Out of the Dark (40 page)

Peri came storming into Decebel's room and her eyes were alight with worry.

"Asleep?"

Decebel nodded, weary of the look on the Fae's face.

"What's wrong Peri, why is that a bad thing?"

"Wake them up now!" she nearly growled at him.

"FANE, WAKE YOUR WOMAN UP." Decebel told his pack mate, then turned his thoughts to Jennifer.

"Jennifer, you must wake up! Now."

He waited to see if she would respond. He could feel her stirring, but she still slept on.

"JENNIFER!"
He snarled at her and imagined tugging her beautiful blonde hair just enough to get a reaction.

"What the hell, man! You don’t have to get violent – or is that just another form of foreplay for you?"
  Her voice was strong in his mind. She was okay.

"You need to wake up. You must not sleep."

"Why? What's the big deal? We've made it to Rachel's and we're waiting on them to pack some things. Jacque and I pulled up some ground against a tree and dozed for a moment. We have been going nonstop for two days, Decebel."

Decebel looked at Peri. "Why can't they sleep?" He made sure she understood it wasn't really a question so much as a command.

"What little magic they have will leak out of them while they sleep. It's unconscious, but they can't prevent it."

"Why didn't you bother to tell them this when you sent them out to their possible demise?" Decebel couldn't contain his snarl.

"Jennifer, magic slips from you while you're sleeping."

"Crap,"
he heard her mutter.
"Well, that can't be good. By the way, I do realize that is an understatement."

"Tell her she needs to get Rachel to put a cloaking spell on them. I taught it to her," Peri urged him.

"Baby, Peri says to get Rachel to put a cloaking spell on you guys. Then haul your beautiful butt back here."

"Aw, does Peri really think I have a beautiful butt? You will have to break it to her that I'm taken."

Decebel tried to suppress his chuckle, but he failed. He was smiling as he told her to hurry up.
I love you.

"Rachel." Jen stood up from the spot she had been holding in place. "Peri says you need to cloak us. Jacque and I fell asleep and she said our magic leaks out when we sleep. So now that fun witch of ours might know where we are."

Rachel began muttering under her breath, her eyes closed. Jen and Jacque shivered as they felt an unnatural coolness brush against their skin.

"Done," Rachel told them.

Jacque stood up and stretched. "So Dec wake you up too?"

"Yeah, the punk pulled my hair."

Jacque laughed. "Fane tried a different form of coercion." She smiled suggestively and winked at Jen, who politely flipped her off.

"We're ready," they heard a gruff voice say.

"Great!" Jen smiled at them, and Rachel chuckled as they started off at a brisk pace. Jacque once again pulled out the LT and whispered "the veil" to it. Peri had said this would allow the device to point them back in the direction they needed to go.

Gavril quickly took the lead – a result of the whole Alpha thing, Jen decided. He set a quick pace and a couple of times Jen and Jacque eyed each other, wondering which of them would pass out first.

"I am so out of shape," Jacque wheezed out as they continued at a light jog.

"I'm in shape." Jen grinned. "It's called curvy."

"That's not a shape, Jen," Jacque told her dryly.

"It is on me."

Rachel and Jacque laughed at Jen but never slowed their pace.

They jogged, they walked briskly, and they jogged some more. Gavril was relentless in his focus. He let them walk slowly at one point so they could drink and eat the Fae food, which Jacque and Jen were quickly tiring of.

Their first night in the woods came around quickly. Jen pulled out her phone to check the time – her battery was dangerously close to dying. She would have to get Peri to charge it for her, she decided with a grin. That grin was quickly wiped off her face when out of the dark sky a large bird swooped in, claws forward, straight at Jen.

Jen stumbled back, throwing her arms up in the air in an attempt to keep the bird from scratching her eyes out of her head.

"What the crap was that about?" Jen growled as Gavril and the others came to a stop. They all eyed the sky wearily, waiting to see if that had been a fluke or if the bird had been under someone else's power. They didn't have to wait long for their answer.

A loud rumbling rolled across the sky and the air began to move, rushing over their heads. The sound got louder and louder. Their eyes all widened as they realized what was causing the noise. A hundred or more birds were flying straight at them.

"RUN!" Gavril yelled. "Deeper into the cover of the trees!"

Jen and Jacque didn't have to be told twice. They both took off at a sprint, their arms thrown over their heads, waving wildly. Jen was sure they looked like crazy chicks, running through the woods with birds chasing them.

