Vampire in the Woods (Merlin's Hoods Book 2) (2 page)

A
ngeline was moving almost
before she could think logically, running toward the man. “Merlin!” she shouted. “It’s been too long since you’ve been here, old friend!” She didn’t give herself time to think but leapt into his arms, laughing at the sight of her old mentor—the very man who had awarded her the hood when she was young. He was the leader of the Hoods and had visited her often when she was a girl.

These days … he had more important things to attend to. She drew back and gazed into his eyes, wondering why he was here now.

“It is time, Angeline,” the old man said quietly, as if he’d heard her question.

And when he said it, she couldn’t act as though she didn’t know what he was talking about.

“I thought I would have longer,” she answered, fighting to keep her voice even. “They are children still. Surely we don’t need to choose now, while I am still healthy and whole.”

Merlin gave her a slight smile but then shook his head. “You are healthy and whole now, but what if that is no longer true tomorrow? You know the dangers of the job. As we speak, I am actively seeking a replacement for a Hood who died without a successor. I would not have you in the same position. You must choose between your girls, or I shall have to pass the hood to someone else. Someone more willing to shoulder this responsibility.”

Angeline frowned but quickly pounced on the one statement of import. “Someone has died? Who?”

“The Green Hood. Johann.” Merlin’s voice broke on the last word, and he averted his gaze. He considered the various Hoods to be his own children. His allies. It had never been easy on him to see one pass beyond the realms of the mortal world.

And it must have been particularly hard to see one as hale and strong as Johann defeated.

“How?” Angeline breathed.

“A vampire named Cedric,” Merlin said evenly. “A master vampire. Ancient. Ancient and very angry. Very powerful.” He took her arm and led her slowly to the back of the clearing, and the grave there.

“Gavin,” Merlin said agreeably, as if the man were still there to confer with them. “I hope you don’t mind, but I must speak to your wife in private.” Then he turned back to Angeline. “How are you? Are you well?”

“Well enough,” she answered suspiciously.

“And the girls?”

“Well enough, too.”

“Are they taking well to the training?”

She actually laughed at that. Of all the fool questions! “You know they are. We do physical combat and weapons all morning, and study herbs and medicines in the afternoon. They are prepared for the lives they might lead.”

Merlin gave her another long look, and she sighed. She knew what was coming. “And which of them are you more likely to choose?” he finally asked.

Angeline took a moment before answering. It was the questions she didn’t want to face. The question to which she did not yet have an answer. “Both would be worthy Hoods,” she answered. “Both are talented in the physical realm, and more than capable with their weapons. Adela is better with the staff than her sister, and her work with the long sword is phenomenal. She is far wiser. A better mind, methinks. But Alison is faster, and stronger. More of a natural match for a werewolf.”

Merlin chuckled at that. “I am not King Solomon. I will not feign the ability to split the Hood in half. You must choose.”

Angeline felt her shoulders slumping, her heart breaking at the thought of it. This was not something she could do. It was not something she
would
do. And in the end, she realized, why should she? Couldn’t Merlin make the choice as easily as she? He’d known the girls since they were born and had, in fact, taught both the art of the long bow.

He was the leader of the Hoods. The original Hood. It was his choice to say. Not hers.

But when she told him as much, he merely laughed.

“I know the red hood well, Angeline, but not as well as you, who have worn it for so many years, worked with it in the most intimate manner, and learned to hear what it has to say. No, I will not make this choice for you. Only you can say what the hood itself might want. Has it not told you which it prefers? Has it not expressed a desire to bond with either of them? If it hasn’t, perhaps the hood will choose someone else entirely.”

He grew quiet for a moment, and Angeline turned abruptly, walking toward the nearest tree and leaning her forehead against it. Around her, the sounds of the forest began again—the chirping of the birds, the soft movement of the wind through the leaves above her head. She heard some larger creature in the distance and wished for a moment that she could be that creature—a bear, or a deer, or a bobcat, who knew nothing but that it must find its next meal, or a place to sleep for the night. To worry only about food and shelter rather than the responsibilities that now faced her …

Furious, she punched the tree in front of her, cracking its hard exterior with her fist. Then she slashed at it with the other hand, scraping her nails through the bark.

“I don’t want to choose,” she snarled.

Suddenly Merlin was behind her, his hands on her shoulders. “And I can understand that,” he said quietly. “For who would want to hand their daughter over to this life? Who would want to curse her daughter to living the rest of her days as a werewolf slayer? You lost your own husband to one of the creatures. I cannot blame you if you choose not to lose a daughter as well. But you must choose, one way or another—either to name one of them or to turn the hood over to someone else of my choosing. And soon.”

