Blood & Juniper

There's something about Stranglehold forest, I'm always bolting through this damn place. Tearing through the very same woods I was chased into just a month ago, only this time I'm faster, can see clear as day and am better at weaving through trees and bushes without so much as a snag.

I was running for my life last time, now I'm running for the life of my friends. In some ways this feels worse.

I don't want to lose either of them. I've already lost too much, I can't afford another loss.

I glance up at the low hanging sky. A thick yet pale smoke weaving between the branches, sinking to the forest bed and snaking around the tree trunks like a looming omen. As if Hades' sea of dead souls is oozing into our realm. Rain is a big possibility which only stresses the vision.

'What is Sam thinking!'

A thousand thoughts fight in my head and galloping at full speed isn't clearing the distress and anger like it usually does.

I'm surprised by my pace, closing the distance rapidly. One foot after another, sprinting, sprinting. How much time has passed, do I have enough time to make it there and back in less than half an hour? Sam could be following me right now! Time seems lost and muddled as I hurdle through the wilderness.

He didn't deny wanting to kill June… Could it be that he's been using me to get to her?

*Pat. Pat. Pat.*

My feet shuffle in the delicate yet powerful rhythm as I blow past orange and red leaves, fluttering as I leave them in the plume of grayish white.

It could have all been an act. What if he doesn't care about me at all! What reason do either of them have to care? Sam's rant about my empathy for monsters replays, he may have been referring to more than just Juniper.

Maybe all they care about is killing. All they care about is blood.

'You don't know them at all…'

I shove a younger shrub out of my way, frustrated. The bark tears as roots lift in the damp soil. I don't look back to see the damage, I keep moving forward, one foot after the other.

No! What I feel is real! I have a blood connection with June. I refuse to believe she doesn't feel something for me. She saved me, afterall.

And Sam…

Would he really go so far out of his way? These feelings can't be one-sided, can they? There's something here, this can't be a lie! He seemed earnest… it was genuine, right?

I bat away the hot tears streaking to my hairline.

I don't know. I don't know anything, anymore! I have no one to turn to.

No one, I feel… *Alone*.

I can smell the old logs of the cabin as I close in but there's another fragrance. There's a heart thumping at a steady tempo. A human, healthy like an athlete, I think?

I stop very suddenly. This isn't right. The forest is way too quiet. Something's off.

All my troubling thoughts shut off like a light switch as my ears perk up to listen. I sneak toward that suspicious heartbeat, drumming in the fog.

I'm getting closer, the pulse doesn't pick up. It's heavy and solid. The mist is thick like a curtain peeling back in a spotlight radius.

I jerk my head around feeling spooked, as if I'm being surrounded by ghosts just out of my range of sight. I hear the ominous echoing of sticks snapping and the distant coo of an owl but there's an all consuming silence. I have a terrible feeling in my gut.

This person smells familiar and also not quite human. They have a certain sovereignty about their scent. I think they know I'm here!

I freeze, my face strains with alarm. I hear light steps coming toward me. Impossible, how do they know? The average person wouldn't and isn't capable of being *that* quiet.

I back up into a large twin tree trunk, hiding against it. The footsteps continue, a soft padding of the ground with precise steps. Closer, they're getting closer!

I get ready to confront them with my fists if I have to. Nails bite into my palms as they grow sharp. My teeth shift as an instivive growl nearly escapes my throat.

The hair is rising on the back of my neck, that slow thumping continues approaching. A gentle crushing of leaves with a perfect rhythm. I don't move, waiting in suspense.

Our eyes lock, two golden hoops hanging in the fog. I can't see the rest of them but the thing is either very tall or perched on a low branch. Time seems to suspend as we stare at each other unblinking, unmoving.

Mirroring retinas like two shiny pennies.

'Wait a minute!'

"Cormac?" I spudder.

The irises shimmer as the werewolf slinks out of the haze and into view, his muscular shoulder parting the way. Thankfully, he's wearing clothes this time. Some jeans with holes in the knees and a dark plaid shirt, open and exposing his tanned, chiseled abs.

"The fearful fledgling," he addresses me discreetly in his deep creamy voice. He appears completely composed and serene.

