Out of pure stubbornness, she remained quiet, trying to slow her gasps down to manageable deep breathing without anyone noticing her actions.
Jared chuckled. Sliding his hand into hers, he gently pulled her closer. “Use me to rest against, Mia Cara. Less than a week of hiking will not get you in shape. Anyway you're only a few days past puberty.”
She relaxed against him. For once, pleased when he didn't keep his arms wrapped around her. She worriedly glanced into his smiling face. She wondered if she'd let her mental shields slip around the others.
“Am I leaking?” Katie asked, nibbling her lower lip in worry.
“No, love, not at all. I know how important that is to you. I would've warned you if you had of.” He kissed her temple. “I didn't need to hear your thoughts when I could feel your growing disgust each time we had to struggle up a rough patch.”
She grinned at his tongue-in-cheek words. “You mean when I struggled up a rough patch.”
He grinned, rubbing her arm in what she'd learned to connect with his attempt to comfort her. He usually rubbed circles around her back, but the big red backpack was in the way.
Katie wistfully looked toward the trail. The narrow, dirt path split, one part going up the rocky mountainside, the other part dropping into a tree crowded valley. From the raised voices, she concluded they might be stuck under the hot sun for who knew how long.
Six bullheaded teenagers gathered around the splitting trail. The first few words had been simple comments. The teens soon dropped the appearance of having a civil discussion and started arguing.
The group stood in a loose circle. Several sported clenched hands. Rumbling growls merged with heated words. The topic of the argument was ridiculous.
“Look Mutt, we can’t go up the mountain,” Mitch insisted, glaring at Beth. “The trail is off limits and probably for a darn good reason like a werewolf nature preserve or something, not that you wouldn’t fit right in with your furry kin folk.”
“Look moron, shifters are not related to werewolves. Anyway, if you’ll just look at the map you’ll see those warning signs are wrong,” Beth argued, waving her hand toward the map Nick studied. “Obviously, halflings are denser than concrete, because your head is so thick you’ve forgotten the meaning of common sense.”
Katie heard Jared chuckle softly.
She didn’t blame him. Six near-adults couldn’t agree on which trail to take without squabbling like five-year olds. Katie shook her head in disgust. Leave it to her cabin mates to make a simple decision difficult.
Mitch wasn’t helping matters by insulting the shapeshifters. She knew he didn’t trust them, but his over-the-top reaction was too much. She just didn’t get his spine-stiff anger. He loved teasing people and tried his best to get a rise out of them. His aggression toward Beth was different.
Katie could literally see anger reflected in his green elfin eyes each time he looked at Beth. It was like the young shifter had killed Mitch’s puppy or something. Weird.
Katie glanced past the group of shouting teens, her eyes following the mountainside trail. The nearly unmanageable path continued its steep climb up the mountain. She really didn’t want to continue up that path. The upper route was bare of vegetation except for the occasional shark plant or scrubby weed. There was not a single shade in sight.
The lower route, on the other hand, was thick with trees and undergrowth; shade, pure wonderful gloom filled the view. The shade-drenched trail also had the dragon’s stamp of approval.
Relief filled her, because all the red warning signs covered the steep trail going up the mountainside. She stepped toward the lush valley, trying to see down the trail that disappeared beyond a screen of thick trees.
Sarah grabbed Katie's arm, quickly pulling her away from the valley and all that wonderful cool shade. “No,” Sarah said firmly, “stay away from there.”
Jared instantly growled at Sarah.
The dangerous vampire glanced at Jared and slowly released Katie’s arm, raising a single elegant eyebrow above her bloody red eyes.
Katie sighed in acceptance, realizing Jared would've snarled at his own mother if the woman had grabbed his mate. She didn't know if Sarah understood that or not, but from the slight twitch of rosy lips and the twinkle of humor filling her blood soaked eyes, she did.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” Sarah said quietly. Stepping around Katie, Sarah sniffed the air.