At that, Angeline turned back toward him, her eyes searching his face. “Am I going to die?” she asked, her voice broken. “Is that why you’re asking me?”

“I cannot see the future of any Hood, my little one. Not even my own. I don’t know when you’re going to die, but I know in my heart that it is time for you to find your path forward. If one of your girls is to be the next Red Hood, we must begin her real training.”

“Have you found any potential candidates to replace the Green Hood?” she asked defiantly. Surely if Johann was dead, that was the more important opening. Surely Merlin should be focusing on that rather than a Red Hood who was still capable of doing her job.

Merlin sighed. “I am searching for someone. It’s true that Johann’s death—and the lack of an heir—is causing difficulties. We are a broken circle, and more vulnerable than I would like. But I have … more pressing needs at the moment.”

“And what are those? What could be more important than the death of one of the Hoods?”

He looked up and gazed into her eyes for a moment. “The death of all the Hoods. For that is what this vampire is after. It is his mission, and so I am traveling to my Hoods to warn them. We are all in danger. Even I. We will not be safe until this vampire is killed, with the rest of his coven. We are weaker without the Green, but if he kills us all, it will be … ”

“The end,” she gasped, shocked at the thought.

Merlin nodded. “The end of the world as we know it. And if he kills you, Angeline my dear, then we are going to need someone to call the Red Hood, or we will be in even greater danger.”

She grew very still, her heart racing. And his next words cut her to the core.

“So you see, Red Hood, you must choose. Many lives may depend on it.”

A
ngeline watched
Merlin disappear into the shadows between the trees, her stomach sinking like a rock. The end. The end of the Hoods, and perhaps the world as they knew it. A vampire who was after them all. The death of the Green.

And this vampire was coming for her next. Though Merlin hadn’t said as much, she’d heard it in his voice. Seen it in his eyes. He’d come to warn her first, not because of the girls, but because she was in the greater danger. She was the one this vampire sought.

But perhaps he was wrong. Merlin was a man with many gifts, and one of those gifts allowed him to see into the future of someone he was physically touching. On occasion, he could even see into the future of someone he
wasn’t
touching. But he couldn’t see his own future. The Hoods were an extension of him, so he couldn’t see their futures either.

But the concerned look on his face led her to believe that he
thought
she’d be next. Obviously he had no certainty about it, or he would have stayed and helped her slay the vampire.

Then she shook herself. She was merely being dramatic, and seeing things that weren’t actually there. Perhaps he’d only come to talk about the girls after all, and used this vampire as a spur to make her move more quickly.

But then one clear, shining idea came sprinting to the front of her mind. Merlin was right; she had to choose a successor. For if she died before another Red Hood was chosen, the brotherhood would be without not one, but two Hoods. And they might not be able to recover.

“Why was Merlin here?” Adela asked suddenly from behind her.

Angeline whirled around and gasped to see her oldest daughter leaning up against a tree, like it was the most natural thing in the world to catch her mother in conversation with the ancient man. How long had she been there? How much had she seen?

What had she heard?

“You should be at your training,” she snapped before she could control her temper. “What are you doing, sneaking around like that? And spying, Adela, really? You should know better. You’re too old for that sort of behavior.”

“You can’t shelter us forever, Mother. Merlin’s right—you’re going to have to choose one of us.”

“And it should be me,” another voice added sharply.

Both Angeline and Adela spun to find Alison strolling into the small clearing from the other direction, her face a mask of arrogance and certainty.

“I am the stronger between the two of us. Adela has won all of our sparring matches, but I’m obviously more talented. I’m improving faster than she is. She’s too short. She’d never stand a chance against a werewolf. What would you do, Mother, choose a Red Hood who is destined for failure? You know better than that.”

“As if she would choose someone who can’t even get up in the morning,” Adela scoffed. “Or someone who can’t remember how to make the simplest of medicines. A werewolf would outwit you in less time than it takes for me to run the loop.” She turned her wise eyes back to her mother, considering. “I’m not going to fight with Alison over who will be Red Hood. You know that the hood will choose whom it wants. And I’ve already felt its call.”

Angeline made a sharp chopping motion with her hand, not wanting to hear any more. “That is enough. I shall choose when I decide to, and not a moment earlier! And the two of you will have little to no say in the matter, is that understood? It is not for you to judge who would be best, and it is not for you to try to convince me.” She shot a swift look at Adela, wondering if the girl really
had
felt the hood’s call.

For if she had, it meant the decision had already been made. And not even Angeline herself had been consulted.

