Chapter 152

I slammed my fist into its oncoming paw, but the force of it made my arm buckle and sent me flying away from it. I landed with a hard thud, and doubt started to fill me. I didn’t understand. I had been so much weaker then. It had been before Candido gave me his blood, before all the working out I had done and all the healing over the years, but I couldn’t muster up the strength from then. Was it because I was hungry and dizzy?

It wasn’t like I was in perfect shape back then! I should be able to do this now of all times. I was going to die if I couldn’t. I was going to die and never see Candido again and I didn’t want that.

I was going to live. I had to live. No matter what I had to do, I had to live.

I tried again, but before I could even throw a punch, it swatted me out of the air. I landed hard and tumbled. Rocks and twigs cut and scraped me, but I lifted my body. Everything in me shook. The world seemed to go in and out of focus, but I pushed myself up. I had to do this. Maybe I just wasn’t trying hard enough.

Maybe I just wasn’t thinking about this the right way. Maybe I wasn’t angry enough. The creature roared at me again. I thought about everything that had happened to me since the vampires had decided to attack Candido’s territory. Claire had died and been turned. I’d been nearly killed. I still didn’t know what Damian had done to me and everything in me knew that if I didn’t get out of this place, wherever it was, I would never see Candido again.

I charged forward, pushing all of my anger to the forefront of my mind, and swung again. Its paw cut through the air too fast for me to dodge. It caught me in the side. I heard my ribs crack as I shrieked in pain. Then, I was flying through the air, bumping into trees, and spinning through the air until I slammed into a tree, and I heard it coming after me with the realization that what I was trying to do was impossible for some reason that I couldn’t even begin to unpack.

This creature would kill me. Fear filled me. I turned with a scream and ran.

“Candido!” I yelled. “Candido, help me!”

Whatever had happened that night had to have been a fluke. Maybe I had just been imagining it. Maybe it was just some wild hallucination. Maybe I’d been wrong all this time about my strength being related to being of an awakened bloodline. I thought that my strength was extraordinary, but maybe that wasn’t my power at all.

Maybe I didn’t even have one because I was half vampire. It would make sense why I never learned to shift even though I had healed so much from the years of poison. Or maybe, I was just too weak to use it with any consistency. It didn’t matter. I just had to get out here. I had to get away from the creature and find Candido. Candido was strong enough to take down this beast and whatever else was in the forest.

I would be safe with him like I always was if only I could find him.

“Where are you?” Candido yelled. “Can you hear me?”

“Candido, I’m here!” I yelled into the forest. “Hurry!”

His voice seemed to be getting farther away. I could almost see him through the mist of the trees, but it was too dark, and I was too dizzy to be sure of anything. I thought I saw him and turned towards him.

“Candido, wait! I’m over here! Please help me!”

I ran after the fading figure, but the faster I ran, the more distant he seemed. The figure of him vanished into the mists again and I found myself in a strange clearing with a collection of overgrown stones in the middle. The air felt different here like I had gone to another place entirely.

The ground was barren, unlike the rest of the forest. The mists seemed to be held outside this clearing. I approached the pile of stones, curious about what it was for and why this area felt so different.

I reached my hand out and a sharp crack of lightning leaped out, stinging me. Then, the ground began to collapse. I ran away from the clearing, jumping into the mists as the ground gave way and snapped closed as if it had never been there.

A cackling sound drifted through the air. The hair on the back of my neck rose as the ground started to shake. I turned down the opposite path and kept running. Sharp claws cut through the tree ahead of me. Another set tore through the cloth over my legs, and I rolled aside trying to evade the next attack.

A shadow appeared above me with a wild cry and I pushed out of the way of its attack. The more I dodged, the more it felt like I couldn’t dodge enough.

I realized then that there was more than one presence in the surroundings. Smaller, hungrier eyes stared at me through the darkness. Whatever had surrounded me, there were a lot of them and they weren’t anywhere near as large as the creature from the room.

But they were familiar. They were the same creatures I’d run into while I was running from my cell before, but now that I was out of building, would I be sent back to that cell if things got too dire? Ian told me that he wasn’t trying to kill me, but this felt like he was definitely trying to kill me.

They crept closer and looked like nothing more than shadows with glowing, glinting claws. I didn’t even want to think about what kind of creatures they were. I didn’t want to think about any of it. I shuffled back as they crept closer. Then, I looked up at the towering building that I had just come from. It seemed to stretch into the impossibly dark sky where there were no stars. The moons looked fake and I realized that I was still wherever Ian had taken me.

I sneered at the thought. He’d called that town Luna, but this looked a lot more like the Lunae I had been told about. Dark, dangerous, and unwelcoming: a place of torture for vampire who dared to stand against werewolves.

A tittering sound cut through the air to my left. I barely dodged the swipe of claws, aimed at my head. Something howled in agony and the creature came lumbering towards me. The smaller creatures snickered and cackled before lunging at the large beast. I could hear the rip of fur, but then blood flew through the air. One of the small creatures were thrown back towards me. I could smell its blood. My stomach cramped with hunger. I felt a strange sensation like fingers trailing over the top of my brain, hot and burning. My mouth was dry. My gums itched and my breaths came out in short pants.

I needed to eat. I was so hungry. I was thirsty. I felt weak and overcome with the need to eat. Then, I realized as I crawled towards the still twitching body that I was hungry—starving, and it was the scent of blood drawing me in like a feast. My stomach turned. I tried to pull back and ignore it, but I couldn’t. My body was moving on its own, prowling towards the still twitching creature as its blood pooled beneath it.

No. This couldn’t be happening, but no matter how I tried to fight it, it felt like something else had taken me over completely. I tried to pull back, but as I reached it, I lowered my head to the gash across its neck and licked the steady stream of blood.

A shuddering moan escaped me as I pinned it flat and pressed my mouth to the wound, drinking heartily. It was coppery and oddly meaty, like a steak, but it was so good. I could feel the weakness starting to fade. When I’d drained it completely, I looked up, dazed and entranced, as the moon overhead started to run as red as blood.

I saw it like a vision from a dream I had long forgotten. I heard laughter, familiar and a little mocking.

“Raven?” I asked softly, but I heard no reply.

Movement and sound caught my attention. I turned and darted towards the fight, claws extended, mouth open and starving. The creatures snarled at one another and at me. I grabbed one of them and threw it aside before it could slash me.

One of them shrieked as I caught it in my hands and sunk my teeth into its next sucking greedily.