Burnwood - The Dragon Arum

by Sarah La Rose

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Carter pressed his body to mine, pushing me up against the cave wall. The moonlight narrowly missed our bodies, keeping us out of sight.

  He held his fingers to his lips and whispered. “Don’t make a sound.”

  “They were here,” said a harsh, raspy voice. “I can smell them.”

  I looked down at the bloodstained clothing Carter was wearing. The injuries he had sustained during his fight with Yury had already heeled, but the evidence was all over him.

  “Well, there not here now,” said the other. “We should go back and find Vlad and get Yury out from under that rock.”

  “And how do you propose we go back to Yury empty-handed, Van?” he barked.

  “Yousef, we’ve lost them and…”

  “Shhh,” said Yousef. “Do you hear that?”

  Carter pressed me hard against the wall so that only his body protruded from behind the rocks. We were motionless, holding our breath as we waited. Their footsteps were gradually getting louder and I knew it was only a matter of seconds before we were discovered.

  “On my word, you run,” whispered Carter. “Do you understand me?”

  I nodded and clasped my hand over my mouth in an effort to muffle my sobs.

  I didn’t want to leave him, but I knew the only thing I could do was to get back to the hall and find Alec.

  “Are you ready?”

  Again, I nodded and squeezed his hand in mine. I couldn’t take my eyes from his, not when I knew there was a possibility that I would never see him again. I knew I had to run- it was our only chance, but I wasn’t sure my heart and mind could work together long enough to make my escape. I closed my eyes and held my breath, silently praying that the darkness of the night would conceal us. I pressed my lips to Carter’s and kissed him.

  When his lips parted he whispered into my ear, “Go.”

  I couldn’t move. My legs froze and my hands grasped his tattered clothing. I couldn’t leave him.

  Suddenly, a whizzing noise sounded through the air followed by a piercing cry.

  Carter stepped back, releasing me from where I was once pinned against the hard rock wall. He quietly crept along the cave and I followed him, mirroring his every step until the two of us were able to see the chaos unfolding around us.

  One of Yury’s goons was on his knees, an arrow through his left shoulder. His accomplice moved to his side just as another arrow whizzed through the air and planted itself in his thigh.

  “Pull it out!” screamed Yousef, but Van was too focused on the arrow in his own leg.

  Yousef managed to get on his feet. “Who the hell are you?”

  Carter and I shared a brief look of confusion before following their gaze to the protruding rock above us. There, on the scarce surface, a dark, hooded man stood with a bow and arrow in his hand.

  Yousef and Van’s eyes gleamed red as they tore the arrows from their flesh, dropping the blood soaked tips on the dirt as they moved forward. They barely made it four feet before the whizzing sound filled the air again, this time in greater magnitude than the last. Yousef and Van collapsed to the hard dirt floor, arrows protruding from every limb. They moaned and cursed until finally they were surrounded by seven hooded strangers.

  “What do you want?” growled Yousef.

  “Who the hell are you guys?” shouted Van.

  No words were spoken as the hooded figures stared down at the wounded hybrids.

  “The arrows…” Yousef groaned.

  Van yanked out one of the many protruding arrows from his chest and examined the tip. “They’re soaked in Dragon Arum.”

  Dragon Arum… that’s what Carter called the purple flower in the picture.

  Yousef turned to him, his face wrenched and pale, and it was like something registered between them.

  “They can’t be,” whimpered Van.

  “Hunters,” growled Yousef. He spit at the feet of one of the hooded men in front of him and in one quick motion the hunter swung his axe, bringing it down hard. The axe severed Yousef’s head, sending it rolling down the hillside as his body flopped lifeless to the ground.

  I gasped and Carter pulled me into his arms, muffling my sobs in his tattered shirt.

  “I won’t beg for my life,” said Van.

  Again, no words were spoken as the axe was raised into the air once again.

  Van held out his hand. “Tell me one thing. Is this all for the girl?”

  And with those final words the axe swung down and severed his head. Blood pulsed from the fresh cut, staining the ground with a river of blood.

  “You didn’t let him finish,” scoffed a feminine voice. “He was going to say something about the girl.”

  “He would have done no more than try to lead us astray with his lies.”

  I knew this voice and my feet instinctively started moving towards it. Carter grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back behind the cover the rock wall, but not before the figure lowered his hood and I glimpsed his soft hazel eyes and wispy, shoulder-length brown hair.

  Uncle Felix!

  I opened my mouth to call his name, but Carter’s hand muffled the noise. I struggled to break free of his hold, but I gave up as my eyes fell upon the two decapitated bodies lying at Felix’s feet.

  “Take the bodies to Kandles Point and burn them,” Felix commanded.

  Warm tears dripped down my cheek, absorbing into what remained of Carter’s shirt. I wasn’t sure whether I was crying over witnessing two murders or discovering that the murderer was my uncle, but either way the tears wouldn’t stop. I was confused and scared, but worst of all I felt like I was losing control of everything I once believed in… everything I once thought I knew.

  We heard them leave, but neither Carter nor I made an effort to move from behind that rock wall. It wasn’t the protection it provided us that kept us there, it was each other.

  “Carter,” I whispered. “Did you see him?”

  He nodded.

  “Do you think they’re gone now?”

  He nodded again.

  “Do you know who those people are?”

  He sighed and looked me in the eye. He brushed my hair back, tucking it behind my ears, and kissed me on the forehead. “Let’s get back to the hall.”

  I didn’t have the energy to dig any deeper so I let this avoidance pass without refute.

  We walked back to the Founder’s Hall and every busted down tree acted as a painful reminder of every horrible act I had witnessed that night.

  My mind raced with images of the night, replaying them over and over again like a bad movie. It didn’t feel like it was reality. In fact, had it not been for the complete and total onset of exhaustion I wouldn’t believe any of it had ever happened.

  Carter stopped suddenly, pulling me to his side.

  “What is it?”

  He surveyed the area and then looked down at the boulder at the bottom of the hill. “He’s gone.”

  Carter and I hurried over, circling the large rock. There, still wedged under the giant boulder was an arm, gruesomely torn from the shoulder.

  “He didn’t,” I gasped. “He couldn’t have.”

  Carter scanned the forest suspiciously. “Of course he did. It was his only choice.”

  “We can go back and find the hunters,” I said. “I can tell my uncle about Yury. They can find him. You saw what they did to the other two… what’s one more.”

  “We can’t do that.”

  “Oh, well, I mean of course you can’t. I will do it.”

  Carter shook his head. “No. It’s not a good idea.”

  “Carter, we can’t just let Yury get away. He will come back just like he did tonight.” I closed my eyes and shook my head. “I can’t live like this. Not knowing when he will be back to finish the job.”

  “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I will find another way to stop him.”

  “Carter, we have a way to stop him,” I said, starting back the way we had come.

/>   “Annabelle,” Carter said, catching me by the wrist. “You can’t go back there.”

  “I will be fine.” I shook his hand loose. “I can do this without you. You don’t need to put yourself at risk.”

  “Stop,” he said, every bit of patience escaping him. “You can’t go back.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they’re hunters. It is their sworn duty to kill hybrids. They will kill any hybrid that crosses their path, good or bad.”

  “I already told you, you don’t have to come. I will keep your secret. You can trust me.”

  He turned and ran his hand through his hair. “I wasn’t talking about me.”

  I walked around him, facing him once again. “What are you talking about?”

  He sighed, letting his hands fall to his side. “Annabelle, you’re more than just a founding family member. You’re a hybrid.”