Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (28 page)

“
Perhaps you’re right. But
you must move over. I’m driving,” Jules said.

Sarah stifled her satisfied smile and
crawled to the back of the wagon, adjusting her dress as she sat on
top of the haystacks next to Frank. Somewhere in the distance,
shouts echoed and dogs barked, and she knew their pursuers might be
there within seconds. “Get a move-on, then, Jules,” she muttered
under her breath.

The agitated horses neighed and
abruptly stopped, stomping their hooves. Jules snapped the reins.
“Come on!”

But the horses didn’t want any part of
crossing the perimeter into the mysterious forest. Sarah had to
wonder if they sensed something she couldn’t. Glancing over her
shoulder again, she gasped. Horsemen were less than 200 feet away,
the sun glinting off of the polished metal of their armor. She
could hear the troop leader call his men to arms. Their galloping
hooves kicked up clouds of dust as they thundered along, just as it
had in her vision. The dust made her eyes water. She ran a hand
over her face, rubbing, but the friction only made it worse.
“They’re coming!” she shouted. “Get those horses
moving!”

Jules gave a curt whistle and snapped
the reins again. The horses snorted, and the wagon lurched forward.
He tried to steer them into the forest, maneuvering through the
giant ferns. “I hope you know you’re ordering us to our
doom!”

“
No, Jules, doom is coming
up behind us. I think the king’s wrath is far worse than anything
we’re going to find in there,” Frank reasoned.

Sarah glanced behind her and scanned
for anybody following them. “Do you think they will follow us into
the forest?”

“
I don’t think so,” Frank
said. “Look how scared Jules is—and even the horses. I think
they’ll respect the myth simply because they fear it. Walking into
this forest is a death sentence, in their opinion
anyway.”

Sarah blinked as every detail along
the forest’s edge sharpened into focus: the feathery green of a
fern, the uneven bark of a tree, even a tiny, six-legged insect
scurrying across a red-veined leaf. Unless she had suddenly
developed superhero vision, this couldn’t be.

Sunlight shimmered through the
towering trees, and a blanket of cold, damp fog surrounded them,
sending goose-bumps up and down her shivering arms. The wagon
bounced down the rocky path as the horses galloped on. Shivering,
she pulled her hood up around her ears to keep warm.

Frank squeezed her hand and pulled her
down into the haystacks. “No use getting yourself all worked up.
I’ve learned a lot in my years of reporting, Sarah, and one of them
is that magical beings don’t exist.”

“
Like the
Immortals?”

“
I don’t believe that crap
for a minute. I’ve learned to accept that other dimensions are
possible and that unidentified primates can world-hop, but
immortality? Not even you could believe something so ridiculous,
right?”

“
I’d like
to believe that the rulers here made the Immortals up to keep their
subjects in line, but I’m hearing voices in my head and seeing
things, Frank.”
Wait…did I just admit that
to him? He’s gonna be looking for a medieval straightjacket if I
don’t learn to keep my mouth shut.

“
Seeing things? Hmm. Maybe
this dimension is doing weird things to our bodies. Maybe the
electric and magnetic fields are off. I mean, we weren’t born here.
It could take some physiological toll on us.”

She could only hope that was the
truth. The wagon jerked, and Sarah bounced off a haystack. Putting
out her hands, she landed on Frank’s chest. “What the heck was
that?”

“
I dunno, but the wagon
stopped.”

While trying to keep her balance,
Sarah climbed onto the haystacks and looked at the wagon seat.
Jules was nowhere in sight. She glanced at Frank with a confused
look on her face. “Where the heck did our driver go? You think he
jumped ship…er, uh, wagon?”

“
Let’s check it out,” he
said, reaching into the hay and pulling out the tranquilizer
gun.

“
You still have
that?”

“
Heck yeah! Who knows when
we’ll need it? And now might be just the occasion.”

Sarah jumped off the side of the cart
and walked to the front. “Easy, boy. It’s okay.” She patted one of
the horses, then looked around into the thick blanket of fog.
“Jules?”

