Vixen's Fate (Creatures of the Lands Book 4) Read online

  “You wanted to see me?” Cozue asked, coming out from a collection of bushes.

  She was thrilled at the sight of his white coat, but the feeling left her quickly and she stepped forward. “Yes, Cozue. I’m ready. I want to have your fawn.”

  His eyes widened. “Allie…are you sure? Just yesterday you ran off when I asked you about it. It seems like a hasty decision.”

  She wanted to say no, to take back what she said, but the boy’s golden eyes broke into her mind and she continued. “A few days ago you couldn’t wait to have your chance with me.”

  “You’re the strongest doe in the forest, so I know our fawns will be the best in the herd. But I want to make sure this is what you truly desire. I don’t want to mate with you if this really isn’t what you want.”

  Allie snorted and didn’t answer. Cozue danced on his hooves nervously. “Allie. Are you ready?”

  She gulped. “Of course. If we mate in a few months, the fawn can be born by spring. I already have some names picked out that would fit perfectly.” Allie didn’t know why, but she liked the name Zorna best. It wasn’t a real name, and she didn’t know where her mind had plucked it from, but it was her favorite.

  “It’s up to you,” Cozue said. He seemed no more interested in picking out names than figuring out the time of day.

  “Of course it is! Now stop dancing around, and get ready to fight. Don’t you know half the stags in the herd want me? You’ll have to beat all of them if you want your chance!” Allie charged at Cozue and he went bounding away, terrified at her sudden fury.

  This is what deer do, she thought as she watched him leave. They eat, drink, play and avoid humans, and then when they are old enough they mate, have fawns, and die. I should feel lucky that Cozue picked me. He’s the best stag in the herd. So why do I feel like something about this is wrong?

  A green dragon’s horrified face broke into her mind. She shook her head and tried to vanquish the thought. If I didn’t know any better…that dragon in my head would think it’s a terrible idea to mate with Cozue. I must be losing my mind. Dragons eat deer, not care for them.

  She looked back into the water. Soon I will forget everything, and become a normal deer. I will lose myself and all memories of the boy. I will start a new life.

  Allie laid down at the river bend and let her thoughts drift away on the quiet waters.

  As Reagan was trumping through the woods, she had to consider her ridiculous plan. Who was she, anyway, to rescue her dad? She was a seventeen year old city girl whose experience in the wild included three weeks of summer camp and living on a beach for a few months. She didn’t know these woods like Kennu used to, and there was nobody to protect her. She was all alone.

  She hadn’t found Kennu yet. There hadn’t been any bodies at the house, so she assumed he and his family must still be alive, unless the fire had burned their remains beyond recognition. With nothing left to do, she decided she was going home. She lifted the bag up on her shoulders and headed back towards the beach, avoiding the burnt forest as much as she could.

  On her way there, she heard loud voices. She took shelter behind some trees and peered out at a different section of the beach. Several mobile homes had sprung up on shore overnight, and appeared to be occupied by dozens of large, burly men, who were carrying rifles. They looked like hunters.

  She wondered what hunters were doing in the Lands, until she realized her father had been talking about this one day when she hadn’t been paying attention. Money for his research had been running out, so he and his employer had offered the Lands as an unregulated hunting space in exchange for a large fee. Reagan had thought that nobody would pay the outlandish price or want to come to this strange island just to shoot animals, but apparently, she’d been wrong.

  Reagan knew she couldn’t stay on the beach. Not with these hunters who she didn’t know. She waited for the hunters to head into the woods with their guns before running into the makeshift community, searching for supplies.

  Reagan grabbed more supplies out of the closets of the mobile homes, finally stuffing a small, fold-up tent in her bag. “Finders keepers,” she snarled as she placed it in the bag.

  She snatched a map of the area before looking at her designer tennis shoes sadly. “Sorry babies, but you have to go,” she whispered, and took them off to throw on a pair of sturdy boots that were close to her size. She heard the hunters returning and fled out the back door. She was as ready as she was ever going to be. She didn’t know where Kennu was, but maybe she could find one of his wolf friends to give her a clue as to where he went. Anything was better than wandering the woods alone.