Katie didn't think Sarah would be able to smell anything. She felt a faint breeze, but the warm air was blowing from the wrong direction, not from the valley. All Katie could smell was a trace of smoke and the faint scent Clarisse left behind as she went down the dirt packed trail.
Katie groaned, only then did she remember Clarisse was still part of the group. Honestly, she didn’t know how she could forget the wretched girl and her temper tantrums.
Clarisse always left camp before they did. The vampire hated hiking with them. It seemed nothing had changed in the few days Katie had been stuck at the main camp ground.
Katie inhaled a deep breath through her nose, tasting the various smells. The action didn't help. For whatever weird reason, she not only smelled Clarisse but an awful pungent smell that reminded her of dog poop.
Whatever she smelled, it didn’t change the facts. Clarisse's scent was getting old. The redhead had to be several hours ahead of them.
The last week of trouble made Katie paranoid. Her face puckered, wondering how Clarisse had known where the group would be hiking. Or maybe the Clan vampire had hoped they'd pick a different destination than she did? Katie sighed with relief, straightening her shoulders. That sounded more like Clarisse. Honestly, as long as the redheaded vampire left Katie alone, she didn't care where the snotty girl went.
“That’s what you said yesterday and the day before. FYI, nothing has happened yet,” Nick said sarcastically as he looked down at the map, turning it one way then the other. His frown turned into a glare as he studied the wrinkled paper. Not looking at Sarah, he continued ridiculing her opinion. “This isn’t the Dhark Valley with werewolves and sasquatch attacking us around every tree.”
Katie watched Sarah silently clench her jaws together.
She wondered what had happened between the two of them. Nick’s words confirmed Katie’s theory: He was not acting like a love-struck lifeMate. Actually, he acted as if he hated Sarah.
“Hello, déjà vu. You do remember what happened the last time you said something like that, don't you?” Sarah asked Nick in her normal deadly soft voice, gently poking at the grumbly bear he had become. “Does a big explosion ring any bells in your thick skull?”
Nick ignored Sarah. A few seconds later, he threw his hands up in a gesture of defeat. “I can’t read this screwy map. It looks like we should go up the mountain, but the danger signs marking the path clearly say otherwise.”
Everyone took another turn reading the map. They all agreed. The map said to go up the mountain, because Blue Bertha was in the next valley. Unfortunately, the trail up the mountain was very clearly off limits. The dragons had literally threatened them with their lives if they left a designated trail and went into any of the forbidden areas.
The last time they ignored the dragon’s warning signs they nearly ended up dead.
Rebellion
Clarisse flipped a clean set of clothes over her shoulder and continued rummaging through her backpack, searching for shampoo and soap. Once she found them, she dropped her backpack under a thick mint bush, and walked quickly across the small oval shaped valley, heading toward the sparkling water.
She hated all dragons, especially Clarabelle and Harry.
Clarabelle, the wretched gray dragon, had smashed her hopes of the fire destroying the forest. The scattered flames had been growing bigger, along with Clarisse’s hope of going home, when blasted gray dragon dropped fairy water all across the small meadow, drenching Clarisse in the process.
Clarisse growled at the memory. Her skin had turned a sickly yellow
and her beautiful hair was a slimy mess. She couldn’t wait to be rid of the hideous odor clinging to her.
She glanced up, taking in the quiet valley with sweep of her eyes. A smile danced around her lips. She would show the wretched dragons a thing or two. Her cat-in-cream smile grew, loving her small disobedient action against the dragon’s orders.
She gave orders. She didn't follow them. The dragons would soon understand that error.
To prove her point, she entered the forbidden valley. Why? Because Harry – the big, stupid dragon – told her not to approach it. The entire valley was restricted, preserving the delicate ecosystem of several endangered species. She snorted. His reasoning didn't even make sense. He was a member of the Khr’Vurr, a traitor to Dragon Valley, yet he worried about the wildlife.
Dragons, every one of them, were dumb scaly freaks of nature. Once her father wiped-out all the mundane humans with his super-virus, she would insist he start on a similar virus targeting the scaly beasts, then elves and fairies. It was time everyone learned the mistake of underestimating a Clan vampire.
