18. Huntress vs Werewolf
Huntress vs Werewolf
Matilda barely had her knives in hand when Luka swept her into his arms. They didn’t make it past the icy tree line when a barrage of arrows penetrated through.
“I do not wish to alarm you, Tilda, but I don’t think we’ll make the journey back to the castle.”
“Why? What happened?” she asked frantically.
“T-the arrows… poison…,” he stammered.
Then Matilda felt it—a sticky warmth seeping against her side. She swallowed a large lump in her throat before asking, “How many?”
“Three,” Luka replied, fighting to get the words out.
“Take us to the ground. We won’t make it.”
“We can—”
“We can’t. We’re too far from the castle, and the arrows need to come out as soon as possible. Take us to the ground.”
Luka stubbornly shook his head. “I need… I need—”
Between the pain and the delirium that was settling in, he couldn’t string together the words to form a sentence.
It wasn’t until black dots clouded his vision that he realized Matilda was right.
His chest ached, and he was unsure if it was from the poison rapidly streaming through his body or if it was a mixture of disappointment, guilt, sadness, and inadequacy that he once again failed to protect his queen.
“You need to do as I say, Luka. We may have a chance of surviving if I fight, but we won’t if we crash and burn,” Matilda said, putting their dire situation in perspective.
Reluctantly, he agreed and used the last of his energy to float them safely to the ground.
“How far are we from the castle?”
Luka collapsed to his hands and knees, panting heavily like a dog in a desert without an oasis.
“A… a… little less than a mile,” he whispered, his voice ragged and thin.
Matilda snatched the arrows out of him—one from his back, side, and thigh. She smelled one of the tips and wrinkled her nose. It was the same toxin she used when she attempted to slay him. She didn’t have much time before he succumbed to his injuries.
“Okay. How do I fix you?” She panicked when his eyes fluttered closed and slapped his face. The slap seemed to bring Luka back to life. “Stay with me, Luka,” she demanded, reaching for one of the carving knives. “You still owe me a crown.”
“Eager to be my queen?” Luka taunted. Matilda rolled her eyes and searched for a spot to pierce herself that wouldn’t handicap her fighting.
Her hands and wrists weren’t a viable option because the blood would trickle down and slick her hands, forcing her to lose her grip.
“I can’t imagine my last words being wasted on something so foolish,” she chastised through clenched teeth as she sliced her thigh, careful to miss her femoral artery.
“W-what should I… say… instead?” he stammered.
Matilda stood before him and lifted her leg to rest on his shoulder.
“You can profess your undying love to me,” she gasped as he licked her thigh.
She noticed how his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he drank from her.
She popped him upside the head for good measure. He was enjoying it too much.
“What did you hit me for?” he complained before diving back in. That time his fangs pierced her flesh.
“I-I thought you were on the verge of fainting,” she lied, trying to ignore the wetness that pooled between her thighs.
Her blood mingled with her arousal, and she whacked him once more when his sneaky tongue swiped at her center.
“That’s enough for you!” she spat, shoving him away.
He landed in the snow with a heavy groan.
The blood had helped. He may not have been on the brink of death any longer, but he was still weak, and his extremities felt like lead. “I need to hide you.”
“Leave me.”
“By no means,” Matilda protested, wrapping her arms underneath him and dragging him away.
“Why not?”
“Lord Gustafson wouldn’t hesitate to pin your death on me. He’ll convince the council that I was in league with the werewolves and lured you to your death.”
“You’re right. You’d be burned at the stake like the witch you are.” Matilda struggled for breath as she dragged him across the forest floor. “Nothing to say in your defense?”
“I am rather preoccupied trying to keep us alive.” Matilda’s prayers were answered when she stumbled upon a small cave.
Calling it a cave was generous; it was more like a rock formation with a deep crevice that was sized perfectly to hide a body—living or otherwise deceased.
“This will have to do. Stay here and gather your strength. As soon as you can fly—”
“Retrieve you.”
“No, you foolish wretch. Fly back to the castle and gather reinforcements. They must not escape. We can torture them for information or keep them as political prisoners.”
“I’m not leaving you behind.”
“That’s not up for discussion,” Matilda replied as she started to block the entrance to Luka’s hideout with large slabs of rocks.
Howling echoed through the trees as Matilda was about to place the final rock that would engulf the vampire king in darkness.
“Wait!” Luka hissed before she wedged the last rock in place. She was temporarily mesmerized when he made eye contact with her through the small opening. “Be careful…Tilda,” he whispered.
A smirk ticked at the corner of the huntress’s mouth. “I’ll fare well. I’ll fly away on my broomstick if it becomes too much for me to handle.”
Luka rolled his eyes and was finally shrouded in darkness.
He closed his eyes and focused on healing, purposely ignoring how his heart hammered in his chest. He felt an overwhelming sense of dread.
In their brief time together, the tenacious huntress wormed her way into his heart.
He’d never forgive himself if something happened to her.
***
Matilda watched anxiously from above as David silently ventured through the woods in human form, holding a crossbow with an arrow primed and ready to strike at any moment.
He paused and sniffed the air. She cursed softly when his head snapped in her direction.
“Huntress… come out. You’re injured. I can help you. I shall be honest with you, Matilda. My ego is wounded. I thought we had something. I’m willing to give you another chance.”
“How do I know you won’t shoot me as soon as I reveal my position?”
“You don’t.”
“Drop the bow,” Matilda demanded.
“As soon as you drop your weapon.”
“I don’t have a weapon.”
