Malakai brought us to a clearing, similar to where he had first found me and Azrael. He lowered his snout to sniff the ground, and I searched the tree line for any signs of him.
“Azrael!” I yelled.
I didn’t care who heard me. Anyone or anythingthat tried to stop me would meet the same fate Aamon had been dealt. Gone was the gentle conscience that restrained my wandering mind. Killing Aamon silenced that part of me, and I had no plans on bringing her back any time soon.
“Azrael!” I called out again. This time, movement on our left caught my eye.
I instantly hopped off of Malakai when I saw Azrael running across the clearing. I met him halfway and pulled him into my arms, quickly checking him for any injuries.
“Are you okay?” I asked, unable to hide the worry in my voice. Aside from a few scrapes on his hands and arms, he seemed otherwise fine. “What were youthinking?! You could have gotten yourself killed, Azrael! Why would you come out here alone like this?!”
Tears welled in the brim of his eyes, but he kept them on a tight string as he forced himself not to cry. The strain on his face was visible as he swallowed. “I c-can’t let him hurt you again.” He sniffed, puffing out his chest like a little warrior. “I had to watch him h-hurt you, and I….” A single tear broke free, slipping down his cheek as it cleared a path through the dirt staining his skin. “I wanted to protect you.”
All of my anger melted away as I wrapped my arms around him in a tight embrace, and Azrael finally began to cry.
“It’smyjob to protectyou, Azrael, not the other way around. Please don’t leave like that again, alright? Let me keep you safe.”
There was movement behind us, rustling the dead grass, and I turned to see Malakai stalking toward us with his head low. His eyes were on the trees, and his lips peeled back just a little. Even his fur stood up in a defensive stance, with his ears perked back, twitching like they were listening for something.
“What is it, Malakai?” I asked, but he didn’t acknowledge my question.
“Princess,” Azrael whispered. “There’s… there’s something here.”
I turned back to Azrael with my brows pulled together. “What did you see, Azrael?”
As his throat bobbed, he pulled away and fidgeted with his fingers. “That sound that we heard in the caves… I…. I saw what made it. It’s…” He looked around, trembling slightly in my arms. “At first it lookednormal, like you or me, but, when it noticed me, its face began to ch-change.”
Suddenly, a faint sound echoed from the trees. I quickly threw Azrael behind me and stood with one hand on a dagger at my side. The distant sound of clicking began again. It was such an odd sound, but one we had heard when we stayed in the cave—after being attacked by necroviants.
“Is that it?” I asked him quietly, making sure to keep him between both me and Mal.
“Yes,” he whispered. “It… Its mouth… It had sharp teeth, and its eyes turned black. I heard you yelling my name, and then I just ran as fast as I could!”
The clicking got louder, but now it came from different directions. In front of us… behind us… Malakai’s head continued turning frantically as he searched for the threat as well, and I could feel the stress rolling off of his body in waves of tense heat.
“What is it, Malakai?” I asked over my shoulder.
The only response I got was a deep, threatening growl, and that only worsened my nerves as I reached for one of the blades at my hip.
“I’m sorry!” Azrael cried. “I never should have left. I’m sorry!”
Then, from the pockets of darkness between the trees, I saw someone step out. At first, it looked like any other normal person, but I could distinctly hear the clicking sound coming from it. His head turned, cocking in strange angles—similar to that of the necroviants. When his eyes landed on us, I could see the blue color fade into pitch black.
His skin lost all warmth in its color, turning into a pale, yellowish grey, and his jaw clicked as it began to open.
“What is that thing?” I muttered under my breath, sweat beginning to slick at my palm where I held the tip of the blade’s handle.
The creature’s mouth continued to open until its jaw completely dislocated, widening in an unnatural way as it stretched the skin around its lips to the point of cracking. And then, it let out the most blood-curdling screech that made my ears feel as if they were going to burst.
Azrael yelled behind me, covering his ears, and even Malakai whimpered at the sound.
That’s when it hit me.
I had read about these… things. But for some reason, I had always just thought of them as a kind of myth, never really accepting that they had been real.
Every tooth in its mouth were sharp fangs, resembling the mouth of a shark. And when the screeching stopped, its head snapped back down as its gaze locked onto its prey. One by one, more of them stepped forward through the trees… and I readied myself.
Vampyres.
