by Blythe Baker
Until my face broke the surface and I gulped in the air like I was taking my very first breath.
I opened my eyes wide and looked around, and let out another yell of fear.
One of the boulders that had fallen from the cliff so many years ago couldn’t have been more than twenty feet from me.
Shivers wracked my spine as I realized how narrowly I’d missed those rocks.
The water was bitterly cold. Not freezing, but as the nights had been so cold the last few weeks, it had sapped most of the heat from its depths. It was so cold it was hard for me to get a deep breath, as it felt like the cold waters were trying to steal all the air from my lungs.
I looked all around, but there was no light apart from the last of the deep blue in the western sky. The trees beneath it, the shoreline…everything else was inky black. There weren’t even many lights around the lake, as most of the guests were staying at the Lodge this time of year and not in Mrs. Bickford’s cabins.
And I couldn’t see any of them from where I’d fallen.
I couldn’t stay out here in the middle of the lake, though. I’d either develop hypothermia, or lose the little strength I had left and drown anyways. I needed to make it to shore.
I swam forward, trying my best to keep my head above the water. Now that the immediate threat was gone, the pain in my back was growing with each stroke of my arms. I clenched my jaw, knowing I had to keep going until I found shore. I hoped I wouldn’t lose too much blood in the process, and hoped I wouldn’t contract some awful infection or parasite from the lake water…
I bumped into some of the boulders more than once, but the longer I was in the water, the more my eyes adjusted to the dimness pressing against my eyeballs. The stars overhead flickered into life one by one, too, and the moon was glowing more brightly by the minute.
Soon I found my way around the cliff faces, toward the sloping place where the land met the water again at the shore. It wasn’t long after that my foot touched the ground underneath my feet.
At first, I panicked a little, thinking I’d struck another rock or maybe some enormous fish, but as I moved forward, the bottom of the lake rose up to meet my feet, and I was able to stand.
I stood there in waist height water for a few moments, just trying to catch my breath, the lake water cascading off me in narrow rivulets. The air was biting through my sopping clothes, sending shivers down my back and arms, which were so violent they hurt. I had to get out of the water and find my way back to the Lodge…
Even though I had no idea what direction that was right now.
With a grimace, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my cell phone.
My heart skipped as I tried to turn it on, and it wouldn’t respond.
“Great…” I muttered, sliding it back into my wet jeans pocket.
I trudged through the rest of the water back to the shore. My clothes weighed a million pounds as I stumbled in the last few inches of rocky water, my feet slipping on the slick stones.
I wrung out my sleeves and the bottom of my shirt, and then gave up with an agitated sigh. It didn’t matter what I did, really. I was soaking wet, and that wasn’t going to change until I got home.
I looked around, trying to place where I was in the forest, exactly. I knew I could walk along the edge of the lake until I found the Lodge, but as the darkness was so pitch black, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do that before I got sick.
But what other choice did I have? I couldn’t just wait out here in the dark until morning.
So I started to walk along the shore, hoping I was heading toward the Lodge, when a hand appeared out of the darkness.
I screamed and fell backward into the water, splashing as I landed.
A dark shape appeared out of the shadows, and a voice soon followed. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Panting, I squinted through the darkness…and recognized the face of Dante Fain staring down at me, his hand outstretched.
“What’re you doing here?” I asked, getting to my feet, ignoring his hand.
“Trying to help you,” he said in his gruff, deep voice. “Though it seems you found your way out of the water alright.”
I glared up at him, barely able to make out his features in the gloom. He wore his dark, brimmed hat and long, black leather trench coat, and his dark eyes peered down at me.
As always, seeing him sent prickles of fear up my arms, making the tiny hairs stand up straight, and I knew it wasn’t just from the cold.
The mysterious monster hunter who had been skulking through the forest for the last few weeks was a formidable sight, and his presence was unsettling. The shadows seemed to collect around him like water in a sponge, and I couldn’t for one second believe he was genuinely trying to help me.
“How did you just happen to wander by when I was climbing out here?” I asked, wringing out the ends of my hair. I was trying my best not to shiver in front of him, and kept my jaw firmly clenched so my teeth wouldn’t chatter.
“Like I said, I was coming to help you,” he said again.
The zing of arrows flooded into my mind again, and I grimaced at him. “Wait a second…those arrows. They were yours, weren’t they?”
“Yes,” he said blankly.
I took a step back from him, my elbow bumping into the trunk of a tree. “You tried to kill me…” I said.
Fear pumped through my veins. Had he discovered I was a faery? I hadn’t used magic against that horrible, blurred creature up on the cliff, had I?
“No,” he said. “I was trying to shoot the creature that was attacking you.”
I hesitated, glaring at him. He had seen it too? So I wasn’t crazy…
“What was that thing?” I asked, taking a chance that he might give me some information.
“That’s the beast I’ve been trying to catch,” he said. “As I told you and the others at that meeting…I came to Faerywood Falls chasing after a despicable creature, unnatural and dangerous, a creature that has left many dead in its wake.”
