Alpha Blood Box Set(5)

“Your influence over the others is very precarious right now. If this would go wrong they could see you as unfit of your title and position.”

“I’m sure things won’t go so badly, but once I completely change her I’ll be sure to stabilize my position.”

“Even if that means skirmishes with the competing lords?” Alistair asked him.

“Even if that means war,” Luke firmly replied. “We can’t let them win, no matter what.”

I’d heard enough to realize how insane were the pair of them, and stepped away from the edge of the window. I slunk across the lawn, careful to keep out of the lights from the windows, and reached the edge of the trees in a minute. I turned back and got my first, and hopefully last, full look of the house. It was a two-story colonial house made of bricks with white edging on the roof and several old chimneys. It was a nice place if it hadn’t been such a terrifying prison for me. I turned away from it and slunk into the trees with the dark blanket of night wrapped tightly around me.





5





I picked up on a trail that ran through the trees and followed that for several mile, aided by the light of the almost-full moon. After an hour’s panicked walk I reached a wide, swiftly-flowing creek where the path split in two. Water usually meant civilization somewhere along it, so I could follow upstream or downstream to hopefully find sane people. By the time I reached that branch in the path I was covered in sweat and exhausted. I promised myself that come freedom, I was going to lose a few pounds. The path branched off to the left and right, both following the bank. Neither gave any sign of civilization, so that meant all possibilities were on the table. Either one led to safety, both led to safety, or none of them led to safety. That made for odds I couldn’t calculate but didn’t like.

The situation got a lot worse when I heard a deep, loud howl fill the air. I stiffened and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Either that had been a really big dog, or there were wolves in these woods. The worst part about the howl was that it sounded like it was only a few miles away, which was much closer than I wanted. It did help me decide on the left path because that led farther away from the howl.

I rushed along the trail, dodging low branches and jumping over roots while I hoped for this trail to be the right direction. My heart beat faster when I heard that howl again, and this time it was closer. Another howl followed it, but this one was in a different pitch. That meant there were two different wolves in the woods, a small pack. I rushed headlong down the path in a wild abandonment to panic. Bushes and low trees brushed and scratched me as I tore along the narrowing trail. My shoes skidded on the wet creek rocks, and more than once I nearly lost my balance and fell into those dark, cold waters.

Just when I thought there wouldn’t be any room for me to run, the path ahead opened to a meadow. In that meadow stood a shack with an electric pole outside and a light shining through the dirty windows. I dashed up to the door and banged on the entrance. “Please help me! Please!”

I heard a shuffling of footsteps and the door opened wide enough for an eyeball to peek through at me. “What’s wanted?” came the old, gruff voice of a man.

“Please help me! I just escaped from a house a few miles back and I think there are wolves chasing me!” I gasped out.

“What house were ya at?” he asked me.

“I don’t know, some brick house where two men live. They kidnapped me and I need to get to the police.”

The old man shut the door, unlatched a few locks and opened it wide. The shack was a single-room with a simple bed in one corner and a table with two chairs in the middle. Above the table was the single source of light, a dusty old lamp with a dim bulb. I also had my first view of the old man. He was about five foot with a scraggly gray beard and a few strands of hair on the top of his head. His clothes were ragged and simple, but clean. He impatiently swept his hand over the room. “Get in. We ain’t got all night.”

“Oh thank you!” I shouted while I rushed into the room. He shut the door and locked the door with three bolts. “Do you have a phone I can use to call the police?”

He shook his head and shuffled over to one of the two chairs. “Nope. Don’t like those things,” he told me as he sat down.

I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach. He was unusually calm after my story, and I didn’t like that he’d locked the door. “Then do you have a car we can use to get to town?”

“Yep, but I think ya need to just relax fer a bit. Ya look real tired.” He nodded at the seat opposite him. “Get yerself comfortable. Won’t be more than a few minutes.”

My heart leapt against the front of my rib cage. “A few minutes until what?”

