Stupid, stupid. She shook her head and backed away from the clearing, her eyes darting nervously about. Someone or something had led her there, and she had followed blindly. She was such a moron, so arrogant and sure nothing could cross the line that she hadn’t considered being manipulated into stepping outside her own protective boundaries. She’d been so focused on trying to protect her home that she hadn’t thought to protect her own mind.
A sudden growling behind her kicked her already frantic heartbeat up another notch. She spun around and caught a glimpse of red eyes through the trees. The growl came again, and Olivia ran. She darted back into the woods, running as though her life depended on it. It was close, snapping at her heels as she was once again enveloped by the fog. Whatever the hell chased her, it sounded huge, and its growl was deep and somehow wetter than it should be.
It was too close, and it had her scent. There was only one way to lose it. Praying she was right about where she was, she veered off and plunged through the trees toward the shore of the lake.
She burst through the edge of the woods and realized a second too late she’d miscalculated. Stumbling at the edge of a sharp embankment she lost her footing. Her ankle twisted sharply, leg collapsing beneath her as she lost her balance and plunged down a steep incline. Her head cracked sharply against a protruding rock, and her limp body tumbled into the freezing water of the lake.
Theo shot up in bed drenched in sweat, damp sheets twined around his body like vines. Breathing heavily, he glanced over at the clock, which showed 2:47 a.m. in blinking red numbers. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he fumbled for his phone. He retrieved it from the pocket of his discarded jeans and scrolled through the menus the way Olivia had shown him. Praying that he remembered how to use it correctly, he found her number and hit connect.
It rang and rang.
His jaw tensed painfully as it went to voicemail. He tried again, and again she didn’t answer. He knew something was wrong, deep in his gut, and he cursed himself for leaving her in the first place. Dragging his jeans on he dressed quickly. He’d had a bad feeling as he left her house earlier that evening, and it had only gotten worse as the hours had passed. Dread churned deep in his gut. He pulled his boots on and yanked a sweater over his head before trying her phone again.
With a growl of impatience, he shot into the hallway and then into Jake’s room, hurrying over to the bed to shake him awake.
“Whattimezit?” Jake mumbled as he rolled over and looked up through half-open eyes.
“Jake, Olivia’s in trouble.”
“What?” Jake’s eyes cleared. He sat up and kicked the covers off.
“We have to go, now!” Theo hovered impatiently as Jake grabbed his clothes off the floor and yanked them on.
“What happened?” Jake hurriedly retrieved his weapon, checked it was fully loaded, and tucked it into the back of his jeans.
“I don’t know,” Theo snapped. “She’s in the woods, and something is chasing her.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t just a dream?”
“I’m certain,” he replied agitatedly. “I’ve been trying to call her, but she’s not picking up.”
They rushed from the apartment and into Jake’s car. Tearing down the deserted road, Jake broke every speed limit between his apartment and the lake house. Theo, unable to sit still, kept trying to call her, growling in frustration when there was no answer.
When they finally pulled up outside Olivia’s house, Theo was out of the car before Jake had even put the parking brake on. Throwing open the door, Jake climbed out and headed up the front steps of her porch. Even in the dead of night, and from a distance, he could see the front door stood wide open, and the house was in complete darkness. Drawing his weapon, Jake edged cautiously up the steps.
Theo glanced briefly at Jake, but he barely paid attention. He knew she wasn’t in the house. His gaze, instead, scanned the tree line at the edge of the woods where thick, smog spilled out between the tree trunks like ghostly tentacles. Not waiting for Jake, he took off across the open grass toward the woods, calling out Olivia’s name in desperation and praying to God they weren’t too late.
Olivia breached the surface of the water, coughing as she dragged in a deep lungful of air. Her body began to shake, the water was freezing, and it was becoming harder to control her limbs. They felt as if they were made of lead. She knew she didn’t have long. She couldn’t stay in the water; at this temperature, she only had minutes before hypothermia set in. She fought her way back toward the bank with none of her usual finesse. She had been the star of the swim team in high school and college, but her body temperature was too low, she was exhausted and hurt, and the thing that was chasing her still prowled the banks somewhere.
The jagged roots of a tree hung over the bank, and she grasped on with numb fingers, unable to feel anything as the bark dug into her already torn palms. Resting her throbbing head against her hands, she held on. She was so tired, barely able to feel her body, and all she wanted to do was close her eyes.
Knowing she had to keep moving, she fought the drowsiness, forcing herself to lift her head and reach for the bank. It was like trying to swim through clay as she clawed her way toward solid ground. Taking a chance and letting go of the roots, she made a grab for the bank and dug in.
Hauling her battered body out of the icy water was the hardest thing she’d ever had to do. Her nails dug into the soil as she dragged her body slowly and painfully up the bank, back toward the woods. She pushed herself shakily to her hands and knees, but as she took a breath and tried to stand, she collapsed in a heap. Her ankle wouldn’t take her weight, and her body felt too numb and heavy. Instead, she dragged herself along the ground inch by painful inch toward the nearest tree.
She rolled over, and her breath expelled from her lips as a fine mist. She could barely feel anything now. Her eyes drifted closed, leaving her unaware of the sentient-like fog draping itself over her body in the grotesque parody of a lover’s caress. She vaguely thought she heard someone in the distance calling her name, but then the darkness claimed her.
“Olivia!” Theo shouted again and again. Panic gripped him by the throat now. He could barely see a foot in front of him. He was aware Jake had followed him into the woods and was behind him somewhere, but he couldn’t see him either.
He stumbled blindly onward. She was here somewhere; he could feel her. Stopping for a moment, he strained to hear a sound, any sound, that might give away her location, but there was nothing but an eerie silence shrouded by thick fog.
Suddenly, out the corner of his eye, he caught a flutter of light, but as he turned toward it, it disappeared into the mist. It came again, a faint red glow hovering in the air, before a roll of fog covered it once again. He quickened his pace but the next time the mist parted he realized the strange light was moving toward him. Skidding to a halt he watched as it buzzed back and forth through the fog, dancing on the air. Suddenly, it shot toward him, pausing barely two feet in front of him. He sucked in a sharp breath at the wonder before him.
A huge dragonfly entirely composed of flames, it’s delicate wings blurred with sparks of gold and flecks of red, hovered in the air.
He couldn’t say how he knew with such certainty but something deep down inside him told him that this was Olivia’s magic, and it was reaching out to him.
“Take me to her,” he whispered urgently.