That wretched Harry was the worst offender. She detested the snotty green dragon with the big bump on his snout. His breath stank of dead fish and he kept coughing on his own smoke. He should have been strangled at birth just like the Vikings did their runts. At least, she’d heard rumors that the Vikings of the North Sea Valley killed runty babies born in multiple births. Dragons could learn a valuable lesson from the muscle-bound barbarians.
Clarisse slowed her steps. To her left, loomed a rocky cliff. A pool of water spread beneath it. The cool water called to her, demanding she hurry. She agreed. The simple thought of a long swim calmed her violent thoughts toward Harry, the scaled freak.
She hurried along the water’s edge, aiming toward the waterfalls. Following the narrow trail, she carefully stepped over slippery rocks as she made her way around the clear pool of water.
Her shoulder brushed the rock wall rising to the left of her. The wet rock left a smudge of muck colored grit on her beautiful skin. She curled her lip in disgust. She hated the great outdoors. When she returned home to Clan Valley, she would need a month of pampering at the exclusive Terra Spa Resort. It would take that long to recover from this horrid place. She certainly couldn't show her face in high society with stupid freckles popping up on her nose. Before she allowed that to happen, she would cut the top layer of skin off and let it re-grow.
She glanced around, so intent on finding the perfect resting spot she only heard the crashing water of the numerous cascading streams of water.
The silent attack took her by surprise, jarring her from her day dreams.
A burgundy skinned monster dropped onto the path, directly in front of her. It growled, baring yellowish teeth. Long, bulging arms hung past its muscled waist.
Fear slashed through her gut, screaming at her to run. She was the daughter of a high councilman, something like this was not supposed to happen to her.
The nearly hairless creature growled again, a deep guttural sound. The frightening noise ended in a sharp bark of command.
Like flipping a switch, a dozen more trolls appeared. Dropping from the face of the cliff, they surrounded her. The entire pack took up the freakish sound, adding a bone jarring hyena-like laugh at the last moment.
She didn't hesitate. She turned to run, but her escape attempt was too late.
The muscle-bound trolls, with deep maroon skin and black lips, surrounded her. An abnormally long arm reached for her.
Terrified, she tried dodging, but smacked into the wall of rock. Black, curved claws sank into her shoulder. She screamed in agony, twisting under the attack. She tried extending her own claws, but the silver encasing her left wrist only allowed a bit of claw on her right hand to emerge.
From the sheer rock wall, another monster reached down, clawing toward her face.
She screamed a high pitched sound of uncontained terror. Struggling, she shoved against her attackers, jerking her face to the side at the last moment. Sharp claws missed puncturing her eye by a hair’s length.
A second set of claws didn’t miss. Pain exploded through her body as black claws ripped four long gashes up her cheek. Blood gushed down her face, soaking her thin top.
“Stops it! Don’t kill her, you idjits!” a blurred-voiced screamed as her brain began shutting down.
Her body shuddered under the assault as another troll clamped its deadly teeth into her neck, racking her slender body in further waves of agony.
Enough Already
Katie wished the teenagers would stop arguing.
She snorted at her fanciful thinking.
The six teens had been shouting at each other for ten long minutes. Every single one of them stubbornly refused to admit they might be wrong. No doubt about it, not even a hint of common sense would appear in the near future.
At least there was no blood or claws in sight.
She didn't know what the big deal was. They had two choices: stay or go. The dragons said keep away from trails marked with warning signs.
Never again would she go against that camp regulation, not ever. She'd learned her lesson on that specific rule the hard way.
That left two options, either return to the original camp or follow the valley path.
Beth and Mitch leaned toward each other, bodies bowed and fists clenched. They appeared seconds from a fight. Katie cringed at the eager anticipation on Mitch's face.
A furious snarl rippled out of Beth, turning their small confrontation into a serious threat. Claws tipped the girl’s fingers. There was no telling what kind of creature she turned into, and thanks to the dragons, – even though every camper had on silver – shapeshifters retained their ability to change shape.
