Sunlight was gently trickling through the broken slats of wood that consisted of the hut's walls, and Theo's body was curled protectively around mine when I woke up. His chest was pressed firmly against my back, my butt was against his crotch and our legs were tangled together.
"Morning." He breathed, sending wisps of my hair across my face.
"Hey." I rolled over to face him, smiling at him.
In that light, his hazel-blue eyes turned a little green and he looked like a freaking male model, even with his messy bed hair.
"What are you thinking?" He traced his thumb down the side of my face, looking intently into my eyes.
"How gorgeous you are," I blurted out before my brain could even consider processing what I wanted to say.
A smirk found his lips. "I really enjoyed last night."
Our hands found one another under the sleeping bag, fingers linking together.
"I'm sorry I didn't wanna go all the way..." I trailed off, biting my lip.
"Ember, I completely understand that you didn't want our first time to be in a dilapidated, half-burnt down hut in a burnt-down mining town in the middle of the woods." Theo smiled kindly, his hand trailing up my bare arm. "Plus, I didn't exactly pack accordingly for us sleeping together."
"Oh..." My eyes widened, as my lips pressed together and curved up in a knowing smile.
I stretched my arms over my head and sat up, arching my back and stretching that out as well.
"We should get up..." Theo began but trailed off, as in the process of me stretching, the sleeping bag had fallen off my body, revealing my breasts pressed against Theo's shirt — not that I particularly minded.
"Or we could just stay here?" Shrugging, I suggested, before kissing him, my tongue sliding into his mouth without a single nanosecond of hesitation.
"Em..." He moaned against my mouth. "The hunters could be here already — it's not safe..."
Breaking the kiss off, I rolled my eyes. "Fine, you're probably right anyway."
"I loved last night," he told me as we were starting to get up.
"Me too." I smiled across at him as he pulled his shorts back on, and I threw his t-shirt back to him. It was warm out, so I just stuck with my vest and shorts, not bothering with my hoodie.
"I love your body so much." Theo's body suddenly pushed me up against the wall, his hands trailing over my skin.
I sucked in a breath, pressing my lips together. "Aren't we supposed to be getting up?"
"Yeah..." He sighed but pushed his lips against mine anyway.
My hands trailed down his bare chest, before hooking my fingers in his belt loops and pulling his body closer to mine.
Ruining the moment and betraying my hunger, my stomach grumbled.
Seriously?
"I guess we should get some food," Theo smirked, placing his hand on my cheek, his thumb brushing against my skin.
"I guess so." I leaned against his hand for a moment longer.
In the bags that I'd grabbed from Theo's dad's pickup, there were a couple of trail bars that I'd thrown in last minute. I would've packed more had I known that Theo and I would be staying the night.
Before she'd been locked up for the full moon the night before, Thea had told me to get some camping stuff together, 'just in case', she'd told me — along with a signature shrug she shared with her twin brother.
I threw one of the bars to Theo after he'd pulled his t-shirt over his head, hiding those wonderful abs of his.
We ate the bars in silence and sat next to each other outside the hut. I could easily see why Theo and the pack loved it so much here. The views were truly incredible; mountains after mountains towered around us, the forests were lush, the rivers were fresh and bright — the entire valley simply teemed with life. And along with all that life came a sense of belonging.
"I can see why you love it here," I muttered to Theo, leaning my head against his shoulder.
His arm looped around my back, pulling me closer. "It's a shame we can't stay here. 'Cos if we could, I'd show you all the places that my pack used to go... Like McGinnis Creek and Elevation Mountain, and the other abandoned mining towns around here, like Garnet and Yreka..."
"Tell me about Coloma," I insisted, "What sort of mining town was it?"
"Here, we're a few miles north of the better-known Garnet Ghost Town, and this mountain range is the Garnet Range." Theo launched into it headfirst, revelling in explaining this abandoned mining town's history to me, "Coloma, and other mining camps, like Reynolds City, Springtown, and Yreka got their starts in 1865 when gold was found in Bear Gulch and Elk Creek. It was one of the last large Montana gold rushes. After lode deposits — which are veins of metal ores in the earth — at Coloma were discovered in 1897, that's when the area really started booming. Coloma developed to have two mills, which crushed the ore that was then hauled out to Helena, Butte or Anaconda to be treated. In the next two decades, the Mammoth Mine yielded $200,000 of gold."
