Chapter 3: The Pull of Two Worlds

Chapter 3: The Pull of Two Worlds

The scraping stopped.

I stopped breathing.

For one stupid second, I thought maybe whatever was outside had gone away.

Then Kael's fingers tightened around mine.

Not hard enough to hurt.

Just enough to tell me he knew better.

The apartment was almost completely dark. The little night-light in the kitchen threw a weak yellow glow across the floor, barely reaching the living room.

The window behind us was already broken.

Glass glittered across the carpet.

Cold air crawled through the opening.

I could hear something outside.

Not footsteps.

A slow, heavy movement against the brick wall.

Scratch.

Pause.

Scratch.

My stomach twisted.

'Please don't let that be another one.'

I looked at Kael.

He wasn't looking at me.

His head was turned toward the kitchen.

Listening.

His whole body had changed.

A few minutes ago he'd been an injured stranger sitting on my couch.

Then he'd killed something with his bare hands.

Now he looked like he was waiting for war.

"What is it?" I whispered.

His eyes found mine.

"Stay behind me."

That was it.

No explanation.

No reassurance.

Just those four words.

Then the kitchen window exploded.

I screamed.

Something black came through the glass.

It wasn't an animal.

At least, not any animal I'd ever seen.

It was too tall.

Too broad.

Its shoulders were packed with muscle, its arms too long, its hands ending in curved claws. Its mouth opened and I saw teeth that had absolutely no business being inside anything that walked on two legs.

Its eyes were dull gold.

The same color I'd seen in Kael's eyes.

My brain barely had time to register that before Kael moved.

One second he was beside me.

The next, he was between me and that thing.

He caught it by the throat.

The impact drove both of them into the coffee table.

Wood cracked.

The creature snarled.

Kael didn't.

He just tightened his hand.

"Get the fuck away from her."

The creature swung one claw at his face.

Kael ducked.

His other hand caught its arm.

Then he drove it down.

The coffee table broke underneath them.

I stumbled backward until my spine hit the refrigerator.

I couldn't move.

Couldn't think.

Couldn't even scream anymore.

Kael slammed the creature into the floor.

Once.

Twice.

The third time, something inside its neck made a wet cracking sound.

The thing stopped moving.

Kael stayed over it for another second.

Then he looked up.

His eyes were amber.

Not brown.

Not the strange golden-brown I'd convinced myself I'd imagined earlier.

Amber.

Bright.

Predatory.

'What the actual fuck is he?'

Glass shattered again.

Kael spun.

The sliding door at the back of the apartment exploded inward.

Two more of them came through.

Three.

There were three.

The same number I'd seen on Blackwood Road.

My heart nearly stopped.

'Those things.'

One of them looked directly at me.

Then it lunged.

I grabbed the first thing my hand found.

A cast-iron skillet.

"Fuck off!"

I swung.

The skillet connected with the side of its head.

The impact shot pain all the way up my arm.

The creature staggered.

I stared at it.

It stared at me.

'Oh shit.'

It snarled.

I swung again.

This time Kael was already there.

He grabbed it from behind and ripped it away from me with enough force to make its feet leave the floor.

Then he twisted.

The creature dropped.

The third one attacked him.

Kael turned just in time.

Claws raked across his side.

Blood appeared.

Fresh blood.

I saw four long cuts open across his skin.

"Kael!"

He didn't even look at me.

He grabbed the creature by the arm and drove it through what was left of the broken sliding door.

They disappeared outside.

I heard something hit the ground.

Then silence.

For maybe two seconds.

Then Kael walked back inside.

Blood ran down his side.

I stared at it.

The wounds were already closing.

I watched one of the cuts shrink before my eyes.

My mouth opened.

Nothing came out.

Kael looked at me.

"I'm fine."

"You're fucking not fine."

He glanced down at himself.

"I'm fine."

"You just got clawed by a fucking monster."

"I've had worse."

I looked around my apartment.

The coffee table was destroyed.

The kitchen window was gone.

The sliding door was mostly gone.

Glass was everywhere.

There was blood on the carpet.

Dark blood.

Almost black.

Three bodies lay scattered across my living room and backyard.

My couch had blood on it.

My refrigerator had a dent in it.

My mother's stupid decorative lamp was lying upside down beside the wall.

I looked back at Kael.

"This is a slaughterhouse."

He said nothing.

"Those weren't coyotes."

"No."

"Those weren't fucking anything I've ever seen."

"No."

I pointed at the bodies.

"What the hell are they?"

Kael walked toward the broken sliding door.

"They tracked you."

I stared at him.

"What?"

He looked back at me.

"They tracked you."

I actually laughed.

It wasn't because anything was funny.

It was the kind of laugh that came out when your brain had run out of normal reactions.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"I'm not."

"You mean those things followed me?"

"Not exactly."

"Then explain it."

He looked at me for a moment.

"You hit me with your car."

"Yes."

"You pulled me out of the road."

"Yes."

"You took me home."

"Yes."

"And you stayed with me."

"Because you were bleeding to death!"

"I know."

"So why the hell is this my problem?"

His jaw tightened.

"Because now you smell like me."

I stopped.

