The Hunted (72 page)

‘I think so,’ she groaned.

‘Do you think you can stand?’

‘I’ll try.’

I helped her get to her feet. She swayed briefly on her unsteady legs and fell right into my arms. I propped her up again, and she steadied herself, rubbing her fingers over her neck where she had been bitten. She winced at the pain and then rubbed her fingers together to look at the colour of the blood on them. ‘He bit me,’ she said, sounding bewildered. ‘He actually bit me, like some kind of fricken’ vampire from the movies.’

I caught a whiff of her blood again. There was definitely something different about it.

‘Do you think you can walk?’ I asked again in hushed tones, pushing aside my doubts. The girl had been drained of blood; perhaps a person’s blood just smelt different when it was trying to recuperate supplies, so to speak.

She took a couple of tentative steps forward and then smiled at me. ‘Yeah, I’ll manage.’

‘Okay, good, because we need to get out of here and fast.’

‘My name’s Kate.’

‘Elena.’

‘I know.’

‘How do you know my name?’

‘That’s what those psycho’s kept calling you, isn’t it?’

I smiled at her. My time as a captive was really making me paranoid.

I ripped another piece of my shirt off the bottom, leaving most of my stomach exposed. It was barely worth wearing the T-shirt anymore, but what was left helped to keep me marginally warm. I had one part of a sleeve left and enough fabric to cover most of my chest area and back, but I was already shivering. I wished I was at home in my warm bed, snuggled under the covers and pretending this was all just a horrible dream. But it wasn’t. Reality assured me, the cold night air wrapping me up in its icy tendrils and testing the strength of my resolve.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Here, put this against the wound, it should help stop the bleeding. I know it’s not the cleanest, but there’s no blood or dirt on this part.’

‘Thanks.’

I draped one of her arms over my shoulders and walked her as quickly as I could to the tree line again. Just ahead was a dense thicket of melaleuca trees, tall and ominous against the darkness. In between were ferns, and wild orchids, and would provide convenient hiding places for predators in the night.

Which way should we go?

I peered into the undergrowth, scanning the moss-strewn forest floor, trying to locate a path so that we weren’t just wandering around aimlessly in the scrub. Since we’d just come from a house, there had to be a discernible path somewhere amongst the surrounding scrub.

I found two possibilities almost straight away, a couple of metres apart. One was a smaller path, and the other was much bigger, almost as if at one time or another it could have been a driveway, but now it was all grown over. Cycads and long grass seemed to have made a home in the left over gravel, and the few kopper’s logs that had marked the edges were now silvering with age, cracked and overgrown with moss.

My instincts told me to take the driveway. After all, eventually it was bound to lead to a road. But, in contrast, the smaller path looked to be well worn, or at least more defined.

So which way? Should I head for the road or the possible safety of a neighbour?

Supposing the neighbours are even still alive?

The road.

I lugged Kate over to the driveway path and started to brush away some of the overgrown weeds and underbrush. There were scattered leaves and branches from the larger trees above that were also blocking the path. Kate tugged on my arm with a ferocity I wouldn’t have expected from someone with severe blood loss.

When I turned to her the horrified look on her face made me backtrack to her side. Fear and a rush of adrenaline could give people all sorts of capabilities when they least expected it. ‘What’s wrong? We have to keep moving or they’ll find us,’ I said, starting to pull her forwards again.

They’ll probably find us anyway. That blood on her is like a god damn homing beacon.

She held her ground. ‘No, Elena. I saw them. They both went this way after they left me by the side of the house. I think they thought I was dead. But I definitely saw them go this way which means they will probably come back this way too.’

I looked down the overgrown driveway and back at her scared face. My instincts still told me to take the driveway. It seemed like the most logical choice for escape, despite her words. ‘Are you sure?’ I said. ‘It’s just that this path is probably the more likely of the two to get us out of here.’

‘I definitely saw both of them go this way. Please, Elena, I don’t want to see them ever again. Please can we go the other way instead? It must lead somewhere, maybe to another house or a neighbour or something. Please.’

‘Would it be better if you stay here somewhere and hide? I’ll keep going and see if I can bring back some help, and then you won’t have to face them again.’

She looked at me, horrified. ‘No! You can’t leave me alone. We have to take the other path.’ She paused, her eyes dead. ‘You owe me, Elena. You let them try to kill me, and you did nothing.’

I couldn’t argue with her—the guilt of her words was too strong. She seemed so certain. ‘Okay, I hope you’re right, Kate.’

