Hidden in Sheridan (Tainted Series: Book 1)

Moon: SETS / SUNRISE

Levi - We reach the bend in the road and the smell of blood overwhelms my senses. Eyes watering, I dig my heels into the gravel. The smell swirls and I turn to face the West. The early morning breeze carries the scent from around the thick brush.

Pain.

‘What is he doing?’ Sterling voice rings out in my head. I look down to see he paused nearby. His four paws urgently dancing beneath him.

“Keep running and call out to me. I’ll hear you.” I say.

"You really can hear me?" Sterling questions.

"GO." I say with more urgency. He turns and runs, leaving Cassidy and myself to follow what we smell.

The crunch of the thicket echos in the quiet morning, followed by the sound of a woman.

Cassidy shifts back into her human form and rushes to the woman laying on the ground. "Mama!"

The woman is dressed in what used to be a gold trimmed blouse, now it’s soaked red with blood. Her eyes match her daughters but the contrasting color of her hair holds a touch of grey at the roots.

“You shouldn't have returned, Child.” Her mother had a thick Spanish accent coating her labored breaths. She was alive but in desperate need of medical attention.

“Where is papa?” Cassidy asks her hands running through her mothers gray touched hair.

“Alpha-Wolfe and he are pulling the others out. She is not only strong but she can dance through the shadows, Child. I have never seen such a creature.”

“Is she still holding the stone?” I ask. My voice causes the older woman a touch of alarm.

“Mama, is she still holding the stone in her hand?” Cassidy repeats.

“The demon’s fist was still closed, yes.” she answers before alarm crosses her expression. “Don’t touch it, the stone. It turned that young girl into that demon.”

“I won’t touch it, Mama.” Cassidy says.

Cassidy’s mom adds. “Don’t trust your eyes, Werewolf.”

Not quite understanding what she meant, I nod. Cassidy gives her one more reassuring plea that she'll be back to help her soon. Then the two of us run down the road after Sterling.

Unsure of where to find him, or the others, we head toward the part of the road where it all went wrong. The van had burned divots across the road when we blindly accelerated. The sounds from our shoes against loose gravel bounces through the empty trees. I pause to listen. A breeze rustles through branches, but not a peep from an animal, nor bug across the ground. The eerie stillness was familiar. Like around the treehouse, every time I had visited.

"What are you doing?"

I shush Cassidy and close my eyes to think, ‘Levi? Can you hear me?’ Under some false notion he would be behind me, I turn around.

He’s not there…

“Where are you?” I ask the empty air.

"Me?" Cassidy asks at the same time I hear Sterling's voice try to come through but it made no sense.

"There are times I can hear Sterling when he's in Wolf form." I whisper, focusing again on the breeze.

"It's his thoughts you hear?"

"Yes. Isn't that how you communicate with each other in wolf form?"

"We are wolves, not mind readers. Smell, sight, sounds make up wolf conversation, we don't read each other's minds."

"I do..." A sound similar to a short blade carefully dragging across bark, floats on the wind. Cassidy hears it to and she crouches low.

"I'll try to cut around the back," she says, shifts into wolf and dives into the brush. I beeline across the road, running into the opposite forest. The trees shutter behind me.

Am I being chased?

The trees break away and the last lights of the night sky trickle across the clearing in front of me, occupied by four wolves. Sterling, Hank and Alpha-Wolfe circle around a young, white wolf laying on the ground.

About to call out to them, the tree directly above me shutters and a hand reaches down from its branches. Claws dig into my shoulder and I am lifted from the ground. I reach up and grab the wrist above the claws, and kick blindly into the darkness.

My shoe connects hard with something unseen but the yelp identifies it as Ity. She releases me as she falls out of the tree.

I roll widening my stance to keep balance. Her black eyes narrow and her claws dig into the earth. Like a wild animal she prepares for another attack.

My eyes trace from her opposite shoulder down her arm to her closed fist.

“Ity,” I say, and a smile cracks across her blood tinted lips. Her eyes dart above my head briefly before she turns and jumps back into the trees. One millisecond later, Alpha-Wolfe and Hank jump over my head, in full pursuit.

‘She doesn't like her name,’ Sterling says, his wolf breath panting beside me.

“But she recognizes it.” I say standing back up.

‘You really can hear me?’ he asks.

I try to think back my response but it’s obvious he cannot hear me. I shrug.“It only works one way.”

A howl catches our attention, I spin around to see Ity brake from the opposite side of the clearing. She’s rushing toward the white wolf at the center. Sterling and I run for her, reaching Rory at the same time Cassidy appears.