“I will choose within the next year,” she finished quietly. “When the hood tells me whom it will have. And not a moment earlier.”

And there it was, she thought. She would wait as long as she could, regardless of what Merlin said. She would give the girls more time to grow and learn, and perhaps display their talents more fully. Perhaps this year would bring a clearer picture, with Adela growing suddenly, or Alison becoming … well. Her mouth quirked as she sought to put a nice face on it. If Alison would just learn to control her temper, and think before she acted, she would be ideal.

If not, Adela was the logical choice. And if what Adela said about the hood was true, it seemed that the hood agreed.

But she wasn’t going to make that decision today. They had time. Surely, they had time. And she meant to use it.

In the distance, she could still hear the girls walking back toward the cottage, still arguing. Alison snapped that she didn’t care why Merlin had come, or what he’d wanted; that his presence was unimportant in their lives. It was very like her, that inability to respect her elders. The inability to see important things when they happened.

Adela, of course, retorted that Merlin never came without reason, and that he’d been there to deliver news. That they needed to know more. And that Angeline should be sharing with them rather than keeping them in the dark.

That, Angeline promised herself, would never happen. The longer she could keep the girls safe, and innocent, the happier she would be. For when one or the other became Red Hood, their innocence would be over, and the two sisters might stop being friends entirely.

She didn’t think Merlin had ever considered that choosing one over the other would result in them becoming enemies. But she thought about it every day. And it was a move she wouldn’t make until she had to.

“
F
aster
!” Angeline shouted, her own fear of what was coming getting the best of her, and bleeding into her voice. “The Red Hood must be the fastest person in the forest. The fastest person in the nation. She must be faster—and stronger, and better with weapons—than her enemies! And she can never know who those enemies might be. Faster!”

The girls increased their pace as they wove through the trees around the edge of the clearing, and Angeline shook her head. She’d watched Adela and Alison walk back to the cottage, arguing, and then taken some time on her own to decide what she was going to do. She didn’t want to choose either of the girls—not yet—and the last thing she would do now was name the new Red Hood. But if what Merlin said was correct, she no longer had the luxury of choosing
when
she would do it.

Nor did she have the luxury of time. If this master vampire were truly after her, he could show up at any time. And she needed to be prepared. So did the girls.

Now Alison was pulling slowly ahead of Adela, as Angeline had expected. Alison was taller and stronger than her older sister, and though Adela’s size made it easier to maneuver among the trees, she couldn’t compete with Alison’s long legs, long stride, and natural speed. Adela ran a straight line, taking small trees and bushes out as she sought to win the race.

Alison, of course, avoided them at all costs, ducking under and leaping over, dashing around rather than through, and taking a more circuitous route. She would finish the race in better shape than her sister, but her route would be longer. If the two girls had the same stature and natural physical ability, Adela’s direct route would make her the victor. But that wasn’t the case, and Alison always beat her older sister in these races. The two girls were now approaching a new obstacle that Angeline had added. She’d thought of it recently, while chasing a rogue werewolf through the marshes in western France, and had come home and created a large mud pond just like the ones she’d seen there. She’d added a thin tree trunk as a bridge over the pond, to force the girls to work on their balance and patience. If either of them lost their balance or walked too quickly, they would fall into the dirty mud below.

Alison had natural grace and speed, but even she had to take her time crossing the thin bridge. Angeline watched as she did so then turned and saw Adela approaching. She was already several steps behind her younger sister, and she would surely lose more ground on the bridge.

But then Adela did something that Angeline had never expected.

She didn’t use the bridge at all. Instead, she jumped down into the mud and began to run through the pond. The mud was almost up to her knees. There was mud splashing into her face and mouth, but she didn’t seem to care. Adela was gaining on Alison. Alison noticed this too. She tried to move quicker along the thin bridge and fell into the mud. Adela looked back at her fallen competitor but didn’t stop running. She jumped out of the pond and dashed toward the finish line.

A moment later, she arrived in front of Angeline, breathing heavily but smiling, with mud all over her, covering her face, her nose, and even her teeth. Alison turned up mere seconds after her sister—just as muddy but without the smile.

“Wench!” she hissed. “Cheater!” And before Angeline could stop her, Alison had grabbed Adela and thrown her to the ground. “You think you’re so much better than me, but you must cheat to beat me, and you know it! No Red Hood would make such a move!”

Angeline moved in and pulled the two girls apart, the hood urging her to stop the violence between the two. Urging her to get Adela off the ground and allow her a fair fight. Yes, she realized, the hood had certainly already made its choice. Not that she planned to act on it anytime soon.