"I would've loved to have lived in that time," I admitted as I imagined what this now-dilapidated ghost town would've looked like when they first found gold here... And when they started building the town and mining the earth here. The smile fell off my face, as I realised, "It didn't last very long, did it?"
Theo shook his head. "Even though mining efforts continued as late as the 1950s, Coloma died in 1918. Other mining camps had very short lives, lasting only a few years. This district produced only about $250,000 in gold, silver, lead and zinc. Still, at Coloma, the main attraction is this million-dollar view of the Blackfoot Valley and Swan Mountain Range — what we're looking at right now. Now Coloma's just another empty ghost town."
I leaned against Theo some more. "There's something so nostalgic... But unfamiliar nostalgia that you experience when you're in a place with so much history. I don't know if that makes sense..."
"It does; it makes sense to me." He nodded, before announcing, "Em, I want to check on something. It's quite a way into the woods... You don't have to come if you don't want to."
"Theo," I rolled my eyes at him, "You couldn't stop me from coming with you if you tried. Besides, it's probably not safe to split up anyway."
"I was hoping you'd say that." He threw a grin across at me, pulling me up to my feet, before shutting the door of the hut — not that there was much left of the door left to shut, though.
After a few minutes of walking into the dark woods, I asked, "What do you want to check on?"
He waved a hand in dismissal. "It's nothing... Well, it is something — but it's nothing that you need to worry about."
Raising an eyebrow and glancing across at him, I scoffed incredulously, "Wow, Theo. Could you be any more ambiguous?"
"Fine, there are a couple of bear traps out in the woods, and I want to check if they're still here," he partly explained.
"You know you can tell me the truth, right?"
"That is the truth." He held his hands up in mock defence. "If they're still here, we'll dismantle them so no animals get trapped in them."
"Or people," I muttered under my breath, surprising myself with the ominous undertone of my words.
A few minutes more of walking, and we reached a pine needle-covered clearing.
"Put these on." Theo pulled some tough-looking gloves out of his pocket. Frowning, I pulled them over my hands, as Theo did the same with another pair. "The traps are buried under all these pine needles," he explained, "We'll have to pull up barbed wire to get to them."
"Barbed wire?" I echoed.
"It won't cut through the gloves," he reassured, "Look, you don't have to do this if you don't want to."
"I'm here, aren't I?" I raised an eyebrow at him, dropping down to the ground where I could see a section of barbed wire protruding from the pine needles.
Careful not to cut my legs or arms, I began pulling up the barbed wire — wondering why the hell we were even doing this.
Around ten minutes later, I was taking a quick break; Theo continued pulling up reams and reams of barbed wire — we hadn't reached the traps yet, so God knows how deep they were buried under all the pine needles.
Stood a little way away from him, I saw them first, and they saw Theo first.
They came out of nowhere — neither of us had heard anything.
It was a group of hunters, dressed in their black, hunting gear, armed to the teeth with crossbows and guns and daggers and nets; one of them even had a spear.
I didn't have time to run to Theo or warn him, so I stood stock-still with terror flooding my motionless body.
Watching from a distance, I saw one of them hurl the thick, metal spear — that looked a hell of a lot like a sharpened scaffolding pole — straight at Theo.
He didn't move; the long metal bar easily pierced through the side of his abdomen, and I could see blood trickle from his mouth before his body slumped to the ground.
I wanted to scream, but the fact that the hunters were so close made me clamp my mouth shut.
The hunters were getting closer, walking over to check Theo wasn't going to be getting up any time soon. There must have been about ten of them, all dressed in black, with hunting gear strapped to their backs and around their waists — crossbows and guns in hand.
Frozen to the spot, I couldn't decide what to do, and my brain became a mash of thoughts.
I thought: Theo will heal... I hope.
I thought: should I go to Theo or run into the woods?