I question him sharply but match his hushed tone, "What are you doing here? Juniper wasn't kidding around, you know. She *will* kill you if she finds you wandering around here again."

He elevates his chin, vaguely amused, "You do not need to worry yourself over me, young blood. She is not present, though your other friends are."

"What?" I ask stupidly.

His eyebrows arch into a curious expression and he glances in the direction of the cabin intrigued.

"Hmm...Not your friends then?"

I look around seeing nothing but the brewing mist twirling around us.

"You should turn back, little one. The wolfsbane poison they carry may not be for me as I originally suspected."

"Who's out here with us," my voice trembles as I feel a chill.

"Blood demons, at least three. I believe they belong to the vampiric creed."

"What do you mean?"

His golden irises roll back to mine, staring into me like some zen all knowing creature of the forest, "Why, the dictators of your kind. Much like the elders of wolves."

"The Thorn?" I breathe in shock.

"Listen," his eyes flutter closed, "They're surrounding us."

I go stiff, hugging myself and verging on panic. I whisper shout, "I can't hear them! What can we do?"

"Not with your ears, fledgling. You must control your fire," his eyes open, following something unseen to me as if beasts are circling us, "They'll smell your fear if you don't draw them with your bestial energy first."

"How? I don't know how to do that!"

"Calm, you must calm yourself. Grapple your power and reel it tight. You are constantly using it even if you're not consciously aware of it."

"I don't understand."

He frowns slightly as his patiences begins to dim, shifts his weight to the other foot, all the muscle rolling like liquid on rocks, "It's the presence and the essence of life. It's how you track your prey, how you sensed me before I approached you."

"I recognized your smell and heard your heartbeat."

He shakes his head, "It is entwined though beyond your other senses. A sixth sense if you will."

His eyes flick around and one sharp eyebrow wings upward as he murmurs to himself, "There may be a fourth, he stands out from his comrades."

He turns to me directly with a final warning, "If you can not suppress or disguise your power then run. They are closing in. Go back the way you came."

"What about you?"

He smirks at me sideways and silently backs up as the wall of mist devours him. His golden orbs relaxed beneath his dark brows fade before they too disappear into obscurity.

"Cormac!" I hiss, pursuing him. Is he really going to leave just like that?

He's gone, came and went. What was he even doing here? The strong beat of his heart is absorbed into the night like an atlas moth soaring into a full moon.

'Calm,' I exhale an even but lengthy breath and imagine hiding myself. Hiding my energy? I have no clue what I'm doing! This feels so pointless and I'm scared.

'I am calm. No one can see me,' I try to convince myself.

I look down at my hands as if I expected to go invisible. I curl my very visible fingers and throw them at my sides. 'Stupid.'

I am so screwed.

I scan my limited range of sight. 'Sneak or run? Sneak or run?'

I close my eyes and listen. 'Listen with more than my ears… How the hell does that work?' My nails sink into the flesh of the massive tree.

Suddenly it clicks. I feel it in my skin, feel the tree at my back. Every ridge in the maze of bark growing and splitting as the roots spread in the dirt like electric ley lines. The leaves falling and rolling, vibrations expanding in the woods. Animals and insects on the branches and living in the trees, the clouds wrapping around the leafy tops like a downy blanket, moving in one direction as a vast mindless apparition. I'm connected to the forest, an extension of the earth.

'Woah!'

It brings me back to my first night reborn. How brilliant the colors were, my nerves were acute, how *alive* everything was and still is. My senses are firing on high alert.

I sense something like ripples in water fl.i.c.k.i.n.g at my toes, a shadow inching my way.

I'm exercising a muscle I didn't know I had and I'm not used to it, I'm losing focus.

I get caught in the memory of my first day as a vampire. Speeding through it, all the way to my apartment as I stand staring at the bathroom mirror and that thing in my reflection is grinning back. Eyes brighter than pineapple rings and a mouth chock-full of shark teeth. A demonic, untamed twin attempting to take over my rationality and soul.

The mystery figure is only meters away, boots digging into the mud as they pick up speed. I feel them closing in, they're onto me!

The picture of my reflection mouths the words, "*Run!*"

I push off the tree and run.