“They wouldn’t be running like that at this time of night unless something was chasing them.” His words were nearly drowned out in the splashing as they tore across the river.
I moved closer to Ezra, and strained to see what could be following the reindeer. I crossed my fingers for wolves, but I had a feeling that it was a something a little more anthropomorphic than that. Once the reindeer plummeted back in the woods, other than the sound of their depleting hooves, there was an odd silence.
Straining, I realized that wasn’t exactly right. There was silence, but not silence. I could see things, but not things. It was like every time I almost caught something, it was gone before I could even register it. Almost as if there was a ghost spooking the deer, and I thought hopefully, maybe it was just the run-of-the-mill ghost.
“Alice!” Ezra shouted suddenly and grabbed my arm.
- 6 -
The river splashed directly in front of us. Literally out of nowhere, a man leapt into the river. When the black water settled around him, I got a look at him under the glowing green lights.
He was shirtless, revealing well-muscled arms. His black hair went past his ears, and he was very attractive. But something in his black eyes unnerved me.
He stared at us, making my heart hammer nervously in my chest, and I was about to say something to break the tension, but I saw movement behind him.
Across the river, walking deliberately slow, two more vampires came out from the trees. They stood on the shore opposite us, flanking the one in the water, but they looked less imposing.
They were barefoot and wore ragged clothes. The blondish one on the right looked amused.
The other one appeared to be embarrassed about this little confrontation. He kept his dark brown hair shorter than the other two, but he had a thick stubble on his face. While he was well-toned, he was smaller than the others.
His eyes were the thing that caught me the most. They were gentle and large, reminding me of a puppy.
In the water, the first vampire crouched down lower, poised for an attack, and my mind raced to think of a way out of it. Mae and Jack warned me to run, but I couldn’t outrun him. I wasn’t even sure if Ezra could. He had to have some kind of super speed to appear out of nowhere like that.
“We don’t mean to bother you,” I said weakly, and Ezra squeezed my arm.
From the water, the vampire growled at me, but the one with the kind eyes stopped him.
“Stellan!” he snapped, and the vampire in the water made an argument in Finnish, but he cut him off.
“You’re American, yeah?” the amused blonde vampire asked, his tone lilting with an accent.
“Yes, we are,” Ezra responded. “I’m Ezra, and this is my sister, Alice.”
“I’m Dodge,” he smirked at us. “I’m from Boston.”
“Leif,” the kind vampire gestured to himself, and then to the vampire in the water. “That’s Stellan.” Stellan turned back to him and retorted something in Finnish, but Leif shook his head.
“What are you doing out here?” Dodge cocked an eyebrow at us. “It doesn’t look like you’re on a friendly hike.”
There wasn’t really a good answer to the question. We didn’t look like vacationers or skiers, and these were probably the lycans after Peter.
“She’s never been here before,” Ezra chose his words carefully. “She wanted to explore.”
“I like exploring,” I added, and Ezra shot me a look.
Dodge chuckled but that only infuriated Stellan. He stood up straighter, making himself larger and more imposing. To Dodge and Leif, we appeared to be a curiosity. Leif especially looked at us with tolerance, but Stellan seemed threatened.
Glancing back at Leif, Stellan shouted something in Finnish. He kept talking to Leif, but he didn’t take his eyes off us. Ezra could understand everything he said, but he played dumb.
“Did you know this was our territory?” Dodge asked when Stellan finished his rant.
“No. This is a National Park, isn’t it?” Ezra pretended to be confused.
Leif and Dodge exchanged looks. They seemed skeptical of our intentions. But based on Dodge’s casual shrug and Leif’s nod, they didn’t think we were a danger to them. We probably weren’t, so that made sense.
“This is lycan territory.” Leif looked gravely at us. “It’s best if you don’t wander around here.”
“We’ll be more careful in the future,” Ezra apologized.
“Make sure that you do,” Dodge said, abandoning his earlier humor. His face and voice hardened, resembling Stellan’s. They were threatening us.
Ezra nodded at them and ushered me away, back the way we came. The lycans didn’t move, and I felt their eyes on us as we hurried through the forest. Ezra kept his hand on my back, pushing me to go faster. I started to say something several times, but he shushed me until we got to the car.
“What are we doing?” I asked when he unlocked the Range Rover and got inside.
“Get in,” Ezra commanded and slammed his door shut.
“It’s only one-thirty.” I climbed in after him. “We have plenty of time to look for Peter.”