Blood Betrayal

Chapter Thirty

"Beautiful right?" Tommy spoke. He was far closer than she remembered.

Blinking into the sun her eyes began to adjust. It was cold enough to make her shiver but the coolness didn't bother her in the same way it had when she was mortal.

She was surrounded by a wide expanse of grass that started short and manicured but became unruly the farther away it rolled. To her back, the house spread out taller and much wider than she thought.

At the edge of the field was a forest. A huge towering forest that smelled of pine, moss and decaying wood. It reminded her of the time when she knew nothing but old forests and snow. Inhaling deeply she let the pine-laced air fill her lungs. A hint of the ocean made the air salty and moist despite the chill.

"Hey I got it, she looks like one of those anime dolls right?" one of them said leaning down close to her face.

Tommy's hand found hers. His larger rough hand enveloped her much smaller one and took a firm hold of her. It forced a familiarity on to her that they did not have nor did she want.

"Oh, she looks like some kind of doll all right." He picked her hand up high making her stretch out.

She wanted to pull away but she wasn't sure that she could without his fighting it. She was weak. She had to judge situations like that carefully. It was best if they didn't know about her shortcomings. If she struggled it would become apparent all too quickly. In situations like that, it was prudent to play along, to use his attraction to get close enough to use her teeth.

While she was still struggling with the consequences of taking her hand back or letting him touch her he pulled at her forcing her to walk with him. With his hand around hers, he took her along the side of the house. The forest was coming closer, the sun growing weaker.

Her eyes settled on the base of one tree the size of a small mountain. Moss clung to its bark carpeting its roughness blurring the edges making it appear soft. In the blur, there was something twinkling and spectral.

"Wisp," she breathed.

She could get home if she could catch that little sprite's attention. Tearing her hand away she stepped toward the shimmer. At that moment the ramifications of seeing the ghost fire hit her. If Dax had come through the boundaries he would have left it there so that he could return. Of course, he would be looking for her and find Zion in the bed she was supposed to be in. He would find Zion smelling of her. Poor boy would be woken up by Dax's wrath and without her there to reign him in that could get ugly.

What if it was not Dax that had used the ghost light to travel there? It may have been someone else. Someone that was there for her. Someone that wanted her dead or worse. Even if she managed to use that wisp it would only bring her home to a place that she couldn't stay. Not while there were people there that wanted to hurt her.

Any way she looked at it that light wasn't the saviour she first thought it was. Reluctantly she turned away from the small blinking light.

"Come on girly, don't you want to see the other side? It has a Jacuzzi," the boy told her adding a wink.

The blonde boy twitched. "I think we need to go back inside."

"Yeah let's go back, she doesn't want to see the Jacuzzi man," the short heavily muscled one that smelled of wolf added as he ran a nervous hand over his near shaved head.

In answer, Tommy curled his arm around her waist and pulled her so that she tucked in against his side.

"Maybe she just doesn't know how relaxing a good soak can be. She looks like she needs some relaxing."