"What?"

"They can smell it."

I looked down at myself.

I smelled like antiseptic.

Blood.

Sweat.

Probably panic.

Nothing supernatural.

"You mean they can smell you on me?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"I don't know how much I can explain right now."

"Try."

He looked toward the forest.

His expression changed.

"They were scouts."

"How many?"

"Those three."

That made more sense than the number I'd heard in my head before.

Three creatures had crossed the road before I hit Kael.

Three creatures had attacked my apartment.

Three bodies were lying around me now.

Those three.

Not four.

Kael looked back toward the trees.

"The rest are coming."

My stomach dropped.

"How many?"

"I don't know."

"That's not a very comforting answer."

"It wasn't meant to be."

I stared at him.

"You knew this was going to happen?"

"I knew they would come looking."

"And you still let me bring you here?"

"You didn't exactly give me a choice."

"I was trying to save your life!"

"And you did."

"Great. Wonderful. Fantastic."

I threw my hands up.

"I save one fucking stranger and suddenly my apartment gets attacked by nightmare wolves."

"Werewolves."

I stared at him.

He stared back.

I blinked.

"You just said werewolves."

"Yes."

I looked at the dead creature closest to me.

Then at Kael.

Then back at the creature.

"That's not a thing."

"It is tonight."

I swallowed.

My mother had called me earlier.

Repeatedly.

I had ignored her because I'd been trying to deal with an unconscious man, three monsters and the rapidly collapsing remains of my normal life.

My phone was still somewhere near the couch.

The screen lit up again.

Mom.

I didn't answer.

I couldn't.

My hands were shaking too badly.

Kael looked at the phone.

"You should call her."

"She's going to ask where I am."

"Tell her you're safe."

I looked around the apartment.

"Does this look safe to you?"

"No."

"Exactly."

He walked toward me.

I instinctively stepped back.

He stopped.

For the first time since he'd opened those amber eyes, I saw something in his expression that looked almost human.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

"You've said that."

"And I haven't."

I couldn't argue with that.

Not yet.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Come with me."

"Where?"

"Deeper into Blackwood."

I stared at him.

"No."

His eyebrows lifted.

"No?"

"You literally just told me to stay away from Blackwood."

"I told you to stay away from it alone."

"That feels like an important distinction you could've mentioned earlier."

"It didn't seem relevant."

"My apartment has three dead werewolves in it."

"Exactly."

I looked toward the broken windows.

Cold wind moved through the room.

Somewhere far away, something howled.

Then another answered.

Then another.

My blood turned cold.

Kael looked at the trees.

"They're coming."

I swallowed.

"What happens if I stay?"

"You barricade the doors."

"Okay."

"You call the police."

"Okay."

"You wait."

"For what?"

He looked directly at me.

"The next wave."

I felt my stomach drop.

"You can't stop them?"

"I can stop some."

"Some?"

"There are too many."

"And if I go with you?"

"I can keep you alive."

That wasn't exactly reassuring.

But it was better than the alternative.

"What are you?"

His expression hardened.

"Not yet."

I almost laughed.

"Not yet?"

"You're not ready."

"After tonight, I think I'm pretty fucking ready."

"You think that."

I hated how calm he was.

I hated how much I needed him.

I hated that my own apartment no longer felt like home.

Another howl rolled through the forest.

Closer this time.

Kael held out his hand.

"Stay close to me."

I stared at it.

His hand was large.

Warm.

Human-looking.

That was the problem.

Everything about him looked human until it didn't.

I put my hand in his.

Heat shot through my arm.

I sucked in a breath.

It wasn't like touching a hot stove.

It was deeper.

Like an electric current running underneath my skin.

Kael's eyes flashed amber.

He froze.

I felt it too.

Whatever that was.

Neither of us said anything.

He tightened his grip.

"Don't look back."

"Why?"

"Because if you see something behind us, you'll stop."

"That's incredibly reassuring."

"Run if I tell you to."

"And if you don't?"

"Keep running anyway."

He pulled me toward the broken sliding door.

I looked back once.

My apartment.

My couch.

My kitchen.

The little lamp my mother had given me.

My life.

All of it looked wrong now.

Broken.

Bloodstained.

Temporary.

Then I stepped outside.

The backyard was cold.

Three bodies lay among the grass.

One was half under the broken fence.

I stared at them.

My stomach rolled.

Kael didn't slow down.

He grabbed me around the waist and lifted me over the fence as if I weighed nothing.

I landed awkwardly on the other side.

He followed.

The moment his feet hit the ground, another howl tore through the trees.

Closer.

Much closer.

Kael grabbed my hand.

"Run."

I ran.

Branches slapped my face.

My shoes slipped on wet leaves.

I didn't know where I was going.

I didn't know what waited inside the forest.

I didn't know what Kael really was.

I only knew that staying behind meant waiting for more of those things to come through my windows.

So I ran.

Behind us, something crashed through what remained of my sliding door.

Then another.

The forest swallowed us.

I looked back once.

Just once.

The weak yellow light from my apartment was still visible through the trees.

Then Kael pulled me forward.

"Faster."

And I ran deeper into the Blackwood.