The hunting party helped each other into their tough gear, Gideon had probably thought it looked easy to assemble but it really wasn’t if you hadn’t done it before. It clipped and strapped in places to keep it snug and protective. “Phantom!” Eva called, holding another piece of clothing.
“Yeah.” She jogged over. “What’s up?”
Eva tossed her the object at her. “It’s part of the gear. Take the jacket off and I’ll help you put it on.”
“How much damage do you think we’re going to sustain?” Phantom asked incredulously, shrugging her jacket off. The object was a black vest, made from a thin but tough material.
She slid it on, it was snug around the tops of her shoulders and Eva clipped it in the front. Tightening the straps, she handed her back her jacket. “It’s just precautionary.”
“Huh, it’s surprisingly comfortable and easy to move in, like regular clothes.” Phantom was surprised, she shouldn’t have been because it made sense, but the toughness of the clothes made it hard to believe that you could move around so easily.
Eva handed her a metal object that Phantom just stared at. “Oh shit, I forgot, elves don’t use guns.”
“Guns?” She’d never heard of guns before.
She handed the gun to her. “Yeah, elves don’t use guns and for some reason we don’t use them on them, usually we don’t use guns. For hunting, it’s just precautionary. We tend to use bows while hunting, occasionally we change to smell out our food or if it’s big enough we just attack it in wolf form.” Eva showed her how to hold it, take it out of safety, and fire it. “It’s a pistol. Tuck it into the side of the vest.” She instructed, watching Phantom as she did so. “Good, I already know you have a dagger tucked into your boot and here.” Eva handed her a bow and a quiver of arrows. “I’m going to assume you know how to shoot this?”
“Of course.” Phantom scoffed. “I’ve known how to handle weapons since I was old enough to walk. Besides a gun apparently.” She slung the bow and quiver over her shoulder, the feeling comfortingly familiar; she was skilled with a bow, more so with a dagger. Eva set up her own stuff quickly, a brunette with blue eyes came up to her, walking tall even though she was a couple inches over five feet.
“Beta,” she addressed her. “The hunting team is ready and waiting for you. Zy is being a child as usual and Annik is trying to help Fynn with his gear even though he needs no help.”
Eva grinned, “Same old, same old. As long as everybody is geared up I don’t really care.”
“I still don’t understand why our Sentinels have to be with the Hunters. They are better as our guards, not the other one.” The girl or woman, it was hard to tell because she looked like she had just gotten out of school, looked irritated but barely.
Rolling her eyes, Eva thrust weapons in her direction. “Because they’re needed, just don’t let Annik hear you talking like that, I think she’s already known for a while that he’s not interested but she’s just hoping to change his mind.”
A loud clamour drew their attention to the other werewolves, a blonde male was whooping and laughing with a red headed guy, his hair was more copper than red. They were attractive too. A girl with dark brown hair was watching them, a smile on her face when she watched the blonde one.
“Fynn,” the dark haired girl practically purred. “Leave Zy alone. Be mature for once.”
“Shove off Annik, just ‘cause Fynn doesn’t want you to blow him doesn’t mean you can’t let us have fun.” The guy with the copper hair snapped, Phantom quickly assuming he was Zy. He looked past her shoulder and his eyes widened when they landed on her. “Holy shit Fynn,” Zy grabbed his jacket. “We have a hot new hunter.” He whispered it, clearly noticing her pointed ears and sharper features.
“Yeah, and I can hear you.” Phantom retorted, grinning and showing her teeth.
The guys walked over, Fynn clearly several years older than Zy. Eva snorted, “She’s already taken boys. Plus Fynn, aren’t you like thirty?”
“No, twenty-six.” He scowled, his soft brown eyes taking in her build and height, seeming impressed. “You’re very tall, has anybody ever told you that?”
“No need, I already know. But I’m not that tall.”
He tilted his head, he had curly golden blonde hair. “Tall compared to most girls your age, I’d put you at about twenty.”
“Wrong, I’m seventeen.” She grinned again.
His eyebrows shot up, “Wow, you looked older from the way you handle yourself and such.”
Eva looked over all of them and cut off her response. “We can leave now. Hunters, let’s go.”
Gideon came into the room, breathless. Annik stopped in her tracks, her eyes roaming over his tall figure with a hungry expression on her face. Eva looked at him. “Gideon, what are you doing, we’re leaving. What are you doing here?”
“I needed to see Phantom for a minute.” His hazel eyes scanned the room, finally landing on her. He walked over and cupped her face, kissing her hotly in front of everybody. Phantom felt her cheeks burn before he pulled away. “Okay,” he exhaled. “You can go now.”
