Eyes of the Woods

by Eden Fierce

  I followed him to the next clearing, and we came upon another group of deer. He pointed to a mother and her fawn. “Focus on the young bucks. Try not to feed on the does. Especially those with young.”

  I nodded.

  “Once you pick out your prey, let your thirst take over. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is. Just give in to it.”

  I chose a deer, a buck with felt still on his horns. “Just give in to it,” I said.

  I crouched down and then began to creep in the grass, just like Daniel showed me. I took a deep breath in through my nose. The young buck’s heartbeat and blood flow seemed to throb in my throat, and I was pulled to it. Before I even realized I moved, I was kneeling over the limp animal, taking in the warm blood from its neck. My body instantly relaxed, and I felt stronger and more satisfied with every gulp.

  Daniel appeared beside me and pulled me away before I was finished. I resisted, pushing against his arms.

  “You must stop before its heart stops beating,” Daniel said. “Listen. Feel it. After the last beat, the blood becomes poisonous.”

  “So my father was right about that,” I said. “What else was he right about?”

  Daniel stared at me a moment. “He was right about you.”

  I made a face. “What do you mean?”

  “He believes you are exceptional. Strong. Smart. You’re all of those things.”

  I looked away from him, glad I couldn’t blush. “He never said those things.”

  “He did. In his own way.”

  My lips formed a hard line.

  “You miss him.”

  I nodded. “I don’t mind this way of life. I kind of…like it. But if I had to choose between being a nightwalker and being with my family…” I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. “I miss them.”

  “Maybe you can have both.”

  “What?”

  “There are those of us who want peace, Eris. But there are just as many who want justice. The Priory has many enemies among our kind.”

  “I imagine so.”

  He used his sleeve to wipe the blood from my lips. “You can trust me, but until we come up with a plan, you should be very careful.”

  Nightwalkers. Their names weren’t accurate. The uncontrollable thirst wasn’t true. The young ones being kept to feed upon weren’t true. Ireck Sumner believing in the laws wasn’t true, and Daniel Sumner dying as a young man wasn’t true.

  I nodded, but I wasn’t sure whose truth I could trust anymore. Not even my own.

  WE STOOD AT THE TREE LINE, DANIEL AND I. Father and the boys had just returned home, and my heart sank when Mother stepped out onto the porch to greet them when they passed through the gate. She smiled, but her eyes were sad.

  She had often said that a matriarch of the Priory made many sacrifices, and she would tell me about them all the night before I married. The risk of losing a child to the forest was one of them. Where other mothers forbid their children to walk behind the natural fence that the tree line provided to the dark shadows of the woods, a Priory matriarch willingly bore her children, knowing they would one day spend much of their time there.

  It wasn’t until that moment that I recognized the almost negligible hint of worry in my mother’s eyes. The extra moment she held on as we said good-bye every night before a hunt. Those were the precursors to the anguish in her eyes now.

  Daniel put his hands on my shoulders. “It will get better.”

  “No, it won’t.”

  We walked away once the porch of my former home was empty. It was too hard to stand there and imagine my family eating stew and discussing their night without me.

  Daniel and I fed and then sat at the base of what looked like an ancient rock building. Impossibly hard sticks my Father called rebar reached out from the edges of huge broken-off pieces.

  “Do you know what this was?” I asked.

  Daniel looked up. “My father once said they were ruins from thousands of years ago, before the Fall. He said nightwalkers existed even then, but we were but whispers—the monsters in a dark tale. We kept our existence a secret for generations. The knowledge of our kind set the Fall in motion. Then it was the end, and both sides suffered.”

  “That’s quite a story,” I said.

  “You don’t believe me?” he asked, amused.

  “My father told me stories as well.”

  “I know,” Daniel said, holding his knee against his chest. “About the demons in the woods.”

  “No, we talked about other things besides nightwalkers.”

  He looked into my eyes, intrigued. “Like what?”

