There, in the shadows, was our driver. But he wasn’t alone.
A man had him gripped firmly by the collar, the assailant’s hands stained crimson as they held the driver steady. My breath caught in my throat when I saw the horror unfolding before us. The stranger’s head was bent low, his mouth at the driver’s neck, movements savage and primal as blood soaked the front of the poor fellow’s clothes.
“Christ…” Thorne’s whisper barely reached me, but I felt it resonate deep within my bones.
Fear, thick and visceral, coiled in my gut as the realization dawned on us both. This wasn’t some highwayman’s attack. This was something darker, far more sinister.
In that moment, the world as I knew it—the world as we all knew it—shattered. The boundaries between myth and reality blurred, leaving us stranded in a nightmare that clawed its way into our very souls.
“Shit, run!” My voice sounded strange to my ears, hoarse with a fear I’d never known. I grabbed Thorne’s forearm roughly in my urgency and pivoted on my heel. We needed to get the women away, to find safety, but as we turned…
Alice stood there, holding Clara the way the stranger held the coachmen. Her delicate features were twisted into something monstrous, something utterly alien to the girl who had been giggling in my lap not moments ago. The sound of wet, tearing flesh filled the air as Alice languidly lifted her head, a sickening smirk on her blood-stained lips. She let Clara’s limp body slump onto the gravel road with an indifference that chilled me to the bone. Dead. Clara was dead.
“Ah, Nox, Thorne,” she crooned, her voice a depraved serenade that danced mockingly around us. “You both really made this too easy, but at least you’re handsome.” Her grin was a crooked mask of delight. Her teeth weren’t as they had been. Aside from being covered in a woman’s blood, they’d become unnaturally sharp.
Like some kind of demon sprung from hell, she pounced.
Her hiss sent shivers down my spine, and for a fleeting moment, I saw the black veins webbing outward beneath her eyes.
What the fuck was happening? Vampires couldn’t be real. They were nothing more than tales spun to frighten children into obedience or to entertain drunken adults at parlors. Yet there she was, a creature of nightmares, challenging every notion of reality I’d ever possessed.
“Run!” I shouted again, more desperately this time, pushing Thorne ahead of me.
We took off, our boots pounding erratically against the gravel road as our breaths came out in short, sharp gasps. I cast a glance over my shoulder, expecting to see Alice on our heels. But she was toying with us, taking pleasure in the hunt, nowhere to be seen.
“Keep going!” I urged Thorne, although he needed no encouragement. His normally composed demeanor had been shattered by all the chaos.
We burst into the woods, branches snagging at our clothes, tearing at our skin as we stumbled through the underbrush. The darkness was all-consuming, a suffocating blanket that seemed to swallow light and hope with equal voracity. But still, we ran and ran and ran.
Finally, our pace slowed, more from exhaustion than choice. We leaned heavily against the rough bark of a tree, our chests rose and fell as we heaved breath into our lungs.
“Nox,” he panted, his voice barely audible over the hammering of my own heart. “You always pick the fucking crazy ones…”
I tried to chuckle, but it was a hollow sound, void of any real humor.
“Right, because you’ve never been swayed by a pretty face,” I shot back, trying to match his levity. It was a desperate attempt to cling to normalcy, to pretend for just a second that this was nothing more than another one of our escapades gone wrong.
Silence fell upon the woods, as if the world itself held its breath.
“I think… I think we lost them,” I managed between strained gasps. And for one foolish, hopeful moment, I thought we’d left those horrors behind.
But before the relief could fully take hold, she was there.
Alice appeared as if conjured from the very shadows we sought refuge in. In a movement too swift to follow, she reached for Thorne, her pale fingers entwined in his hair, yanking his head back with a violence that stole my breath all over again.
Her teeth—those sharp, monstrous things—sank into his throat. Thorne’s eyes met mine, wide with shock and pain.
“Thorne!” The word was torn from my lips. A plea, a curse, a denial all at once. Her eyes locked onto mine, bloodthirsty and gleaming with feral delight. There was no humanity left in that gaze, only cold hunger.
I knew nothing about how to kill a vampire; the only thing I had ever heard was a stake through the heart.
Wood. I needed wood.
I spotted a hefty branch from a fallen tree and rushed toward it, ripping it off and giving one end a sharp point.
Without hesitation, I lunged at Alice, driving the makeshift spear into her back and piercing her heart. She let out a gasp, releasing Thorne as she collapsed to the ground, motionless.
Frantically, I reached for Thorne, dragging him away from Alice’s lifeless body, fearing she might not truly be dead. “Thorne, Thorne!” I cried, trying to stem the bleeding from his neck as blood spilled relentlessly through my fingers. Thorne only gasped for breath as blood gurgled in his throat.
