Her fangs throbbed too as hunger burned her veins. When was the last time she fed? Lowering her head into her hands, she rubbed at her temples until she remembered it was two days ago.
That wasn’t much time to go between feedings, but after the events of yesterday, and with her body trying to heal itself, she required more sustenance. If she’d been able to hunt an animal to feed, her ankle would have healed by now, but she couldn’t leave the tree until her ankle healed.
Untying her belt from the tree, she freed herself before leaning over to peer into the shadows below. She’d managed to stay awake until daybreak, but she lost the battle when the Savages who couldn’t tolerate sun retreated into the bowels of the earth where they belonged.
Now it was her and the birds flitting through the branches while they sang their songs. When a blue jay landed a few feet away, its head turned to the side as it studied her from blackened eyes. With a loud caw, it spread its wings and flew away.
Willow had the insane urge to snatch it back and make it stay with her. The bird wasn’t exactly the best company, but it was better than nothing.
Wiggling the toes of her bad foot, she winced when it felt like knives jabbed her from her big toe to her hip. She could probably limp on it if she climbed down. The limp would make catching her dinner more difficult, but if she could get some blood, she’d heal within the next hour or two.
However, there were probably still some Savages who could tolerate small doses of the sun’s rays out there. If she got down and ran into them before she healed, she didn’t know if she could fight them off.
Tipping her head back, she stared through the needles shading her to the pristine, blue sky. The color reminded her of her brother Ian’s eyes. She ignored the twinge of longing that tugged at her heart. Shewouldsee them again.
Closing her eyes, she rubbed at them before opening them. At most, she only had two hours before the sun set. Even if there weren’t other Savages out there, it wasn’t enough time to hunt and heal before those assholes started tracking again.
Maybe she’d get lucky and they would call it quits, but she wasn’t feeling all that lucky. Or maybe she was the luckiest vampire alive. She could be dead or in the hands of the Savages. Sitting in a tree with a busted ankle and a rumbling stomach was a lot more fun when she looked at it that way.
Was anyone else alive?
She mayneverknow the answer, and it was such a depressing thought that she pushed it away. However, thinking was the only thing there was to do in a tree.
To avoid getting bogged down in despair, she started singing a rousing rendition of the ants go marching in her head. As she sang, she tried to recall all the silly verses she and her sister Cassidy would make up when they were kids. Instead of the ant stopping to suck his thumb, they would sing about him stopping to play the drum or dying from boredom, kind of like she was right now.
She was on verse number eight, and instead of checking the gate, she was running late, or dropping the plate, or finding her mate. And then a twig snapped below, and she stopped being bored as the words of the song abruptly stopped.
Every muscle in her body tensed; she didn’t breathe as footsteps approached. Was it friend or foe?
She leaned over to see through the branches as voices floated to her. The fact there was more than one made her believe it wasn’t a friend. She didn’t have many friends, if any, left alive in these woods. Still, hope pulsed through her with every beat of her heart.
That hope vanished when two vampires she didn’t recognize walked under her tree. They were her enemy, but if they were out in the day, then they couldn’t be lost entirely to their Savage nature. However, there wasn’t a whole lot of direct sunlight in these woods.
Willow’s heart sank as they walked out of view. What if these woods were so thick all the Savages could stay out during the day?
Even with her ankle healed, these woods were so vast, and there were so many of them, she didn’t know how she’d avoid them.
By running, that was how. As soon as possible, she would run again, and she wouldn’t stop until free of this forest.
* * *
Declan studiedthe fresh blood splattered across the ground. It had dried overnight, but patches of it still darkened the forest floor. Lucien had spilled enough blood over the years that Declan could recognize its scent, but no hint of who spilled this blood remained on the air. There weren’t any bodies, but he didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“I’ve got some ashes over here,” Logan said and waved at a pile on the ground.
More piles littered the clearing, but it was impossible to tell if the sun killed the Savages, or if someone else killed them and the sun destroyed their bodies afterward.
There had been a battle here, but there was no sign of anyone from the Alliance. Unlike the Savages, their bodies wouldn’t have burst into flames when the sun hit them, and he couldn’t see the Savages taking dead bodies away.
Whatever happened here, they managed to flee the area at least. How long they survived afterward was anyone’s guess.
Declan walked over to the circular hole leading into the shadowy interior of the tunnels below. Years ago, he returned here with Elijah—the hunter’s demolition expert—Roland, and a bunch of others to install the cameras and destroy what remained of the tunnels.
When they left, there was no way anyone could get back into the tunnels. But now, he gazed into the opening of the hell beneath. He didn’t know how far down this newly dug tunnel went, but the Savages had been busy during the short time between when the cameras went down and the Alliance arrived.
A large pile of debris sat next to the entrance. They’d been tossing whatever they removed onto the rubble, probably in an assembly line sort of way as they burrowed deeper into the earth.
Are the others down there? Why would the Savages do this? What are they looking for down there? Is there another demon in there?