  “He talked about princesses a lot. They always needed to be saved, and the prince was always the hero. I didn’t like that.”

  “I wouldn’t think so.”

  “I think that’s why the thought of betrothal was so repulsive to me. I hated the thought of needing someone, needing to be saved. Being helpless.” I picked at the stick poking out from the moss next to me. “Turns out I needed saving anyway.”

  Daniel pulled his mouth to the side. “I’m sorry.” I glared at him, thinking he was teasing, but there was genuine sympathy in his eyes.

  “It was a stupid way to die,” I said, pushing off from the stump I sat on.

  “You were brave. I should know. I was there.”

  I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. “I’m glad you were there.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  A loud wail sent birds into the air, flapping their wings in a panic. Daniel and I startled, on our feet in the same moment. Daniel took off in a sprint, and I followed not far behind. He was faster than I, but not by much.

  At the edge of the boundary between Ona and Trou, Daniel stopped and grabbed me, pulling me behind a tree. We peered across a clearing to see a female nightwalker writhing in pain, an arrow protruding from her thigh.

  “Leave her!” the woman wailed.

  Four men and two boys younger than I stood next to a tree, where a young one was pinned to a tree by the neck with thick ropes.

  “Leave her!”

  “Beg, nightwalker!” one of the men growled. “Beg like our children when you feed upon them.

  “They’re Priory,” I said quietly. “The Matinsalos from Trou.”

  Daniel’s expression turned severe, that frightening look in his eyes I’d only seen once before, when Ayana and Efraim tried to take me from him.

  The nightwalker shuddered violently and then expired. The child cried out, and the men laughed.

  “What should we do?” I asked.

  Daniel was gone, and then he attacked the men from behind, starting with the youngest. But as he made his way to the man with the bow, another pulled a dagger. I soared across the clearing, pushing him off his feet. His eyes widened when he saw me, and everyone paused.

  “Eris Helgren?” he said, holding his arm up as a shield. “A nightwalker?”

  The older boy attacked Daniel from behind, and I jumped to his aid. I didn’t know if I would have before, but I considered him a friend, and if not that, an ally. The man on the ground jumped up, yelling as he threw his daggers. I dodged the first and then the second, seeing them as if they were in slow motion, heading straight for Daniel’s chest. I turned and kicked the dagger straight from the air and then grabbed the man, breaking his arm. He cried out.

  Daniel stood over the two young men and the one older one. They were all lying lifeless on the ground, the child whimpering, still tied to the tree.

  Daniel walked over to her and released her bonds. “Sssh, it’s okay. We’re going to take you home.”

  She stared at her mother and then sobbed, tearless but with no less intensity.

  “Why did she not fight back?” I asked, breathing hard. “I know what we’re capable of! Why do they not fight back?”

  The child fell on the ground next to her mother, bending at the waist to hug her.

  “They’re forbidden,” Daniel said, watching with a tortured
expression.

  “What?” I asked, taken aback

  “The claimed in the Trou territory are forbidden to harm humans. To do so would bring a punishment of death. To your entire family. They are instructed to run, and to hide.”

  “But the Onan coven fights back! The town of Jergden was wiped out in a single night!”

  Daniel’s face darkened. “Elias and his allies ignored the law. We’re only allowed to kill if we’re attacked. Evander chose not to punish them. Even those who lose themselves and feed upon a human. Even Elias. Evander is merciful, but the coven from Trou is under strict rule. Dagmar made a truce ages ago, and even though the humans no longer honor it, he does.”

  I looked down upon the child. The man on the ground moaned, holding his broken arm.

  “Your father,” he panted, “is dishonored by you, beast.”

  His words didn’t faze me. Daniel had told me enough stories for me to figure out it was I who was evil. “I didn’t murder a mother in front of her child.”

  “Child?” He laughed as blood sputtered from his mouth and sprayed his face. “Have you forgotten everything you know about nightwalkers?”

