Vampire Blood (Vampire Bite #2)

Chapter Nineteen

Annika

We ran through the trees, the shadows closing in around us. My breath came fast, shallow, but it wasn’t from the exertion. It was guilt. A heavy, suffocating weight pressing against my chest with every step. I couldn’t stop thinking about Lucas, about leaving him behind. About leaving all of them behind.

Branches scraped against my arms as we pushed deeper into the forest. Kael moved ahead of me, his steps quick and sure, but I stumbled. My thoughts kept pulling me back to the town, the screams, the fight. To Lucas being dragged away.

I slowed, pressing a hand to my chest, trying to breathe. “Kael, I can’t—”

He whirled around, his face sharp with urgency. “You can.” He stepped closer, lowering his voice but not softening it. “You have to.”

Tears burned at the edges of my eyes, and I shook my head. “We left them. We left him. How can I live with that?”

Kael grabbed my shoulders, holding me steady. “Because you don’t have a choice, Annika. You’re the only thing keeping them from winning. Don’t you get that?” His voice softened, but his grip didn’t. “If they get you, it’s over. For all of us.”

I swallowed hard, forcing back the tears. He was right. I hated it, but he was right. My life wasn’t just mine anymore. It hadn’t been since the day I found out what I was.

But it didn’t make it any easier to leave Lucas.

“I just—” My voice cracked, and I hated how weak I sounded. “What if something happens to him?”

Kael’s expression flickered, but he didn’t let me see any doubt. “Lucas can handle himself. He’s strong, Annika. He’ll fight until his last breath if it means keeping you safe.”

I closed my eyes, trying to hold onto that thought. Lucas was strong. He was smart. And he wouldn’t give up. Neither could I.

Kael let go of my shoulders and took a step back. “We can’t stay here. It’s too exposed.” He glanced around before jerking his chin toward the dense thicket ahead. “There’s an old hunting cabin not far from here. We can hide there until we figure out our next move.”

I hesitated, my gaze trailing back toward the direction we’d come from. Smoke still hung in the air, faint but enough to remind me of the fires. The screams.

Lucas.

I forced myself to turn away.

“Let’s go,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt.

Kael didn’t waste time. He started moving again, and I followed, pushing aside the ache in my chest.

I had to believe this was the right choice. That leaving Lucas behind didn’t mean losing him forever.

Suddenly, pain ripped through me so fast and unexpected that I couldn’t’ even scream. My knees buckled, and I hit the ground hard, dirt and leaves scraping against my skin. The world tilted and spun, and then there was nothing but the burning, searing fire tearing through my veins.

I barely registered Kael’s voice shouting my name. His hands grabbed my shoulders, shaking me, but I couldn’t focus. My body convulsed, jerking uncontrollably, as if something inside me was trying to claw its way out.

“Annika! Annika!” Kael’s voice cracked, panicked. “Stay with me! Just—damn it, what’s happening? Annika, look at me!”

I couldn’t. My eyes rolled back, and my vision blurred with flashes of red and gold light. It wasn’t the forest anymore—it was something else. Something deeper, darker. Shapes shifted in my mind, shadows moving toward me. Voices whispered.

Come closer. Open the door. Set him free.

“No!” I choked out, my voice raw and broken. My hands clawed at the ground, dirt slipping between my fingers. The whispers grew louder, pressing against my skull, pounding in rhythm with the pain.

Kael’s voice broke through, rough and desperate. “Annika, fight it! Whatever this is—don’t let it win!”

I wanted to. God, I wanted to. But it felt endless, this pull inside me.

Kael’s hands gripped my face, forcing me to look at him even as my body shook. “You’re stronger than this! You are. Do you hear me? You can fight it!”

Tears streamed down my cheeks. “Kael—”

“Breathe,” he ordered. “Focus on me. Stay here.”

I tried. I clung to his voice, to his hands grounding me, to the heat of his skin against mine. Slowly, the tremors started to fade. The whispers receded, dragging themselves back into the dark corners of my mind. My breathing evened, but I was shaking… still shaking.

Kael didn’t let go. He knelt beside me, his face pale and tight, his eyes locked on mine. “What the hell was that?”

I swallowed, my throat raw and aching. “I—I don’t know.” My voice barely sounded like my own.

Then, it all happened too fast.

One moment Kael was kneeling in front of me, tense and ready, his blade glinting in the dim light. The next, the shifters were on us. Dark shapes surged from the trees, snarling and snapping, eyes glowing with bloodlust.

Kael shoved me behind him. “Run!”

“No!” I screamed, but it was too late.

He met the first attacker head-on, driving his sword into its chest. Blood sprayed, but another shifter lunged, claws raking across Kael’s arm before he could twist away. He let out a guttural snarl, turning his blade in a deadly arc. Another body fell.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe.

“Annika!” Kael’s voice snapped me out of it. “Go!”

I stumbled back, but the forest felt too small, too suffocating. Another shifter leapt toward Kael, and this time, he wasn’t fast enough. The creature’s claws sank into his side, dragging him down.

“No!” I cried, my voice breaking.

Kael roared, driving his knife into the shifter’s throat, but he was already bleeding… there was so much blood. He staggered, barely staying on his feet.

Another one circled behind him.

I couldn’t watch. I couldn’t just stand there.

Grabbing the closest rock I could find, I hurled it at the shifter’s head. It wasn’t much, but it distracted it long enough for Kael to slice through its ribs. He turned toward me, his face pale and streaked with sweat.

