Chapter 15
Chapter
Fifteen
The vampire’s red eyes bore into me, searing a path of paralyzing fear and dread through my veins. His words were not a request. It was a compelled demand that no one could ignore.
But I sure wasn’t going to walk close to him just because he ordered me to.
My suspicion that this wasn’t a random attack had been confirmed because this man knew who I was. Not many people knew what the princess looked like. The vampires had targeted me.
Regardless, I had to make sure Layla and I ran away immediately. A sense of urgency pulsed within me. The only thing on my mind was to get my cousin and me to safety.
The man stared at me with furrowed eyebrows.
His gaze pierced through me like a sharpened blade.
I ignored him and scanned the area for Layla.
I spotted her right before she got into the other SUV that had stopped at the side of the road ahead of our broken car.
Layla got behind the wheel. Her movements were quick and calculated.
I looked around to assess my options, just like Dad had taught me. “Fight or flight, but don’t freeze,” he would always say during training.
The third werewolf guard was punching and kicking against two vampires. The other two vampires were finishing off the fourth werewolf. I couldn’t do much about the warriors, but our best chance of survival would be to drive back to the kingdom.
I sprinted to the white car. “Layla,” I hissed and knocked on the window.
She twisted the key in the ignition and turned to look at me with cold, blue eyes filled with so much hatred that my heart plummeted into my stomach.
That was the second time she’d looked at me like that—the first was when we were nine years old, both of us standing over the dead body of Uncle Derek, her father.
Her posture was stiff, her muscles rigid, and her body appeared small behind the wheel.
“O-open the door, Layla,” I shouted.
She grabbed the wheel with shaky hands, turned her head forward, ignoring my existence, and took off so fast that I almost fell, having leaned on the car. The SUV skidded and sped down the road.
That one look she’d given me before she abandoned me to die told me her true intentions. She hated me because I was responsible for her dad’s death, and it was to the extent of wishing me dead.
My hands fisted, my heart beat wildly, and the heat flushing through my body was pure anger and fury. If I survived, I would confront and expose her to the kingdom for who she truly was—a traitor.
What if this attack wasn’t a coincidence and someone tipped the vampires off about our trip to town?
I promised myself if I didn’t die today, I’d challenge Layla to a fight. That was the werewolf’s way, and although I technically wasn’t supernatural, I could take on Layla when I was fuming mad.
I glanced over my shoulder to spot the last werewolf guard fighting a vampire. The other three vampires grinned as they started toward me.
I was alone and unarmed and human.
Pressing my lips together, I narrowed my eyes. I sure wouldn’t make it easy on them.
I scanned the road, but no cars passed, and I wouldn’t endanger humans’ lives by waving anyone down. I crossed the two lanes and bolted toward the first row of tall trees I could hide behind, calling on all my energy and praying for a miracle.
I could try to lose them in the forest—a small chance, but I was willing to take it. Sprinting, I ran over sneaky roots and rocks, slipped on moss-covered stones, almost fell to the ground, and dodged low-hanging branches.
Leaves rustling beneath my feet and the pounding of my heart in my ears were all I heard as I ran deeper into the woodlands, trying to lose my pursuers.
But I could still feel their supernatural presence behind me, gaining distance.
“Princess? You want to play hide-and-seek?” a voice boomed.
Goose bumps pricked on my neck, and I poured on more speed.
My lungs burned, but I gritted my teeth and pushed on, desperately searching for some kind of refuge—anything that would help me evade the vampires or hide from them. After a moment, my chest heaved, and it became painful to take my next breath. My muscles quivered.
I had no idea if I’d run long enough to get close to the kingdom’s territory where I had more chance to survive. The desire to make Layla sorry for what she’d done fueled me to run faster.
I looked over my shoulder. One of the vampires was ahead, but I was sure the other two were not too far behind. They could have caught me by now, but the vampires were playing cat and mouse with me for fun.
Sweat dripped onto my temples and down my cheeks, and a sharp pain cut through the side of my stomach. I only had a few more minutes of energy in me.
I needed a miracle.
I considered staying hidden in the low ferns and shrubs that lined the forest floor, but the vampires would scent me immediately. I had to find something better.
As I ran, the breeze hit my skin in cold waves, making me shiver.