  “No. Because nothing I was told about them was the truth.”

  “Them? You’re one of them!” He coughed again.

  I stepped on his neck. “You took that child’s mother away from her. You’ve traumatized her forever. She could grow up hating humans, and could you blame her? We are the reason they attack us! We give them no choice!”

  The man grunted, unable to speak, so he shook his head and then spat blood on my leg. “Burn in Hell, nightwalker.”

  I took my foot away. “You are the only monster I see in these woods.”

  The man glanced at the child, who clung to Daniel’s leg, clearly traumatized. He looked back up at me, began to speak, but then thought better of it.

  Daniel held out his hand to the child. “What is your name?” he asked.

  “Eugenia,” she said, her bottom lip trembling.

  “Come, Eugenia,” Daniel said. “I’ll take you home.”

  A small smile touched my lips. Daniel looked like a giant next to tiny Eugenia, but he held her hand and spoke to her in such a gentle way. Something inside of me twinged. I had built so many walls: as a child to show my strength as a Prior, and then as a young woman to try to convince my father a betrothal wasn’t necessary. Day by day Daniel had quietly dismantled the walls I had so carefully constructed.

  Watching Daniel with Eugenia reminded me of the way Daniel had taken care of me while I turned. The way he spoke to me, the way he held me, the way he looked at me. But it was different.

  Daniel looked back at me and smiled, and the last wall crumbled.

  He began to walk away, and the man grabbed for the dagger I had kicked to the ground. I bent down and pulled his neck up quickly, powerful satisfaction coming over me when his bones snapped. His head fell back to the dirt, his body limp.

  Daniel was in a protective stance in front of Eugenia. His eyes were wide, and then he looked at me.

  I covered my mouth, realizing what I’d done. It was instinctual. Animalistic. I had killed a man of the Priory. They could have easily been my father and brothers. That terrified me.

  “They’re all dead,” I said through my hands. “Trou’s Priory is gone. They’re defenseless.”

  “Against what?” Daniel asked. When I couldn’t answer, he took Eugenia’s hand again and held out the other to me. “You saved my life, Eris.”

  “Did I?” I thought a moment and then nodded, answering my own question. “He was going to kill you. Kill Eugenia. I had to.”

  “You did. And now you see. We only kill when we must.”

  My hands came away from my mouth slowly, and I took his hand.

  I crouched on an elevated ledge behind the falls, fully clothed, watching the other immortals through the water. I wondered if there was anything my eyes couldn’t see. The pale, smiling creatures below frolicked and laughed with one another. It was an unknown hiding spot that I had discovered, and I had spent much of my time there, looking down on my new family. That was Daniel’s word for them, not mine. They largely ignored me, which was better than them constantly insisting on my punishment for being a Prior, like I had feared.

  A male playfully caught his mate, and they kissed. I felt a twitter in my belly. I hadn’t been held by anyone since Daniel cradled me the night I died, and I thought about it often.

  As if he could hear my thoughts, Daniel stepped through the water at the base and climbed up to join me. The water roared past us down to the rocks below.

  Daniel’s hair was dripping down onto his bare torso. His pants were soaked.

  “Are you always so modest, or do you do this for me?” I asked. “The others don’t seem to be bothered to cover themselves.”

  He chuckled. “I thought you would feel more comfortable. The new additions to our coven are easy to spot in the river. Before long, everyone seems to stop caring.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Nothing wrong with that.” We were both quiet for a while, and then he spoke again. “I owe you my life.”

  “No. We’re just even.”

  “I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for you.”

  “Nothing is easy anymore.”

  Daniel’s head bobbed twice, and his brows pulled together. He seemed hurt by my words.

  I closed my eyes. “I am the enemy to everyone.”

  “Not to me.”

  We sat for a while, watching the immortals below. I crossed my arms over my knees and rested my chin. “Do you think Eugenia will be all right?”

