Page 86 of Escaping Rejection

Tate burst from the cover and came running. I frowned. Something was wrong. The shadows behind him were moving, and there was a flash of silver. Was it my imagination? Maybe the storm was playing tricks on my vision. I wiped the rain from my face and peered harder into the distance.

Wyatt gasped. “Tate!” he shrieked. “Run! Run, dammit!” I couldn’t remember the last time he’d sounded so scared.

Something out of a nightmare emerged from the forest. The hood of its filthy black cloak hid its head, but even through the storm, I could see the malevolent red eyes. A revenant. My heart stuttered. I never thought I’d see one in real life.

All of us shouted for him to run. Tate looked confused as he jogged toward us. Could he not hear us? Fear ate at my guts. The thing in the forest swept forward, almost floating above the ground. Even as I watched, it hefted a massive silver scythe, the blade at least three feet long.

“Tate!” His name exploded from my throat.

The revenant swung down hard. The silver blade caught Tate between the neck and shoulder, cleaving him in half diagonally. The shock on Tate’s face faded to the blank stare of death as his top half tumbled forward and smashed into the sodden ground. His lower half stayed upright for a moment, spewing blood and gore, then slumped on top of the rest of his body.

Chelsey screamed, covering her eyes with her free hand.

The revenant looked down at Tate’s corpse. Behind it, an animalistic scream erupted, and the creature swept back into the jungle to hunt whatever had caused it. I stared at the pile of limbs and blood. Tate had wanted me dead, had been plotting to get rid of me. His death should have filled me with cathartic happiness, but all I felt was bone-chilling horror.

Of all the deaths on the island, this was the first I’d seen with my own eyes. I’d promised myself I would get everyone out alive, and I’d failed. Tate’s desire to do me in had been fueled by this stupid fucking show. Who was to say if our roles had been reversed, I wouldn’t have done the same thing? He was a victim of circumstance, one more mark on the tally. Another coin added to the debt the showrunners owed us. And by gods, I would make them pay that debt in blood if I could.

“Come on,” Wyatt said. “There’s nothing we can do. If that thing is trying to stake its claim on the mansion, it won’t stop until all living creatures are dead, including us. We’re lucky something distracted it. We need to hurry.”

Without another word, we moved toward the tree line opposite where the revenant had gone. Wyatt stayed close to us. Chelsey held her gun out, ready for anything to attack us. A vicious, victorious roar came from the mansion. Something had won a fight. More strange noises erupted from the jungle as we entered.

A new fear gripped me. We were in the wilderness, in the dark, during a storm, and with no idea where to go. I couldn’t shake the thought that we’d traded one danger for a worse one. At any moment, something could come rushing at us from the darkness. With two of our party injured, we would not fare well. The only good thing was that the dense jungle dampened the cacophony of the storm and provided meager shelter from most of the rain and wind.

“Man,” J.D. groaned. “This is so not cool. I just learned I may have a real fated mate out there, but I’m about to get eaten by the gods only know what. That, or get blown out to sea by this stupid storm.”

That low mood spread to the others. Abel looked miserable, and it wasn’t from his pain; there was a hopelessness to his face that I didn’t like. Chelsey was biting her lower lip hard enough to draw blood, fighting back tears of despair. I wanted to tell her and the others to keep their heads up and stay focused on surviving, but I kept my mouth shut. They didn’t have the training Wyatt and I had. These were normal people who’d never dealt with ferals or mad vampires until coming here. Wyatt and I were battle-hardened Tranquility operatives. How could I possibly ask them to stay strong?

“Abel, can you walk? Are you healing?” I asked.

He put pressure on his foot, then winced but nodded. “Yeah. I think so. It wasn’t a bad break, and it’s already getting better.”

“Okay, Chelsey, you keep helping him walk. I’m going to take point with Wyatt.”

“What’s the play?” Wyatt asked when I joined him.

I looked up, the sheets of rain pouring through the canopy into my face, then turned to him. “Shelter until this storm passes. Until this is over, we’ll end up walking in circles. Once it’s clear, we can search for Haven.”

“Sounds good to me,” Wyatt said. “Let’s go, everyone.”

“We are so dead, aren’t we?” J.D. asked.

I put a hand on his shoulder. “There’s one good thing about this. With the mansion overrun and the storm, most creatures will either be ransacking the house or hiding for shelter. They won’t be out looking for food.”

Hope glimmered faintly in J.D.’s eyes. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. We’re lucky. Well, as lucky as we can be right now,” I added. “Let’s go.”

What I’d said was probably a lie. There was every possibility that awful things were still on the prowl out here. But hope was a powerful motivator, and I’d be damned if I would take that away from them.

Chapter22

Wyatt

The storm raged around us, picking up strength as we trudged through the jungle. Even the canopy overhead wasn’t doing much to keep the rain off us anymore. Between the wind, the trees, and the water slamming into us, I could barely see more than ten feet in front of me. None of my other enhanced senses were any good, either. We were walking blind.

I grabbed Kira, putting my face close to her ear. “We need to find cover soon! Have you seen anything? A cave or something?”

She shook her head, rivulets of rain streaming down her cheeks and chin. “Not yet, but you’re right—we have to find a spot to hole up. J.D. and Abel need time to heal. They aren’t in a good way.”

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