Page 20 of The Hidden Falling
Just that small hum of power somewhere in the distance.
I wake at the sound of shuffling, and my eyes snap open. Looking around the camp, I see no one moving, not so much as a twitch. My eyes slide to Damian who is on the last watch. He gives me a confused look at my sudden movement, then straightens when he sees me tilt my head, knowing I’m trying to pinpoint where a sound came from. It’s soft, barely there, but I hear it.
A scrape of dried dirt. A slight snapping of branches.
I get to my feet slowly, my blade already in hand as I edge toward the right side of the camp. Damian slowly follows, his steps quiet behind me, knowing I need to concentrate. Stopping as I reach the protection crystals, my brows knit together as the sound comes and goes. I look over at Damian and nod my head in the direction of the others, a silent command to wake them. He rushes off quietly, and I look back through the trees, my eyes narrowing. Nothing is moving, but the air feels thick and heavy, yet somehow warm as I grip my blade tighter in my hand.
I let my senses flow free and feelsomethingup ahead in front of me. I sense the rest of the Elites getting to their feet, alert and wary at being woken up suddenly. I glance over my shoulder at Max and Rilo, the two injured trainees who are still in their wolf forms. Their ears perk to listen, but they are still a little sluggish on their feet. My eyes land on Zaide next, his curved, twin blades in hand as he focuses past me while remaining in a defensive position in front of the others. Leo notches an arrow to his longbow, aiming just past my left shoulder, covering me while my eyes are elsewhere. Jerrod takes the back, his body at an angle so he can see us all and holds his twin blade axe in his grip.
My eyes roam over the trees before narrowing at a spot in front of me, feeling eyes on us. On me. I shift my feet slightly apart and straighten my back to prepare for whatever is coming.
The air is tense. The dark of the forest is suffocating while we wait for the creature to show itself. And when it does, I will rip its spine out and hang it in the trees as a warning for any others that try to attack us.
The shuffling sound comes again, but it’s closer this time, and I let out a deep warning growl as my lips peel back, my face twisted into a snarl as my wolf nears the surface. A choked, wet gurgle suddenly comes from behind us, and my head snaps its way as it grabs my attention. Near the dark pool of water, a woman has her serrated teeth in the neck of one of my men, its eyes rolling in pleasure as it sinks its teeth deeper into its prey. Weston’s eyes lock with mine, terror and pain filling them. I can do nothing but watch as she rips out his flesh, blood spraying the ground as she consumes it. He wouldn’t have survived a bite like that, no matter what I did. He was dead the moment she clamped her teeth into him.
My body tenses as his body goes limp, eyes dimming, but she doesn’t relent, making sure no one can take her meal away from her. Snarling in rage, I turn toward the creature, furious that she even got in our protection circle. The Elites back away from the pool of water, never taking their eyes off her, knowing this predator just became our prey.
Leo’s blue eyes flick to hers briefly before he returns his attention to the disturbance at my back, covering me. I don’t know what type of creature she is, but she chose her own death by killing one of my Elites and having the nerve to come into our camp.
Her sunken, dark eyes hold mine, still chewing the flesh of my male as I stalk toward her. She shuffles back into the pool, the water coming up to her ankles, and I dart forward, grabbing her jaw and squeeze tightly. She lets go of Weston, his body falling in a heap at our feet as she scratches at my arm. A pained sound leaves her, but I pay it no mind, looking into her eyes and letting her see what she has awoken inside.
She stills with what she sees. Her arms fall limply to her side, and her eyes are full of terror. I bring my blade up slowly and put it to the center of her forehead, keeping a tight grip on her jaw so she stays still. Pushing the blade slowly into her pale, wrinkled skin, I let her feel the burn of pain as I sink it to her skull. She’s shrieking now, fighting me with renewed effort, but it doesn’t matter.
Her life was forfeit the second she came into my camp. Her end will be painful for killing one of mine.
My grip tightens on the blade, and I twist, relishing in her high pitch squealing before I force it forward to the hilt.
Then she’s silent, just like everyone else.
Eleven
Rhea
Wecrouchbehindthedead trees, using strips of cloth to plug the glowing fluid leaking from them. We make sure to keep the luicium off of us as we do so to remain in complete darkness, using the shadows to our advantage as we watch the Elites sleep in their temporary camp at a distance. A brown-haired male keeps watch, scanning the trees surrounding them, but not noticing we are here.
