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  The faint rustling sounds moved closer and closer. Nora held her breath. Waited. Then, the sounds stopped and there was nothing but silence. She tried to breathe as quietly as possible, taking shallow breaths in and out through her mouth. She still heard nothing. Nora dared to peek ever-so-slightly out from behind the tree.

  The woman stood completely still, looking around. A flood of relief washed over Nora. The woman didn’t know where she was, which meant Nora still had the element of surprise on her side. Hmmm…Just maybe, with a little bit of luck…

  Nora reached down and picked up a small rock. One. She took a deep breath in. Two. Held it. Three. She threw the rock as far into the forest as her new strength would allow. It flew through the air, hit a tree trunk, and fell, rolling over some of the dead leaves and other foliage on the ground. The sound it made was barely audible, but to Nora’s ears, and to the woman’s ears, it was loud as a roaring avalanche.

  Nora held her breath until her lungs screamed. The sound of the woman’s footsteps grew quieter as she took the bait and moved deeper into the forest. It worked!

  Nora pressed herself closer against the tree and edged a quarter of the way around. She snuck a peek, and saw the woman’s back as she passed within inches of Nora’s hiding spot, crouched as if stalking prey.

  With all the force she could muster, Nora jumped her. She landed forcefully against the woman’s back, knocking her off balance. She smashed her fist into the side of the woman’s head. The woman tried to flip over, to fight Nora off, but it was too late. Blow after blow connected – hard, uncompromising jabs that made Nora’s entire body shake with effort. But they were working. The woman shielded herself, tried to fight them off, but she was weakening. Another hit connected, and then another, and another, until finally the woman’s arms fell uselessly to her sides, and her eyes glazed over.

  Nora was breathing hard. She looked at her fists and saw that they were bloody. It wasn’t her blood. It looked like her knuckles – in fact, all her bones – had hardened enough for her to do serious damage. The woman lay limp beneath her. A small amount of blood had started to pool around the woman’s head, where she had sustained the most injury.

  Nora stood. The woman groaned and weakly rolled over. Nora felt no pity for her. She had taken Gray, hurt Alexander, and dared to hunt after her. Anger started to boil up again – anger tinged with an animal madness. The woman lay motionless, but she was still breathing.

  The anger surged through Nora. Anger at the woman for trying to take her. Anger at Hunter for abandoning her. Anger at the elders, and all the Vassiz, for chasing after her. Nora’s heart started to beat with a renewed vigor, and that familiar feeding instinct started ebbing to life.

  Nora stopped fighting it. She let the natural urge take over. Snarling, she threw herself viciously at the woman’s neck. The woman glanced up weakly at the noise, realizing at the last moment what was happening. She shrieked out in horror, but Nora’s teeth had already sunk deep into her neck.

  Chapter Twelve

  ~Damage Done~

  Nora felt completely reinvigorated. Energy, like she had never experienced before, beat through every limb of her body, giving her strength, agility, quickness…

  She felt, for the first time, truly alive. Anything she remembered before was but a pale comparison to the seductive essence of her being, now.

  She raced through the woods, going two, three, four times faster than the fastest she had ever gone in the dream world. And all her senses felt like they had kicked into overdrive.

  She could see the fine detail on every needle in the evergreens around her, notice every single blade of grass under her feet. With her eyes closed, she could have scaled the highest tree in her vicinity, and come back down, without a single misstep. She could say, instinctively, the precise distance between her and every single item of nature she could see – and in a flash she could be right beside it, too.

  Her body trembled with elation. She had known hunger before, but now she knew satiation. She had no idea how she managed before taking blood, how she lived before taking blood. Life after the transformation, no matter how augmented it may have seemed compared to being human, was the dot of a reflection from a mirror a hundred yards away compared to how she felt now. She felt like she could run for ages without stopping, like she could swim across the Pacific Ocean without giving it a second thought.

  She felt powerful, as if she had been freed from a tight cage and, for the first time, allowed to spread her beautiful, strong wings. And she used those wings to soar on the highest updraft, to achieve a feeling of unmitigated delight with herself and her place in the world.

  She ran, letting her instincts take her back to the clearing where she had left Alexander. And Gray.

  What she saw when she got there was not at all what she expected.

  Alexander was sitting on the ground, shoulders slumped. His legs were sprawled out in front of him, and he looked to be breathing hard. But at least he was breathing. There were no signs of any others. Quickly, she looked around, searching for Gray. She found him, alive and well – if a bit shaken – hiding behind a tree. She would tend to him as soon as she figured out what had happened here.

  In a split second, she was beside Alexander. “Hey,” she said gently, as she placed a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her – and she gasped. His face was bruised, like he had taken a beating. But there were no others signs of damage. “What happened?” she asked, concern making her voice tremble.

  “I beat them off,” he said heavily. His words slurred a bit, in a strange way.

  “Are you alright?” she asked, kneeling down to look at his face. He shook her away.

  “My pride is what is most wounded. Everything else – it is no concern. My body will heal, and I will recover. I am sorry you had to face her alone. Although – from the look of you – you fared a tad bit better than I.”