Jacque looked back over her shoulder to see if the birds were still pursuing them. Her stomach dropped when she saw that it was no longer just birds.

"Gavril," she hollered over to the male wolf, who was trying to stay in between them and the pursuers. "The birds have friends!"

Gavril looked behind him and cursed.

Jen's curiosity got the better of her fear so she too looked over her shoulder. "Holy -"

Jen was cut off by Jacque's stern warning. "Jen."

"Sorry. I mean, bloody hell!"

"Better," Jacque approved.

"Are those -" Jen kept glancing back as she ran, trying desperately not to meet a tree face to face.

"Big ass wild boars?" Jacque finished for her.

"Well, I was going to say big ass pigs, but we can go with wild boar if you'd like."

"Yes, that's what those are. And they have tusks. Big, deadly tusks," Jacque added.

Gavril pointed at a drop off that was to their left. Jen had been trying to avoid it, but apparently Gavril had other plans.

"Slide down it!" he yelled, and Jen and Jacque watched in horror as Rachel fell gracefully into a slide from her steady running – worthy of a professional baseball player – and went over the ledge.

Jen and Jacque came to a halt right at the edge of the drop off. They looked down and watched as Gavril and Rachel slid, rolled, and slid some more.

Jen looked back behind her as the ground began to shake – what she had deemed as the BAWB were getting closer. She looked over to Jacque and shrugged. "Die by being mauled by
the BAWB tusk, or die by drop off. I will always chose the latter." She grabbed Jacque's hand and pulled her down to her butt. Jen then gave a huge shove that pushed them both over the edge.

They were falling. Their backs hit the steep hill and they slid, clothes being pulled by anything in their path, cuts appearing across their faces as branches slapped them. They slid, and slid some more, finally coming to an abrupt halt at the feet of a dirt-covered healer and Alpha.

"Get up, we have to keep running." Gavril pulled Jen to her feet while Rachel helped Jacque up. Once on their feet, Gavril turned and began running again. Jen and Jacque didn't bother looking back up to see if the boars had decided to take flight. They took off running, going faster than they ever had before.

"How did she find us so quickly?"
Gavril asked his mate as they ran. He was looking for an opening in the mountain, a place they could squeeze into and take cover.

"I don't know. I thought my cloak was still holding."

Gavril once again began hearing the telltale sound of flapping wings. He picked up speed, motioning with his arm for the others to do the same. Finally, as they rounded a sharp curve around the side of cliff, there was the break Gavril had been looking for – an opening that looked like a vertical cut in the mountain. It would be a tight squeeze, but that was better than being out in the open.

"Quickly, into the opening." Gavril stopped to point the girls in the direction of the opening.

Jen squeezed in, followed by Jacque, Rachel, and finally Gavril. It wasn't very deep but it went far back enough that Gavril was able to back away from the opening. They watched the shadows of the birds in the moonlight as they flew over and past them. They all let out a collective breath.

"That won't be the end of it," Gavril told them.

Rachel grabbed some twigs and leaves off the rocky bottom of the opening, piling them together. She placed her hands over them and with a whispered word, a fire jumped up from the pile.

"Wicked." Jen smiled.

"The fire will help deter animals," she explained.

Jacque and Jen sat down, both still trying to catch their breath.

"So what exactly was that?" Jen asked in between breaths.

"She's found us," Rachel answered solemnly. "She's using the animals against us. She will use the weather as well. She is very powerful."

"Okay, so what are we going to do?" Jacque asked rather calmly.

"We need Peri. I cannot fight her."

"Okay, well Jacque and I will talk with our men and get Peri the fairy here."

Rachel's lips quirked up on one side, "Does she know you call her Peri the fairy?"

Jen winked at her, "You know it."

"Hey, B?"

"Jennifer."
The relief in his voice made Jen's stomach do funny things. She tried to ignore that and focus on what was important, like staying alive.

"We need Peri to come and save our butts."

"What? Why? What's happened? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but we were just chased by some crazy birds and then some BAWB."
Jen pronounced her acronym for the boar as “bob”, and grinned when Decebel asked what the hell a bob was.

"Big ass wild boar. Jacque's words. That's not important, what's important is the witch has our location on her radar and we need Peri to bring the rain."

"I really wish you would talk in English and not TV military lingo."

"Fine. The witch found us. Tell Peri to get her butt here and do her thing. Better?"

"Yes."

"It doesn't sound near as cool,"
Jen grumbled.

"And cool is definitely what we are worried about since your life is at stake,"
Decebel snapped back at her.