Mom and Dad would be devastated. I’d always known I would die before them, since I was a human with a shorter life span than a werewolf, but I never thought it was going to be under such circumstances. I thought I was going to have time to say goodbye.
Ahead, a shadow moved among the dark trees. Normally, I wouldn’t be running toward the shadows, as my rational brain would ring all kinds of warning bells.
But now I had no choice but to seek out who, or what, it was.
As I came close to a small clearing with wildflowers and green bushes, I spotted a shirtless man.
He was training. I recognized some of the body positions Dad had all his warriors do.
I squinted my eyes, and my heart did a cartwheel when I recognized Hayden.
He’d recently joined our kingdom, and Dad said he was exceptionally strong and fast. His body stilled as he felt my presence, and he faced me. In a burst of adrenaline, I charged forward, my feet slipping on the slick surface of the moss.
Heart pounding in my chest, I yelled from a distance. “Hayden, run! Four vampires are behind me!”
His eyes widened, and his body tensed. He didn’t move, and I thought I was going to have to stop and drag him with me.
Once I drew closer to him, his blue eyes filled with rage, his legs spread slightly, and he held his arms to the sides in a state of readiness.
“Run with me. Now, Hayden.” I was about to pass him, expecting him to follow me, when his arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me to his body.
My feet flew into the air from my momentum, the rest of me only supported by his strong arms.
“No, sweetheart. I got you,” he said in a calm, deep voice, surprising me.
I didn’t have time to think about his pet name for me, which I was sure Dad wouldn’t approve of.
He was the miracle I’d so desperately prayed for.
Hayden moved with blinding speed and secured me gently behind the fortress of his body. His shoulders were so broad that he stood as a wall between me and the four vampires that materialized before us.
They took slow and careful steps, studying Hayden, sizing him up, scrutinizing him with lethal intent, their pale lips curled upwards into sinister grins.
“Hand her over,” one of the vampires said.
Hayden stood in a defiant stance and shook his head. His back glistened with sweat.
“I can’t do that. She belongs to me,” he said, and my mouth fell open.
I wanted to see his face to get a glimpse of what he was thinking. He spoke with so much conviction that it only made me more confused. But at the same time, the passionate determination in his words touched me deeply.
Time seemed to slow. As Hayden and I faced the vampires together, I knew that no matter what happened, I had found someone special to me.
Hayden turned his head and looked at me over his muscular shoulder. Our gazes locked, and my lips parted as the intensity in his eyes crashed into me. The look he gave me was nothing but obsession, protection, and passion.
When he finally blinked, the tense moment broke, and I breathed heavily.
“I need you to lean against the bark of that tree behind you and close your eyes. Can you do that, sweetheart?”
I made an effort to close my mouth. All of Dad’s warriors called me Princess, and a few called me by my first name.
I blinked and walked backward without disconnecting my gaze from his. He only turned to face the vampires after making sure I’d done as he said.
But I didn’t close my eyes.
The four vampires attacked him at the same time. I held my breath, expecting Hayden to call on the extra strength from his beast and shift, but he didn’t. Instead, he looked like a lethal ninja. His body bent, twisted, and moved in a way I hadn’t seen before. He dodged punches and kicks.
His every move was precise and calculated, countering anticipated strikes, different from the way Dad’s warriors usually fought in their human form.
The vampires hissed at their inability to land a blow. Their moves became slower and less coordinated.
Hayden was able to move behind one of the vampires and used his body as a shield, and then his hand partially shifted to his wolf’s claw with sharp talons. He reached for the vampire’s neck and stabbed his throat. His head fell to the side, partially severed.
Bile rose to my throat, and my breakfast threatened to come back out.
I breathed through my nose, eyes wide open, as I watched Hayden jump onto the next vampire, quickly eliminating them one by one.
The next time Hayden had his claws around a vampire’s body, he stabbed his chest and pulled his heart out. With a solemn look of victory in his wild eyes, Hayden held the bloody organ in his palm. The moss-covered soil around him was soaked with blood and gore.
That was why he’d asked me to close my eyes. Even if I’d done as he requested, my ears would have been assaulted by the sounds of tearing flesh. Pieces of raw skin and tissue flew everywhere with blood spurting to the ground. The acrid stench of death hung in the air.