After days and days of searching, I thought we’d lucked out and they had either left or were headed in the wrong direction. But when Taylor scouted ahead of us to check if it was safe to rest for the night, he came back and told us that he had found them. We packed our things up quickly and stalked through the trees toward them, silent as the air in the forest and set up to observe them, trying to find any weaknesses.
I shuffle on my knees somewhat, trying to ease the ache there when I see a dark-haired male suddenly snap his eyes open. I freeze mid move, my heart pounding with my knee slightly lifted off the hardened ground. He then tilts his head and gets to his feet in a silent, fluid motion, and my eyes track every move. That shouldn’t have been possible for a man his size, but he did it with the ease of an experienced warrior. He’s tall, probably taller than any other male I have come across, and he keeps getting taller as he heads closer toward us. I feel the others tense around me at his movements, none of us moving a muscle as we watch him. He’s in all black, his t-shirt seemingly attached to his body like a second skin, outlining his muscular figure and defined muscles. Tattoos peek from the collar, gliding up his neck a little, and I look over them curiously before I glance at the ones slithering down his arms and stopping at the crease of his elbows.
As I gently lower my knee back down on the ground, my thigh burning from the effort, I stop breathing as I feel his eyes land directly in our direction. His weighted gaze is heavy as it seems to stay on me. I drag my eyes down from his arms hesitantly and look at the dark blade in his hand, slightly curved and wicked. I absentmindedly lick my dry lips. He bends his knees a little, and my eyes fly back up to his face, unable to resist any longer. The pounding of my pulse increases as I realize he knows something is here, watching them.
My limbs become frozen when I see fury in his gaze. It feels like he’s crawling inside me, like I’m some sort of prey about to be slaughtered by the predator before us. Runa growls at my thoughts and gives me a harsh nudge under my skin. She doesn’t like us being thought of as prey. We are far more than that.
My lungs expand before I let out a long breath, shaking off the feeling and moving my eyes to the male beside him. It’s the same male who was on watch. He’s slightly smaller than the dark-haired male, but he’s also looking in our direction, features tight as he scans the shadows. He suddenly wanders off to the center of the camp, waking the rest of the sleeping bodies. Quickly after, a blond male is aiming an arrow our way, eyes hard and clear. Another male with twin blades stands, getting into an offensive position in the center, ready to face the threat head on, while a huge guy with an axe moves further back.
The tall male, who is still staring at me, releases a low, threatening growl, causing the small hairs on my body to stand to attention. My body warms, and tingles spread across my arm at the sound, my heart missing a beat before starting up once again. My brows furrow at my reaction to the deep and violent sound while Runa perks her head up inside of me, ears forward as she listens. Another sound suddenly reaches my ears, and the warmth that held my body turns ice cold. The dark-haired male turns to look behind him, and I lean to the right, hands gripping the dead bark of the tree to hold me as I follow his gaze. I nearly gasp out loud at the sight.
A pale, ghastly figure of a woman has her teeth sunk into someone’s neck, blood dripping down the man’s front as she digs her teeth in harder. A fucking water hag. Shit. I exchange a quick, worried glance with Josh, who’s hiding behind the tree next to me, before looking back to the creature. The water hag suddenly tears her teeth away from the man, and I swallow a couple of times. Seeing the lumpy, bloodied flesh hanging from her mouth is not something I enjoy. My vision starts to blur at the sight, my heart kicking up a notch while my breaths start to come out in small, fast pants.
“Rhea, you’re being too loud!”Josh calls out down the link, but my head is hazy, like I’m listening underwater.
I close my eyes and will myself to calm down, to stave off the dizziness that I’m feeling. It’s not like I haven’t seen something like this before. I have seen dead bodies and gruesome injuries. But seeing it so suddenly combined with the look on the man’s face as she tore at his neck, was enough to set off a reaction I can’t control. His look of pure, unadulterated terror, knowing he has no chance at surviving an injury like that. It’s hard to witness.
A soft, cloud-like touch presses down on the top of my head, the feeling causing me to grimace at the painful stabs to my scalp. Barely there fingers soothe the pain and then trace along my forehead, down to my cheek, and the dizziness starts to fade away. The ghost-like caress feels wrong but welcoming at the same time as my breathing evens out.
A hand touches my shoulder, and I jolt. My eyes spring open and my mind clears as I look into Josh’s worried, gray eyes as he crouches next to me.“I’ve been trying to get through to you. You shut down the link,”he tells me anxiously, squeezing my shoulder lightly.
I shut down the link? I didn’t even feel it.