Or we’re both dead.

‘I’m positive, they went that way,’ she said, pointing at the overgrown driveway again.

I wrapped her arm around my shoulders and led her back to the other path, which was a little better worn than the driveway. Someone had definitely been using this track in the last couple of years, so it had to lead somewhere.

We hurried, both of us trudging through the damp earth, walking as quickly as we dared while Kate was so injured. ‘Do you want me to carry you?’ I asked, after five minutes of not progressing very far.

‘I’m too heavy for you. You’re at least ten or fifteen kilos lighter than me.’

‘It’s okay, that won’t matter to me, just jump up onto my back.’

She took a step back from me. ‘No, it’s okay, I think I can walk fine on my own now.’

I frowned and narrowed my eyes at her. ‘Are you sure? Because we need to move a lot faster if we are going to get away from them.’

‘No, I’m fine.’

I looked at her face. The puncture holes on her neck seemed to be clotted now. The colour had returned to her face and from what I could see, she appeared relatively fit. Technically that should not be possible.

Do I even have time for this? Get moving before they find you both!

I shrugged my shoulders and kept walking. If she fell over or started to slow me down, then I would fling her onto my back whether she liked it or not.

We walked more quickly now, on the verge of a jog, pushing our way through some of the overgrown scrub. I turned and looked at Kate occasionally to see if she was still keeping pace. She stayed right on my heels, following my lead, and hedging her way through the forest ferns and shrubbery.

Stopping briefly, I listened to the sounds of the forest, keeping alert for any sign that we were being followed. I heard nothing.

We walked for another ten minutes or so until I brushed through a final clump of ferns and into a clearing. The moon had come out from behind the clouds now and was illuminating the scene before me. The clearing we were in was almost the size of a football field, with nothing but soft grass growing in its centre, fenced round with rainforest trees and palms.

I scanned the tree line. I couldn’t smell anything on the wind, except Elizabeth’s blood on my hands and the now dried blood on Kate’s neck. ‘Kate, just rest here for a minute. I need to find a path out of this clearing.’

‘You’ll come back for me right?’

‘Of course I will, just sit tight. I’ll be right back.’

Please let me find a path.

I took off at a quick jog around the outskirts of the clearing, staying close to the edges.

I could see no definitive paths, and I knew that if we pressed on we would probably just wind up lost and in even more trouble than we were in now. I was right. Vânâtors or not, we should have taken the driveway path. This place felt wrong.

In five minutes I’d reached Kate again, sitting on a mossy rock waiting for me expectantly. ‘We’ve come the wrong way,’ I said, already knowing the truth of my statement. ‘We need to head back.’

She got up from the rock, smoothed her skirt down around her legs and looked around her. She scanned the tree line as I had done, looked off across the far side of the field and stared absently into the darkness. The moonlight softly illuminated the determined set of her jaw, and the sudden hungry look in her eyes. ‘No, we are in the right place,’ she said calmly, walking towards the centre of the clearing.

‘Kate! What are you doing? Don’t walk out into the open they could see you!’ I hissed, trying not to raise my voice too loudly.

‘Elena, it’s okay, we came the right way.’

‘Do you see a path?’ I asked, trailing behind her, thinking that maybe she had seen something that I had not.

‘No.’

‘Then what are we doing out here?’

‘Waiting.’

I stopped, my eyes narrowing as I watched, her back to me as she continued to walk boldly into the centre of the clearing. There was no longer any fear radiating from her, it was replaced by a strange confidence. I quickly reassessed a few details of the last minutes that I had stupidly ignored.

‘Kate, what are we waiting for?’ I asked, frightened and already suspecting the answer.

She stopped about twenty metres in front of me and turned around, smiling a sickly twisted smile that made my insides quiver. She raised her left hand and pointed, turning back to watch the rapid approach of five dark and deadly creatures.

I should have taken the damn driveway.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:

ATTACK

I
followed Kate’s gaze, my heart sinking deep in my chest at the realisation that I should never have ignored my intuition. If I lived past this, I never would again. But, worse still, I should have known that escape would never have been that simple.

I watched as five grey werewolves, walking side by side, emerged from the trees and walked into the clearing. Under the stark blanket of moonlight, their enormous white fangs were exposed, razor sharp and ready for combat.

A wolf, much larger than the others, took the lead. His black eyes were empty, the soulless depths piercing through me, filling me. There was no mistaking his wolf-form. He had fed from me mercilessly and I had fed from him in return, and now the connection between us was irreversible.