I didn't know if the hunters had seen me or not.
Turning, I was just about to run into the woods when a searing pain pierced my shoulder. A glance at the source of the pain told me that they'd shot an arrow at me — successfully hitting me; it had gone all the way through, and I could see the arrowhead through my shoulder.
Despite the agony of my shoulder, I managed to keep running into the woods.
I'm sorry, Theo.
"After her!" One of the hunters yelled, sending what had to be at least two other hunters after me.
Arrows began whizzing past me as I ran down a steep slope, slipping on dew-covered pine needles and trying not to run into trees in my desperate, ultimately futile aim to escape.
My chances of being able to outrun them were minimal, what with my injury and the fact that both of the hunters were fully grown men carrying crossbows.
One of their many arrows grazed past my forehead, opening a shallow cut on my right temple — blood seeping down my face and into my eyes.
Tears clouded my vision; I don't want to be captured by these bastards again, I'd rather die.
Surprisingly, my fire began to heat my body and I was able to turn around and launch a few fistfuls of fire at my pursuers. By the sound of screams and the smell of burning flesh, I could tell I'd hit one of them.
One down, one to go.
But where would I go if I did manage to escape them? I knew nothing about Montana — I didn't even know where the rest of the pack had gone.
A feeling of desolation filled me; what if I'm destined to spend the rest of my life like this? Running from the hunters?
And I knew I couldn't just give in — that was never an option in my mind.
But the hunter that was chasing after me had other ideas, as an arrow pierced my left calf. It stung my skin, but I managed to keep running.
Tears streamed down my face, blinding me so I couldn't see the bear trap right in front of me. I screamed as it clamped onto my leg, the metal teeth easily slicing through my ankle. Unable to move my leg, I tumbled to the ground.
"Got ya now, ya little bitch," he seethed at me as he threw a net over my resisting body.
But my body wasn't resisting for long, because this was no ordinary rope net. It was covered in wire barbs that cut into my skin.
Perfect.
The hunter viciously stuck a tranquiliser dart in the top of my thigh and it must've been pretty goddamn strong, because, mere minutes later, my eyelids were sliding shut.
Slowly but steadily, the world faded to an inky black — much like the night sky, but no way near as comforting as the darkness of sleep.
No; this is much more like the darkness of death itself.
After the obligatory bucket of icy cold water was thrown over me to wake me up, I screamed loudly. Tears streamed freely down my face; tears of pain, tears of anger, tears of despair.
Glancing next to me, I saw Theo tied to a chair just the same as me. Yet the chains binding him looked as if they were silver, yet mine were duller, and rusted in a few places.
I struggled against my chains, but they burned into my skin. After straining once more against them, I realised it was useless — even though burning didn't usually hurt me, this was painful beyond anything I'd ever experienced.
"Iron," a hunter announced, walking into the dingy room where they were holding me and Theo, "Used since its discovery to repel, contain or harm ghosts, fairies, witches and other malevolent supernatural beings." He pulled up a chair and seated himself in front of me, taking hold of my jaw in one of his strong hands, and tearing the tape off my mouth. "You fall into that last category, don't ya, sweetheart?"
"You son of a bitch!" Theo spat at Chris's dad's feet, which promptly earnt him a punch in the gut.
"Leave him alone!" I yelled at the hunter as Theo wheezed and struggled to catch his breath. "Why the hell are you even doing this anyway?"
"For the greater good, Ember Hestia Milburn," he responded calmly, seating himself in front of me again, "For the greater good."
"For the greater good of non-supernaturals, you mean," I corrected, narrowing my eyes at him, "What about the rest of us? There are just as many supernaturals as non-supernaturals — you're trying to commit genocide."
"No!" A sudden burst of rage emitted from him, "We're trying to save supernaturals, not slaughter them."
"Oh yeah?" Theo coughed out some blood, "Then why are Hayden and Sienna dead? 'Cos as far as I'm concerned, you fucking slaughtered them!"
"They were..." The hunter paused as he searched for the right word. "Failures."
"They wouldn't have died if you hadn't taken them," Theo growled; fangs bared.
