I nodded in agreement. “No, it’s not funny, but I’m laughing because I’ve been jealous of you.”
Hazel scoffed. “I know you’re probably trying to make me feel better, but this laughing doesn’t make me feel better. It really makes me want to hit you.”
I tried to pull myself together. “I’m not lying. You’ve gotten along so well with the others here. You’ve seemed to find a place that you feel you belong. You’ve been happier. I’m clearly not basing that off of tonight.”
Hazel chuckled softly, showing a smile that I hadn’t seen all day.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. But, I didn’t tell anyone.” I rubbed my hands together. “I really didn’t think it was possible. I hope you believe that.”
She slowly nodded. “I do. As angry as I am, I’m happy you got it.”
Just then, the woman stirred, her arm slowly pulled up to her face where she blinked. “Where am I?” Her voice came out broken and shallow.
“You’re in a healing center,” Hazel said as she walked closer to the woman. “Don’t move too much. You had a pretty deep gash on your leg, and your head had a huge bump on it, so I’m pretty sure you have a concussion.”
The woman looked between us, her eyes wide. I could see the fear in her eyes, and I wondered what had happened. What happened out there? What attacked her? Had she run?
“What’s your name?” Hazel asked, taking a seat next to her now. She took the woman’s hand, squeezing it.
“Lucia,” the woman whispered. She looked between us, trying to find her words. “It all happened so fast.” Tears filled her eyes, and she quickly wiped them away. “How did I get here? I don’t remember getting here. I was running.”
“We found you in the woods,” I explained. “We heard a scream and followed it. By the time we got to you, you were out of it. Do you remember what happened? Why you were screaming?”
She started to cry now, and Hazel reached for some tissues for her. She rested her hand on her shoulder, offering her a soft smile. “You’re safe here. Whatever happened isn’t going to get you here.”
My stomach dipped thinking about Brandon’s warning. If we didn’t figure out what happened, they could send her away. I couldn’t imagine this broken woman doing anything to hurt us.
“It was just another day,” she said softly, her voice cracking. “I was going outside for a walk with my friend. We were a small traveling pack that was heading toward the mountains. We’ve been traveling together for months and have never had any problems. My friend and I were just a few trees away from the base. We were laughing.”
Her eyes were glossy. “And it all happened so fast. We were laughing when the screaming started. It was like a horror movie, one after another, they started to scream. We turned back and only went a few feet before we saw them. There were these creatures. They looked horrendous! I’d never seen them before.”
Her eyes were wide as she spoke, and she looked at both of us. “They will come here. They will leave destruction. You have to warn everyone.”
“They are vampire shifters, or hybrids. They won’t come here. We have a secure town. Any that come are quickly hunted. We know about them.”
She slowly nodded, her gaze dropping. “We ran, or we tried to. We didn’t get far. My friend and I got ahead. We were going to shift and keep going, but we didn’t have a second to do so. We were running when it caught up to us. It took her out.” She reached for a tissue that Hazel offered. “It killed her. I listened to her scream, and there was nothing I could do. So, I ran.”
She looked at me, her hands shaking. “I can still hear them all screaming. And I left them. I left them to die alone.”
“You survived,” Hazel said, reaching for her hand. “You survived. You did what you had to do. If you had tried to help, you would have only died with them.”
I offered her a smile, feeling tears of my own. We had been in her shoes, and I remember how empty I felt when wesurvived. “We understand. We came here ourselves not too long ago. It’s a hard pill to swallow.”
There was a soft knock on her door, and I turned to see it was Westley. He must have finished his surveillance around the woods. He offered me a tight smile, his eyes looking over toward Lucia. He showed no emotion, so I had no idea what he was thinking.
“I’ll be back in a second.” I pulled myself up and slipped into the hallway. Westley looked at Hazel and then at Lucia for a moment before looking back at me. “I see she’s awake.”
I nodded. “She just woke up. She was telling us about what happened out there. She said that her pack was attacked and she ran for it.”
Westley frowned, giving a nod. “That tracks with what I found.”
My eyebrows went up. Had he found the base? I imagined he possibly had. “What did you find?”
“A fire and some tents. I’m guessing a base… and bodies. There was blood everywhere. It smelled off. There were tracks leading to where I found her.”
“So her story is true then.” I was practically bouncing on my heels at this news. I shouldn’t, because it was horrible, but that meant Lucia was just an innocent woman.
He nodded. “Sounds like it.”
