Flutter (34 page)

“Just do it,” Jack said and got in the driver’s
seat.

Milo and Bobby did as they were told, although that
didn’t stop Milo from arguing about how idiotic it was for Bobby to
come along. I agreed with him, but I kept my mouth shut. Jack
started the car, and we sped out of the garage, on the way to the
park.

It wasn’t until I was trapped in the enclosed space
of the car with Bobby that I realized how hungry I was. He was
afraid, so his heart beat even faster, and my mouth started to
water. I had to grip onto the door handle to keep my hand from
shaking. Jack noticed, and he frowned at me and rolled down the
window. The cold night air helped some, but there was nothing more
that either of us could do.

Thanks to the ridiculous weather, the roads were
slick, and Jack wasn’t keen on slowing down. When we came to a stop
in front of the park, the car skidded sideways, and Jack jerked the
wheel. The Lexus lurched over the curb, and slid across the slush
covered grass before finally coming to a stop two inches away from
hitting a tree.

“Is everyone okay?” Jack asked, looking around. Bobby
had hit his head on the back of my seat, but otherwise everyone was
okay.

“You’re a really terrible driver,” I muttered. I
opened the door and stepped out of the car, instantly slipping in
the grass. I grabbed onto the door just before I fell to the
ground, but I wasn’t boding well for how I would do in battle.

“Careful,” Bobby said as he got out of the car.

“No!” Jack shouted. He’d already gotten out, and he
pointed at Bobby. “You. Get back in the car.”

“What? No!”

“No, if you come with, you’ll only hinder us,” Jack
said. “Stay here so you don’t get us killed.” Bobby wanted to
argue, but he had to realize that Jack had a valid point.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Milo promised.
Grudgingly, Bobby climbed back in the car, and Milo leaned in to
give him a quick kiss.

“I love you!” Bobby said, but Milo was already
hurrying after Jack and me. We went down a winding pathway through
the center of the park. It had been salted and sanded so it was
much less treacherous than walking on the grass.

“Where is she?” Milo asked when he jogged up to
us.

“We don’t know,” Jack glanced over at me, hoping I’d
have more information.

Milo was about to ask something logical, like how did
we plan on finding her, but I shushed him. I was trying to get a
read on her, but it was hard. Even late at night in bad weather,
downtown Minneapolis still had tons of activity. It was hard to
separate sounds.

On top of that, I was getting really hungry. I kept
getting focused in on the wrong smells and sounds because they were
far more appetizing than what I was looking for.

“Ugh.” I wrinkled my nose, catching onto something.
It smelled dirty and not quite right.

“What?” Jack froze and looked at me.

“I don’t know. I just smell something.” A cold wind
came up, blowing it away, and I shook my head. “It was probably the
dog park. But it definitely wasn’t Jane.”

We walked a little further down the trail, but then I
started noticing the smell again. It wasn’t even a dirty smell so
much as it smelled like dirt, like the ground and trees. A hint of
pine, and something else, something familiar. It reminded me of
when the fair came to town, and I always spent too much time
feeding the goats in the petting zoo.

I kept walking, and I had started following the
scent, but nobody questioned me about it. Even when we veered off
the trail, they didn’t say anything to me.

Finally, too late, I placed it. I froze in my tracks,
and my heart stopped in my chest.

“What?” Jack asked in a nervous whisper.

“Reindeer.” I could barely even say it aloud.

“What
?”
Milo asked incredulously, and even Jack gave me a confused
look.

Neither of them understood what that meant, but I
scanned the trees frantically. I knew how fast they could move.
They were probably here. We might be surrounded already. I turned
in a circle, slipping in the slush, and Jack caught me before I
fell to the ground.

The wind picked up again, taking the scent away from
me, and that was the only hint I had to where they might be. Thirst
mixed with my panic, and the edge of my vision blurred red. My
hands trembled, but I couldn’t say for sure if that was from hunger
or fear.

Milo looked around, trying to figure out what exactly
had me so freaked. Jack still had his hand on my arm, steadying me,
and the scent became stronger behind me, so I turned around.