I blinked up at him, and my thoughts went straight to Annie. If she hadn’t jumped…had she met her end the same way I almost had? Had the creature been the one to scare her off the cliff? Or had it killed her and her body fell to the water far below?
I folded my arms over my chest, mostly to stop my back from convulsing from the cold. “So you just happened to be around when the creature attacked me?” I asked.
“It’s not my fault that you found yourself in such a precarious position,” he said. “What were you doing all the way up there, anyway?”
I swallowed hard, my face flushing pink. “That’s none of your business,” I said, and instantly regretted how much like a spoiled brat I sounded.
“Hey, I don’t care if you have a death wish or anything like that. But dusk is maybe the worst time for you to go cliff jumping. It’s dangerous down there at the bottom,” he said.
“I thought you just said you didn’t care if I had a death wish,” I said, trying as best as I could to ignore the pain in my back. If I could get him to go away, I could start on my way to the Lodge.
“I don’t, really,” he said. “But you happened to be along the path I was following the creature. So instead of griping, you could thank me for helping you.”
“Helping me?” I said, the anger surging through me. “You’re joking, right? Those arrows nearly hit me.”
He shook his head. “They were never going to hit you. I was aiming at the creature.”
“Yeah, well, you almost took my ear off. Twice,” I said.
“I’m sorry I scared you, but if I hadn’t shot at it and distracted it, it probably would have killed you,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, whatever,” I said. “I jumped before it could get me.”
“Which could have been equally as stupid,” Dante said.
I’d never met another person in all my life that frustrated me as easily as Dante Fain did. Not only had he made a horrible first impression by wea
ring the claw from Old Scar-Face, whom he’d killed, around his neck, but he’d made a public declaration that he was the enemy of any and all Gifted.
Which made him my enemy.
“I’ve been looking for that creature ever since I arrived here, and I finally stumbled upon it a few nights ago,” he said.
“Why do you care so much about this creature?” I asked. “Did it kill someone you knew?”
I withheld myself from saying someone you love because I didn’t think someone like Dante could love.
He shook his head. “No. The family members of the dead hired me to hunt it down and kill it,” he said. “I haven’t stopped searching since I began.”
“So what is it?” I asked.
“I have no idea,” Dante said. “Tonight was the closest I’d gotten to it. I was just about to strike at it when it took off through the forest, as if it was hunting something itself, like it had picked up a scent. That’s when it cornered you up on the cliff.”
A shudder ran down my spine. With all his talk about despising the magical creatures, it made me wonder if this creature he chased was somehow magical.
And that made me wonder if it somehow knew me, and what I was, just by my scent…especially if it had taken off after me the way it had.
“I shot at it several times after you jumped, but it got away,” he said.
Another twinge of annoyance passed over me. He definitely didn’t care what happened to me; his statement alone proved he cared more about the creature than what happened to me.
“So I take it you chased after the thing and only came back to help me after you knew it was gone?” I asked.
“That beast is my top and only priority,” he said, his voice darkening. “If I don’t kill it, it is going to take even more lives.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, well, thank you for…whatever it was you think you did. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to be going.”
I started up through the trees, looking for a path to follow…even if I knew it was in vain.
“You’re injured,” he said after me. “You’re dripping blood all over the ground.”
A wave of nausea hit me, and I slowed to a stop. I was…losing that much blood?
I guessed all the adrenaline hadn’t left my system yet.
“Come with me…” he said, walking past me through the trees.
I just stared after him. Go with him? What did he think I was, an idiot?
The sound of his footsteps died away as he stopped to look back at me.
“The longer you stand there, the more blood you’ll leave behind. And if you leave blood, you can be sure the scent alone will attract unwanted attention,” he said.
I thought of Rebecca Blackburn appearing out of the darkness to attack me. Even though she was gone, there were surely other vampires that wandered these forests…
Just like I knew Cain did.
“Where are we going?” I asked, starting after him, pulling my jacket tighter around me to try and staunch the flow.
“Just follow me,” he said.
And we walked silently through the dark shadows of the night.
6
We walked for a little while, further away from the lake. My feet snapped twigs as I walked through the trees. There was no light for me to follow, just the hulking dark shape of Dante through the trunks and branches.
I was surprised that I had agreed to follow him. If he was trying to use fear tactics to get me to listen to him, it certainly had worked. Even if he didn’t know what I was afraid of, I’d displayed my belief in his words by going with him.
Now I was even more stuck. The longer I walked, the more the pain in my back grew. The cold air brushed against my skin, making me shiver, which made my torn skin throb with pain, and I felt a hot, sticky wetness on my skin, as if someone had applied a fresh coat of paint to my spine.
I could turn around and head back, but the idea of something coming at me through the trees was enough to make me want to stay around someone who could protect me if the worst came to worst.
My eyes drifted to the bow strapped to his back. Had he been telling the truth when he said he’d been firing the arrows up at me to help protect me?
It was hard to tell.
