Kael's grip on my arm was strong, pulling me back toward the cabin. The forest, which had felt like a potential escape moments ago, now felt like a closing trap.
"The nice ones are the most hungry," he'd said. The words echoed in my head, I found it more chilling me than the cold air.
We were halfway back when he froze, shoving me behind him so hard I stumbled. His head was cocked, his whole body went rigid.
A new sound cut through the usual forest noises—a dry rustle, like dead leaves skittering over stone. It was wrong. It was fast. And it was coming from all around us.
Shadows detached themselves from the deeper shadows between the trees. They were pale and moved with a fluid, unnerving grace that made my skin crawl. Their eyes glinted like red gemstones in the twilight. I started walking backwards.
Vampires!. Actual Fanged Undead Vampires!
One of them smiled, revealing his elongated fangs. "The little Keyholder. And her mangy guard dog. The Usurper will reward us handsomely for this."
Kael didn't answer. A sound ripped from his throat that was nothing human—a deep, chest-rattling snarl. I watched, my heart was pounding, as his body began to change. His muscles swelled, tearing the seams of his shirt. His nails thickened into black claws. His face sharpened into something more brutal. Half human, Half Beast, his jaw elongating just enough to show a glimpse of fang that put the vampires' to shame. He was a monster, but he was my monster right now.
He started moving.
He caught the first vampire's lunging attack and used its own momentum to slam it into a tree with a sickening crunch of bone. The second came at his flank, and Kael's clawed hand swept out, opening its chest with a wet tear.
I stood there paralyzed, my back pressed against a thick pine, my hands clamped over my mouth. I could only watch the brutal ballet of violence. The vampires were fast, but Kael He was strength and rage incarnate.
A third vampire, smarter than the others, ignored Kael and shot straight for me. Its eyes were pools of hungry crimson, its hand outstretched to grab me.
I screamed.
Kael was on it in an instant. He tackled the creature away from me, and they hit the ground in a tangle of snapping jaws and slashing claws. The vampire shrieked, a high-pitched, alien sound, before Kael ended it with a final, brutal twist.
Silence descended, heavy and thick with the scent of blood and wet earth.
Kael stood over the bodies, his broad shoulders heaving. He turned to look at me, his eyes were still blazing with that feral light, his face and clothes spattered with dark blood.
He was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen.
He took a step toward me, and I flinched back.
He stopped. The ferocity in his eyes dimmed, replaced by that familiar, grim impatience. "They're dead. Let's go."
He didn't wait for me. He just turned and started walking back to the cabin, leaving me standing there, shaking amidst the carnage.
I had nowhere else to go. Taking one last, horrified look at the broken
bodies, I stumbled after the werewolf.