She quickly embraced him, “I’ll come back in one piece, I promise.”
He nodded and ignored the looks from the others as Eva led them out of the building.
They all shifted after they were outside, making them a couple inches shorter than Phantom. Eva’s violet eyes met hers and the challenge was clear as her back legs tensed and she took off, the other wolves bounding after her. She took off, letting her werewolf speed take over, making her run as fast as the rest of them.
Two of the male wolves tackled each other, filling the air with a loud yelp. The one Phantom assumed was Annik because of the black fur, shook her shaggy head and stopped ahead of everybody else. Her black eyes gleamed in the shadows of the trees as she shifted back, shrinking and standing on two feet.
Phantom reached her then Eva, she didn’t even look at her before she walked in front of her, completely human. “Okay,” she whispered when all of the wolves had shifted back and were on two feet. “We are going to mix it up today, we’ll split into four groups. Annik, Zy, Lulu, and Quill, you take the north part of the forest. Roach, Fynn, Mia, and Donte, you take east. Me and Phantom will take south and the other four can take west. Got it?”
“Why is it just the two of you going alone?” Fynn asked.
Eva met his eyes levelly. “Because she could put all of you to shame, hell, she could probably do the whole hunting thing by herself.”
“Shut up Eva.” Phantom snarled quietly, she hated it when people did that. “If you need help just holler and don’t mind her, she just talks. Happy hunting wolves.”
Her mouth fell open as the Hunters nodded and went in their seperate directions, her violet eyes wide in shock. “They’ve never listened to a newcomer before.”
“Don’t talk about me like that, I hate it.” She said flatly. “And I have a habit of talking with enough authority, it tends to make people listen.”
“Alright, now I know how I have to speak when they’re acting like children. We should go to the south part of the forest.”
“Lead the way Beta.” Phantom motioned her to move forward and she rolled her eyes, starting to run. She followed quickly behind her, careful of the branches and dead tree parts that would crunch under foot. After several minutes, she came to a stop behind a tree, her body motionless.
Phantom stopped beside her, sniffing the air cautiously. The scent of deer, elk, mountain lion, and bear was everywhere. “Smell anything unusual?” She whispered.
“No, just animals and forest. You nervous?” Phantom studied her, she could’ve passed for a statue.
Her eyes flickered towards her, a smile curling at her mouth. “Of course not, I’ve known how to do this for a while. It’s exciting.” She crouched and put something to her lips, blowing softly into it, making soft grunting sounds like a deer.
Phantom cocked her head and took the bow out, notching the arrow and pulling the string back as several does and bucks walked into view, grazing a second later. Taking a deep breath and steadying her hand at the corner of her mouth, she released the breath and the string, watching the arrow fly. Eva inhaled sharply as the arrow pierced its body, dropping it instantly and making the others scatter. She lunged past Eva, hitting a buck and rolling to the ground with it. Her dagger was in hand as she pinned it and cut its throat, the light fading fast from its eyes.
“Have you ever hunted deers before?” Eva asked, thoroughly bewildered.
“No,” she wiped her blade in the grass. “I’ve hunted humans though.”
“Humans?”
“Yeah, humans. I did grow up with elves you know, they trained us to fight mercilessly. Let’s say, if I hadn’t known you, or even if I did, and the elves had me on an assignment to kill you, I would do it with no hesitation. We’re dangerous killers, as are werewolves with the right training. Well you’re dangerous unless you’re batshit crazy, unless it’s a violent crazy, then that’s when you seriously have to worry.” Her lips twitched as Eva tied the buck and doe up, tugging the rope over her shoulder.
“Well, that’s a little terrifying. We have a meeting up place with the others, I have a dog whistle for that though, this is a good amount of meat for a while until we go out in two weeks.” She tilted her head and bumped into something and frowned, clearly dismissing it without a second thought, “Come on.”
They dead deers drug behind her almost comically, reminding Phantom painfully of when they had to hunt humans, it was a memory she worked very hard at suppressing, it wasn’t a very good one to remember, and when she did it was hard to think about. Grimacing, she shook her mind clear of those memories and focused slightly inward, keeping her eyes on Eva and focusing on the calm emotion swirling around in her head.
Where Gideon was at took place in her mind, he was sitting at the table eating with Grace and Nico.
“How do you think the hunting team will do?” He asked curiously.
Grace tilted her head, twirling a strand of hair around her finger thoughtfully. “Good, they always do a great job bringing in meat. Other supplies like toiletries Alpha Jones gets with Accalia. Most things the young and old werewolves have are their stuff from wherever they were living before.”
“Has anything bad happened to the hunting team on one of their food runs?” His tone was casual but Phantom could feel the unease and the worry that was directed for her.
