I clenched my jaw and slightly picked up my pace. Who was I kidding? Fighting wasn’t an option.
Strigoi rarely traveled alone; groups of three to six were more common. They were clever hunters and adapted quickly in a fight. Outrunning them was my only choice. I debated shifting, but even on four feet, I wasn’t faster than a Strigoi. And I’d always been better at fighting in my human form.
Only three miles stood between me and safety. Getting there in one piece would be challenging but doable. The real problem was that it would take several seconds to activate the hidden doorway and another ten seconds for it to open, which meant I needed to buy some time.
Something moved in the tree ahead of me, just to my right. I didn’t change course though. Not yet. They might be faster and more vicious than me, but I knew these woods far better than they did.
Or at least I hoped I did, because I was about to bet my life on that.
I didn’t shift, but I did let my wolfish nature rise to the surface. Adrenaline flooded my veins, and the world grew sharper. Then the slight crack of a branch six feet to my left sounded like thunder.
I dove forward, tucking into a roll just as two shapes leapt from the trees on either side of me, nothing more than blurs of talons and fangs. A hiss tore from me as one of them sliced up the back of my calf, but I didn’t stop moving. Within two seconds, I was back on my feet and running, weaving through the trees and ducking under low-hanging branches.
The Strigoi were silent as they raced after me like specters of death.
There were at least four of them. Maybe six. It was hard to tell because they were so damn quiet and only revealed themselves when they struck. I needed to dwindle their numbers and slow them down.
Nothing other than instinct had me throwing myself to the left. My shoulder hit a tree and I bounced off, spinning once and seeing the Strigoi that had landed where I’d been a second ago. She was young, barely in her teens when she’d turned. A pink ribbon was tied to the end of what was now a very knotted braid, and her pastel blue dress with yellow flowers was in tatters.
This was why I hated facing the Strigoi more than any other monsters in Lunaria, because they were us, or at least they used to be. No matter how divided the Velesians, Moroi, and Furies became, we were all Moon Blessed.
It was hard to kill my own.
Another Strigoi lunged out from behind a tree. He must have been a large man before he’d turned. He was tall, well over six feet, and had wide shoulders that had once belonged to a broad build. Now, he was so gaunt, I suspected I’d be able to catch a glimpse of his ribs if I looked through the large holes of his shirt, but that wasn’t something I had time for as I flung myself back.
This time, I wasn’t quick enough. Claws tore open my stomach. Another two inches, and I would have been disemboweled. Then the thing that used to be a teenage girl sank her fangs into my arm.
I kicked out, catching the larger Strigoi in the stomach and sending him flying back several feet before tearing the girl off my arm and gripping her by the throat. I slammed her against the tree. Once. Twice. Her skull cracked.
They were faster. I was stronger.
Bile rose in my throat, but I swallowed it down as I dropped her and sprinted away. It took more than a fractured skull to take down a Strigoi.
My stomach burned like it was on fire, and I clamped an arm around it to keep the wound from opening more. It would heal eventually, but torn flesh always took longer to knit itself back together, and she hadn’t exactly been polite about it while ripping into my arm.
I gritted my teeth and pushed through the pain, running towards the one thing that could save my life right now. A quick glance over my shoulder told me the big Strigoi was still on my tail along with the girl, and at least a couple more were in the trees.
Where the fuck are you? I stole quick glimpses through the trees as my feet pounded into the earth. Finally, I spotted what I’d been looking for, or at least I thought I did. The camouflage made it tough to tell, but we were definitely in its territory, so I hoped I was right. I altered my course in the direction of a tall dead tree that had an identical dead tree exactly six feet away from it. The only difference between the trees was that the one on the right had a long, jagged, white line down its trunk like a scar.
Please don’t be dead-dead, I pleaded before skidding to a stop as one of the Strigoi keeping pace in the canopy dropped down to block my path.
Damn it. I was so close. Another one landed next to the first. I couldn’t hear the other two and I didn’t dare take my eyes off the ones in front of me, but I suspected they would be at my back in seconds, which meant I was boxed in.
This was going to hurt.
I didn’t wait for them to attack, which I knew they’d do at any moment; instead, I lunged forward, putting all my weight behind the movement, and my shoulder slammed into Strigoi that had just landed.
Jagged claws sank into my arms, and he pulled me back with him as he stumbled. One of the Strigoi leapt onto my back—I was guessing the teenage girl based on how light she was—and I jerked my shoulder up while twisting my head down and sideways, blocking her access to my throat.
She ripped into my upper arm instead.
The scent of my blood filled the air, and I felt the wound across my stomach, which had barely started to heal, tear open more. If the other two joined in, I was fucked.
Well, more fucked.
I pushed back against the big Strigoi, screaming as he sliced through the tendons on my right arm and I felt it go limp. The world started to become hazy.
I took another step.
