“Is that why you don’t have kids?” Carol blurted out with the incivility of a fourteen-year-old. “Because you think they’ll be like your sister?”
Claude’s face heated, and his gaze intensified as he looked at Carol. “Never.I would be honored to have a child even half as beautiful as Yvette. Human or otherwise.” He stood up and dusted off his jeans. “You should go to sleep. We’ll be leaving early.”
Claude lifted his bag and turned around, his heart pounding like a drum. He did what he could to conceal his emotions from a young girl who didn’t know any better. Claude probably hadn’t told that story in a long time, if ever.
A twig snapped in the woods behind Christian. As different sounds forged together, Christian realized that something was running toward them. Just as he turned, a lion emerged from the mouth of the forest and sailed over the fire.
Carol shielded her face and screamed.
Chapter 21
Navigating the wilderness in the dark presented its own unique set of challenges unlike anything I’d experienced in the city. For one, I couldn’t flash. Cognito was lit by cars, streetlamps, and ambient light from shops and windows. In the woods of West Virginia, your only illumination was a flashlight and the moon, and Matteo had put his flashlight away after finding a steaming pile of shit.
Apparently we were close.
He swung his arm in front of me, bringing me to a grinding halt.
“If you keep doing that, I’m going to cut off your—”
“Up ahead,” he said quietly.
I squinted at the shadows in the distance. The moon had made another appearance, but it wasn’t enough for me to make out anything other than slender tree trunks and patches of darkness.
Just then, the shadowy outline of an animal moved up ahead where two hills joined. A long tail swished, the dark tip making it stand out all the more.
When another lion roared in the distance, the creature before us bounded out of sight.
Matteo and I sprinted after it.
I tripped on a thick root but gripped a tree and kept going. Matteo was four paces ahead of me, but neither of us could use our gifts to run fast. Not on this rough terrain, and not in the dark.
“He’ll outrun us!” I said, out of breath.
“I got his scent.”
I thought about pulling out my dagger and carrying it, but then I stumbled on a loose rock and decided it might be wise not to slice open an artery by accident. The straps on my backpack tugged on my shoulders, and every so often, a branch would snag it and yank me back.
Matteo clawed at the ground like an animal when he lost his footing.
I fell back a step, uncertain if he’d flipped his switch. I had better things to do than tangle with a confused Chitah in the middle of nowhere.
My leg muscles were on fire by the time we reached the top of a steep hill. The ground leveled out, and there were fewer trees. Our feet were no longer crunching on leaves but treading across wet ground cover like grass or moss. I swallowed, my throat parched and lungs burning.
The lion veered left. Matteo branched away from me and tore after it, but I headed straight.
The smell of burning firewood invaded my nose. There was also a flicker of light in the distance and the sound of another lion.
Out of breath, I stopped for a second and scanned my surroundings. The campsite was within view, but I didn’t hear any screaming, running, or fighting.
That could only mean one thing—an imminent attack.
The acrid smell of urine wafted from a nearby tree, and I kept catching a whiff of it from the soft wind that blew from the direction of the campsite. That meant we were downwind, so Claude wouldn’t be able to smell the territorial markings, let alone my panic. My boots were quiet against the mossy forest floor.
Since Matteo had gone left, I went right. Part of me wanted to scream out there was an attack, but I didn’t know if Christian was anywhere near camp. My yelling could incite the animals to strike sooner.
I scoured the woods and stalked to the right. My breath caught when I glimpsed a lion charging for the camp. His massive paws tore up the earth behind him, and he moved like a bullet shooting through the dark. With level ground, I had a chance at cutting him off, so I flashed at breakneck speed toward the camp. The firelight grew bigger and bigger, but the bodies were indistinct shapes as they blurred into view.
Please, not the kids.
