Deviant (Blendling Trilogy #1)

Chapter Eighteen

We touched down thirty minutes later on the outskirts of a small town. When I set Belle down, her feet wobbled and I had to hold her up straight. Sherry, on the other hand, falls on her hands and knees and pukes her guts out. I fish a half bottle of water and hand it to her. She snatches it, rinses her mouth and chugs the rest down.
"What next?" Cam asked
"How did they find us?" Sherry croaked, she must still be feeling queasy.
"I think they tracked the jeep" Belle said.
"Either that or our calls" I say.
"We need to ditch the phones then" Cam said. "Just in case." We each hand him our phones and he throws them far opposite the distance we just traveled.
"I took these from the guys in the hotel" I say, dropping the things we took on the ground.
We sit on the floor to examine the things. There's two pistols and five cartridges with strange bullets, two long swords and one gold pleated dagger, two disposable phones and two wallets. Each wallet contains only cash, nothing to identify its owner. I remove the money from them and Cameron throws them the way he did our phones. We keep all the weapons and, after scrolling through the phones and coming up with nothing useful, Cam throws them too. We hike into the woods and find an abandoned hunter's lodge to crash. It provided little to no protection from the cold but we didn't mind. It began to rain sometime that night and I was grateful to be out of the rain. I stayed up all night, wondering why we were being hunted, wondering if our mums were okay, wondering if we were safe in the woods.

The rain stopped as the sun rose, gradually chasing the shadows under the broken furniture in the lodge. The others rose after a while and I took stuck of their appearance. The twins looked like they had been rolling around on the ground, Cam's shirt was bloody and torn, the whole back missing where his wings had ripped through. I had washed myself in the rain while they slept so I was clean. I however didn't have a change of clothes so I settled for my bloody jeans.
"I collected water from the rain while you slept" I said, point to two buckets and a pot of water. "Manage"

The girls had a change of clothes and promptly changed into them when they freshened up. Cam ditched the torn shirt and we both went without. I was amused that the twins were checking us out despite our dire circumstances. I laughed out loud as Belle lost the battle of looking at my abs. She blushed and looked away.
"What next" Cam asked.
"We need clothes." I say. Bass had packed us money, potions, a bottle of water each, and some dry fruit. No one had remembered clothes. 
"Bee and I can go get clothes" Sherry volunteers.
"We also need food. I'm hungry" Cam said.
"Yeah, I need to feed" I say. Belle scowls at me.
"Yeah. Nature can recharge the girls and air does that for me. We should eat our fruits and hit the town later today. I don't think it's wise to separate." Cam said.

We eat our fruits and I lay down to rest, but I cannot sleep. Sometime later, they leave to go practice and I sigh. When Bass started training us, mum thought it was unnecessary. I realize now that we'd probably be dead if we didn't know how to defend ourselves. I'd killed! I lift my hands and stare at them but the still look the same to me, not at all like a killer's hands. I wonder how the others are holding up and let my sense loose, tracking their emotions. Cam feels sad, but underlying his sadness is bloodlust. I soak some of it up and check the girls. They are both scared; scared because they didn't know what had happened to their mother, but guilty for the lives they took. The three of them are however determined not to die.

I feel defeat and freeze. Probing the emotion deeper, I see that the source is unknown. I feed on this defeat until I feel anger and determination from someone else. Sending my senses farther, I pick up disappointment, anger, determination and even a little fear. Our hunters are in the woods with us! I pick myself off the ground and head out, placing my hands on my lips as I reach the others. The emotions are drawing closer and I look around. There are some strong trees around.
"Up" I say and the girls start to climb, Cam and I retrieve weapons and climb trees too, waiting in ambush.

Three men enter the clearing and immediately we dive out of the trees. The first one is easily disposed by a quick slice to his throat. Cameron uses telekinesis to lift one up and slam him back to the ground. His neck breaks. The third one drops his sword and runs. I chase after him and catch up, slamming him against a tree. He struggles and I let my canines extend and sink them into his neck. He smells of gun powder and sweat but I ignore it, drawing his life essence in steady gulps. I let my sense probe his mind and draw his emotions into me, feeding. I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder and spun to face Cam.

"That's enough" he says. Retracting my fangs, I lick my lips clean and look at the man on the ground, he's staring at me with adoration.
"Get up" I say and he immediately obeys. He sways on his feet and I reach out to clean blood running down his neck. The bleeding slows down to a trickle and stops after a minute. He takes a step towards Cam, as if his instincts are fighting my hold and I realize I have to be quick.
"How'd you find us" I ask
"We tracked your phones to the edge of these woods. By the time got here, the signal pointed somewhere else so we split up to find you." He answered in a robotic voice
"Why are you hunting us"
"We were sent by master Sanchez to take you out. The master has taken the Council and will destroy all opposition. You are his biggest opponents, the Blendling..." he trails off, shaking himself to free his mind from my grasp
"How many of you are here and how far away are you?"
"We are twelve in camp, nine minutes from here. The three of us went to scout. If we don't report back in a few minutes, they will radio the others for backup"

The man suddenly lurches forward and grabs my neck. Cam snatches him away and slams him to the ground, producing the dagger and slitting his throat.
"You know what this means right? We have to stop them from calling for reinforcement" I say. He just nods and we take to the sky, streaking towards the camp at top speed. We leave the girls hiding in the trees.