The Huntress

Chapter 41

(Jade POV)
I awake quite abruptly. I sit up, and look around. A fire is ablaze a few meters away from me: that was the probable source of my warmth. That or the fact that Sam was lying close to me, his muscled arm slung across my waist protectively. Gingerly I move away from him, still unsure about the whole thing that happened earlier. I sigh and cradle my head in my hands.

"I'm f-freezing Sarah. Can we please settle down for the night?" My eyes widen as I hear my sisters footfalls near. Oh Shit.
"No! You said she was around here somewhere. When we find her, we will rest." Sarah's voice was hard and her tone was final - I guess the stubborn streak really does run in the family.
"P-please?" Niamh begs. I grin as I hear her curse Sarah and the cold weather under her breath. Niamh never was one to put up with the cold.
"Shh. Niamh, is that a fire?"
"I don't know! Why are you asking me?" Niamh grumbles; a tired and cold Niamh is not someone you want to be questioning.
"Because you're the werewolf, duh brain. You're supposed to have enhanced senses." I grin as I hear Niamh smack Sarah upside on the head. "Ouch!"

I sigh heavily as I see them emerge from the seemingly never ending forest of trees. Niamh spots me immediately, whereas Sarah has her human eyesight, so it takes her lot longer to see me.

"Jade!" They both gasp. Then I am immediately tackled with fierce hugs from both of them.
"You stupid mother-"
"Don't ever leave us again!"
"What were you thinking?"
"We thought you were-"
"Dead?" I chuckle, interrupting their stream of half-finished sentences.
"Already halfway there, guys." They smile back rather sheepishly. It feels kind of good to be back with my sisters. I missed them-even in the short time I was away from them. I just never realise how much they meant to me, or I to them I suppose.
"Jade?" Sam sits up beside me. "Who are they?" He asks, rubbing his forehead, a faint line creasing between his eyebrows.
"My sisters. Niamh, and Sarah." I point to each of them.
"Aren't you gonna introduce us to him?" Niamh asks, pointing at Sam.

I was about to speak when a blood curdling screech that sounds similar to nails being ran down a chalkboard fills the air. In a split second myself and Sam are on our feet, taking defensive positions up in front of my sisters. I can't help but love the way that Sam protects my sisters, sensing that they are important to me and not even questioning it. Sam bends down, and grabs his black back pack that I hadn't really noticed him wear before. He tosses two silver axes to Sarah, and silver tipped stakes to Niamh. Somehow he knows she will fight in her human form-she hasn't mastered the ability to shift yet-which I can tell because she would've been in wolf form by now if she had. That or he didn't know she was a werewolf. I suspected the latter.

"Both of you, stay safe." I whisper, keeping my voice quiet. They nod in return, Niamh looking a little wary, and Sarah with a small smirk plastered on her face. I make eye contact with Sam, and together we run out to meet the dark vamps flooding the forest.

I see Niamh teleporting ahead of us, stabbing away with her stakes. I hold my breath as a vamp lunges towards her, but sigh in relief when she smirks and teleports away. I glance behind us and see Sarah swinging her axes wildly around, by the look of the amount of decapitated heads on the ground she's been practising-a lot. Seeing a couple vamps come this way, I send out a steady stream of fire, and smile when Sam blows a strong gust of wind into it, oxidising it and sending it further.

"Hey Sam?" I yell.
"What! I'm a little busy here!" He shouts back, trying to defeat three vamps.
"These freakin' vamps ruin everything!" I holler, snapping someone's neck.
"Damn right they do!" Called Sarah from somewhere-her yell was accompanied by the screeching sound a vampire made as she sliced it's head clean off.
"We were having a moment!" Niamh was suddenly next to me, and she handed me a silver knife, which of course I threw forcefully into the nearest vampires neck. She grins, and teleports away.

"Were we?" Sam yells, his voice almost lost in the wind as he uses his element to blow back a bunch of vamps crowding around him.
"Yes!" Me, Sarah and Niamh all yell in unison.
"Hey Jade!" Niamh yells.
"What!" I scream back, struggling to hear myself think let alone speak over Sam's wind.
"Behind you!"

Grabbing my spare knife-the one I was given specially as my gift, I turn and plunge it into the vamps stomach. He was closer than expected. Using my element, I brace myself and shoot small, controlled balls of fire in quick succession. Each vampire they hit fell to the ground screaming horribly as they burnt alive. Very soon, the forest was filled with the sounds of the screaming dead. Falling to the ground, I clutch my head in pure agony. It takes so much focus for me to control that much of my power-to harness it in that much I usually end up hurting and aching for days after.

I am faintly aware of Sam fighting his way over to me, but unlike Ryder he doesn't drop everything to come and save me. He just carries on fighting near me, making sure nobody got near me while I was as good as defenceless and still doing his job. I liked that-I'm no frickin' damsel in distress. Far from it, actually.

"Jade?" All of a sudden I hear an all too familiar voice drift through the wind.

A/N
Hey people!
This chapter, which by the way is 1001 words, not including this authors note is a late thankyou for hitting 8k reads. We are nearly at 9k now, and for that I say thanks, again XD.
Really though, to see everyone out there commenting, voting, adding my story to reading lists, messaging me, and even just reading is a big inspiration for me to write more.
This book is (finally) coming to a close. I think I have maybe six or seven chapters to go before I finish it officially-but before I do that I need to edit my chapters-some of the earlier ones especially.
Anyway, thanks for reading and sticking with me this far!
-Zella