“You need to run, Annika!” His voice was raw, desperate.

“I’m not leaving you!”

The forest spun around me, my breath ragged as another shifter closed in. Kael moved, but this time, he faltered. The wound in his side slowed him, and the creature knocked him to the ground.

I screamed, lunging toward him, but hands… no, claws grabbed me from behind.

“Kael!”

He lifted his head, his eyes burning even as blood stained his lips. “Fight, Annika. Fight.”

I didn’t think.

Didn’t plan.

I just moved.

My pulse roared in my ears as I yanked free from the shifter’s claws, the sharp sting of torn skin barely registering through the surge of panic. Kael’s cry echoed behind me, raw and pained, but I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t let them take me.

The shifter lunged again, its breath hot against my neck. I spun, driving my elbow into its jaw. It reeled back, snarling, and I used the moment to grab a fallen branch. Not much of a weapon, but it would have to do.

“Come on,” I hissed, planting my feet. My heart hammered so hard I thought it might burst.

It circled, muscles coiled, eyes gleaming with hunger. Then it struck.

I swung the branch with everything I had. Wood cracked against its ribs. It stumbled, but not enough. It came again, claws flashing, and I dodged… barely. My shoulder hit the ground hard, pain jolting through me, but I rolled, slamming the branch into its leg.

A howl. A snap. The branch broke in two.

I scrambled up, my body screaming, and ran.

Branches tore at my clothes. Roots tried to trip me. Behind me, snarls and pounding footsteps closed in.

I pushed harder. Faster.

Kael’s voice rang in my head. Fight, Annika. Fight.

Tears blurred my vision, but I kept going, the sound of pursuit fading as I pushed deeper into the forest. My legs burned, my lungs felt like fire, but I didn’t stop.

Not until the trees closed around me, swallowing me in shadows. Only then did I collapse, gasping, shaking. My hands were stained with dirt and blood. My clothes were torn. But I was alive.

Barely.

And Kael—

I choked back a sob, pushing it down.

He survived, I kept telling myself silently, over and over again.

At that moment, a sharp, searing pain ripped through my chest again.

I fell to my knees, clutching at the ground as my vision blurred. My heart hammered like it was trying to escape, and heat burned through my veins. It was too hot, too wild, like fire licking under my skin.

The world tilted, shadows stretching unnaturally as if the trees leaned closer, their branches curling like claws. My breaths came in shallow, panicked bursts. I tried to stand, but my legs refused to work.

Then I felt it.

Him.

Dark. Cold. Ancient.

Aurelius.

He was awake. I knew it. Felt him stirring, clawing his way out of the crypt. His presence scraped against my mind, sharp and endless, like nails on stone.

I saw him in flashes, broken images clawing into my thoughts. His pale, hollowed face. Eyes black as voids and burning red at their centers. Hands reaching, grasping, yearning.

And he was calling for me.

A scream built in my throat, but no sound came out. My body seized again, muscles locking, heart pounding so fast I thought it might shatter.

Not enough.

The thought hissed through my mind, in his voice, or maybe my own. He hadn’t taken enough blood to be at full strength. But it didn’t matter.

It was enough to break free.

Tears burned my eyes. I couldn’t stop shaking, couldn’t catch my breath. He was down there, waking, rising. And I was too far away to stop him.

My hands dug into the dirt, nails breaking as I tried to ground myself, tried to stop the panic.

“Get up,” I whispered. “Get up, Annika.”

But the terror wouldn’t let me move. It pressed down on me, heavy and suffocating, as his presence grew stronger.

He was coming.

The weight of Aurelius’s presence pressed down on me like a storm, suffocating and cold. But I forced myself to move. My legs were trembling, my body still weak, but I pushed through it. I had to.

I staggered forward, gripping the trees for balance as I climbed the hill. My breaths were ragged, sharp in the quiet dawn. My heart pounded so loudly it seemed to echo through the forest, but I didn’t stop.

I couldn’t stop.

I didn’t know how much time I had. Minutes? Seconds?

My mind screamed at me to turn back, to run the other way. But my feet kept moving, carrying me toward the crypt. Toward him.

I wiped sweat and dirt from my face, my fingers shaking as I climbed over rocks and tangled roots. The forest seemed darker now, the branches overhead twisting together, blocking out the light. It felt alive… watching, waiting.

Every nerve in my body screamed that this was wrong. That I wasn’t ready.

But ready or not, it didn’t matter.

I reached the edge of the ruins, my breath catching as I saw the broken stones and jagged pillars rising like bones from the earth. The entrance to the crypt loomed ahead, dark, gaping, and endless.

Fear clawed up my spine.

My fingers brushed the vial Rowena had given me, the concoction we’d made. It felt small and fragile in my grip, but it was all I had.

I pressed myself against the cold stone wall. The shadows cloaked me, but it didn’t feel like enough, not with the shifters prowling through the ruins like predators.

I gripped the edge of the pillar, peeking around it. My pulse hammered in my ears as my eyes darted over the scene below.

They were everywhere.

Shifters in their half-shifted forms, hulking beasts with sharp claws and glowing eyes, moved between the captured townspeople. Some were bound, their wrists tied, faces streaked with dirt and fear. Others knelt, heads bowed, trembling.

My stomach twisted.

I searched frantically for Lucas. My gaze swept across the square, catching on every dark shape and movement, hoping to see him.

But he wasn’t there.