  “I fought against one,” she reminded him gently, “while you took on three.”

  “Dirty fighters,” he mumbled. “They would jump on any weakness you exhibit like starving coyotes on a carcass.”

  “But you beat them off?”

  “A pyrrhic victory. As soon as I took one of the brothers down, Korver jumped me from behind. While I struggled to get out of his grip, the other boy…well, he did this.” Alexander motioned over his face. “But Korver was slower than me and arrogant. He did not shield when he should have. I took him down…and the boy ran, carrying his brother with him. Korver begged for me to let him go, promised he wouldn’t speak of what happened here to anyone, that he would not give our location away. I strongly doubt the worth of his word, but it may buy us a few days, yet.”

  “A few days before what?”

  “Before all the other packs are alerted to where we are, as are the elders.”

  “But they won’t be able to find us, right? If we’re careful, they can’t track us…can they?”

  “If we’re careful,” Alexander said. “But it will be difficult.”

  “We can do it,” Nora said with a strong resolve. “I know we can.”

  “Easy to have such confidence when you’re young and haven’t seen the world,” he muttered.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. Help me up.” He started to get up, using one hand to push himself off the ground, and Nora took his other arm. But as soon as her hand gripped his arm, he grimaced and shied back.

  “What?” Nora asked worriedly. “What’s wrong?”

  “Don’t touch that arm,” Alexander hissed. He sounded…angry?

  “Sorry,” Nora said. “That’s the shoulder where you took the arrow, isn’t it?”

  Alexander grunted in reply.

  “Let me look at the wound.”

  “No.” Alexander spat the word. “It is nothing. The bite of a fly. It will heal on its own.”

  “It doesn’t sound like nothing,” Nora said, getting frustrated. “Take your shirt off, and let me see.”

  “I told you,
it’s fine.”

  “Let me see, or I’ll rip your shirt off myself.”

  “Hah!” Alexander barked a laugh. “You’d like to do that, wouldn’t you?”

  “What?” Nora frowned at him. He wasn’t acting like himself. And the slur had gotten worse. He sounded…almost like he was drunk. “Take your shirt off, and let me see the wound.”

  “No,” Alexander said, again. Petulantly. Nora rolled her eyes and gripped his bad arm with her hand. He grimaced in pain, but before he could say anything, she had him pinned to the ground. Once there, it was only a small matter of lifting his shirt over his head. Nora moved faster than he could have possibly expected. Before she knew it, he sat in front of her with his shirt off.

  “There,” he spat. “Are you happy, now?”

  “No,” Nora breathed softly.

  The wound looked terrible. The blood that had gushed out of it originally stained Alexander’s entire upper arm and chest, but had since dried. The gash itself was still moist, and it bubbled with a thick, black substance. A scab had started to form, but it barely crusted around the outside, and once it met the black substance, it just stopped.

  “This is no ordinary wound,” Nora said. She had taken a first aid class, once, as required by her school, and could tell a badly infected cut when she saw one. This one looked much, much worse.

  “What are you talking about?” Alexander asked. “You’re wrong. It feels fine.”

  “Really?” Nora raised an eyebrow and squeezed the bicep on his bad arm with her hand. Alexander grunted and started breathing faster in pain. She let go.

  “So it hurts a little,” Alexander conceded angrily. “It will heal, like I said.”

  “Have you seen it?”

  “What?”

  “Have you looked at it, yourself?”

  “What kind of a stupid question is that? Of course I’ve—” he cut off as his gaze came to rest on his shoulder. On seeing it, his eyes widened warily.

  “You’re right,” he breathed, concern clear in his voice. For the first time since she had come back, he spoke the way she remembered. “It should not be like that.”

  “What do you think happened?”

  “I know what happened,” Alexander replied gravely. “It makes sense, now…”

  “What does?”

  He looked at her, but said nothing.

  “Alexander? Alexander!”

  He swallowed hard. “I think it was no ordinary arrow. No, to have done so much, it had to have been laced.”

  “Laced? Laced with what?”

  “Poison.”

  Nora’s head spun. What could be poison to the Vassiz? From the little she knew, they seemed nearly immortal beasts, living for generations at a time and never slowing down.

  “What do we do?” she asked. “We need to get you an antidote. Right?” He didn’t reply. “Right?”

  He shook his head slowly. “There is only one substance I have heard of…read of, many years ago…that could produce such a wound. And from what I know – there is no cure.”

  Nora gasped. Did that mean…did that mean he would just get worse? Was there enough poison for it to be lethal? The hole in his shoulder looked terrible. Beyond healing. But surely they could do something. Right?

  “Can we isolate it?” Nora asked. “Make sure the poison doesn’t spread, something like that?”

  “It’s already hit the bloodstream,” Alexander said. He laughed ruefully. “I know its effects. First, the mind goes. Then the body breaks out in fever. Some can fight it off for longer than others, but left untreated…like I said. There is no cure.”

  “We must be able to do something!” Nora exclaimed.

  Alexander met her gaze calmly. “I will try to fight it, Nora, but…I don’t know how long I can. If I…start to act differently, speak to you differently…know it is the poison taking hold. It is not who I am.”

