Eternally Bound - Book Three ✎

Chapter 5

I suppressed a hungry growl threatening to erupt from my throat. From listening closely, I had them pinpointed; one was to my left, just by the edge of the woods maybe sixty yards away and the other one to my right, slightly closer, also by the edge. My nose wrinkled in disgust from the scent they carried. From what I figured, they were disguised in actual shit to hide their own scent as they surrounded the animals. It was rather clever when you were just dealing with clueless animals, but a vampire was another matter. The scent of their blood was simply too powerful that not even foul-smelling human waste could hide it if you just focused hard enough. I didn't want to admit to myself that I had almost missed their scents because I hadn't tried harder. 

I sat back a little and watched the deer still grazing, completely  unaware that something was about to happen, but something didn't seem right to me. I knew I had heard three different sounds, so there had to be a third person somewhere, but my extended hearing didn't pick up a third human heartbeat.  

Another one of their bird calls sounded, but this time it came from across the clearing with two quick responses. It sounded like they were getting ready to attack.

I smiled to myself, my mind already on the blood fest I would be having very soon.

Three sharp whistles broke my stream of thought and I heard them move before I saw them. I ducked low in the foliage as the two people on either side of me stepped into the clearing with raised weapons. Homemade spears it looked like. One was a man, tall and slender, but I clearly saw the muscles in his upper arms as he gripped his spear. The other one was a woman, shorter and very skinny, like myself when I hadn't eaten a decent amount of food for a while.

They both crept closer, spears raised for an attack, but the next thing happened so fast that if I hadn't had my vampire senses, I would have missed the whole thing.

The deer abruptly raised their heads, picking up the movement ahead and bolted in the opposite direction.

Across the clearing came a dark blur and in the seconds it took for me to register it was a person, they had already taken down the two deer.

Shouts of victory erupted from the two people in front of me as they hurried towards their fallen prey, leaving me to realize what had happened as I listened for three heartbeats, but only finding two.

The third was a vampire.

Which meant there was a good chance that they already knew I was there.

I crept backwards, keeping my eyes on the people in front of me. I needed to get back to the road and away from here, hoping the deer would keep them occupied as I got away.

Of course, I wasn't that lucky.

Just as I took off, something hard tackled me to the ground from behind. My arms were pinned by two strong hands and my body and thighs were pinned on either side by muscular legs. I bucked, trying to lift myself up, but to no avail.

"And who do we have here?" A calm male voice asked in the dark, but I could see him smiling at my feeble attempts of escape. His red eyes gleamed in the pale moonlight that had broken through the treetops.

"Get off of me," I snarled. I tried to get the upper hand, but this vampire was older and much stronger than I was.

"I thought we'd all established in the past that only blind people or pretentious dicks wore sunglasses when it's dark," the man chuckled, "so which one are you?" With a quick flick of his hand, my sunglasses landed on the ground next to my face. My bright blue eyes stared up at the man, who jerked his head back in surprise, then cocked it to the side.

"Well, that's new."

"Will you get off me?" I growled once more, feeling my gift stir inside me. If he didn't get off of me soon then I'd be more than happy to show him why my eyes were different from his.