The demon skids to a stop and a laugh rolls from her like this was a school kid game of tag.

“Come and get me girl.” Ity says her voice strangely echos as it would through a tunnel. Cassidy’s ears lean back and she snarls at the challenge before giving chase.

“Cassidy, NO!” I shout running after her but unable to catch up.

Breathing heavily, I search the foliage. For some reason Trinity is trying to get into the clearing. I turn and look at Sterling. He nuzzles’ the White-Wolf on the ground and for the first time I see the White-Wolf move. Conscious again he shift back into his human form and now human-Rory winces in pain as he tries to sit up.

Sterling threads his head beneath his brothers arms, and lifts him upward.

From the trees behind me Ity’s shoes connect hard with my back. Arms and legs splayed, I fly forward where my face connects with ground. Blinding pain shoots across my vision.

I lift my head to see Sterling had taken a defensive position in front of Rory. Ity fakes one way but Sterling doesn’t fall for it. He counter attacks, managing to grab a hold of her leg. The demon foot flies and connects with the side of Sterling’s head, knocking him into a distant rock.

Now unguarded she runs for Rory and I run for her. Two legs aren't fast enough so my hands drops to the ground. On all fours she's in range much faster. I manage to grab her ankle and we both go down.

After three more rolls I stop and look up in time to see Ity roll to her knees near the dark tree shadows. She makes eye contact before she dissolves into the shadows.

I jump to my feet, and search the shadow but she’s no longer there.

‘She can dance through the shadows, Wolf-Boy.’ Cassidy’s voice enters my mind this time. Repeating the words her mother had said. The connection sends a strange chill down my spine.

I glance to Rory to see the beautiful golden touched wolf standing guard. ‘I think that means she'll appear in another shadow. One she can see from that spot."

Hundreds of shadows stretch out across the ground. Some so dark she could easily be hidden by them. I close my eyes and listen. I hear Cassidy’s heartbeat, it’s steady. I hear Rory’s, its weak and Sterling’s is beating so rapidly he might be having a heart attack. Six others follow. Each belonging to a wolf scattered throughout the nearby woods.

To many sounds. I crouch low to the ground and stop listening. The smells that come from her cannot be hidden.

To the right I catch a glimpse of her pale complexion through the black. I chase her into the shadows and she vanishes again. With a quick turn, I run in the opposite direction and succeed in picking the correct place.

Startled, she backs again into the shadows. Irritation added to her smell and it moves across the meadow. I intercept her again. A hiss escapes her clinched teeth as she slips back into the shadows. The next shadow wasn't much father, but it was higher.

With a running start, I push off the trunk of a tree and jump into the branches of the prickly pine. Sap sticks to my shoes but there she is. Using gravity I force her from the tree and together we fall to the hard ground.

She twists her body to get back on her feet. My claws wrap around her bicep and I feel them dig into her flesh. Frustrated, her fisted hand swings around and hits me in the chest. My grip releases at the force. Her long slender fingers, no claws, wrap securely around my neck and she pushes me backward until I’m stopped by the nearest tree trunk.

The large tree shutters under the pressure. It drops needles and snow from its branches. She pulls her fisted hand back, intending to finish me off with one blow, yet, before she can force it forward something stops it.

I choke under the pressure of her grip but I see confusion cross the demon’s face. She peels her eyes from me to see Sterlings wolf teeth sinking deep into her trailing arm. Without her hoodie to mask the color, blood seeps through the holes of her skin.

A shutter from her body travels to my neck. Sterling bites down harder. The force strong enough that her fingers begin to slowly unfold.

Desperate to beat Sterling off of her, Ity releases my neck and reaches for the wolf.

Cold air burns as it reenters my lungs. I blindly grab for her wrist and using a move my mother taught me, I twist her open hand behind her back. I squeezing with all my might I hold her in place. Sterling feels the support and repositions his bite. Practically swallowing her fist he bites down puncturing the bones in Ity's hand.

The pain causes Ity to release another terrifying roar into the sky, her hand opens and the stone slips from her fingers. She turns her face back at me and I see the black in her eyes dissolve, returning to their vibrant green.

Sterling releases her, but I hold on a moment longer. Then I let her hand slip from mine and Ity falls to her knees.

No one speaks. We just watch her. She looks down at the blood across her hands. Her brow furrows. That’s when the morning sunlight brakes through the trees. Sometime during the struggle the sun had crested the horizon but failed to penetrate the trees until now.

A warm morning glow caresses the scarlet tainted snow bathing Ity in a pool of light. She turns her body toward it, closes her eyes, and for one long peaceful moment we accept it's moment of warmth.

CHAPTER END