*Ainslee*I’m in front of Lucia, and she slams into the back of me when I stop. “Ouch.”“Sorry,” I mutter, not even feeling the pang from her head contacting my shoulder blade. My eyes are fixed on the shrouded form in the distance.Travis wasn’t kidding. This building looks like the place where nightmares are born. A small structure, it juts out of the ground, none of the walls forming what could be considered expected angles. The roof is caved in on one side, and the spire seems to be reaching up like a hand begging for mercy.A single beam of light reflects off that spire, giving the entire building an eerie gray cast to it. Vines cling to the siding, covering the broken out window frames as the forest attempts to reclaim its territory. On the right, one leafless tree protrudes from the ground, its branches crooked and fingerlike as it attempts to warn people off from entering.“This is it?” Lucia asks, the terror in her voice making it shake.“Yup.”“Goddess. I might rather spend
*Ainslee*Every hair on my body stands on end, a sheen of sweat forming on my otherwise freezing skin. My head swivels in the direction the voice has come from, but I can’t see anything at all, only darkness.Did I imagine it? Perhaps my fear of being caught by one of the vampires is messing with my mind.No, I definitely hadn’t imagined the voice that had greeted me as I’d slid into this confined space. “Who’s there?” I whisper into the void my mind has me convinced must be empty. The idea that we are in a small carved out space beneath the church where just about anything could be hiding, including all sorts of creatures, even the dreaded faepires, has me recoiling, trying to put some distance between myself and the inky blackness where what might even be a disembodied voice originated.My fingers tremble at my side as I consider reaching over to feel through the darkness, but I don’t dare move. I can’t, even if I want to. That panicked paralysis that had held us all at the starting
*Ainslee*Above us, at the far end of the structure, I hear the door open. It’s not quietly nudged the way I had pushed it out of the way when I came in. No, this is a sudden fling that has what’s left of the door creaking on its hinges before it slams into the wall. I gasp, sucking in air, holding it tight. I have no idea where the crypt is, though I imagine it’s closer to this part of the church. Our temples back home, ones no one really frequents anymore since the Moon Goddess clearly quit listening, are situated at the front of the church and down a little stairwell. Maybe that’s where my friends are hiding.In my head, I hear Nelson’s voice. He’s trying to sound calm, but he’s on the edge of panic. “No one freak out. They’re probably just going to do a sweep and then leave.”My breath is shallow but it seems so loud that every exhale must be like a siren going off in the vampire’s mind.If it’s only one. What if it’s an entire clan of them?Next to me, I feel a slight movement be
*Rafe*Reports come in from all over the forest. I keep my eyes closed and listen to the telepathic voices in my head, collecting all of the data, all of the numbers.But the number of captured wolf shifters are not just random digits written down on a piece of paper. For every person that we round up, a family is torn apart.“One of them got out before we even fucking released the guards,” Kris told me about two hours ago when the shifters’ time was up. “He ran straight east.”I’d snickered. I knew that wolf shifters always said that was a bad strategy, but it had worked for this guy.As the night wears on, more of the wolf shifters slip out of the forest than have ever done so before, but it’s still not enough. Many, many more are captured. I can hear their screams in the distance and know that they’re not injured; they are devastated. They’re picturing their mothers and fathers, maybe their mates. Some of these people are old enough to have children. None of the villages have rules
*Ainslee*I stir at the sound of a voice I feel I should recognize but can’t quite place. I blink a few times, confusion washing over me. If my eyes are open, why can’t I see?It all comes back to me as John says my name again. “Ainslee?”It’s not as much a whisper this time, and once again, the sound of his voice sounds familiar. It’s then I realize he’s not just right next to me anymore. At some point, I have shifted over into his area of the floor, and my head rests on his shoulder. It’s a bit harder than I would’ve expected, and I am embarrassed as I scoot away. “Sorry,” I mumble, hoping he doesn’t mind. But then reality comes back to me, and I realize I have more important things to worry about than whether or not I have offended the man stuck in the floor of a creepy, rundown temple with me. “Did they blow the all clear?” I don’t remember hearing the sound of the trumpets Kris had mentioned the night before, and I think I would’ve heard it even when I was asleep, but maybe not.
*Rafe*“It’s just a bunch of bullshit!” Kris shouts at me. I take him a few steps further away from the chapel and into the forest, watching Ainslee say goodbye to her friends out of the corner of my eye. It’s best if she and I don’t have another encounter for a while, so I’m fine if she doesn’t know where I’m at. I don’t need two people shouting at me.“Lower your voice, Kris.” It’s a command, one he is compelled to follow.“Those assholes were hiding in the chapel all fucking night, and Zeke knew about it. He steered me out of there on purpose so they could get away. That’s fucking bullshit, and I’m taking them back to the castle!” He is so angry his face is turning red, quite the feat for a vampire.“Zeke was acting on my orders,” I clarify, digging my fingertips into my hip to remind myself to stay calm. “You’re not doing anything, Kris. Those shifters are free to go back to their packs.”“I would’ve found all of them. I could smell them.”“I understand that, Kris, but that’s not
*Ainslee*“Why didn’t he just reveal himself to me in the middle of the night?” I ask Zeke as I sit in front of him on his horse. His arms are around me, but only so he can reach the reins. It’s a little uncomfortable, but we are getting to be decent friends, I suppose, so it doesn’t bother me too much.“He couldn’t tell you without striking panic in your friends who would’ve flown out of the crypt and ended up captured by the likes of Kris,” he tells me. I can tell by the way he’s talking he doesn’t want to be the one who explains this to me and answers all my questions. He keeps sighing, urging the horse to go faster. I don’t know why I’m not on the same transport vehicles as the other feeders. That is what I am now, after all. But I have decided not to ask that question when there are so many others I need answers to.“Why even hide in the first place? He could’ve just grabbed me in the woods.” None of it makes sense to me. None of it.And nothing Zeke says helps either. “He had hi
*Ainslee*“Whose room is this, Zeke?” I ask again, waiting for the burly vampire to respond to me.He lets out a loud sigh and strolls into the room. Reluctantly, I follow, afraid this is some sort of a ploy. Why has it not occurred to me at all since I left home that these vampires might use feeders for more than just their blood? Or maybe they get their jollies from sucking our blood and don’t need to do other things to us.“Look around, Ainslee.” He spreads his long arms out in the middle of the room near the four-poster bed and doesn’t come close to touching anything because the room is so large.I step inside and look things over. The bedspread is a light green color, and it looks so soft, I long to touch it. The bed is huge—big enough for my whole family to sleep in without anyone kicking anyone else. I’m not sure what that would feel like. It’s been so long since I slept in a bed alone, I don’t remember it.There’s a large armoire in the same rich cherry wood, as well as a dres