  Daniel watched members of his coven playing in the water. “We left her with her father. I got the sense that he cared for her very much. Didn’t you?”

  I agreed. “The look on Eugenia’s face when he held her. I hope I never forget it.”

  “You miss your family,” Daniel said.

  “Every moment I’m awake.”

  “I hope that soon you’ll be able to see them again. I understand how you feel. I went a long time without seeing my parents.”

  “When did you decide to visit them?”

  “My father walked into the thicket and called for me not long after I was turned. My situation was similar to yours. I was injured in the woods beyond repair. Kyah had saved me from the true death. My father would call into the trees that he knew what I was and didn’t care. He begged to see me, even if it was just one more time. He did that every night for a month. Finally, I went to him. He was frightened at first, but his love for me brought him past that. I visit the house nearly every day.”

  I hugged my knees. “Is that where you go?”

  He nodded.

  I thought about that for a moment. “Then I will hope for that.”

  Daniel reached over and put his hand atop mine. “I see how lonely you are. You needn’t be.”

  “I’m not lonely. I have you.”

  “Yes, you do,” he said. “More than I care to admit.”

  I looked over to him, and he slowly pulled his hand away. “I have longed to speak to you for years. But I never hoped it would be this way. At least, I would like to believe I’m not that selfish.”

  “Why me?” I asked. “There are plenty of women here.”

  “I saw you hesitate one night. After that, I watched you and realized you purposely let your brothers and father kill. You did your duty, but I could see you didn’t enjoy it. I was curious about you at first, and then it turned into something else.”

  “What?”

  “It’s hard to explain, really,” he said.

  “Try.”

  “An ache.”

  I stared at him as the water dripped from his nose and chin. His long eyelashes shaded his eyes, and he looked down.

  “I apologize. That was forward of me.”

  I shook my head and opened my mouth, but couldn’t think of anything to say.

  He cringed. “I’ve thought of tel
ling you this many times. Now that I have, I wish I hadn’t.”

  I leaned over to him, desperate to end his embarrassment. “I don’t,” I said, just inches from his face. “I’ve wondered if what I feel is because it was you who turned me. Is that what it is? Do you feel that way toward the one who changed you?”

  “How do you feel?” he asked.

  I hesitated. “Answer the question. Do you feel anything toward the immortal who changed you?”

  He blinked. “Kyah?” He shook his head. “She may have claimed me, but I’ve walked in this life for decades and thought I would be alone, until you. It was you who changed that for me, so I suppose you’re right.” He leaned in just a few more inches, and barely touched his lips to mine. I leaned in more, and then Daniel’s arms were around me, pulling me against him. Our lips parted, and his fingers pressed into my skin.

  When he finally pulled away, he cupped my jaw with both hands. “I only hesitated when I found you on the forest floor because I feared you might hate me for claiming you. But I couldn’t let you die.”

  “I miss my family,” I said. “But I don’t hate you. I just wish I could have both.”

  He nodded, resolute. “Come with me.”

  We leaped from the ledge and walked through the falls and to the shore. Daniel slipped his shirt back over his head and then took my hand. We walked together to the square, to find Evander sitting in his throne made of sticks. Two enormous, male immortals on each side of the elder stiffened, but Evander waved them away.

  Evander noticed my hand in Daniel’s and smiled, but it wasn’t warm. His eyes sparked with delight for another reason, but I couldn’t guess why.

  “Evander, we seek an audience with you,” Daniel said.

  “Go on,” Evander said.

  “We’ve spoken before about a truce between our coven and the Priory. I think Eris is the key.”

  “Eris? How so?”

  “What if she speaks to her father? Gets him to understand?”

  Evander considered this for a moment and then stood. “I think it’s a risk, Daniel. And like I’ve said before, I think it’s a risk that outweighs the potential result that you hope for.”

  “I believe Eris can convince Dyre. She is his daughter, Evander. This is the first time a Prior has been claimed. If there was a chance to make them see the truth, it’s now.”