When the sky beyond the cave entrance came into view, Galen blew out the lantern’s flame and set it down. With caution, they stepped outside where the air was cool and fresh. A breeze washed over them, like a pine-scented wave, blowing away the stench of the vampire lair.
Jo took a deep breath. She glanced at the thicket, the place where Galen had taken his shirt off, and then down at the trees, into the scrub and shadows. The song of the insects was the only audible sound. The half-moon dangled smaller and lower in the west and Jo could see that the black shade of night was fading into a dark velvet blue.
“Oh, boy,” Dove groaned. She gazed down the hill and looked at Lary.
Jo was thinking the same thing about him when Galen stepped over to him. He reached out and took Lary’s arm and put it around his shoulder, the chain on Lary’s wrist dangled down the side of his chest. His other arm circled Lary’s waist.
“Ready?” He asked Lary.
“Ready as I’ll ever be. Thanks, buddy.”
“Let’s go, guys,” Galen said. He took the first step, holding Lary up and easing him down the incline. Dove followed behind them, occasionally grabbing onto Galen to steady herself.
Jo smiled watching Galen’s strong body supporting her friends. She wanted to be right there with them and began stepping sideways down the hill, using her branch to balance herself. She was thankful she hadn’t broken her neck careening down this earlier. But she didn’t want to think about that now. Her intentions were to catch up with Galen. She wanted to be—preposterous though it sounded—near him.
Her eyes were on his back and she struggled to move faster, but her leg muscles were fatigued from the earlier climb up this hill. Her hand burned from holding onto the branch so tightly, but she needed it to balance and keep herself from falling.
“Jo.” Mike called to her. He was above her on the hill.
She glanced up at him, but didn’t stop her descent. “Are you doin’ Ok, Mike?” She noticed the discomfort etched on his face and the way he kept his wrist curled into his body.
“Yeah. You?” His hair was sticking to the sweat on his forehead and the sides of his face. It looked frosted in the weakening moonlight.
“I’m doin’ all right.” She was out of breath. Her foot slipped and she skidded, catching herself by grabbing onto the scraggily limb of a pine tree, causing more pain to her hand.
“Jo, stop for a second.”
Galen was moving farther away with Lary hanging on him, and Dove’s hand gripping his shoulder. The trio was disappearing into the black spaces under the trees. She was anxious to catch up to them, but she stopped.
Mike stepped down the hill until he was just even with her.
“How’s your back?” She asked him.
“It’s been worse.”
Jo grinned and turned her head towards her friends who could be heard, but no longer seen.
“Jo, I’m sorry about what happened in the cave.”
She twisted the end of her branch into the dirt. “What about it?”
“About letting that thing touch you. I should have stopped him.” His mouth turned down and his eyes spoke his regret.
“Mike, there wasn’t anything you could have done. But you were very brave to try.”
“Said his mother.”
“Huh?”
“You sound like my mom: ‘that’s Ok, Mikey, you tried your best’.”
“Your mom calls you Mikey?” She grinned playfully.
He pursed his lips.
“Mike, I didn’t mean it like that. It was a horrible situation and there was nothing you could have done.”
“I just didn’t want him to hurt you any more than he already was.” He looked in Jo’s eyes and laid his hand on her shoulder.
“I know.” Jo touched the back of her neck. “And I’m very grateful for that, believe me.” She turned her head away from him.
“Hey,” he summoned her gaze back to his, “I wouldn’t have let him go any farther, Jo.” His eyes darkened. “I would have—”
“I know.” The look in his eyes was intense. She was afraid of it.
Time was ticking.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s get down this thing and get the heck out of here.”
Mike produced a faint grin and nodded. They side-stepped down the hill, reaching the bottom of it together. Lary was sitting cross-legged on the ground resting his shackled wrists in dead pine needles. Dove sat beside him, rubbing a sore calf muscle.
Galen was leaning against a pine tree with his arms folded, waiting. “Finally,” he said, stepping away from the tree. “Ok, all we’ve got to do is get across this clearing and over to the river.”
“Why don’t we just go back on the trail?” Mike asked, trying to catch his breath. “It looks like that creature’s long gone and it’s going to be dawn soon anyway.”
“Let’s cut across the meadow catty-corner, like we did,” Jo said to Galen.
“I think we’re better off going to the river,” Galen said. “Once we get across, it’ll be a shorter walk to the cabin.”
“And what if we can’t get across it?” Mike argued.
“We’ll find a way—”
Mike said something and Galen said something and Mike said something, but all their words melded together. Jo eyes were pulled to the fallen tree where she had stashed Red’s body. At the sight of it, the skin on her back tingled. Lary had entered the argument, trying to bring peace. Their conversation turned to static, like a radio losing its station. As Jo focused on the tree, her heart rate increased. Little did her friends know how close they were to Red’s body—dead or alive.
The tree lay where the hill receded back from the trail creating a small open area of grass. She eyed the tree trunk. They should get Red and take her with them—but what if—? They still had to get her.
On impulse, she struck out for the trunk, her chest tightening with every step. Her friends continued their debate behind her. She couldn’t discern a word; her eyes were riveted to the dark ground.