  Caini licked her chops and continued her scout of the deer herd nearby, feeling desperately hungry. Half the Verinian had been destroyed in the fire, leaving food for everyone scarce, and her father’s pack was nowhere to be found afterwards. Caini felt her own pack was the only group of wolves around for miles. She worried about her mother, her father and brother, but there was little time to linger on these morose thoughts. It was difficult to get your paws on prey these days. If they didn’t catch something soon, they’d all starve.

  How could just one person cause the destruction of everything I know? she thought sadly. Her paws padded lightly across the ground. Caini’s white coat was a dull yellow now, and her ribs were showing. Since Allie had died a month ago, it seemed the land had died with her. She stared hungrily at the herd of deer, hiding in the shadows. She knew she didn’t have a chance of taking one down, at least not without her pack. She watched the deer move back and forth within the clearing with her mismatched eyes, trying to keep her drool to a minimum.

  Maybe if one ventures too close, I can grab it, she thought. Wolves, as a rule, generally didn’t hunt alone, but she was desperate.

  Eventually, a fawn strayed too far away from its mother and started hopping towards the bushes happily. As the fawn came within reach, she pounced.

  The fawn screamed and Caini was tossed backwards by a large deer, one whom she thought was a stag, but on second glance, realized was a doe. A familiar scent filled Caini’s nose, but before she had time to think about it the doe brayed a challenge, flailing her sharp hooves. Caini growled and leapt into the air, but the doe kicked at her, landing a sharp blow on her side. Caini dodged another kick, sliding along the ground to go straight under the doe’s stomach. Caini prepared to sink her teeth in when the doe surprised her and rolled. Caini used the doe’s large weight to slow her down, jumping on top of her. That’s when the doe brought her head around and bit her, hard. Caini was so shocked that she fell off of the creature, yelping sharply at the injury. Caini lifted her lips in a vicious growl, but the threat fell away when she saw the mysterious look in the doe’s brown eyes, filled with anger and rage. They were more like the eyes of a bird than of a deer.

  Caini turned and ran. The doe chased her out of the clearing until they were far away from the herd. Caini looked back, breathing heavily. Her fighting style, her eyes, even that rage…it was all so familiar.

  Caini’s tail drooped as her ears fell flat against her head. “Allie?”

  Caini wasted no time. She used her remaining energy to sprint back to camp, where the rest of her pack was waiting.

  “Caini, what’s wrong?” Shadowin asked immediately, tail raised.

  She wagged her tail back and forth quickly. “Nothing, brother. Everything is great! Fantastic!” She hopped on her hind legs and did a little dance, spinning in place joyfully.

  “Have you gone off your paws?” Shadowin asked, jumping out of her way as she did a clumsy twirl.

  “No! Everything’s just fine because Allie’s alive, alive, alive!” Caini sang, her voice creeping up into a high-pitched howl.

  “Allie’s alive?” Shadowin asked.

  Jade came out from the den of thorns, curious, and Caini screamed, “Yes! I was hunting her down! She was a deer, and she fought me off!”

  The look in Jade’s eyes held nothing but pure disgust. Shadowin tilted his head and said, “Caini…are you sure?”

  “Positive,” she insisted. “There’s no other way. I know my best friend when I see her.”

  “I think you’re hallucinating from starvation,” Jade snapped, poking the few berries she had left dully with one paw.

  “It was Allie,” Caini protested. “I know it was. Her smell, her eyes, that look she always gets, it was her. Does don’t stand and fight off predators, but this doe did. She turned around and looked me in the eye, just like Allie used to, and fought me off just like we played years and years ago. I was lucky she didn’t kill me.”

  “If it was Allie, then why didn’t she recognize you?” Jade replied in a scoff.