David snorted. “I don’t believe that for one second, huntress.”
“Fine. You caught me,” she said, tossing one of the knives into the snow below. He relieved himself of his crossbow; he didn’t need it to subdue her.
“You look lovely,” David mused when she dropped out of the tree.
“Perks of being a prisoner of King Alesi,” she replied as they started to circle each other.
“You play the game well, Matilda.”
“What game do you speak of?”
“The game of winning the favor of men who hold power, only to make their power serve your own ambitions.”
“If you wish to waggle your tongue, waggle it truthfully. It is the men who want me, not the other way around.”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “All bullshit aside, I shall spare you if you come with me now. But if you stay and choose him, then I’ll consider you my enemy.”
“Leave these lands and return to Moonshire. King Alesi will be here soon with a small army.”
“You are not a good liar. I struck him several times. He has abandoned you and left you to fight his battles. Last chance. It’s him or me.”
“Him,” she answered promptly.
David tsked.
“‘Tis a shame. We could’ve been unstoppable together.”
His body contorted, bones snapping and reforming as fur spread across his skin. Moments later, a hulking wolf stood where the man had been. Matilda stared into its amber eyes and realized she might not survive the night.
David lunged with a vicious snarl, his jaws snapping shut where Matilda’s head had been a heartbeat before. She stumbled backward, barely keeping her footing.
She feinted toward the crossbow, catching the wolf off guard.
He dove, and she used her shoulder to barrel into him.
She felt pain blossoming near her collarbone—most likely from a hairline fracture, but her injuries would have to wait.
The force wasn’t enough to knock the wolf off his paws, but it was enough to provide an opening.
She successfully retrieved her hidden knife, but her small victory was short-lived when David knocked it away and forced her onto her back.
Matilda twisted beneath him, trying to roll onto her side, but the wolf shifted his weight and blocked her escape. One massive paw planted beside her shoulder while the other pinned her arm against the ground. She shoved at his chest, but the sheer weight of him made her efforts useless.
David lowered his enormous head until his muzzle hovered inches from her face.
A low growl vibrated through his chest as his jaws parted, revealing rows of gleaming teeth.
A strand of hot saliva slipped from his jaws, splashing on her face.
Matilda’s stomach lurched, and her dinner threatened to make an appearance.
Suddenly, the wolf began to change.
His body convulsed as bones cracked and shifted beneath his fur. His massive frame contracted, limbs twisting and reshaping until the beast gave way to the man beneath it. Within moments, David was human again, straddling her with one hand still gripping her wrist.
He leaned closer, his face inches from hers.
“Reaching for weapons you cannot wield is foolhardy,” he said, chuckling, reaching for the knife.
“Do you intend to end me?”
“Nay, Prince Lykaon ordered me to bring you in alive.” Matilda sighed in relief.
“I wouldn’t look so pleased. He ordered me to keep you alive.
He said nothing about keeping you unharmed,” he taunted, tossing the blade back and forth between his hands.
“We’ll call this recompense for toying with my affections. ”
Her eyes fluttered shut when the blade dragged across her upper arm, separating the delicate skin.
He didn’t stop until her blood ran and the snow turned crimson.
Her eyes flew open when she heard choking and wheezing from above her.
Matilda stared in confusion as Beta David clutched his throat and gaped at the bloody knife.
She noticed a hint of blood on his lips.
He had tasted her.
“W-what… are… you?” he rasped.
Matilda snapped into action when David’s companions howled, alerting their nearby location. She used her weight to shove the ailing werewolf off her and scrambled for the crossbow.
“Three to the left, three in the middle, and three to the right,” she whispered as she peered down the sight. “What to do? What to do? What to do?”
She paused and smeared her blood on the pointy metal tips of the bows. She didn’t understand why David suffered a deadly reaction from her blood, but she’d use it to her advantage. “I only have six. I’ll have to fight the remaining three. May the gods favor me.”
She hauled herself upright, only to sway dangerously from the blood lost, but that was a problem for later.
She held her focus and released the first shot.
“Bullseye,” she whispered when the arrow pierced the wolf’s neck.
He collapsed into the snow and flailed about, encouraging Matilda to dispatch the remaining five arrows.
Three more wolves had fallen before the others fled for safety.
“Thank the gods,” she whispered once they had all retreated. She tossed the crossbow aside and fell to her knees before passing out face-first into the bloodstained snow.
***
Luka shot out of the cave, scattering the rocks that had once concealed him. One powerful beat of his wings sent him soaring into the night, and for one fleeting moment, he felt like a spry, young vampire again.
His gaze swept the snow-covered ground below until he found her.
Matilda lay motionless in the snow with David beside her.
Every trace of exhilaration vanished from the king.
Luka folded his wings and plummeted to the ground, striking it hard enough to send snow billowing around him.
He rushed to Matilda’s side and rolled her onto her back.
He searched desperately for the source of the blood staining the snow beneath her.
Soon after, he discovered a deep gash stretched across her upper arm, still spilling blood despite the cold.
“Matilda.”
No response.
“Tilda,” he said, pressing his hand firmly over the wound. Blood immediately seeped between his fingers.
“What did you do to her?” Luka snarled at the unconscious wolf. “I shall have my vengeance upon you, Beta David,” Luka promised, tearing a strip of fabric from his clothing to tend her wound and binding it tightly around her arm before gathering her against his chest. “Stay with me, Tilda.”
His wings spread behind him, casting an enormous shadow across the snow.
“You will answer for this, dog,” he vowed before launching into the sky.