"You've already taken me before, why do you want me again?" I questioned incredulously, straining against the iron chains.
"Last time," Chris's dad explained, "Last time we didn't know what you were. And now we do. We want to run some... tests on you."
A mix of horror and shock began coursing through my veins — I knew a little of the tests that these bastards had run on the pack whilst they'd had them, and all of them had left the pack broken.
Silence filled the room, before Theo spoke, "Test me instead."
"What are you doing?" I twisted my head to look at him, frowning.
"Protecting you," he hissed back, "What happens to me here doesn't matter."
"Of course it matters!" I hissed back, tears threatening. "You've just found your family again, you can't throw that away just because you want to protect me! I'm nothing compared to your family; they're much more important."
"As touching as this is," the hunter sighed, "We're going to be testing Ember — regardless of Theo's selfless sacrifice — because she's so much more interesting to us." He stepped over to me, grasping my loose hair with his hand and bending my head back. "We've not encountered anyone like you for a long, long time."
Another hunter hurried over, producing a wooden box. "Evan, we've got them."
"Evan Woodman..." Theo mused, dangerously toying with the hunter, "Nice to be able to put a name to the face — as ugly as the face is — especially as you know our names."
The other hunter hurried away, in the same fashion in which he'd hurried over.
Saying nothing, Evan Woodman opened the wooden box, closely surveying the contents in the dark room.
"These," Evan announced, picking up a syringe and showing it to us, "Are made up of a mixture of jimson weed and deadly nightshade — both of which contain the active hallucinogenic agents of atropine and scopolamine. Ingesting these plants will cause violent hallucinations, seizures and, in many cases, death," he mused, flicking the glass of the syringe. "This, however, has been modified to ensure that it doesn't kill you. You're much more valuable to us alive than dead."
And with that, he lowered the needle towards my arm.
Hallucinogenic... Hallucinations... Seizures... Death...
There's no getting out of this one, I thought. And damn it; I was right.
"No, don't!" Theo yelled, but it was too late; the needle was already sinking into my skin.
I felt weightless, but also heavy at the same time.
"Don't worry," Evan reassured, his face coming close to mine and swimming in and out of focus. "Theo will be having some as well."
To my right, I saw Theo get injected as well.
"It's going to be okay," Theo mouthed to me, seemingly in slow motion, nodding his head sleepily.
Then the whole world shattered into a thousand pieces of grey glass, and it cut my fingers when I tried to put it back together.
Evan Woodman's voice continued to hover over me, though I couldn't make sense of what he was saying.
Words make no sense; thoughts have no purpose.
Spinning away in a kaleidoscope, I was barely aware of anything or anyone around me. Then, out of the rainbow haze, I felt something I'd felt the first time the hunters had me; there was a sort of cold darkness hanging in the air — I couldn't name it, but it felt unnatural... supernatural.
That cold darkness still hung in the air, and it was clearly powerful enough for me to sense it through a hallucination.
Theo's growl resounded next to me, yet it was distorted and warped like everything else that once seemed to make sense, like everything else that used to be reality...
The room that was once dark was now full of neon-coloured glass butterflies, that shattered every time they bashed into the cold, dark walls. Flowers bloomed and died before my very eyes; seasons and moons ran their courses. With no concept of time, space, or even reality, I was spinning dangerously close to insanity.
Well, at least they're all pleasant hallucinations, I thought as I watched a green and purple bee pollinate a fluorescent yellow flower the size of my palm.
"Here we go, Ember." I heard Evan's voice and I felt his presence beside me. "Can't have you running out of hallucinations now, can we?"
He jabbed another needle into my arm, the hallucinogenic fluid entering my bloodstream — quickly reaching my brain and succeeding in screwing with reality even more.
From that point onwards, I realised that I thought too soon; my hallucinations quickly descended from flowers and butterflies and bees to much darker and much more threatening versions of reality.
"It's going to be okay." I heard Theo's voice echo around my head.
It's not.
Tears flowed freely down my face, creating a river at my feet.
Will I make it out of here alive? My last rational thought blurred through my mind before the hallucinations absorbed me once more.