Beth’s Southern-Scottish burr thickened her voice. “I don’t believe I'm saying this, but I agree with the exile.” Her amber eyes flashed toward Sarah, while keeping Mitch in her line of vision. “That valley is not safe. My hair is standing on end.”
Mitch laughed at her. Zilch humor colored his voice. “You'd need to hang by your toes to have that bird's nest you call hair stand on end.”
“My instinct,” Beth emphasized her sixth sense, “is screaming danger. Obviously, as a halfling you've lost that Sídhí trait.”
Mitch opened his mouth, baring fully extended fangs. He growled, long and low. His sharp fangs, glistening with venom, lengthened as he leaned toward Beth’s heart-shaped face.
Nick broke the tension. In a lip-curl of distaste, he flashed a look of distrust at Sarah. “I won't go anywhere two residents of the Dhark Valley tell me to go.” Without another word, he stalked toward the shadowed trail in a stiff ground-eating gait.
“Haven Valley is not, repeat NOT, connected to the Dhark Empire,” Beth snapped; a rippling growl weaved through her words. Delicate hands perched on her hips, clenching and unclenching as if she resisted the temptation to shift and rip them all into little pieces. A hint of blood blew across the breeze as the shifter ignored tiny drips of red squeezing past her clenched fingers.
Claws and fists apparently didn’t go together.
Nick ignored her shout, disappearing down the path that twisted through the thick growth of trees.
Katie counted to three before Sarah threw up her hands in defeat and followed her lifeMate, hurrying toward the sheltering trees in a graceful half-trot that looked more like a dance.
The remaining teens fell like dominoes, following one after another.
Beth and Brianna were the last to give in, unwillingly following the group decision. The shorter girl’s heated comments grew silent once Mitch swaggered away.
Rarely talking, the group traveled down the slanted trail for almost two hours without stopping. The surrounding shrubbery and canopy of thick trees made the hike toward the valley floor seem cooler than climbing up the mountain.
The area was a wonderful new mixture of Sídhí plants and flowers. Bristle flowers dotted the area, as did snake and pocket vines. Dark
green sprites and hummingbirds flitted through the trees. There were even vines of mint that hung over the trail. At times, Katie was forced to push through dangling screens of the stuff. Either the mint vines had grown from an odd blending of Earth and Sídhí breeding or the dragons hired a fairy to manipulate the sharp smelling plants, because mint didn't normally grow in fifteen foot runners.
Katie really needed a break, but hated to say anything. Instead of voicing her complaint, (which she feared might sound like whining) she focused her attention on moving one foot in front of the other.
She slowly passed through a curtain of bushy vines that swayed in the gentle breeze. Pausing, she plucked one of the serrated leaves off its runner and popped the leaf in her mouth. Chewing the saw-toothed leaf released the mint’s sharp and refreshing flavor. The fresh smell seemed to help her lagging energy.
She hummed with pleasure, loving her post-puberty body. Being an adult Sídhí enhanced all of her senses. Everything she ate created an explosion of flavor on her taste buds, including a few things that would be deadly poison to a mundane human.
Jared's curiosity blended with her enjoyment and she offered him a leaf.
The immense pleasure she felt pulsing from him contradicted his martyred sigh. His outward actions reminded her of Mitch when she asked her brother to go shopping with her.
Within a few chews of the fragrant leaf, Jared’s hesitation turned into a wide smile. He winked his thanks.
_____________
Jared didn't care if he looked like a love-struck fool, because that's exactly what he was. His eyes drank in his mate, lingering along the luscious curve of her butt.
Katie looked adorable with a piece of fragrant mint stuck in her hair. He tried keeping his grin to himself, but he knew she felt his growing humor. She met it with her own resilient giggle as he snapped off a green vine and slipped it around his neck.
He felt her lagging energy pulling at him. He knew, without her saying anything, how tired she was. She looked wilted. The bounce had disappeared from her normally springy step.
Vampire's Forbidden Territory (Sídhí Summer Camp Series #2) Page 3