Chapter One
Willow threw out her hands to avoid the branches slapping at her face as she bolted through the woods. The limbs beat against her skin, tore at her hair, and clawed at her clothes. If she didn’t know better, she’d almost believe the trees were alive and trying to hold her back from fleeing the monsters pursuing her.
Her breath thundered in her ears, and her heart raced as footfalls sounded behind her. She wanted to believe they were friends instead of enemies, but the stench of rot buried her brief surge of hope. She had no idea where the other members of the Alliance were anymore, but she knew where the Savages were, and judging by their footsteps, they were gaining on her.
It was supposed to have been a simple, one day and back mission. It had turned into a nightmare. When she went to investigate the tunnels with the others, she hadn’t expected to be ambushed by Savages hiding in the woods while a horde of them poured out from the earth and descended on them with the wrath of gods.
They’d all believed it was a simple check of cameras that went down in the thunderstorm the other day. The cameras were always going out, even on good weather days, and they often sent a group to fix them.
According to Roland, the hunter head of security, it wasn’t unusual for three or more cameras to go down at a time. So when six of them went down during the storm, it wasn’t surprising.
She’d gone to check the numerous cameras set up to monitor the woods around the tunnels and the entrances a couple of times before. During those times, the most exciting thing that happened was discovering a couple of deer grazing near one of the openings the Alliance blocked with explosives five years ago.
Every time she came here, they fixed the cameras, checked to make sure the tunnels remained blocked, left Maine for Boston, and shared a couple of drinks before returning to the compound. She’d fully expected the same thing today, had already planned on ordering a rum runner to go with her whiskey shot, and crawling into bed tired but happily buzzed.
Instead, she was fleeing from a herd of Savages who had dug their way into the tunnels during the brief time the cameras were out. She had no idea what they sought in the bombed wreckage, but there they were.
Some of those monsters caught fire as dozens of them poured from the bunker. They were like a swarm of bees coming up from the earth and descending on them with all the wrath of pissed-off hornets. There was no fighting them; the five of them didn’t have a chance against so many, but they tried to hold their ground until Lucien commanded them to run.
Lucien. She had no idea where her commander was anymore. The last time she saw him, he was fighting off a horde of Savages as he made his way toward the trees. Despite his command to leave, she tried to stay, to fight, but staying equaled death or a fate worse than death, and the only way any of them could survive was to run.
She was the last to leave Lucien behind, and she was paying for that now as the Savages footsteps sounded behind her. The shadows of the forest must have put the fires on them out as she didn’t smell smoke anymore, but then, the ones chasing her might not be so lost to their Savagery that the sun would kill them or badly burn them.
When they went to check the tunnels, they assumed the daylight would keep them safer, but they were so wrong, and she’d been running for hours. Fear trickled through her as she glanced toward the darkening sky as the shadows deepened around her. Once the sun set, more Savages would join their fellow monsters in the hunt.
She leapt over a fallen tree. When she landed, her foot caught on a buried rock, and her ankle twisted to the side. Pain coursed through the wounded extremity, but she didn’t let it slow her as she pumped her arms and pushed herself onward.
Her lungs burned, her legs ached, and she’d moved beyond exhaustion hours ago, but months of rigorous training to become a member of the Alliance had made it so she could endure worse and run longer.
And she would run until the sun rose again if that was what it took to survive these things. She didn’t try to be quiet; instead, she concentrated on fleeing.
Willow kept her attention focused on trying to dodge the trees racing by her in a blur, as behind her, the joyful yelps of the Savages filled the growing night. A muffled shout from her right came before the thud of what sounded like a body hitting the ground.
Willow’s heart leapt into her throat when a man let out a muffled shout. If she had any doubt the cry belonged to a member of her team, it ended when it became more high-pitched and filled with agony.
The Savages were damn close to her, but she couldn’t leave one of her own behind. Detouring to the right, she nearly slammed into a large maple tree when she ducked to avoid a branch that would have caved in her skull if she ran into it at full speed.
Needing to go for stealth, she eased her pace and was more careful where she put her feet as she came around a boulder. She removed a stake from inside her jacket as she prepared for battle.
When she stepped out of the shadows of the boulder, she discovered three Savages feasting on someone. With the victim’s head turned to the side, she couldn’t quite make out who it was, but it didn’t matter; the members of the Alliance were her family.
She couldn’t tell if their victim was alive or not, but while they were distracted, she could kill them. Bolting through the trees, she raced toward them. A blur of motion coming at her from the right caught her attention, and she spun as a Savage burst out of the woods.
Relying on training and muscle memory, Willow turned her arm sideways and plunged it into the Savage’s heart. Its eyes widened, and its fingers clawed at her stake before she tore it free. The dying Savage fell away, but three more raced out from between the trees.
Shit!
Lifting her foot, she kicked the first one in the stomach and shoved it back as the second leapt at her, and the third came at her from the other side. She drove her fist into the nose of the second one. It flattened beneath her blow, and blood gushed from it.
The stench of the rotten blood caused her nose to wrinkle as she turned toward her second attacker. She adjusted her hold on her stake before pulling back her arm and letting it fly. The Savage dodged to the side to avoid a killing blow, and the stake embedded in its shoulder instead of its heart.
Willow removed another stake and waited until the things were closer before acting like she was going to throw it again. The fake-out caused the Savage to duck as it charged her, so the creature didn’t see that she wasn’t weaponless.
When it was almost to her, Willow twisted to the side, grabbed the back of its head, and lifting her knee, smashed it into the vamp’s face. The Savage released a garbled shout and tried to jerk away, but she didn’t give it time to recover before plunging the stake through its back, into its heart, and yanking it free.
The other Savage had recovered and was coming at her as more of them emerged from the trees. Feeling her life slipping away from her, Willow sprinted toward her fallen brother. The three feeding on him were still so distracted they didn’t hear her coming.
Willow staked another one and shoved the creature away. Realizing death had come for them, the other two released their bite on the man she now recognized as Leonard. He was a young hunter who only recently completed his training and been allowed to go on missions.
Willow buried her sorrow when she realized the young hunter’s heart had stopped beating. There would be time to mourn the loss of the fallen later, but if she didn’t get out of here, she’d be mourning the end of her life.