can’t just leave him to die out there! I love him!”

“You just met him six months ago and aren’t even dating, you will get over him,” Liv insisted but Jessie shook her head emphatically in denial.

Liv sighed, her patience growing thin. “Look, the smart thing to do would be to bolt the door, be as quiet as possible, and pray that whatever is out there doesn’t get too curious.

Do you not hear all that screaming? It’s like a production of Evil Undead out there.

If we go out there, we will be vulnerable to whatever is causing all of that. ”

“Liv, I can’t. We haven’t told anyone, but we’ve been going out exclusively for weeks now. We’re in love. I have to help him. To help all of them. We can’t let our friends die!”

“I barely know them,” Liv reminded her but, though Jessie’s lower lip trembled, a familiar look of stubbornness descended over her friend’s features that had her sighing heavily.

“Fuck. Okay, fine. But if you get mauled into tiny little pieces, don’t expect me to stop and collect them all for your funeral service.

I will send a nice bouquet though,” she muttered to herself as she turned trepidatiously toward the door.

Jessie was practically pressed against her back, her friend’s hands fisted in her clothing.

Liv could feel the air on her midriff from the material being pulled so tightly as she opened the door.

They stepped outside into chaos. Large, bat-like monsters the size of football players descended from the trees like shadows, their glowing red eyes and the inky blackness of their wingspan betraying their presence.

They dropped at random from the sky, grabbing at the humans who were scattering in every direction to evade them.

Brandon was dragged down to the ground, his eyes wide with terror as the thing began to rip into him, his body jerking with every rip from its wing hook and snap of its teeth into his flesh, tearing out wet chunks.

Liv pressed her hand to her mouth in an attempt to remain silent but jerked in place, her body going rigid when Jessie’s scream pierced the air from behind her.

Cursing under her breath, she spun around, breaking her friend’s hold on her and grabbed her hand.

Liv didn’t even hesitate, the moment she had a hold on Jessie’s hand, she broke into a run, dragging her with her as the other coven members rushed chaotically through the bushes in an attempt to escape the danger descending up them.

Overhead, she spotted one of the bats peel off from the others to wing its way directly overhead.

Sailing neatly between the tree branches, it dove for them.

Seeing it dropping from the air, Liv changed direction on a hairpin, bushing her way through the bushes while Jessie frantically prayed under her breath behind her among broken sobs.

Her friend’s breath drew in short, and she grabbed Liv’s shirtsleeve with her opposite hand, tugging it sharply.

“There he is! There’s Gray!” she shouted.

Liv’s head turned curiously, her brows knitting as she watched Gray neatly evade one of the other men of the coven who were reaching for him as he passed.

She couldn’t remember the guy’s name, or even clearly make out his words from their distance, but it was clear from the way he was blubbering and holding his hand out that he was loudly begging Gray for help and not to leave him.

“Gray!” Jessie shouted and she released Liv to wave both her hands over head as his head turned in their direction.

Liv saw the indecision on his face and also when it quickly hardened into resolution as he ran in the opposite direction toward his truck.

Jessie’s arms slowly lowered in disbelief as he launched himself into the cab and slammed the door shut.

As he fumbled with his keys, trees broke nearby and the thudding of something heavy arriving made Liv’s heart leap with fear.

She slowly turned toward the source of the sound.

She heard the engine roar to life and wheels spin, kicking up dirt as it peeled away from the cabin, but her attention was too focused on the way that the younger saplings and brush seemed to bend toward them.

“Where’s he going?” Jessie whispered. “He’s leaving without me.”

Liv’s gaze wrenched from the woods to see the blue pickup speeding away. Her upper lip curled with disgust. That fucking figured.

“It appears that he was really committed to your relationship,” she observed as she began to drag her friend forward once more.

Standing in one spot too long would just get them killed and she sure as hell wasn’t about to have her last moments on Earth be as a result of a camping trip that she didn’t even want to go on in the first place.

“But… all of our plans,” Jessie protested, her feet moving in a half-hearted and confused jog as Liv pulled her along.

“Clearly he was very attached to them,” Liv muttered and then drew up short when one of the giant bats dropped onto the only other vehicle, crushing it with its weight.

Liv turned, yanking Jessie back with her out of harm’s way but putting the departing truck directly in front of them as several of the giant bats suddenly descended upon it.

The truck swerved violently to the left and right before spinning and flipping, its trajectory taking it off the road and right into a ravine where the woods suddenly dropped at a steep angle.

“Oh, blessed gods,” Jessie whispered in shock, but she moved cooperatively when Liv began to shove her back toward the cabin as the bat-like monstrosities dropped with excited snaps of their wings into the ravine after it.

“Back to the cabin. Everyone… get to the cabin ,” Liv shouted.

While several people had fallen, others that had managed to stay alive immediately changed direction. If they could just get inside, they would be safe.

They were at the porch steps when woods moaned again.

The sound sent a tremor of fear through her, and she whipped toward it, fear tightening her throat.

It was stupid to just stand there and yet she couldn’t seem to make her feet move.

Another roar split the air as a massive creature broke through the bushes, its clawed hands slashing through the air.

It roared as it charged them, and Liv felt a chill rush over her.

Easily around eight feet in height, its frame bulged with muscles over an almost marble-like gray flesh.

Horn-like protrusions pushed out from its skin along its shoulders and down its upper arms as a double set of enormous horns entwined thickly with vines rose from the bony plating of its brow.

In contrast to the almost stone-like quality of its flesh, its hair streamed around its shoulders and down its back a fiery red that hung in a loose tangle amid which Liv could spot several beads and gold bands containing it as she stared in horror.

“Get in the fucking cabin!” she screamed as she spun on heel. Breaking once more into a run, hauled Jessie up the steps and across the porch.

Footsteps raced up the steps behind them among strangled shouts of fear and shrill screams, but she was focused on only one thing.

Crossing the doorway, she shoved Jessie through the door in front of her.

Grabbing ahold of the door with one hand, she held it open, her heart racing as the thing charged at a shocking speed from the depths of the tree line.

People streamed by her as she watched the thing, and when the last person made it over the threshold, she slammed the door behind them and threw the locks.

They would have to set up a barrier, but she prayed to the gods that it would be enough.

“We need to blockade the door and windows,” she shouted as she sprinted from the door toward the furniture sitting in the middle of the room.

To her relief, the others, despite being obviously shaken and several sporting injuries among them, followed her lead and they were able to push the barriers in place while the creature paced outside the cabin and bellowed its rage.

It occasionally threw its body into the cabin, its claws scraping savagely into the wood, but so far, the cabin was keeping it out. It was more a question of “how long?”