The creature, in human form, dark wavy hair spilling about his shoulders, bare olive skin pressed against the sheets, asleep…
Still in human form, gasping, nightmare about the black, terrible void, awake, sitting up quickly, glancing about the room…
Rising, pacing, staring out the window into the moonlit forest beyond…
Falling back on the sheets, sighing, twisting in the covers, moaning, thinking about… thinking about… Madeline…
Quickly she pulled her hand away. Tentatively she reached down and touched the soft sheets again.
The creature in human form, naked and muscular, lounging on the bed, images of Madeline drifting in its thoughts, the scent of her hair, her skin… the creature’s tongue licking its lips, wanting to taste her… then gazing outside at the moon, at the dark silhouettes of the pines against drifting clouds set aglow by the moonlight… where was she… out there… right now…
She could feel his thoughts, his need, his desire for her. He wasn’t planning on killing her. Not anymore. But he had picked out no future victim because he wasn’t finished with her yet.
Madeline wrenched her hand away as if it had been burned.
“What is it?” Noah asked from the doorway, startling her. For a moment, she’d forgotten he was standing there, forgotten where she was, had only felt the creature.
“We have to get out of here now.”
“Why? What is it?”
She hurried toward the bedroom door and pushed past him.
“Did you find out who his next victim is?”
She turned, shook her head. “He hasn’t chosen one yet. But I can tell you this: it won’t be me.”
“I know it won’t. I won’t let him hurt you.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not that… he doesn’t want to kill me anymore.”
“What?” Noah’s mouth fell open.
“I can’t explain it, but he’s lost interest in killing me.” Madeline couldn’t bring herself to say the rest. She felt strange, her mouth heavy and dry, her heart hammering away. What could she say? That the thing lusted for her? That it had some new plan? She just wanted to get away from that remote cabin, return to the civilization of Lake McDonald, and get her car and get out of there. There was nothing she could do right now; until it picked its next victim, she wouldn’t be able to get any helpful images. Later, when the creature chose a new victim and she happened to touch something of its then, she could inform the police with the specifics.
But right now, they had the information they’d come there for, and more than anything, she wanted to leave.
“I’ll tell you about it on the way,” she said. “Let’s get back to your Jeep.” An image flashed in her mind of the creature entering the cabin, sliding up to her from behind, wrapping its powerful arms around her and crushing her, her ribs snapping and piercing through her skin. She glanced around, saw the empty sitting room and backed up to the front door. “Coming?” she asked, a little too impatiently.
He met her at the front door, and they exited, Noah closing the door after them and locking it.
Once outside, she moved toward the Jeep and noticed something glide fluidly by the back window, then emerge on the side of the car: an inky, nonreflective mass of black among the shiny black paint of the Jeep. The black straightened up, blocking out the grill.
“Madeline,” said the shadow, “I hoped you’d come.”
13
MADELINE froze in the doorway, Noah behind her, her heart thudding in her chest.
The creature stepped away from the Jeep, the pure inky black of its body suddenly shifting and slipping over its bones in a flurry of movement. Human skin snaked over his body in a matter of seconds; if Madeline had blinked, she would have missed the transformation. Long, wavy black hair cascaded from the head, framing a handsome olive-skinned face, the same face that had stared down at her during the wildfire.
Noah suddenly pushed past her, stepping out into the sunlight before the creature. “Stefan.”
“Noah,” the creature answered.
Both stood still, glaring, the tension so thick that Madeline found herself staring on morbidly, wondering what would happen. It was the first time she’d really seen them together, steadfast hunter and ancient enemy.
“I see you’ve found my little hideaway,” Stefan said. He turned to Madeline then. “And you’ve been going through my things… seeing what images you can get. My intentions, perhaps? My next victim?” He raised one dark eyebrow, his eyes flashing again, momentarily burning her retina. “Did you learn anything… interesting? Have any visions that were particularly stirring?”
He was playing with her. She knew that. Her face wouldn’t behave, either; she tried to remain stoic, to not reveal that she’d seen the images of him writhing, thinking of her. But instead her features started to fall apart; her brow crinkled, her mouth turned down at the corners, her eyes blinked rapidly. The creature held her gaze, eyes running through her, into her.
If Noah noticed this nonverbal exchange, he didn’t let on. Instead he slung his day pack off his shoulder and unzipped it quickly.
Then one moment Stefan was still by the Jeep, and the next he was latched on to Noah, legs locked around Noah’s waist and tremendous, extended claws trying to get at his throat while Noah blocked the blows.
“Noah!” Madeline yelled as he toppled backward, slamming against the side of the cabin. The day pack slumped to the ground, and Madeline ran toward it. She knew what he had been going for: the dagger.
The creature moved swiftly, tearing a bloody gash into Noah’s neck. Then it let go and leapt to the ground, its feet no longer human but clawed and elongated. As Madeline grabbed for the day pack, he swiped it up deftly before she could reach it and flung it violently toward the forest beyond. Its arc in the sky was tremendous, so high she lost track of it in the branches. She kept running and slammed into Stefan, who toppled to the ground next to Noah. She scrambled to her feet, dry pine needles jabbing her hands. Stefan leapt up on muscular legs and faced her.
Noah moaned on the ground, grasping his neck as blood trickled through his fingers. The wound wasn’t bleeding as much as she had expected. A tense silence followed while she waited for the creature’s next move. Maybe if she ran now, she could hunt for the pack, find the dagger, and kill him.
They couldn’t fight him without the weapon. Stefan stood between them, his arms slightly outstretched, ready to leap in either direction. Darting to the side, she took off toward the trees, ready to hear the pounding of his footsteps behind her. She ran, kicking up dry soil in her wake, plumes of dust and pine needles. The ground beneath her blurred, dry mountain air stinging her eyes. Not able to hear over her own labored breathing, she chanced a look back.
He wasn’t following her. Instead, he had turned back to Noah, standing menacingly over his prone body. She had to find the knife.
Madeline ran toward the shadow of the forest, scanning the ground as she went. She entered the treeline, running and scanning quickly. Every dark lump looked like the day pack but turned out to be a shadowed stump or log. Glancing around at the tree limbs, she made sure the pack wasn’t dangling from a branch above her.
She spotted it then, some twenty feet away next to a fallen tree. She snatched it up, then turned back. In the clearing before the cabin, she rummaged through its contents and came up with the knife.
She broke from the treeline, making a straight line for the cabin. But now she didn’t see the creature or Noah. She raced to the door, fell panting against the wall, and searched the area for signs of any movement or struggle. She saw none and heard no sound except her own laborious breathing.