“Until the master be coming. I’m sure him and that worthless manservant of his are searching for ya right now.”

My eyes widened and I backed up against the wall beside the door. “Master?”

“Aye. That’d be Master Luke,” he replied.

I picked the wrong hut to hide in. I threw myself at the door and had one of the bolts open before one of his wizened old hands reached out behind me and grabbed one of my arms. He wrenched me back and I fell into the other chair. “Let me go! Please let me go!” I begged him.

He frowned and shook his head. “Can’t do that, miss. Yer a pretty thing, but the master said to not let ya leave if I was to ever find ya escaping.”

“I’ll do anything, just don’t let them-” My frantic pleadings were interrupted by the howling of the wolves, and the sounds came from just outside the door. The old man turned to the entrance and unlocked the remaining bolts. He meant to open the door with those wolves on his doorstep. “Don’t!” I screamed at him. I shot off the my seat and grabbed his shoulders to pull him back, but beneath that weathered exterior was a solid frame. My efforts proved futile.

The old man swung open the door to reveal Luke, and behind him stood Alistair. Luke had a dark expression on his face, and Alistair was as stoic as ever. “Do you have the girl?” Luke asked the old man.

“Aye, sir, but I don’t like this one bit. She might’ve been found by the others,” the old man replied.

“But she wasn’t,” Alistair spoke up.

The old man glared at the manservant. “No thanks to the likes of ya,” he shot back. I had a feeling the two men didn’t get along, but their disagreements were the least of my worries. Luke blocked the door, so there was only the window to my left that could serve as my escape.

“Enough, you two,” Luke scolded the men. He nodded at me, and addressed the old man. “How long as she been here, Zeke?”

“Only a few minutes, sir.” Old Zeke chuckled. “She said she heard some wolves out there.”

I edged toward the window while one of my hands grasped the back of the wooden chair. Luke turned to me with a grin on his lips. “You were fortunate to find Zeke’s home.” My eyes flitted over to the window and Luke held out his hand to me. “Come now. It’s time to return to the house.”

I scowled at him. “No way.”

I tossed the chair at the window and the glass shattered on impact. It was a bad break with bits of sharp glass along the edges, but I dove for the opening. Luke was too fast. He latched onto my waist and pulled me back, but not before my hands were cut on the edges. I thrashed and kicked in his grasp. “Let me go! I won’t go back!” I screamed at him.

“Alistair!” Luke called out to his manservant. I saw Alistair pull out a small bag from inside his coat, and from that he removed a needle. Luke pinned my arms to my sides and pressed my feet against the floor so I couldn’t kick him. Alistair grabbed one of my arms and inserted the needle. The clear liquid flowed into my body and I felt a fog cloud my mind. My limbs went limp and Luke swept me into his arms. “Sorry to do this to you again, Rebecca, but you gave us no choice.” The last I remember was his face, and then everything went black.



* * *



I don’t know how long I was out, but long enough that when I woke up I was back in that hideous white room and the board was back on the window. The boards all had extra nails in them, and there were large, long boards that ran from the top to the bottom of the window across the other boards. I lay on the bed, and my wounded hands were carefully bandaged. They were stiff and sore, and reminded me I’d failed in my attempt to flee. A wave of depression swept over me, and I grabbed one of the pillows to muffle my crying.

“Are you really that unhappy?” a voice asked me. My head shot up and I rolled over to find Luke standing behind me and close to the bed.

“Why shouldn’t I be?” I shot back. “Did you think kidnapping me would make me like you?”

“I thought perhaps a little time to know me would tell you I meant you no harm.”

“No harm? No harm?” I sat up and tossed the pillow at him. He let it hit his chest and drop harmlessly to the ground. “Do you think the only way you can hurt somebody is physically? I’m stuck in this place with you and that creepy other guy, and somehow that’s supposed to be alright?”

“His name is Alistair,” Luke corrected me.