Chapter 9 #2
I’ve been securing the border every day since the cave, and nothing has shown itself. Not even a whiff of sulfur and decay has seeped into the land. But it was still there. In the early morning breeze, I can still catch the tiniest hint of it.
“Then we’ll turn back,” I reply, feeling how dry my mouth has suddenly become.
We walk together in silence. Noah’s pleased grin doesn't slip from his lips, and his eyes sparkle with delight. And I realize just how much he enjoys being around me, with the little looks he sends me over his shoulder and the way he now outrightly hums cheerfully despite my presence.
My lips stretch, and for a moment we are simply walking together in the woods. Some might even call it a date.
But the light feeling doesn’t last long when a cool breeze cuts through the branches above us and the forest grows silent.
“Whoa,” Noah whispers. “Why’d it go quiet?”
I sniff at the air, drawing it into my lungs and tasting every molecule. Then I catch the scent that has my stomach tightening and my head growing dizzy. Why? Of all days, it just had to come back the moment I let Noah come with me.
My arms are circling Noah’s upper body and I'm slamming him against my chest. “Hush, sweetheart.”
I can hear the way his heartrate spikes and his scent of fear mingles with the sulfuric acid stench that builds in the back of my nose.
“Listen to me very carefully. We—”
Noah cuts me off. “Is that a cabin?”
My gaze follows his, and sure enough, between a sliver of trees, the wooden building of an abandoned cabin sticks up from the forest floor. I’ve passed it countless times and never once have I found anyone to live in it.
But the stench grows stronger, and I can't tell which direction it's coming from. I sweep Noah up into my arms, holding him securely against my chest. His arms tighten around my neck as I slide a hand to the back of his head, keeping him close.
I speed towards the cabin; the forest blurring around us, and Noah gasps as I reach the dilapidated front porch. The door is half open, and I slide inside, shutting it behind us and casting us into darkness.
With only a few broken pieces in the roof, the light of the sun hardly fills the space. My eyes adjust faster than Noah’s, and he has to blink a few times before turning his head to look up at me.
“What’s going on, Xan?” he asks, his voice filled with trepidation.
“Something’s not right,” I respond, slowly setting him down on his feet, hating the way he’s no longer pressed up against me.
The cabin is covered in a thick layer of dust; even the air is fuming with tiny particles that choke the back of my throat as I track the scents surrounding us.
Forcing Noah’s inviting scent to the back of my mind, I pick up on the hundreds of tiny rodents that live in the rafters above our heads, yet I can’t catch a single heartbeat.
Usually, these decomposing buildings sound like a swarm of bees with the abundance of minuscule hearts rapidly beating as mice or rats scurry around the place. But it’s dead quiet.
“Should we go back?” Noah’s voice breaks through the air like a knife.
We should, yet as I turn to him I catch the faintest stench that immediately has my eyes watering and my stomach churning.
I stiffen, my muscles freeze, and every hair on my body stands on end.
With my fangs descending and an ungodly snarly ripping from my lips, I shove Noah behind me, his little frame bumping against the door.
“Stay here.” My voice is gravely, hardly my own. But Noah is quiet as his heart races and his scent turns sour.
“Okay.”
I step forward, deeper into the cabin, testing each footing as if the ground is moments from swallowing us whole.
This was a bad idea. A stupid idea. One that I should never have made.
Noah should be 50 miles from this place, yet my stupidity has gotten in the way.
I’d passed this cabin less than three days ago and not a drop of the stench had passed by me, yet now it’s bubbling and churning around each nook and cranny.
The floorboards creak and crunch as I take another step, my nails elongating into sharp points as every nerve is my body sirens on high alert. I must protect my mate.
If it weren’t for the dire situation before me, I might have questioned why my mind had jumped to that endearment. Noah, my mate.
“Xan, look,” Noah hisses behind me, his voice sounding like a clap of thunder against the silence of the cabin. Checking my shoulder, I watch as he points to my feet.
Sure enough, only inches before my boot, the clear line of a cellar hatch breaks away from the dusty ground. There’s no handle nor hook, so I dig my nails into the wood, splintering it as I haul the hatch open.
Dusty stone stairs lay before me, leading into a black void, and the acidic odor explodes around me. I gag and cover my mouth, desperate to find a fresh breath of air, but the stench fumigates the rest of the cabin until even Noah is whimpering behind me.
“Don’t move, sweetheart.” I force my voice to stay steady as I descend deeper into the basement of the cabin. The light peeling through the holes in the roof fade quickly as I reach the bottom and survey the darkness.