An icy wind blew across her face,
followed by a menacing whisper in her ear. “Gettt
ooout…”

She gasped, her heart pounding a
million miles a minute.

The horses neighed and kicked wildly,
almost as if they’d heard it, too, as if they sensed another
frightening presence.

“
Something’s spooking the
horses,” said Frank, appearing beside her.

“
Yeah. I…we heard a
voice.”

“
A voice? What did it sound
like?” he asked.

“
A whisper…like a ghost.
Frank, do you think this forest is really haunted? Like you said,
we weren’t born here, and the people who were probably know more
about the place than we do.”

“
I really don’t want to
find out,” said Frank, pointing the gun into the forest. “Get back
in the wagon. We’re getting out of here. Time for Plan B…as soon as
I think of one.”

Snap
! A branch broke amongst the
foliage.

Sarah’s heart thumped wildly. She spun
in a slow circle, scanning the dark area. “H-hello?” she stuttered,
terrified.

Eerie whispers echoed from all around,
as if invisible beings were speaking directly in her ear. Shadows
drifted in the trees all around them, causing the hair at the nape
of Sarah’s neck to stand on end. “Do you…you hear that? Those
voices?”

“
I don’t hear
anything.”

“
You
sure? They’re everywhere,” she said, aghast that he couldn’t hear
them.
Maybe I’m losing it, having some
kind of a breakdown,
Sarah thought. She
gripped his arm tightly. “Oh gosh, Frank. There’s something
wrong…with my brain.”

“
No, I think you’re all
right. There is something off in this place though,” said Frank.
“We’d better high-tail it out of here…like NOW!”

“
What about Jules? We can’t
just leave him behind, Frank. I couldn’t do that to Mia, not after
all she risked to help me.”

A slow growl echoed through the
air.

Sarah froze. “Wh-what was that? And
please tell me you heard it too.”

“
Yeah, I heard it all
right. Sounded like some kind of wild animal.” Frank’s hand
tightened around hers. “Let’s get out of here!”

“
But Jules is—”

A deep growl rumbled from the
vegetation. Sarah glanced up just as a black wolf, the size of a
lion, lurched through the ferns toward her. Sarah staggered back
against the wagon, gasping. Eyes blazing, body tensed, the furry
beast bared his teeth. She suddenly felt like she was playing
Little Red Riding Hood in virtual 3D—complete with dark forest,
hooded cloak, and the big, bad wolf with real sharp teeth to eat
her with. She took a deep breath to calm her racing heart. “Back up
slowly…very slow,” she whispered, hoping Frank could hear her. Her
hands were clammy, and she had a death-grip on him, even though she
knew he would be just as helpless against the wild animal as she
was.

The wolf snarled, its top lip
quivering over razor-sharp teeth. The horses stood on their hind
legs, neighing in terror.

As Sarah looked feverishly for an
escape route, she noticed that the fog had mysteriously lifted, and
hundreds of wolves surrounded the wagon. “There are so, so many!
Wh-where did they all come from?” she muttered, afraid to speak too
loudly and set them off.

“
Have you ever seen a pack
this big?” asked Frank, taking another step back. He pointed the
tranquilizer gun directly at the front wolf.

“
Never!”

The largest wolf inched closer. It
lifted its muzzle to the morning sky and let out a primal howl. The
others followed its lead. The bloodcurdling noise sent shivers
through Sarah’s body.

“
Get back on the wagon,”
Frank said. “I’m sure the horses can outrun them.”

“
Okay,” she
whispered.

A voice thundered inside Sarah’s head.
“Leave, and we will tear you to shreds.”

She yanked Frank’s arm, showing him
she meant business. “No, Frank, change of plans. We need to stay
put.”

“
Are you crazy, Sarah? I’m
not gonna stand here and become a snack for those—

“
Frank! If we move, they’ll
kill us.”

“
Now’s not the time to
freeze up on me, Sarah. Now get on the wagon and let’s
go!”

