The beast launched itself at its larger packmate and the two of them tumbled across the ground. I tossed the bow aside and pulled my sword free. It didn’t take long for the larger beast to overpower the smaller one, gripping it by the neck and shaking vigorously. I heard the telltale snap of a neck, but the beast didn’t halt its assault.
My instincts screamed at me to move, and I barely managed to step to the side as the third howler lunged for my throat. I brought my sword down on its neck, severing its spine with one stroke.
Pain lanced up my right leg as the large howler clamped down on my thigh. Flesh tore and bone snapped, forcing a scream from my throat. The howler shook its head back and forth, trying to tear my leg away, and my vision darkened for a second, the bloodlust trying to surge forward.
No.
My back hit the ground, and I dropped my sword. Shoving the pain into the same box I locked my bloodlust in, cool metal met my bloodsoaked fingers as I reached for the dagger holstered on my hip. The howler opened its jaws and bit down again, shattering the bone it’d already broken.
With a guttural yell, I slammed the blade into its eye.
The blow didn’t slow the beast down at all; instead, it just started shaking its head again, slamming me into the earth. I gripped its head with my other hand and drew the dagger out.
Stab.Die. Stab.Fucking die already!
Its jaws finally loosened and the howler collapsed partway on top of me. I shoved it off with a groan and left the dagger buried in its flesh.
I needed to heal the wounds—rationally, I knew this; aside from the pain, I was losing too much blood. Moroi were hard to kill, but I’d been a little reckless in this fight, and I was fairly certain one of my arteries had been hit during that last round.
That explained the lightheadedness and my darkening vision.
“Yep. You’re the epitome of control,”the imaginary Samara teased. But as amazing as she was, Samara didn’t have telepathy.
She wasn’t here.
I was definitely losing it, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. “I miss you. Please be safe.”
My body protested as I forced myself to sit up and draw the glyph for healing on my leg with shaking fingers. I panted through the pain of bone fragments piecing themselves back together along with my torn flesh. Once that was done, I set to fixing the other wounds, and twenty minutes later, my body was healed but my soul was still aching.
The sound of hoofbeats drifted to me, and I turned to watch three rangers approach. I was surprised but glad that it’d takenthem this long to get here. A few rangers had seen me leave alone earlier, and I had no doubt they had reported that to their superiors—who, in this case, were the rangers before me.
“Damn it, Alaric.” The lead ranger glared at me, her blonde hair shining brightly in the afternoon sunlight. “I told you we would handle this.”
I shrugged, picked my sword up off the ground, and swung it into the sheath on my back, ignoring the reproachful look the oldest of the rangers gave me over not cleaning it first. There wasn’t a patch of my clothing that wasn’t coated in blood—mine or the howlers’—and I hadn’t bothered to bring a pack of supplies with me since I wasn’t far from House Harker.
“Adrienne. Emil,” I said in greeting before glancing at the third ranger, who had dismounted and was surveying my work close up. “Nyx.”
The young ranger glanced up at me. “Nice work.”
I grunted. Howlers were some of the least dangerous of the monsters that prowled the forests. They were pack hunters and really only posed a problem if the pack got particularly large. Occasionally, some type of madness would infect them. We didn’t know what caused it, but if one of them got it, the entire pack would and, worse still, would transfer it to any other pack they came into contact with.
They’d turn highly aggressive and would attack anything, even if they had no chance of winning, leaving a trail of corpses behind them until they eventually starved to death. Rabid howlers didn’t eat, only slaughtered. This sick pack had been reported a week ago with a warning that they were slowly moving closer to House Harker territory. I’d been sparring with the rangers when the report had come in.
Emil had specifically told me to stay out of it when he’d caught my interest in the news. But the daily sparring hadn’tbeen cutting it anymore, and I needed an outlet to vent my frustrations on.
For a few moments, I’d managed to forget that my world was on fire. The fight had given me some clarity, and even though I felt the embers burning again, I knew I’d be able to concentrate better for at least a day or two.
Then I’d need to find something to kill again.
Emil gave me an understanding look. Everyone at House Harker was feeling the strain. The Head of the House, the Heir, and the Marshal were all gone. Everyone knew Carmilla was at the Sovereign House, but no one had seen Samara or Vail.
Neither of them, or Carmilla for that matter, had sent any messages to clear up the confusion.
Something was very wrong. We all knew it, and we all had different ways of coping while we tried to figure it out.
Adrienne was staring daggers at me from atop her enormous chestnut stallion. Her way of coping had me grinding my teeth on most days. She was second-in-command with Vail being gone and had a tendency to be overprotective of everyone, like she alone could keep us all safe through sheer force of will.
Before, it had been Nyx who had borne the brunt of Adrienne’s obsessive protective inclinations, but that had now been extended to me, Roth, and Kieran.