That creature had been horrifying, though. I couldn’t even remember any defining characteristics about it. Nothing aside from its massive size, of course. It was even bigger than Old Scar-Face had been.
How strange was it for Dante and me to ally, even temporarily?
I didn’t like it, that was for sure. How could I be sure he wasn’t taking me somewhere to kill me himself?
Maybe he was lying to me, and had actually been trying to kill me. Maybe those arrows were actually meant for me, and since he missed, he wanted to finish the job?
If he tried anything with me, I’d have to find a way to defend myself.
What that was though…I had no idea.
Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of a light through the trees. It was small and dim, but it was definitely light. It threw the trunks of the trees into deep relief, and the outline of Dante’s hulking form was clearly defined the closer we drew to it.
A few moments later, we were standing in front of the opening of a cave. A lantern stood on an outcropping of rock, the flame flickering brightly in the darkness. More lights glowed from the inside of the cave.
“We should get you out of those wet clothes before you catch something,” he said, ducking inside the cave.
I stood out in the cold night, staring inside. “You want me to come in there?” I asked, peering through the opening.
“There’s more room than you’d think,” he said. “Besides, you need those wounds tended to.”
What, you’re going to do that for me? I asked myself.
Furrowing my eyebrows, I ducked inside after him.
He was right; the cave was a lot bigger than it looked from the outside. It was probably bigger than my cabin was. The narrow opening gave way to a much wider space. The top of the cave was easily a dozen feet overhead, and it looked like Dante had stacked crates in front of what looked like another hole in the cave, leading deeper.
It was a surprisingly cozy place. He had a camping cot set up against the back of the cave with a view of the entrance with a few blankets and pillows; he clearly wasn’t expecting company because it wasn’t made. There were metal cases and plastic tubs scattered around the room. I even saw a generator near the entrance, though it wasn’t running.
“Here,” he said, bending over a small, metal box near the foot of his cot. He switched it on, and little, spiraling coils inside began to glow bright red. “A heater. Come sit in front of it while I get some tea made. Do you like tea?”
“Sure,” I said. I didn’t argue. The anticipation of sitting in front of a heater way overpowered by desire to keep my distance from Dante at the moment.
I lowered myself down in front of it, not even caring that I was sitting on a hard, stone floor. The heat washed over me, and I could have cried from the relief.
I’ll just stay here until I warm up…I told myself. Then I’ll head back to the Lodge. He probably has a flashlight or something I could borrow, right?
I spotted one over by a crate of what looked like cans of tuna and soup.
Guess he wasn’t starving out here in the middle of the forest.
I watched Dante pull a metal tea kettle from one of the plastic tubs on the floor. Then I watched as he started out of the cave.
“Where’re you going?” I asked.
He glanced over his shoulder, his expression just barely visible in the light of the lanterns scattered around. “Getting water,” he said. “I have a rain barrel out here.”
I arched an eyebrow as he disappeared from sight. Of course he did.
I remembered my phone in my pocket and pulled it out, setting it down on the ground beside me. It still wouldn’t turn on, but maybe it would with some time to dry out in front of the heater with me.
A f
ew minutes later, Dante walked back inside, empty handed.
“I started a fire out there,” he said. “I’ll have the tea ready in a few minutes. Did you want some soup?”
I blinked up at him. Was this his idea of hospitality? And besides, why was he bothering?
Well, I guessed I could probably rule out the idea that he was going to kill me, couldn’t I?
“Tea’s fine,” I said.
He nodded gruffly before turning back around and busying himself with something else.
“So…” I said, hoping to break the awkward tension as well as forget about the pain on my back for a moment. “Was this Old Scar-Face’s cave?” I asked.
He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Who’s that?”
I glowered at him. “The bear whose claw you wear around your neck like a trophy?”
He looked at the leather cord dangling around his neck. “Ah. Yes, I believe it was. It was filthy when I claimed it. The beast probably didn’t have long to live.”
I grimaced. “That bear never hurt anyone, you know.”
“No, I don’t,” he said, standing up and turning back toward me. “I don’t know hardly anything about this place. And frankly, I don’t care to. Now stand up. We have to get that jacket off you.”
My face flushed. “Why?”
“Because the longer you wear it all caked with blood like it is, the more likely your body’s white blood cells are going to start trying to heal over your skin, and the material of your shirt and jacket is going to fuse with it. And when we rip it off, it’s not going to feel so nice,” he said. “Anyway, if you don’t let me get this salve on it – ”
“What are you, a doctor or something?” I asked, glaring up at him.
He sighed heavily. “No, I’m not.”
“And I’m just supposed to take this salve that you’re talking about? Why don’t you just call someone to take me to the hospital?” I asked.
“Because this salve will eliminate your problems overnight,” he said.
I laughed, but it was a derisive sound. “Really? Are you telling me that it’s magic or something?”
“Not magic, exactly,” he said. “But it’s a special kind of medicine. Besides, weren’t you there at that supernatural meeting for a reason? You must believe in some of what was being discussed to an extent to go.”