Amongst the wooden crates and boxes, the stench blossoms just like it had in the cave, and I pull my shirt over my mouth and nose. I struggle to make out the many shapes that dart across the walls, even with my supernatural sight.
I follow the scent, forcing myself to ignore the way my throat starts to close as I strain for any sign of life.
Just Noah’s faint heartbeat above me fills the air, and I sigh.
It’s been too long not knowing what’s killing these people.
Now that I have someone to protect, my anxiety is at an all-time high.
Just the thought of Noah being harmed, let alone losing him, has a tightness growing in my gut.
Pushing my way between two palettes, the odor grows to an unbearable strength, and for a moment I turn back, unable to hold myself in this cabin any longer, when within the darkness a splodge of shadow slopes from the far wall.
My pulse skyrockets as I focus my gaze on the shadow, noticing a head and shoulders. Slumped on the floor, their legs splay outwards before them, and I take another step closer. The gleam of metal in their lap catches my eye, and I recognize the barrel of a rifle.
I’m so utterly focused on the figure that I don’t even see the hanging switch for the lightbulb above my head before it smacks me in the forehead. I growl to myself and pull the string, letting the light fill the basement and reveal what I’m looking at.
My stomach drops. Just like the girl in the cave, another body awaits me.
This time, it belongs to an older man. With salt and pepper shaggy hair and a long beard, his body leans against the wall, his hands gripping the rifle even in death as his heart no longer beats and the scent of his soul is completely unrecognizable beneath the stench.
It’s killed again.
But it isn’t the way the man’s chest has been ripped open without a single drop of blood dotting his clothes.
Or the way his innards have somehow turned to dust. It’s how close this is to home.
We are still a mile from the border. Whatever is causing this has grown more confident.
It has killed someone so close to town. So close to my house.
“What the fuck?” Noah’s voice booms around me, and I flinch.
With wide eyes and a wobbly bottom lip, Noah stands at the foot of the staircase. “Xan?”
I want to growl at him, but I can see all too clearly the worry that floods his beautiful eyes. So I take a step away from the body and break Noah’s line of vision, not wanting him to see it for another second.
“I told you to stay upstairs.” I speak gently to him, cupping the side of his jaw and pulling him closer, needing his body against mine.
“I-I’m sorry. But I heard something outside,” he whispers, beginning to shake.
As his words fills the air, a subtle creak of floorboard resonates above us. I freeze, and so does Noah.
Just my luck. Whatever killed the man is back for more. Or it’s tracked our scents. But for what? Wherever it is, it doesn’t eat the flesh from its victims. It simply kills them and leaves.
Another creak sounds above us, this time it’s much closer to the hatch, and my mind goes wild with thoughts of an ungodly beast trampling down the stairs. Or a ghostly figure slipping right through the upper level and trapping us in here.
Whatever it is, I’ll kill it.
A shadow looms over the stairs, and my blood runs cold while every muscle in me tenses. Pulling Noah close to my side, my fangs pinch my lower lip, and I lift my hand, claws at the ready.
Meow?
It’s like the air in the room evaporates and I can’t suck in a breath. Neither can Noah as we watch in silence as Nyx saunters down the steps, her glowing red eyes watching us closely.
“Oh my god, it was just Nyx,” Noah lets out a nervous titter. “You gave us a heart attack, cat!”
She meows again, this time more urgently, and I understand. It’s been many years learning her language, but I know with the sharp look in her eye and the way her tail puffs up that she means business.
“Sweetheart,” I start. “Nyx will escort you home. You need to shut the doors and stay inside. Do you understand?”
Noah looks up at me, his brow furrowed. “What about you? And what is it with that dead guy?”
I sigh, knowing there isn’t much time to explain as Nyx growls at us. “This place isn’t safe. I need you to go now. I’ll be right behind you.”
“I don’t believe you, but Nyx seems kinda pissed so I’ll listen to her instead.” Noah grips my hand and steps away. I pull him into me, covering his lips with mine in a chaste kiss.
“I’ll be right behind you. Go.”
Nodding and giving me a final look, Noah lets Nyx lead him up the stairs and through the cabin, the door creaking closed behind them. I listen to the way his heartbeat fades as he and Nyx begin their way back home.
What Noah doesn’t know is the power that lies within the cat. If anyone were to protect my mate, she would be the most suitable.
Now to kill whatever is lurking in my forest and make sure Tyler’s premonition never sees the light of day.