Venom (Book I) ✓

Chapter Twelve

The darkness beneath the trees was complete and heavy. It clung to Ruby like the mist of the Dames Blanche. Her hood was drawn around her face, the fur tickling her cheeks and neck. It helped with the fear coursing through her veins at being totally blind.

Ulric's hand guided her gently, occasionally pulling her forward, occasionally lifting her over stumbling blocks on the path. He did not speak. He hardly had since telling her of his curse and of Edward. She wondered which one had caused his silence. Part of her was grateful, she couldn't deny, for the time to think. However, another, more hopeful part wished more than anything for his low, reverberating voice and the conversation it brought to distract her from the roiling and confusion in her mind.

"The sun will be coming up soon." He murmured back to her, as if reading her mind. She cast her eyes to the sky curiously. Only inky shadows greeted her, blotting out almost all of the stars. She missed the stars and she missed the moon and she missed clouds and sunlight on her face.

"How can you tell?" She asked softly.

"Instincts." He answered with a shrug. He acted as if he was part animal but Ruby doubted if what he called "Shifters" were animalistic. "We'll stop once it's up, okay?"

She gazed at his shadowy figure from beneath her hood. Even in the all-consuming darkness she could make out his eyes, glowing like a cat's. He was watching the trees, not the path, as if he was looking for something specific among them. Then, abruptly, he pulled them to a stop.

"Red, how are you feeling?"

She faltered, then shook her head, "I'm fine, why?"

"Well, I didn't know...You're, you know--"

"Dying." She prompted and he passed a weary hand over his face. "I know. But I haven't felt it. Not since I first coughed up blood."

He nodded, then glanced toward the trees once more. "We're a day's walk from your beast's den."

"Really?" She cried, a thrill of excitement running down her back.

"Yes. But it won't be as easy as that, okay? It's somebody's pet, and that somebody is going to be very, very reluctant to let you get near it."

Her excitement turned frigid and froze into a stone that felt an awful lot like fear. "What do you mean?"

"Red, we're almost to the heart of the forest. The most powerful creatures live there. You are a human in their domain, and that is something that they have worked very very hard to prevent. Almost all of them will be eager to get rid of you."

"Almost all? Do you think some of them will help me?" She asked eagerly, hope blossoming in her chest like a lily.

"I don't. I just think they'll leave you alone."

She swallowed a deep breath as the lily died.

"Red, listen, there's a way...I can give you my blood. It will transform you. The venom can't hurt Shifters."

"But...what would happen to you?"

He looked away and shook his head, "Shifters can't survive a blood transfer unless they are very powerful."

"No."

"Red, if we do this you can go home. You don't have to risk your life fighting anyone."

"And Edward?"

"Not everyone can have a happily ever after."

"But if we do this nobody will."

"You will."

"No I won't! I will have lost everything...Everyone."

"You'll have Appa."

"For how long?"

"Shifters may not be able to age, but they aren't impossible to kill. Knives and guns are just as dangerous to us as they are to humans."

Ruby was confused for a moment, but when realization hit it was brutal and coupled with a deep-seated horror. "Ulric!"

"Think of it! You choose when to die. Never any sooner."

"I refuse. I came to save Edward, not myself."

"But you didn't know at the time that you were dying."

Scowling, she flipped her hood down, suddenly feeling stifled by the fur around her face. "It wouldn't have changed anything."

"Are you sure?"

She faltered, but only long enough to recall Edward's battered body and the way the whole village turned out to watch her go. "I'm positive." She stated, her voice hard, almost forceful.

In the faint light of dawn she noted how tired Ulric looked, how downcast. He gazed at her sadly, but after a moment he nodded. "Of course. I guess...I just hoped I had misjudged you."

She watched as he turned and began to walk, her hand still firmly encased in his. She wanted to ask how he had judged her, wanted to demand clarification and understanding, wanted to berate him for offering to kill himself so that she could live. Her tongue, however, would not cooperate. It sat like lead in her mouth, too clumsy to form syllables.

So she let Ulric lead her to a little cottage off the path. And the little cottage served to silence her. Because seeing it was like a punch to the gut. And suddenly, she couldn't recall what they had been arguing about. All she could think of was a basket weighing on her arms and a heavy knot of foreboding in her gut and her own tremulous voice as she cried "Your teeth!" at a beast wearing her grandmother's face.