“Girls, you will stop this instant!” she shouted, furious at this display of temper from Alison. “This is not the behavior of sisters! This is not the behavior of two girls who have been brought up in the same house!”

Adela regained her feet and gave her mother a cool, narrow look. “This is the behavior of two girls who’re being forced to compete for something, Mother, and well you know it.”

“This is not how a Red Hood would act,” Angeline hissed, furious at the truth in Adela’s words. She hadn’t considered, when they were younger, that this sort of decision would make the girls rivals, and even enemies. Now it was all she could see, and Alison’s behavior simply solidified her fear.

The girls, once the best of friends, were going to be driven apart by the contest that stood before them. And she had the power to stop that. If only she could bring herself to do so. But then another voice entered her mind—one that had spoken to her before. Would the girls recover at all? When Adela was named Red Hood, or Alison … would they be able to forgive and support each other? Would either of them forgive Angeline herself?

“I did exactly as a Red Hood would have done, for your information,” Adela was saying, trying to brush some of the mud off and moving away from Alison. She divided a glare between her sister and mother. “The goal was to win the race. By any means necessary. A true Red Hood would have done whatever she must, using both her mind and her body, and that’s what I did. I saw an opportunity, and I took it. If a werewolf had been after us, I would still be alive, and Alison would be dead. If Alison had been a werewolf, I would have defeated her. That’s all that matters.”

Angeline sighed and tried to think of it as the Red Hood rather than as a mother. And when she viewed it that way, she saw the truth in Adela’s words. It would have been the more clever strategy. The girl had used her mind rather than just her body, as she’d always done. And it would indeed have saved her life.

“Adela is right,” she finally conceded. “This would have been the right move if you were facing danger, or an enemy. This was the right way to win the race, and it showed Adela’s use of her mind as well as her body. Alison, you would have won on physical prowess alone, but Adela beat you fairly by thinking about the situation.”

“But I beat her in the sprint because I’m stronger and faster. Because I’m better,” Alison argued, an ugly smirk upon her face.

“Grow up, little Sister,” Adela snapped. “It’s not about being better. It’s about being best suited. The hood will need a partner who can use its abilities, and think through situations before she acts. It will need a partner who will listen to it when it has something to say, not someone who’s more concerned with her appearance than the mission at hand. Don’t you see that?”

Alison flew at Adela again, her hands raised and fingers outstretched, but Angeline stepped smartly between the two, her own hands rising effortlessly to block Alison. After a short scuffle, her younger daughter backed down, cheeks flushed with anger.

“Stop it, Alison,” Angeline snapped. “Your temper is getting the best of you, and that is not an attribute of the Red Hood. You are stronger, yes, but you must learn to think as your sister does, or you will find yourself dead before you’ve even donned the hood. You will face enemies who are far stronger than you, and some that are cleverer. All of them will seek to kill you. The hood will protect you up to a point, but you must learn to be still and listen to it. Can you do that? I confess that I’m beginning to have my doubts.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Angeline saw Adela grow still, her ears perking at this new information. But Alison merely spat at her and turned away, too piqued even to listen to good advice. It was no use trying to talk to the girl, she realized, for there would be no hearing. And she would never get through the walls Alison had put up.

“Weapons,” she said bluntly. “You will show me what you’ve learned with the bow, the staff, and the sword, and demonstrate your flexibility with each.”

“Will we be fighting each other?” Adela muttered. “Because you know I’ll win. Every time.”

“No,” Angeline said with a smirk. “You’ll be fighting me.”

Alison whirled around to stare at her with wide eyes. Adela, however, simply nodded. By the look on her face, Angeline thought that the girl was most likely already running through possible scenarios, her strengths and weaknesses, and what she knew of her mother’s fighting style.

Yes, she thought. Both girls might make fine Red Hoods. But one of them had the mind, while the other had the body. How would she ever decide which was more important?

A
ngeline walked back
toward the cottage behind the girls, her mind reeling. An entire morning of training and challenging the girls herself, and she was no closer to a decision. She’d sparred with each of the girls after their weapons practice, and the battles had been nothing surprising—Adela had nearly outwitted her a couple times while Alison had tried to beat her smaller mother with pure brute power. Each time, the hood had lent Angeline its power, and she’d found a way to twist, duck, or battle her way out of the situation. Neither girl was a true challenge.

Really, it had only served to confuse her further. The girls had made their own talents more obvious, and gone out of their way to demonstrate what they could do. And they were both gifted, well-trained fighters. But could either of them take on a fully grown werewolf? Fight a coven of witches? Protect themselves against a master vampire who sought to tear their throats out?

After an entire morning of trying to find an answer, Angeline still didn’t know.