Only thirty yards from us, a vampire stood on a
bench. I had just been looking at it a few seconds ago, and nobody
had been around, but here he was. His dark blue work jacket hung
open, revealing his bare chest covered in dark hair. His jeans were
filthy and ragged and hadn’t been washed in months. Despite the
cold slush on the ground, he was barefoot.

The wind blew his black hair across his face, but I
could still see his black eyes staring right at me, giving me the
same chill they had when I first saw him in Finland. It was
Stellan, the lycan that wouldn’t speak English, and he’d already
spotted us.

“I never should’ve brought you here,” I said, both to
Jack and Milo. Letting them come along had been a death sentence,
but I didn’t realize it until was too late.

“What is going on?” Milo asked.

“Who is that?” Jack followed my line of vision, where
I was staring at Stellan, and Milo turned to look at him too.
Stellan was by himself, and he didn’t look that threatening, but I
knew more of them were nearby.

“Lycan.” I couldn’t look away from Stellan because I
knew he would move as soon as I did, so I couldn’t see Jack’s
reaction, but he instantly tensed.

“Go back to the car,” Jack said through gritted
teeth. I thought of Bobby, sitting unguarded in the car, and I
choked back vomit. They probably had already found him.

“No.” I glanced back at Milo. The car was a
deathtrap, and I couldn’t have him going back there. “Run,
Milo.”

I looked back at Stellan, but he was already gone,
and my heart sank. We didn’t stand a chance. Milo would never be
able to outrun him.

“Get out of here!” Jack shouted. He had just seen
Stellan’s disappearing act, and he just learned what we were up
against. “Alice, Milo, get out of here!”

“I’m not leaving you!” I grabbed his arm and looked
up at him. He wanted to protect me above all else, but we had
already been ambushed. “They want me anyway!”

“No, they don’t want you!” Jack shook his head. “They
want Peter! You’re just the thing that’s most important to him!
They’re trying to flush him out.”

“How astute.” The voice on the phone interrupted us,
standing in front of us.

Shirtless, his upper body was pure muscle. His dark
hair was pushed back from his face, revealing brown eyes, but they
were so cold and empty, like an evil doll. Just by looking at him,
I knew he was Gunnar, the leader of the lycan.

He took a step towards us, his bare feet crunching in
the grass, and Jack moved in front of me. Milo tried to step up
next to him, but Jack held up his arm in front of him, blocking
him. Gunnar laughed at his feeble attempts to protect us. He was
alone, so his comrades must be hidden amongst the trees around
us.

“Where’s Jane?” I asked, barely keeping my voice
even.

“Around here somewhere.” Gunnar glanced darkly around
us, smirking. “It’s so easy to misplace things in the city. That’s
why I’ve always preferred the intimacy of the country.”

“We don’t know where Peter’s at,” Jack told him. “He
doesn’t know we’re here.”

“I’m aware. I know he would never let a pathetic
attempt like you out to greet us.” His expression changed, growing
dark and angry, and rather terrifying. “There’s no sport in going
after you, and Peter would never bore his guests.”

“Don’t go after us, then,” I said. “Just give us
Jane, and we’ll be out of your hair.”

“You know what I think would be fun?” The devilish
grin returned to his face. “Is if we made you find her, and bring
her to us.”

“Don’t you already have her?” I asked, growing
confused.

“Yes, I do, because I know that a good guest always
brings something to share with his host,” Gunnar said, his dark
eyes sparkled. My stomach twisted, knowing that whatever made him
happy would horrify me. “You’re looking quite famished, Alice, and
I know that your friend is a very tasty treat.”

Dodge came out from behind a pine tree a few feet
from us. His blond hair was messy, and he looked much less amused
than when I met him in the woods. He had Jane in his arms, and he
held his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming.

Her heart pounded franticly, and I would’ve noticed
it sooner if I hadn’t been so distracted by Gunnar. Her eyes were
wild, and she fought at Dodge as hard as she could, but it didn’t
do anything. He restrained her with ease.

“I’m not going after her!” I glared at Gunnar. “You
can’t make me!”

“That is true, but I can make it more tempting.”
Gunnar nodded at Dodge, who responded by dropping Jane to the
ground.

“Alice, I’m so sorry!” Jane cried. She was barefoot
in that short green dress she’d stolen from my closet and fell onto
the frozen grass. “I didn’t want to call you, but they made
me!”