Her brows furrowed and Nico looked over, watching her with a dreamy look on her face, another off day for her. “Over the years several of our Hunters have died because they have been stupid. Only one because of something actually bad, ran in with some rogue werewolves.”
“There are rogue werewolves?” His voice shot up several octaves higher in surprise. “I thought all of you bastards were tame.”
Grace snorted, “Limit your british slamming my friend. There are werewolves out there that don’t like our laws, they love killing and kidnapping humans, they’re like human criminals. This one might surprise you more, there are elves like that, they work with the werewolves, though they are on the elves' rule on no cross breeding with each other. The idea of a romance between the races still disgusts them, it runs bone deep with most.” She paused and added with a bit of dry humor. “Except for my dad, he likes the broken rules.”
Phantom snorted, making Eva look at her funny until she realized what she was doing and she shook her head in amused exasperation.
Gideon laughed, casting several eyes in his direction. It was interesting seeing everything from his eyes and feeling his emotions. Even with the pretty werewolves he didn’t cast an eye or be anything but friendly.
Alpha Jones came into the room and there was a loud noise that tore her mind away from them, returning her to the present. Eva had dropped the deers, pulling a whistle from her pocket and blowing it twice before putting it back. “Now all we do is wait.”
The others poured into their small space quickly, the north group appearing first, then the west, and the east coming in last, all of them looking breathless, Fynn dropping the rope he was holding after he drug the other dead animals next to Eva’s.
“How long was that?” He asked, looking serious.
Eva closed her eyes briefly before saying, “Two hours.”
“Good timing, usually it takes longer.”
“I’m not bragging but Phantom killed two on spot. It was intense and I dragged them all the way here.” She gave her a small smile and the others laughed at the exchange.
Zy pushed Fynn’s head playfully, “I bet she got those down faster than you did Ward.”
“I can take you down faster.” He tackled him, making Zy whoop and laugh, sending grass flying when they both crashed to the ground.
Phantom went over to Eva, “It’s hard to imagine them being different ages, they act like teenagers.”
“We heard that!” Fynn yelled, his voice echoing off the trees, which had gone silent, as if the wind had stopped blowing.
“Shut up.” Annik hissed, clearly noting Phantom’s rigid posture. “You dense dimbos, shut the fuck up!”
They went silent, their eyes and bodies stilling. Eva watched her tilt her head, inhaling silently, not really able to detect anything past the scent of dog, blood, and pine.
“Bastards chose the perfect spot. I can’t smell them anywhere because of the scents everywhere.” Phantom barely moved her lips to speak, she knew a second later that more of them were there. She inhaled again, catching their scent. “Eva, what did you bump into earlier?”
“I-I-I don’t know. I couldn’t see it.” She stammered.
“The elves are here and they have us surrounded.” Her eyes slipped shut and she concentrated, grasping all the foreign minds around them and forcing them to forget about them, making them invisible to their eyes. “We should be fine if we move very carefully, I blinded them but I don’t think that’ll work if you accidentally hit one of them.” Her voice was dropped low as she listened to the slightest rustle of the trees. All of the werewolves were as taut as a live wire, slowly following her.
“What about the meat?” Fynn asked quietly.
“You can grab the dead animals if you can drag it through very carefully. We need to go before I lose my hold.” She instructed under her breath, stilling a minute later at the crash that echoed through the forest, making her grit her teeth.
“Phantom,” a sickeningly familiar voice cooed from far in the trees. “You shouldn’t have left the luxury of our prison.”
“Leena. Get the hell down now.” She hissed, managing to say it quick enough that an arrow flew through the air right where she’d been standing. The others inhaled sharply, staring at Phantom as if Eva wasn’t her leader. “We’re going to have to fight through this, be prepared, elves fight dirty.” Phantom had to roll across the ground as the whistling sound of another arrow flew and buried itself in the earth by her head. Pulling it out, she sniffed the tip, making sure none of them were coated in poison or silver, they weren’t. A yelp had her on her feet, one of the werewolves she didn’t know had an arrow sticking out of his shoulder, blood running freely through his fingers, he didn’t dare pull it out, not making the mistake she’d made ages ago. “Come out Leena!” She shouted, her voice echoing off the trees. A dark shape hurled at her and she caught it, surprised that it was her raven, it croaked urgently and flew off. “They’re in the trees hunters, watch out for the doorways!”
