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A devilish spark lit her eyes as she stepped backward, lifting one finger between us in a silent beckon. No matter how calm she sounded, I knew I didn’t have a choice. My traitorous feet followed anyway.

She turned smoothly, found the doorknob, and pushed through the entrance.

My house sat at the edge of a quiet suburb, pressed up against a thick, sprawling forest. I knew those woods well enough, but I’d never liked going too deep. In the Padres Preserves, people went missing. The animals that claimed the forest were more predator than internet-friendly, and some said other things lived there too. Ash Town had its legends, creatures with human faces and bodies that didn’t belong, and I’d always brushed them off as small-town paranoia.

But as my gaze fell to the girl beside me, the legends suddenly felt dangerous.

We followed the cemented paths, and I stayed closer to Valentina than I ever would a stranger. Partly because she wasn’t leaving my sight, but also because, somehow, it felt like I had her trapped just as much as she had me. I didn’t want to admit the latter. Something deep inside me began to coil tight, urging me to protect her even as I fought the instinct.

The moment we crossed into the treeline, the air shifted heavy, dense, pressing in on us. This place was supposed to be quiet. Peaceful. A town where nothing ever happened. Still, dread crawled under my skin.

Precaution, I told myself. Nothing more.

Curiosity gnawed at my nerves as my gaze searched through the foliage. “Are there more beings out there than just vampires?” The question sounded ridiculous even to my own ears. I sounded like a kid asking if Santa Claus was real. But after the day I’d had… hell, maybe he was. If he existed, he’d better have elves.

“Yes,” she said. No explanation. Just that single word.

I nodded, raking my fingers through my already messy curls as curiosity tugged at me. It urged me to press her for more. We moved deeper along the trail, where rock and brush claimed more of the path than the dirt itself, a weight settled against my ribs. Cold. Heavy.

The air shifted, pressing inward, as though the forest itself had gone still, listening.

Valentina’s expression remained calm, unreadable when I glanced at her. If she sensed what I did, she gave nothing away. I couldn’t explain it. Not really. I just knew something was coming. The certainty buzzed beneath my skin, sharp enough to make me question my own sanity. I couldn’t risk sounding unhinged, so I kept my mouth shut. Maybe it was just nerves, or maybe it was because I was walking beside a girl who claimed to be a vampire. That had a way of unraveling anyone’s rational thought.

Fifteen minutes passed in silence.

When she finally halted, it was beneath a dense canopy of vibrant branches hanging low overhead. She turned to me, intent blazing in her gaze. “Close your eyes,” she whispered. “Listen carefully.”

Confusion knitted my brows, and a scoff slipped through my nose before I could stop it. I didn’t trust her with my eyes open. How did she expect me to trust she wouldn’t do something else unhinged? She met me with challenge in her expression, a silent insistence that pressed me forward. With another huff, I obeyed, closing my eyes and feeling incredibly stupid for it. Uneasy, exposed. My compliance was rewarded with nothing but wind and leaves.

“What am I supposed to hear?” I muttered, keeping them shut. I let out a slow breath and focused on the sounds around us, only to come up empty. The harder I concentrated, the more constricted I felt.

“Stop thinking,” Valentina murmured. “Relax. Let the other senses fade, just listen.” Her instructions didn’t make sense. The idea of not thinking, of letting anything go, only made everything spiral faster. I drew in another warm breath and shifted my focus; not to my thoughts, but to the steady rise and fall of her breathing beside me. Her warm scent enveloped me along with the track of her breath. Slowly, unconsciously, I matched it.

The static in my head softened. And then the forest came alive.

Sound rushed in all at once, layered, and endless. A distant waterfall spilled into a deep, waiting pool, its rhythm sharp and perfect. Birdsongs threaded through the branches, delicate and bright against the hush. But the sound that pulled me deepest, drowned out nearly everything else, was the heartbeat beside me. Valentina’s heart.

Steady. Certain. Impossible to ignore.

A rapacious growl shattered the forest’s tranquility. A fresh breeze carried the sharp tang of iron that jolted me fully awake. Canines tore through my gums faster than a switchblade, razor-sharp, slicing clean through flesh like butter. My lips snapped open as a hiss ripped free, and in the next breath my feet were already moving, body surging toward the sound before my mind could catch up.

The energy coursing through my body felt more natural than breathing. Like my limbs had been waiting for me to remember what they were made for. And what they needed now was to hunt. Ahead of me, the predator’s heart fluttered, slow, steady, oblivious. The sound echoed in my skull, rhythmic and intimate, a pulse I could feel more than hear.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Rock scraped my palms as I hauled myself up the small cliffside, the sound of my reward guiding me the rest of the way. The prey’s final screams had vibrated through the stone like a signal, an echo that led me straight to it.

When I reached the top, I peered down. His tan fur glistened beneath the sun, catching the light like a beacon in the wilderness, as if he wanted to be found. The cougar was hunched over a dark pool of blood, a fawn split open beneath him, its body already still.

Even as the rocks around them gleamed with splattered crimson, my focus never wavered.

I stayed locked on the real prize.

As intoxicating as it felt to my body, my mind refused to accept the truth. I didn’t want the heat building at the base of my throat, didn’t want the hunger curling tighter with every breath. But it was there. Real. And what frightened me most was how fast it was escalating; how natural it felt in all the wrong ways.

I knew I had to do it. That knowledge settled deep, instinctual, beyond reason.

Blood hadn’t even touched my tongue, yet it whispered to me anyway, “this would be good.” I didn’t know if I had it in me to be stronger than the urge that kept me crouched against the rock now, tracking the cougar’s movements with unnerving precision. A predator watching a predator.