“Prepare to die, devil’s spawn.” The tallest and meanest looking of the group raises his sword and charges.
The rest follow suit. Lucca moves fast, dodging the deadly arc of the hunter’s blade by jumping high. When he lands, he’sholding his sword, and it’s already coated with the blood of the second hunter coming for him. I jump on the back of the hunter nearest me and bite his neck so hard, I tear through most of the flesh. He drops to his knees, drowning in his own blood. I don’t waste time and prepare to attack the next one.
Burning pain flares on my flank, bringing me down. I start to shift back to human form immediately. There’s an arrow sticking out of my leg. Wolfsbane. Curse the heavens. I can’t fight like this.
Lucca continues to battle, but without my help, he’s in serious trouble. I’ve heard about this type of hunter. They prey on what they call monsters, and they are relentless and well trained. Vampires and wolf shifters are all considered abominations to them, the work of the devil. It started with Abraham Van Helsing, the famous hunter who discovered vampires were real. The lore says he went mad after his daughter and son were killed by vampires, and he became obsessed with killing us. While he was alive, he created a cult of equally demented followers.
Despite being outnumbered, Lucca is giving the hunters hell. He’s already killed five of the bastards, while I’ve managed to kill only one. There are four humans left, and none of them are paying any attention to me now that I’m prone on the snowy ground, bleeding from my wound.
Lucca manages to send one of the hunters’ swords flying away, and the man avoids being cut in half by sheer luck. Lucca would have killed him if he hadn’t had to fend off the next onslaught. I begin to hope he’ll end them all when the one he disarmed earlier circles back holding a small dagger.
“Lucca, watch out!” I yell, but it’s too late.
The hunter stabs Lucca in the back, drawing an enraged roar from the dark prince. He pivots, swinging his sword at an angle, and cuts the head off his attacker. But in doing so, he left hisback exposed to the remaining hunters. I try to move to help him, but my body is numb.
A gust of wind sweeps the battleground, raising the small hairs on the back of my neck. This isn’t a natural occurrence. The hunters freeze and look around. They must have realized the same thing I did. A powerful being is approaching.
Lucca shuffles away, pulling the dagger from his back. Then he drops to his knees, releasing his sword. Shit. Has he been poisoned too? I have my answer when he collapses.
“Lucca!”
An ethereal beauty materializes from nowhere. Her skin is alabaster, and her hair so fair, it’s almost the same color as the snow. She’s wearing a blue gossamer dress that seems too flimsy for the weather, and yet she doesn’t seem affected by the cold.
“Stay away, ghost!” One of the hunters lifts his sword, but his bravado is gone.
“You don’t belong in this forest.” The woman lifts her arms, and the wind intensifies.
Heavens. Is that the Nightingale queen who cursed Manu?
She creates a tornado with her powers, and it wraps around the hunters and lifts them off the ground. They scream inside the vortex, but the noise from the howling wind is loud, and it muffles their pleas for mercy. With a forward movement of her arm, the vortex lifts off, taking the hunters with it. They disappear into the night, and soon, their screams fade too.
The female turns to Lucca and kneels next to him. She seems concerned about his condition. She’s not Queen Maewe, then, but she’s definitely a Nightingale.
“Is he alive?” I ask.
“Yes. He’s been poisoned by vampire’s bane.” She touches his back, closing her eyes. Her hands glow briefly, then she pulls back and sighs as if relieved. “He’ll live.”
“Who are you?”
She unfurls from her crouch and walks over. “It’s safer if you don’t know. You’ve been hurt too. I can help.”
“Are you one of Queen Maewe’s priestesses?”
My question seems to take the Nightingale female back. “What do you know of them?”
“Only to never go near them.”
She crouches next to me and grabs the arrow shaft that’s sticking out of my leg. I brace for the pain of extraction, but the arrow dissolves into nothing, and the burn disappears. She does the glow trick with her hand again, and immediately, I sense my strength returning.
“Thank you.”
Our gazes connect, and I’m blown away by how beautiful she is, especially her sapphire-colored eyes. I’ve never met anyone with that striking coloring before.
“No need to thank me.”
Lucca grunts behind the Nightingale female, and she tenses. In the blink of an eye, she disappears as quickly as she came. I guess she doesn’t want Lucca to know she helped him.
He leans on his elbow and looks around. “What happened?”