The elves flooded the forest, spilling from the trees, bushes, and invisible doorways, coming from all sides. The werewolves reacted beautifully, shifting in a blink of an eye, snarling and tearing at them. Several elves headed for Phantom before she blink, moving nearly as fast as the werewolves. Extending her claws and teeth, she slashed at several, barely grazing them; a hit came, making her tumble to the ground, Leena standing above her with a nasty grin on her face. The others were still fighting but a large circle of elves surrounded her, bloodlust clear in their eyes. She snarled, baring her teeth before Leena slammed the hilt of her sword against Phantom’s leg, breaking it, smashing it against her leg repeatedly until she was able to grab the nearest elf and shove him in Leena’s line of fire, freeing her from her but having to deal with the others surrounding her. Several of them reached for her, cruelty glittering in their cold eyes.
Biting back her scream of pain from her leg, she sprang at them, digging her claws in wherever she could reach, tearing downward and sideways. One grabbed the back of her jacket, throwing her down and making a pained shriek make its way out of her mouth from landing on her leg. Several more blows came and the wolves rushed in, their big furry bodies tearing through most of the elves before they linked hands with Leena and disappeared, leaving traces of their scent behind. Phantom groaned, her bones all up and down her leg were trying to heal but she couldn’t risk them healing wrong. The agony made her tear up, blurring her vision and her hearing to muffle.
Eva crouched in front of her and shouted words that didn’t register to her ears, everything sounded like it was under water, the pain trying to pull her into the darkness that she wasn’t ready to return to after so long of being in it. The darkness was stronger, grabbing her in an iron grip and yanking her down, dissolving the world into shadows and nightmares.
“What’s happening?” Gideon raced up to Falcon after he’d raised the walkie to his mouth and started yelling orders to the others, who were quickly putting gear on, strapping multiple weapons to their bodies.
He turned his grim eyes on him, “The hunting team was ambushed by elves. Several were killed, most of the others in desperate need of medical attention. He turned to a werewolf and told him to grab Moody and Misty, telling him to have them bring everything they needed to tend to the wounded.
“Was Phantom killed?” He asked, his voice cracking.
Falcon handed him gear. “Put this on and no. She was just badly injured, the elves surrounded her I was told and tried doing as much damage as they could in the small amount of time they had before the others were able to attack. She has worse injuries out of all of them.” Seeing Gideon’s look of panic, he grimaced. “Sorry, this usually doesn’t freak us out as bad as you.”
“It might freak you out if Eva was nearly the one dead or injured beyond repair.” He pulled the gear on, fumbling with the straps and clips, his hands trembling out of control.
“Let me help you with that son.” Falcon deftly worked at it, fastening everything faster than Gideon could. “Strap the weapons on and the pistol.”
“You guys use guns?” He strapped everything on correctly after that.
“Rarely, takes too long to reload them, in a life or death situation, swords and daggers work best.” Falcon looked intimidating with his thick black gear, probably more protective than the hunting gear, his red hair looked like it was on fire as it contrasted with his dark clothes and pale skin. “Wolves, let’s go! You know where the Hunters go to gather food. Head there with the vans and jeeps. Help Moody and Misty load the stretcher into the doctors van, we’ll need it. Gideon, come with me, Phantom will need you since she’s imprinted to you.” Hurrying in the direction of the dark clad werewolves, they reached a huge garage with multiple heavy duty vans and jeeps lined up neatly, easily accessible. Gideon climbed into the jeep Falcon did, the engine roaring to life under the Alpha’s hands, the tires squealing against the pavement as he tore out of there, the convoy of vehicles following nearly as fast, the drivers clearly determined to get to their dead and injured. They didn’t continue on the pavement like Gideon expected, all of the vehicles veered left, tires running furiously over the grass towards a dark looming shadow far away, it looked as if it covered the distance in front of them, almost like a fence would around a house to protect it, only it was the forest in this case.
Grabbing the handle on the roof at the next harsh dip in the ground, nearly throwing Gideon from the jeep. Falcon’s hands were white on the wheel, his mouth set in a grim line that tightened when Eva’s voice cracked over the line. “Alpha Jones, what’s your estimated time of arrival, over?”
“Grab it Gideon, answer about five minutes.”
He pulled it off the dash and brought the walkie to his mouth. “About five minutes Eva, how bad is Phantom?”
“She unconscious Gideon, they did damage under the vest too, broken ribs I’d assume. It’s too dangerous to move her. I can hear the jeeps, I’ll see you in a minute, over and out.” It clicked off and he set the walkie back, afraid he might break it in his white knuckled grasp. He felt the savage urge to hit something, knowing Phantom was hurt.
Throwing himself out of the jeep when the others came to a break neck stop, he ran into the forest, able to see Eva standing motionless a good couple yards from the treeline, nearly invisible from the shadows the trees cast. Her face was identical to Falcon’s, only her face was tighter with tension, making her appear much older than she really was. The others fell in behind him, one moving to Eva’s side, saying something that had her nodding and leading them deeper into the forest where the smell of blood mixed in with the pine and dirt.