  Nora shook her head. “That’s nonsense. You’ll heal. You can last against it.”

  Alexander nodded in thought. “There is…one potential saving grace.”

  “Yes?” Nora asked, eager to find out more. “Tell me, what is it?”

  “The poison comes from a plant that is very rare. It is impossible to obtain, now – the species went extinct over two hundred years ago. I suspect that all the poison Korver’s pack had was placed on the tip of that arrowhead. And that is what we have to pin our hopes on. That they did not have enough for it be lethal.”

  “So what do we do now?” Nora asked.

  “First,” Alexander said, “give me my shirt back. There’s no point for you to be exposed to the wound and be reminded of it endlessly.” He shot her a smile. “Better for me to put on the appearance of full health.”

  Nora smiled weakly and retrieved his shirt. She helped him pull it over the bad arm, and he winced every time it moved.

  “Next, we’re close to Nakusp. I should be able to walk—” He pushed himself up with effort and stood on his two feet. He wavered for a second before catching his balance, then stood straight. “But unfortunately, I won’t be able to run with you.”

  “That’s fine,” Nora said. She was more worried about his health than getting to town quickly.

  “If I estimate our distance correctly, we should be able to get to Nakusp by nightfall, even with me in my current state. It’ll be good to enter town at that time anyway, to avoid any attention from the townspeople.” Nora nodded in agreement. “Once there, we can find a place of refuge – somewhere we can stay – and I’ll tell you how to get to the archive.”

  “What about your arm?”

  “We’ll see,” Alexander said. “There are some herbs I know that might stave off the poison – but they won’t rid my body of it completely.”

  “Can I find them here?” Nora asked. “Tell me what they look like, and I’ll help you look.”

  Alexander shook his head. “No. They’re not indigenous to this forest. The only way to get them is in Nakusp. The native tribes that live there, they have a healing woman – or, they should – and she is usually one skilled with herbs and medicines. You will seek her out for me tomorrow and see what she has.”

  “Alright,” Nora nodded, determined to find a way to save him. “I can do that.”

  “Now, there’s one more thing we need to address.”

  “What’s that?”

  “This pack that just attacked us. Since you’re the one who came back, and not Korver’s wife, I assume you were able to best her?” Nora tilted her head in agreement.

  In spite of herself, Nora gulped. Korver’s wife was dead, and Nora had taken her blood. What would Korver do when he and his boys found the body? She doubted he would keep his word, then. But she resolved not to say anything about it to Alexander. He had enough to worry about with his shoulder, right now.

  “And there is also the issue of our arrival. Or, rather, your control over yourself on our arrival. It will be…difficult…for you to be amongst so many humans, since you haven’t fed yet. We will have to plan your first feeding so it attracts only minimal attention. We will not be able to do it right away, unfortunately. You will struggle, but you have to hold on. If word gets out that a murder occurred in the small community on the day two newcomers arrive, well…it would not bode well for us. It is likely the other Vassiz would quickly hear of it and put two and two together.”

  “I can control myself,” Nora promised him. With the newly-taken Vassiz blood pulsing through her veins, with her first feeding out of the way, she should be as immune to the call of human blood as…well, as she ever could be.

  “Good,” Alexander sighed. He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. “I saw Gray behind a tree. You should go tend to him. I do not think he was hurt, only scared.”

  Nora nodded. If she had even the slightest concern that Gray was hurt, she would have attended to him a long time ago. But she had an overwhelming certainty within her – somehow – that he was not. And she knew that Alexander was.
/>   They had to get to town quickly, and she would need to seek out the healing woman to attain the herbs…whatever they were. With a bit of luck, she hoped they could stave off the poison’s spread.

  Chapter Thirteen

  ~Abilities~

  Nora found Gray peeking out from behind a tree. When he saw her looking at him, he moved forward cautiously. “It’s alright,” she told him, kneeling down. “Nobody’s going to hurt you, anymore.”

  As if he understood the words entirely, Gray galloped over to Nora. She smiled with relief as she saw him run.

  Nora reached out to pet his back. When she touched his fur, a stream of emotions entered her mind. Emotions, but not her own.

  Danger.

  It was a faded emotion, and felt more like…the memory of an emotion.

  Relief.

  That was fresher and more powerful. It lasted only a second, though.

  Concern.

  That was the one that pulsed the strongest. It was a concern for something that felt uncannily familiar.

  Nora stumbled back, breaking away from Gray. As soon as she broke contact, the stream stopped. And her mind was once again her own.

  She looked at Gray in disbelief. He stared right back at her. “Was that you?” she whispered. “Did you do that?”

  Gray tilted his head to one side and studied her. Nora shook her head. No, of course not. That’s ridiculous. But still…

  “Come here,” she told him. He walked closer. “Do you want to show me something?”

  Gray craned his neck as he got close. Nora reached out again, tentatively this time – and again, the emotions came. She gasped as she realized they were more than that. They were connected to images, fuzzy and skewed and difficult to make out, but they were there.

  She saw herself from behind, running through the forest. The perspective was low, close to the ground. And the images were centered right on her. It was like nothing else really existed.

  Peace. Serenity.