Touché. Another demerit for the hillbillies.
Tyler came up next to me, grumbling, “We can’t shift, so it makes it a little harder to find the right coordinates. Especially if they’re not on any map.”
“Yes, but direction isn’t our strong suit, is it?” Danny interjected. “Remember that time in the Everglades, tracking those alligators? It took us a week to get out of that bloody hellhole.” Danny chuckled to himself.
“You’re not helping,” Tyler growled.
9
We hiked straight up. The incline was steep, but the vamps seemed to glide over every stump and rock like it wasn’t even there. During the walk Danny had sidled up next to a patient Naomi and filled our walk with light banter. Eamon had taken in the lead, and the rest of us trailed after them.
“So what do you eat when you’re traveling, then?” Danny asked. “Not many humans out here to nibble on. Except for the one we’ve brought along, of course. We can loan him to you for the right price.” Danny laughed good-naturedly. He was pouring on the charm, and even though Naomi was keeping herself close, I could tell she was having a teensy bit of fun.
She indulged his curiosity pleasantly. “We don’t need to feed often. Our bodies are well preserved, requiring a fuel source only every few weeks or so. If we find ourselves out longer than necessary, we can take the blood of an animal. It’s not as nutritious, and has a terrible aftertaste, but it will suffice. We will not starve.”
“Where are you going to sleep when dawn breaks?” Danny asked. “Not a lot of spooky manors or crypts around here.”
She gave him a patient look, paired with a slight smile. “My brother and I have scouted this area. There are caves and cool places for us to stay during the daylight hours. They will do.”
I cleared my throat, coming up behind the two of them. “Will we arrive at the next pass before the sun rises?” As we’d climbed, I’d become more and more agitated. My body sensed Rourke was near. His essence was inside me and his blood sang directly to mine. I craved him.
My wolf prowled in my mind like a caged animal, sensing constantly for danger as the air grew thicker with Selene’s signature. Much like the immediate power a supe gave off, but more widespread. It brushed against my skin like an angry breeze.
“We will reach the peak in a few moments,” Naomi answered. “Then we will start our decent. Likely we will arrive at the bottom of the gorge by daybreak. From there my brother and I will escort you to her direct perimeter line, which starts after the stream at the bottom. We have been forbidden to take you farther. Eamon will sense the area and try to prepare you for what you will encounter, but once we reach the edge of her lands, you will face her obstacles on your own.”
“Of course,” I said. My agreement with the Vamp Queen had been for tracking to Selene’s boundary and nothing more.
Eamon stopped abruptly at the head of the line and we all slowed.
“What is it?” Tyler asked, edging his way to the front. The altitude was very thin here; the trees were less dense and scattered. We were just about to crest through the trees to the rocky edge of the summit, but we still stood within the forest. Ten feet in front of us the tree line stopped completely. Rolling granite covered the top before the cliff sheered off on one side and led down to what I assumed was a stream.
I heard the water bubbling below.
“I sense something.” Eamon turned in a slow circle. “But Selene’s lands do not extend this far, so it should not be so. The signature is here, yet it’s different somehow. Changed.”
Tyler immediately put his nose to the sky and inhaled. “I smell something slightly acidic in the air. It smells like guano, but with a sharper twang.”
“Bat guano?” I asked. “Maybe we’re by a cave and the bats just came out to feed?”
“No,” Eamon said. “The smell is layered with a taste of Otherness, but one I’ve never sampled before. It’s bitter. Bitter always means bad.”
“I’m getting a trace of Otherness too.” Tyler opened his mouth to take the air over his tongue. “It’s almost undetectable, like it was supposed to be veiled, but the scent trickled out anyway.”
“I can’t detect anything,” Danny said. “But smelling is not my strong suit. Much like directions. I just don’t have the knack. Now, knocking someone out cold or handing them their teeth after a brawl, I’m your man.”
I inhaled, forcing the air in slowly. My wolf twitched her ears. I noticed something too. After a few breaths it became stronger as it settled over my taste buds. It was faint, but definitely bitter. “I’m not exactly surprised we’re coming up against something before we hit her ‘official’ territory,” I said. “She’d be foolish to let us draw too close without a fight. Plus, she loves games. Putting up some puzzling roadblock sounds like something she’d do. We need to tread very carefully from here.”
“I will investigate a bit farther.” Naomi strode for a large opening past the trees. A bright moon and a bevy of stars kept the night sky luminous. The stars ran in an almost continuous swath of white. With my newly enhanced vision, I could see so much more. Stars that had been undetectable before now flickered in the sky. It was breathtaking. The only person who had an issue finding his way in the dark was Ray. He’d stumbled along behind us at less than half the pace, swearing up a blue streak as he went. But since he was following us on his own, I wasn’t complaining.
“Be wary out there,” I called. “It could be a trap.”
Naomi reached the clearing. “Once I pass out of these trees I’ll take to the sky and see what I can find—”
The instant she crossed the tree line she was swarmed.
Small, black creatures coated her, flapping their wings in furious motion. I ran toward her shouting, “Are those bats?”
If they were, they weren’t any kind of ordinary bats.
Before I could processes what was happening, Danny dropped his pack and lunged into the fray. “Get the bloody hell off of her, you beasts!” He tore them from her body. As they came off, so did bits of her clothing and skin.
“What are they?” I yelled to Eamon, coming up short of the trees and dropping my gear by the edge of the clearing. We had to know what they were in order to fight them. They hadn’t attacked her until she passed through the trees, so that had to mean there was a delineation of some kind. Eamon froze in place, staring at his sister. “Eamon!” I shouted. “What are they?”