  “She was confused.” Caini started pacing. “She doesn’t know who she is, I’m sure of it. I bet the Ortusans wiped her memory with their venom…”

  “And let her go? Yeah right,” Jade snapped.

  “Crazier stuff has happened before in our lives!” Caini snapped, and she bared her teeth. “A missing memory really isn’t that uncommon when it comes to us!”

  “If anybody’s brain is missing, it’s yours, Caini!” Jade screamed. “You’re confusing dinner with one of your dead friends! What next, a tree is going to start talking to you, claiming it’s Vera? A little hedgehog named Midnightstar curls up in your path? Or perhaps Kia will whisper to you in the water?”

  The sisters began to circle each other. Shadowin stepped in and said, “Come on, the last thing we need is a fight. Things are hard enough as it is.”

  “Well, one thing’s for sure,” Jade said, snarling. “We can’t stay here. We have no idea where our brother and the rest of his pack are. We have to leave, Allie or no Allie.”

  Caini stamped her paw. “We’ll follow the whole herd,
then. That way we keep ourselves from starving, and we can see if it really is Allie.”

  “And what if your Allie leaves the herd?” Jade snapped.

  “Then we’ll follow her.” Caini sat down simply.

  Shadowin said, “Fine. If this deer is as strange as you think she is, Caini, it’s worth following up on.”

  “Great plan, everyone,” Jade snapped. “Now can we all get back to reality?”

  Her tail twitched irritably and she went back in the den, turning her back on Caini.

  “Come on, Allie!” Stream cheered, bounding off on a hurry underneath the musky, orange light of dusk. “We’re going to miss the story if you don’t get your tail moving!”

  “Stream, you’re such a fawn,” Star teased, following the other deer lazily. The does were off to hear what the herd storyteller Honovi was going to weave tonight, as they did almost every day. Allie tagged along with the two does to find many deer gathered in a circle around an old, graying buck that was lying in the middle. Fawns nipped at each other and the adults chatted excitedly, waiting for the story. When Allie got there, a group of stags pushed each other to the side to make room for her, though she chose a spot by Stream and Star instead.

  “Tell the story of the seven antlered stag, Honovi,” one huge stag cried.

  “No, no, the one about the fawn and the three stones!” a small fawn giggled.

  The old deer called Honovi blinked his blind eyes and said, “Today’s a riddle.”

  The whispering in the circle increased. Usually, it would take hours for the deer in the herd to figure out one of Honovi’s riddles. Honovi rubbed his head on his leg, and began to recite.

  “As does soft hoof steps light the ground,

  Cloven and sharp as talons.

  The horses see her,

  Yet they do not observe her,

  She is small to them and their mightiness.

  Yet brown ear and eye does light upon a wisp of wind,

  Which is not wind,

  But terror.

  She is frightened

  For no antlers protect her stead.

  She is a beauty,

  Deep coat that blends with her home.

  She is fast,

  A stronger jumper than the hare,

  Although unlike the hare she cannot crawl into a hole to hide.

  She can only hide behind trees,

  And run.

  There is a loud noise and she falls,

  Falls, falls, falls.

  Her red blood is lit upon the ground,

  And she struggles to get up

  But she cannot pursue the chase

  So she waits.”

  It was only when Honovi got up from the ground and started walking away that the herd realized the riddle was over. The deer looked at each other in confusion.

  “Waits for what?” Star asked, and the entire circle leaned forward to watch the old deer walk off. “What is she waiting for?”

  Honovi paused a short distance away to glance at Allie. That’s when she figured out the answer. “To die,” Allie said.

  BANG. There was a rippling noise like thunder across the sky, and the deer leaped to their feet, scattering in all different directions. Allie jumped up and watched Honovi as he stumbled to the ground, a large wound gushing blood from his shoulder. He struggled to get up twice before he finally became still.

  Several deer screamed. Allie shrank backwards, quivering against the trees. I hate loud noises, she thought. I hate them, I hate them.