An old werewolf placed her hand on his shoulder and said soothingly, “Calm child. I bet your hybrid will be fine, she’s made from strong stuff, she’ll heal.”
He opened his mouth to reply when a loud screech echoed through the air and a small black object hurled towards Gideon, which he managed to catch, surprised to see the intelligent black eyes of Phantom’s raven. The others stared at it, their faces darkening. Some of them made the sign to ward off evil; the raven’s wing was broken again, purposefully mangled this time, a note attached to it’s foot. Gideon tried reaching for it but it snapped at his fingers, croaking quietly. He frowned and let it hop up on his shoulder, it silken feathers in its wing sticking out funny, brushing his face and neck. They stopped in a clearing, the smell of blood so strong it nearly made Gideon retch at the bitter metallic taste and smell in the air, the other wolves looked the same, their faces slightly green.
Gideon came to a halt as he caught sight of Phantom, her face was covered in blood and bruised, purpling under the red, her right eye swollen and her lip split. Her body was motionless, one arm delicately slung over her stomach, the other twisted at an odd angle at her side, also dislocated. Her gear was shredded in places, flattened on one of her legs, the limb that clearly sustained the worst injury. Her chest barely rose and fell with every breath she took, even though she wasn’t awake, it was clear she was in immense pain, her face was tight, her lips twisted into a grimace.
Moody and Misty rushed past, crouching at her side, the stretcher laid on the floor next to her by two other wolves that weren’t tending to the others wounds. He went over to them, Misty holding something under her nose that made her eyes flutter open, her right one barely able to open, swollen from whatever the elves had done. “Can you tell me your name?”
Coughing, a whimper slid past her lips. “I might if it didn’t feel like my ribs were caving in.” She said in a rush, her sense of humor still intact. “But Phantom Nightstalker.” A pained groan slid past another whimper.
“We’re going to have to lift you onto the stretcher.” She said soothingly, “Gideon’s here too.”
Her eyes fluttered back open, a bit of humor mixed with the pain that made her eyes glaze over, he felt his throat tighten at the softening of her face when she met his eyes. “I told you to be careful Phantom, how hard is that to follow?”
“Sorry,” she muttered, wincing from the small movement of her smiling and talking. “I tried, they got the better of me this time.”
Moody and Misty warned her that they were going to lift her up and she choked back a yell of pain, her face twisting in agony. The two wolves lifted the stretcher, hauling it through the forest while the others zipped up several body bags and helped their injured to their feet, none of them had been as badly injured as Phantom, meaning the elves had meant to torture and kill her.
“Watch out for the doorways.” She mumbled before her eyes slipped closed again, from pain or from actually being tired, he didn’t know. “They’re everywhere.” Her voice was slurred and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, making the two werewolves start running, Moody and Misty yelling instructions that didn’t make sense to Gideon.
Moody grabbed his arm and pulled him in the medical van, slamming the doors shut as Phantom started coughing, blood bubbling from her mouth. She had more than just broken bones, “What’s wrong with her? Her bones aren’t the only thing damaged.”
“Misty, take her vest off now.” His voice was flat as he started hooking her up to machines in the van.
“Help me with the jacket Gideon.” She commanded, clearly seeing his urge to yank his hair out. He unzipped it, grabbing her dagger from her boot to cut it off her, Misty following with the vest.
Moody took over, pressing his hands against her breastbone and down, “Her ribs feel as if they were shattered, which should be nearly impossible with the gear the hunters wear.”
Phantom twitched and barely opened her eyes, “Gideon,” she rasped, blood sliding out from the corner of her mouth. He leaned closer to her, watching her eyes have a hard time focusing on his face.
“What’s up Ghost?” He asked, trying for a soothing, less strained tone.
“Though you should know that I do love you.” She coughed again, tears sliding down her temples and more blood sliding down her face. “I thought you ought to know,” was the last thing she said before the monitor flatlined, her whole body losing tension.
Moody shouted to the driver to drive faster, the shock that went through Gideon’s body numbing him. They jerked to a halt and Misty shoved the door open, yelling for help to get her to the infirmary ASAP. Grace ran up, her face ghostly pale at the sight of Phantom not breathing on the stretcher; Gideon tried to follow but was stopped by Grace. “You can’t go with them, they do better without an audience, she’ll be fine.”
“You don’t get it,” his voice cracked and shattered. “Her heart stopped.”
Thank you for reading, we've almost reached the end.
~Destiny