Taken

Chapter 27

Even Lux eyes me in confusion. Did they not notice the giant shadow that was trying to eat me?

            "I—"

            A twig snaps, interrupting my sentence and causing me to jump. I inhale a breath, my eyes widening as I dig my fingers into the soil. Leo and Vul leap to their feet, low growls rumbling deep in their throats as their nails elongate into sharp claws. Lux flutters closer to me, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

            My fingers fumble around my cloak and to my boot, grasping the handle of the kitchen knife that I stored there.

            Is he back? Is he actually going to take me away instead of toying with me?

            "Who's there?" Vul asks, his voice slightly muffled from his teeth growing longer and sharper in his mouth. It seems as if the brothers are slowly shifting into their animal forms, most likely wanting to see if it is a threat.

            We are met with silence.

            Fear grips me in it's tight, bone-shattering hold as my body begins to heat up. Who is out there? What is out there?

            I watch Leo tilt his head up and take a deep breath through his nose before cursing under his breath.

            "Sepi," he growls.

            Vul swears as he turns to me and tugs the hood of my cloak over my head.

"They've seen her. We have to get out of here now."

Vul nods at his brother as Leo shifts into a lion and motions for me to get on his back.        

            I go to stand, but my legs are like mush so I fall to my knees, leaning forward with my palms resting on the dirt. My body is getting warmer, unbearably so. Strands of my hair sticks to the side of my face as sweat trickles down my spine.

            "I—I can't get up," I gasp, wondering why my body isn't cooperating with me.

            Maybe I'm still in shock from my encounter with Mortem.

            Vul swears again and swings his bag over his shoulders before hurrying over to me. He places one arm under my legs and uses his other to support my back as he lifts me up and carries me the few feet to Leo. He sets me down on Leo's back, both seeming completely unaffected by my over-heated body.

            I wrap my fingers in Leo's mane as Vul shifts into a fox. Lux buries herself into my pocket.

            Why am I so hot?

            As my body temperature seems to increase, we race—no, more like fly—through the trees at an unnatural speed. The scenery around us becomes a blur and my eyes water at the corners from the wind slapping me in the face with such intensity that I have to lean forward and press my face into Leo's mane so the hood of my cloak won't fly off.

            "We have to lose him," I hear Leo say, but I don't lift my head up in fear that the wind would knock me off his back altogether.

            How am I not burning him?

            "Lux," I manage to say. "Why does my body feel so hot?"

            "Leo take the lead. I have an idea," Vul shouts as I feel Leo put on a burst of speed.

            What could he be doing? I think to myself just as I hear an explosion a ways behind us. I gasp, my head snapping up.