A Shifter's Tale

Unlikely Ally

~16~

We were wandering the forest floor on foot, the hooves of the horses too loud to listen for any movement; friend or foe. We walked about ten feet apart, Hunter’s expression told me that he was thinking about something; something that required a lot of thought. I didn’t want to disturb his thought process, so stayed just as quiet. My eyes darted from left to right through the flurry of flakes that were coming down heavy and fast and building up in drifts against the trees. I didn’t like that fact that I couldn’t see properly.

The scab on my arm tingled with the memory of the Slayers and nerves churned my stomach. The last thing I wanted was to be found and shot again; maybe lethally this time.

“I’ve been thinking,” Hunter said aloud and my attention was drawn to him. “I don’t know why, but you won’t accept Demitri’s views on Cassius. He hasn’t done anything to prove otherwise, so I was just wondering why.”

I chewed over my answer carefully. “When I saw him earlier, when I was going to look for Seth, he told me that we were soul-siblings.”

Hunter understood. “Have you been seeing him in your head for a long time?” I nodded. “Then that’s the most logical explanation. Legend says that most people have at least one soul-sibling; rare to ever find them, though.”

I accepted that and kept walking, having to life my feet higher over the snow. The forest was eerily silent as the snow continued to fall; I couldn’t imagine any of the shifters staying out in the snow, especially as the sun was beginning to rest on the horizon. I pondered whether to tell Hunter that we should be avoiding the forest on a full moon, but he was more experienced than I was; he knew what he was doing.

“The people who are kidnapping us,” I started in a low voice in case anything was to overhear, “couldn’t they still be here?”

“I can’t imagine they’re stupid enough,” Hunter said with a shrug. “The horsemen will have scanned the area anyway; twenty people on horses wielding swords can be quite patronizing if they’re charging straight at you. You look cold.”

I was cold. The chill of the air was seeping through the thin fabric of my hoodie and I was struggling to keep myself from shivering. “Why are you always warm?” I asked without thinking.

He half-grinned. “A perk of having an affinity for fire,” he said. “Come here.”

He offered an arm for me and I scampered over with only a half-second’s hesitation. He draped his arm round my shoulders in a similar way to how Seth did, but he held me tighter, rather than just resting it on my shoulder. I leant into his heat, letting it dispel my cold.

“You really think they could be here?” I asked him once my teeth had stopped chattering.

“No,” he said bluntly. “But we have to check.”

“I don’t understand,” I confessed. “They can’t force shifters to breed; how are they planning to do it?”

“Probably artificially,” he said shortly. “I don’t really want to think about it.”

“Okay, sorry.”

I wasn’t the only one to notice when the sun had disappeared completely below the horizon; Hunter stared over my head before letting go of my shoulder and taking my hand instead. “Come on, Cassius will be waking up soon. I don’t think they’re here anyway.”

Although he remained calm in expression, his fast pace was clear to me. We were only half way back when I felt two strong arms capture me around my chest and a second pair gagging my mouth and holding a knife to my throat before I had the chance to call to Hunter.