Her clothes were torn and her knees and cheeks were
scraped and dirty. She kneeled on the ground with her hands pressed
down in the icy slush. As cold as it that must’ve been for her, she
was too weak and too afraid to get up.

“Its okay, Jane. Don’t worry about it,” I tried to
reassure her. I wanted to go over to her, but I knew Gunnar
wouldn’t allow it. Jack and Milo didn’t know what to do any more
than I did, so we all just stood there, waiting until Gunnar told
us what he wanted.

“Dodge, make the food more appetizing,” Gunnar
commanded. Dodge reached into his pocket, and before I knew what
was going on, he’d bent over and sliced open her arm from elbow to
wrist.

- 33-

“Jane!” I started to run towards her to save her, but
Jack wrapped his arm around me and stopped me.

“Alice, no,” Jack hissed in my ear when I fought him.
His grip was like an iron bar, and I was disappointed with how
little I could do against it. I was even weaker than I thought.

I would’ve kept fighting against him anyway, but I
smelled her blood. She held her arm up, trying to stop it, but it
was flowing hot and sweet. My hunger intensified, a painful burning
that shot through me.

I closed my eyes and swallowed it back. I did not
want to bite her, and I wouldn’t. Within a few seconds, I calmed
down enough where Jack could let go of me, but he didn’t.

“Put pressure on the wound,” I said to Jane, and it
surprised me how calm I sounded. “Tear your dress and put a
tourniquet about the elbow, or you’re gonna bleed out.”

Jane did as she was told, her hands trembling and
tears streaming down her cheeks. She struggled tying it around her
arm, and Dodge moved to stop her.

“No, let her do it,” Gunnar said, and Dodge
straightened back up. He stood right over, watching as Jane sobbed
and almost fell over onto the grass. “It’s not fun if she bleeds to
death first.”

“I’m not going to bite her,” I said, looking back at
him. “None of us are.”

“I feel a challenge growing,” Gunnar grinned at me,
showing his teeth.

I heard footsteps approaching, and I turned towards
the trail. None of the lycan would be dumb enough to make a sound
walking. This was a human, taking a stroll through the park at
midnight. Admittedly, it was a stupid human, but he was definitely
innocent of any involvement in this. Just a chubby guy in his
twenties with dark glasses.

He was walking one of those ridiculous puggle dogs,
and it sensed trouble before he did. The dog had been sniffing
along the path, but then it looked at us and barked. No sooner had
the guy looked toward us, then Stellan burst out from nowhere and
dove on him.

I wanted to scream, but I opened my mouth and nothing
came out. The guy didn’t even have a chance before Stellan ripped
out his throat. Jane screamed, and she was the only one that made a
sound. His little dog barked angrily but realized the danger was
too much for him and took off down the path.

Stellan was gnawing at his throat, and I could see
the blood spurting out around him, as well as smell it. His body
convulsed and shook, and I heard the sounds of bone tearing as
Stellan completely tore through his neck, and the guy’s body
stopped moving.

I shrank back from the sight, but I couldn’t look
away. I wanted to throw up, and I hated myself for getting thirsty
over the scent of blood. When I felt Milo’s hand, I almost jumped.
He put his hand in mine and squeezed.

I had never seen anything so horrific in my life as
Stellan ripping apart a living person, and when I finally managed
to look away, I saw that Milo had tears in his eyes. Suddenly, he
looked so young and scared, and he moved closer to me. I wanted to
hug him, but I was afraid of how Gunnar would react, so I settled
for holding his hand.

“It’ll be okay,” I lied, looking Milo in the eye. “At
least it happened really fast. I’m sure he didn’t feel
anything.”

“He probably didn’t,” Gunnar admitted. “But he
could’ve. Stellan was a little hasty with him, but he can do it
much slower. Shall I have him show you?”

“No!” I said too quickly, and Gunnar laughed. Jack
moved to block both Milo and me from Gunnar, and we stood behind
him, holding hands and shivering like two scared little kids.

“Stellan!” Gunnar shouted without looking at him.

Stellan gave up on eating the guy and lifted his
head. His face and chest were covered in blood, and he wiped at
them absently with the back of his sleeve as he walked over to
us.