  The loud BANG rang out again and another stag fell against the ground. Allie rushed to help him, but it was no use. In seconds, he was already gone.

  It was chaos. Lost fawns cried out for their mother as stags and does alike barreled over each other to get out of the way. The noise sounded again and again, BANG, BANG, BANG. Allie flattened her ears against her head and ran, her brown eyes so wide she felt they would pop out of her head.

  Cozue called across the field, “Allie!”

  “Run, Cozue!” she cried, and she tore off into the bushes. Allie bounded up and down through the brush, her legs carrying her as fast as they could. This was absolute terror, and after living so peacefully for so long, it was even more paralyzing than she remembered. Allie realized fear was something she was very familiar with, something she knew so well, she almost fell into it like the arms of an old friend. This wasn’t the first time she had fought to save her life.

  The trees ended and she came across a great meadow on the edges of the plains. She stopped in her tracks and stared at it, unsure of what to do. Should she go out into the meadow and lose her cover, or stay in the trees and risk being caught by the loud noises?

  Another BANG scared her out into the open. Allie sprinted across the meadow, trying to make it to the shelter of the trees on the other side. She was almost there, but there was one more BANG behind her, and as the sound echoed across the valley she felt a sharp pain spreading throughout her body.

  Allie fell head over heels. Her body crashed into the cover of the trees and slid down a ravine, coming to a rest at the bottom of the large, sloping hill underneath a patch of ferns. She gasped for air, her thigh aching. She tried getting up, but it was like the stag that had been killed. Her leg was just too weak to support her.

  The injury from the loud noise was bleeding all over her fur. She saw shadows move in the bushes above and glanced up to see two men holding something long and thin in their hands. Guns, Allie thought, but she wasn’t sure how she knew what the objects were. She just did.

  Those men were searching for her. Allie knew she couldn’t move, otherwise, she’d put herself at risk of being discovered.

  “I swear I got her. She was right there. I saw her trip. Grazed her thigh,” the first man said.

  “You shot nothing,” the other man said. “I guarantee you missed.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t be hunting here,” the other man said nervously.

  “What are you whining for?” the other man said. “You paid the price. It’s legal. We can take as much game as you want. I don’t see why you’re upset about losing one doe.”

  The man chuckled. “Yeah, you’re right. Come on. There’s plenty of other deer around here. Though I would’ve loved to catch that doe.”

  The men walked away and Allie let out a sigh of relief. Her fading panic made the pain return, and she cringed at the twinges in her leg, her warm blood soaking the fur. She wouldn’t last long in this condition. Even if she did manage to rise to her feet, wolves would smell her blood and track her down, and she couldn’t fight them like this.

  I’m just like the deer in the poem, she thought. I will wait to die, and I’ll never see the boy again.

  She cast a last glance back at her leg. I will die of a gunshot, just as Vera did.

  Her eyes widened. Wait. Vera. Gun. Wound?

  It was overwhelming, the way her memories came rushing back. She remembered Wyntier and Nineva. She remembered Carmilla and Aravon, and how when feeding on her, they’d wiped her memory with their venom. She remembered how’d they’d left her body lying on the bridge after devouring her heart, satisfied that they’d performed the necessary dark magic to become Bloodlusters. She remembered Vera and Ionan, Kia and Keota, Vixen, Casiff, Lyrica, Mirabelle, Sunset, Snow Drop, and all her wolf friends. She remembered Vivienna, Melodi, Soran and, with a warmer rush of affection, Zorna. Everything about them, she remembered.

  But there was still one person she could not remember. Try as she might, she could not recall the boy, or the time she had spent with him. Her recollection was little still, and she knew that she must have spent a lot of time with the boy to have few memories without him in it.

  But how am I still alive? Carmilla and Aravon ate my heart, Allie thought. She listened intently, but just as before, she had no heartbeat. She now understood it was because it simply wasn’t there. She no longer had a heart. But how was it possible that she’d survived, if that was true?