She walked to the side of the trunk where Red’s body should be, looking for a mound of upturned earth and grasses. The moon had sunk even lower in the sky during their downhill hike and its light had further diminished. The ground beside the tree was black. Jo couldn’t tell if she was looking at the pile of torn up foliage or just a shadow. She stepped closer, peering into the spot, straining to see. She bent down. Her heart thumped hard. Her eyes were as wide as she could open them. She held her branch in one hand and reached her other shaky hand into the darkness.
“Jo!” Galen shouted.
She snapped her hand back and jumped up. Her friends were at the edge of the trees.
“What are you doing?” Galen’s voice was sharp and angry.
Jo waved for them to come over. She would wait for them to arrive and tell them why she was standing there. They would find out together what lay in that shadow.
“Jo!” Galen yelled. He bolted towards her.
“Jo, lookout!” Mike was running at her. His eyes were wide and wild.
Dove screamed.
Everyone’s eyes fixated on something behind Jo. She whirled around.
“We meet again.” Jon’s eyes burned like blue flames. He was on her in a flash before she could say a word—before she could scream. He grabbed her around the waist and leapt into the trees. The ground fell away. The branch slipped from her hands and she saw the top of Galen’s head as he ran to where it landed. He looked up, his silver eyes on fire, shouting her name, jumping up, as if he was going to fly.
Jon held her in a vice-like grip, crushed against his body, forcing her to smell the sick odor of decay once again. Tree limbs smacked her legs. She screamed and twisted, not caring how far she would fall to the ground below.
Jon left the trees. They were out in the open. Jo’s feet touched the land a few times, but it was too quick to be able to stop or get any control. The flight was a blur of ground and navy blue sky. Rushing water overwhelmed the silence of the
forest.
He dropped her on the bank beside the river. Jo hit the earth hard, smashing the cold grass under her scratched and bleeding legs. She searched for something to fight with, patting the ground with stinging hands for a stick or a rock—anything—but all her hands met with was grass. She checked her wrist. The bracelet was gone. She scrambled to her feet, but he knocked her down. She rolled onto her back.
Jon stood over her, straddling her. He pulled off his black jacket and threw it in the bushes. His white dress shirt was open. The stab wound from the aspen branch was gone. His abdominal muscles looked like they were drawn on his pale, grey skin. He flicked his hair behind his shoulders.
He was down on top of her in a second, sitting on her abdomen and pinning her wrists to the forest floor, his head over hers, his long, stiff hair dangling in her face. Jo fought, twisting her arms and bringing up her knees to hit him in the back. She bucked and squirmed.
“There, there, now.” His eyes tried to catch hers.
Jo whipped her head back and forth, eluding his gaze. He held her down with little effort and laughed at her violent, but useless struggle.
The heat of rage spread through her. Dark golden strands of hair had flown across her eyes. She jerked her head angrily and they slid off, but that was a mistake. She found herself looking into Jon's eyes. Like lambent blue spikes they fastened her gaze to his. She lay still and glared at him. She was breathing hard and writhing inside with frustration.
The menacing expression on his face fell away. His eyes changed from a vivid color to a richer hue. Something foul bubbled to the top of his stare. She shut her eyes.
“Look at me.” His voice was demanding, but calm, just loud enough to be heard over the river. Jo kept her eyes squeezed shut. Her wrists ached from his grip on them.
“Look at me, Jo,” he commanded, in a strange, alluring tone that compelled her to open her eyes.
His hands loosened their grip as his gaze roved over her face. His mouth softened and the glowing rings turned powder blue. He licked his flaky lips.
Jo yanked one of her hands free and aimed it at his face, but he caught it and forced it down onto her chest, just below her throat. His icy skin and her warm hand lay in the same spot on her flesh.
“I will make you immortal,” he said, boring his eyes deep inside her. Their cerulean brilliance made her dizzy.
She blinked, her body going limp underneath him. No! No! The Lord is my strength…She shook herself from the demon’s spell. She took a deep breath. “I don’t need immortality. I already have eternal life.”
He jerked his head up and hissed. He gripped her wrists again and forced them onto the earth behind her head. His face was inches from hers and she grimaced from the odor of his breath. “Your friend is strong. I can’t kill him. But I can do the next best thing.” He grinned maliciously and lowered his head, whispering close to the side of her face. “I will have you, and then I will turn you.”
A boiling-hot tear rolled down Jo’s temple. His hand tugged on her shorts. She twisted, fighting his hands, slapping, clawing, scratching, whatever she could do to keep them from their task. He growled, pulling on her shirt until it ripped. He trailed his lips across her cheek, grazing her face with his stubble. She cringed. His mouth slid to hers. As they touched the corner of her lip, she squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her lips together, making them as thin and hidden as possible. She turned her face away from him as far as her neck would let her. The river rushed by, slithering along the side of the bank. The earth began to spin.
This watery tomb is endless. It churns inside itself, tumbling her over and over. She claws at the emerald walls, but there’s no end to it. The life runs out of her…
Chapter 34