Kidnapped

Chapter 5

Thorne led Fern along a crumbling road. After nearly a week of travel, the kidnappers left the deer trails and took to the main roads used by travelers, most of which had been paved a century or so ago, back before the vamps showed up and forced humanity into walled cities.

Thorne's size had grown with the moon phase. If Fern had been on the ground, his shoulders would have come past her waist. Fern glanced at the moon. Another week and it would be full. Would she turn into a werewolf then or turn into a werecat on the new moon?

Thorne lifted his nose and sniffed the air. His hackles stood on end. Ahead of them, the road narrowed so the trees stretched all the way over it, making a tunnel of dark foliage.

"What is it?" Fern pulled the mare to a stop. She scanned the forest, but the moon did nothing to pierce the darkness under the trees.

Thorne sniffed again. "There's a faint vamp scent." He eyed the forest. "We're in unclaimed territory here. No one hunts the vamps."

"Maybe we should camp in a clearing until it's daylight. That's what scouts do, isn't it?"

"If we want to catch Ash's kidnappers before they reach the fort, we can't stop." Thorne walked into the darkness.

Fern urged the mare after him. Thorne didn't have much to worry about. Though vamps would eat anything that moved, they tended to avoid other big predators and large groups. Humans and elves were something they'd go crazy for. After all, their main method of reproduction was to bite humans and elves.

"Fern, is something wrong?" Thorne asked.

"If there's a vamp around, it will come for me," Fern said.

"You got bit by a werewolf and a werecat," Thorne said. "There's a good chance you'll be immune to vamps, even if you still smell like prey." He glanced at the moon. "If you're going to turn into a werewolf, you should start feeling the wolf side soon, or at least that's what I've heard." Thorne resumed walking.

Fern urged the mare after him. "What would I feel?"

"I'm a pureblood, so I don't know what it's like to not be able to shift, but when I try to hold the wolf side in close to the full moon, I feel energy trying to escape and my skin starts to prickle. If something gets your adrenaline up, it's more difficult to stay in human form."

She looked at the moon shining through the dense foliage above. So far, that hadn't happened, but she still had almost a week to go. God, please let the bites counteract each other, Fern prayed for what must have been the hundredth time.

Thorne trotted through the forest, his movements tense.

Fern tightened her grip on the mare's reins. Thorne may not have said anything, but after traveling with him, she'd learned his body language well enough to know he expected something to go wrong.

Fern listened to the forest sounds. Crickets chirruped. In the distance, an owl screeched. She tried sniffing the air but caught no scents, other than the cool night smell the forest carried.

The mare shied away from the trees surrounding them.

Thorne spun, his teeth bared. "Run forward. I'll keep them off your back."

Fern kicked the mare. She sprang forward, going into a dead run without urging. Her ears flattened against her head.

A vamp, its body pale, sprang from a tree. It missed the mare and fell to the ground. The shape may have been human, but the thing moved more like an animal.

Another one sprang in front of the mare, its hands upraised. The mare charged the monster and ran over it. She lashed out with her hind feet, striking the already downed creature.

Fern glanced back. Thorne tore into one of the vamps.

Something slammed into Fern, throwing her off the mare. She hit the ground and rolled.

She sprang to her feet, only to come face to face with a vamp. The monster, clad only in a loincloth, had pale skin and red eyes. Its lips curled back, exposing long fangs and a mouth too wide for a human. Instead of nails on its fingers, it had claws. Maybe at one time, this thing had been human, but now, it was a predator, a cunning animal with a taste for blood.

Fern stepped backward. She tried to keep her eyes on the vamp while she looked for some sort of weapon.

The vamp sprang at her, faster than any human. Fern threw up her arms. As the creature shoved her against the ground, she grabbed it by the throat. Its too-wide jaws snapped closed inches from her face. It clawed at her, scratching her shoulder. She tried to shove it off, but the thing's muscles seemed to be made of coiled steel.

An energy burned within Fern. She twisted and struck at the vamp with her knee, knocking it off her. She sprang to her feet and snarled at the creature. They circled each other. Fern felt her hair bristling as she stood under the light of the moon. The vamp hesitated.

Fern snarled again. She'd rip out the monster's throat and taste its blood. See how it liked that.

A shudder passed through her. This wasn't her talking, it was the wolf. She shivered and tried to shove the wild instinct down.

The vamp, sensing her hesitation, leaped.

Thorne slammed into it. He grabbed it by the throat and shook it like a rat. He spat the mauled body out and turned to Fern. "Did it bite you?"

Fern examined her arms. She had no bite marks. "Just claws," she said.

Thorne shifted to human form, wiped the vamp blood from his mouth, and walked to her. He peered at her wounds. "Just wash them. You should be fine. They're not deep enough to get infected."

Fern shivered. "It almost killed me."

"You let your guard down at the last second," Thorne said. "Why?"

"I thought I was shifting." Fern ran her hands over her arms. Were they hairier than normal?

"In a case like that, you need to free the wolf," Thorne growled. "You're no fighter. The wolf instinct knows more about fighting than you do."

Fern looked at the dead vamp, which lay in a heap with its head ripped halfway off. No way a human could survive a werewolf attack. If she turned into a werewolf near people, she'd slaughter them. "I should have stayed in the jail," she whimpered. "I'm going to be a monster."

Thorne's lips peeled back, exposing teeth too sharp for a human mouth. "Do you think I'm a monster?"

"You were born that way. It's different." Thorne was a pureblood, not one like Mitch. Purebloods had some degree of control.

"That's only an excuse," Thorne said.

"And what about them?" Fern pointed at the dead vamp. "They're not even human."

"Those things don't have souls," Thorne said. "When a vamp bites a human or elf, they give them a parasite. It kills the human mind then takes over and uses the body. Whoever inhabited those creatures before the parasite took over has already died. Becoming a werewolf doesn't change who you are. Your soul is still intact, no matter what form your body takes." Thorne looked toward where the dun mare had stopped a short distance up the road. "You'd better get the horse. We should get moving before more vamps show up."

Fern hurried to the horse, who seemed to be unconcerned about the fight. Fern grabbed a canteen and washed her wounds, a few of which were somewhat deep, but she left them exposed to the air. They'd stopped bleeding.

She climbed onto the horse and followed Thorne northward, toward Fort Roland.