She took a steadying breath. “No, I
mean it. I heard them, Frank, crazy as that sounds. They said if we
leave, they’ll rip us to shreds.”

“
What? Maybe you are losing
it, Sarah.”

She slowly met Frank’s gaze. “Listen,
I’m going to try and reason with them.”

“
But they’re wolves!” he
shot back.

“
I think this pack’s
intelligent. Maybe they’re the shape-shifters Jules warned us
about.”

“
It sounds absolutely
crazy…but then again, this whole thing is insane. I suppose if
you’re hearing voices, maybe they’re trying to talk to you
telepathically.”

Sarah gazed into the black eyes of the
alpha male, or so she assumed. “We mean no harm. We were being
chased. Our lives were in danger, and we had nowhere else to go. We
beg you for sanctuary.”

Frank nudged her. “No, Sarah, not
sanctuary. Ask for safe passage.”

She bowed
deeply. “We throw ourselves at your mercy and ask for safe
passage.” She felt like an idiot.
I’m
standing here talking to a pack of wolves, begging for protection
and mercy? I wonder if there’s a padded cell in that dungeon back
there. Maybe they should call in the royal
shrink.

The image of the wolf flickered like a
television transmission that was about to be interrupted, and a
light formed where the animal’s chest was, spreading across its
shaggy fur until it morphed into the nearby leaves and passed on to
the other animals. Sarah blinked against the glaring brightness and
raised a shaky hand to cover her eyes, but her curious nature
wouldn’t allow her to avert her gaze completely. The image
flickered more, shifting and elongating, until it burst into
thousands of particles. In that instant, every wolf turned into a
person.

Sarah’s heart trembled at the sight of
a tall, copper-skinned man dressed from head to toe in jet black.
He looked like an Indian from an old Western movie with his black
and white feathered headdress, heavily outlined eyes, his strong
jaw, and the stripes and spots painted on his face. Sarah took a
deep breath and glanced at Frank. “What the heck?”

Ignoring Frank, the black-eyed man
flipped his long hair over his shoulders and spoke to Sarah in a
cool voice. “You know the rules. I can only promise you a quick
death.” With lightning speed, he knocked the gun from Frank’s
hands.

“
No!” Frank yelled. “Don’t
you understand? We’re not from here. We don’t know the
rules.”

Never taking his eyes off Sarah, the
man snarled, “They were communicated to you at the edge of the
forest, yet you insisted on breaking them and crossing our
border.”

“
If you heard all of that,
then you know my situation,” Sarah said.

The man ran a long, needle-sharp
fingernail across her face and down her throat, making her gasp. A
tad more pressure, and he could slice right through her skin. “I
only know you’re being pursued. I don’t care by whom…or
why.”

A woman dressed in the same black
leather outfit with more feathers than a Las Vegas showgirl marched
forward, holding a gold dagger to Jules’s throat.

Sarah put her arm around Jules. He
sucked in air like he’d just run a marathon. “Yes,” she said. “He
is with us, and he did try to warn us.”

The alpha male touched Jules’s
forehead, then Frank’s, and finally hers. “You’re all marked for
death.”

Jules dropped to his knees, and Frank
clenched his fists.

Maybe
Jules had a good point about not setting foot in the forest, but
what else were we supposed to do? Let the knights drag us back to
face the jilted king’s wrath?
He was a
powerful ruler and wouldn’t forgive her for such an act of treason.
Besides that, his reputation was at stake; if he didn’t punish her,
he’d appear weak, and no king could afford that.

The shape-shifter whipped out a dagger
and held it to Jules’s neck. “You’ll be the first to go, since you
were the one who gave in like a weakling, knowing the rules, and
drove them into the forest.”

Jules gasped.

Sarah gripped his arm and pulled. “Let
him go! I made him come in here. If you must punish someone, kill
me. He’s done nothing wrong.”

“
That can be easily
arranged.” Lunging forward, he gripped her throat and squeezed, his
nails digging into her soft flesh.