This giant vampire had somehow crept up behind us, and he wrapped his massive bare arms around Milo. He yelped in surprise and fought against the vampire, but it was completely useless. He was the largest person I’d ever seen in my life, and he had to vampire strength behind it. Milo was still gripping my hand, and I clung onto him tightly, trying to pull him from the vampire.
“Alice!” Jack had his arms around me, refusing to let me be dragged along with Milo as the vampire pulled him away, but I wouldn’t let go. “Alice! Let him go! Alice!”
“Milo!” I screamed, but my fingers slipped, and I let go of Milo. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, and he was still reaching his arm out for me. His huge brown eyes had never looked so sad or scared in his life. I kicked at Jack, but he wouldn’t let me go. “Milo!”
“Alice, as you can see, my good friend Bear isn’t hurting him,” Gunnar interrupted. Bear, the gargantuan vampire, had Milo firmly secured in his arms, but he didn’t even appear to be squeezing him. Milo still squirmed and fought against him, but he didn’t look like he was in any real pain, just terrified. “Milo -
that’s your name, yes?” Milo didn’t say anything and kept fighting. “Milo, are you in any pain? Is he hurting you?”
“No,” Milo grunted, and finally started to settle down in Bear’s grip. He probably wouldn’t have answered if I hadn’t been there. He was saying it for my benefit, so I would stop fighting against Jack. He looked over at me and nodded. “I’m okay.” I did finally stop struggling against Jack, but smartly, he didn’t let me go. I would’ve taken off towards Milo the second he did.
“Let him go!” I screamed and turned my attention to Gunnar. “He has nothing to do with this! Just let him go! Peter doesn’t even like him!” He laughed at that, but I’m not sure how that was amusing. Jack said nothing, but he was trying to gauge the situation. He knew that Gunnar had some plan going on, and he was trying to figure it out. I knew that too, but I couldn’t keep my emotions under control.
“Mmm, yes, I’m sure, but Peter might not be arriving for awhile,” Gunnar said with faux sadness. “So I thought we would play a game until he joined us. Can you guess what it is?” I just glared at him. “Tag -
vampire style. You see, it’s just like normal tag, except you have to kill whoever you tag.
Since you’re new to this game, we’ll keep it easy and start with two players. How about… you,” he pointed Jane, “and you,” he pointed to me. “And since you’re the vampire, you’re It, Alice.”
“No! I’m already told you I’m never going to bite her!” I yelled at him, disgusted.
“But you don’t even know what the prize is yet?” Gunnar smiled widely at me. “It’s that Milo fellow.
If you win, you get him back. If you forfeit, then Stellan gets him, and we all know how he likes to play.”
Gunnar nodded to the corpse on the trail. “But since I am such a giving guy, I’ll give you a parting gift. After Stellan eviscerates Milo, I will personally give you his heart.” I just gaped at him for a moment, unable to do anything but try and not vomit. Either I would have to murder my best friend, or they would murder my brother. The only good thing was that I had a feeling I wouldn’t live very long to regret my decision, no matter what it was.
“No,” Jack said firmly. “Let me play. I’m much quicker than Alice.” I’m not sure if he had a plan to save Jane, or if he was only trying to save me from killing her by doing it himself.
“Well, Jane doesn’t seem much in the running mood, so I don’t think speed is really an issue.” Gunnar had a point.
Jane had finally tied the tourniquet around her arm, but not before she lost quite a bit of blood. Her only consolation is that her body was used to running on less blood, and she had spent the last few days building her supply back up. But she was barely even holding herself up, and she hadn’t screamed or protested when Gunnar told me to kill her. Her skin was completely ashen, and the blood had started freezing on her arm.
“There has to be something else!” Jack shouted. He let go of me so he could step forward to Gunnar, challenging him. Stellan stepped towards Jack, defending Gunnar, but Gunnar held his hand out to him. His hand was the only thing preventing Stellan from ripping out Jack’s heart, and we all knew it.
“I have other ideas, but I’m certain you wouldn’t like them anymore than this one!” Gunnar growled.
I exchanged a look with Milo, his eyes wide and uncertain. If I had to choose, I would pick him.
Without a doubt, I loved him so much that I would do anything for him. But I didn’t want to kill Jane. She hadn’t done anything to deserve this, and I couldn’t imagine taking anyone’s life, let alone someone I cared about.
“Just do it, Alice,” Jane mumbled, her voice barely audible. Her heart was beating so slowly, I didn’t know how she was still awake. She had herself propped up with her good arm, and she still held the wounded on up, trying to keep the cut above her heart. “I’m dying anyway.”
“No. I can’t.” I shook my head and tears filled my eyes. “I can’t do it.”
“So be it.” Gunnar shrugged and nodded to Milo. Stellan stepped towards him, and I shouted.
“No! Wait!” I shouted. Bear tightened his grip around Milo, and Milo clawed at him. “Milo!
No! Stop!
Let him go! I’ll do it! Milo!”
“Do it, and we’ll let him go,” Gunnar said through gritted teeth.
“Fine! Just stop hurting him!” I pleaded. “Stop! Milo!” Gunnar rolled his eyes, and nodded at Bear again. Instantly, he loosened his grip on Milo, who gasped for breath.
My panicked screams for my brother had carried farther than I thought. I heard him before I saw him.
Bobby was racing through the grass towards us. He fell and slid on his ass towards us, and I wanted to scream at him, but I prayed he wised up and realized what he was up against. I would’ve felt some relief that he was still alive if he wasn’t running to his death.
“Milo!” Bobby shouted, and I winced. His only hope for survival had been going undetected, but he had just drawn attention himself. He fell again and scrambled to his feet. “Milo!”
“Run!” Milo screamed as loudly as he could, but it was already too late.
Stellan had started moving towards Bobby, but only a split second before he got there, another lycan came out and wrapped his arms around him. Bobby screamed in surprise, but the lycan held him tightly.
Stellan growled in protest. If he had caught Bobby first, he would’ve gladly torn him apart.
Then the lycan holding him looked at me. His brown eyes were sad and disappointed. It was Leif, the kind lycan that had helped Ezra and I find Peter. I realized exactly what he’d done, and I suspected from the way Gunnar glared at him that he thought the same thing. Leif had just saved Bobby’s life by intercepting him before Stellan did.
“This has all gotten rather tedious,” Gunnar said wearily, and looked Bear. “I’ve tired of this game.
Kill the boy.”
Before Jack could stop me, I dove at Bear. I jumped onto his back, clawing and biting at him. Dodge came towards me, but Jack managed to fight him off. Milo bit into Bear’s wrist, and a bold move, started drinking his blood. Bear howled, and even though he was weakened, I could do little against him. Stellan was on me instantly, pulling me off Bear. He threw me onto the ground and sat on top of me, pinning my wrists back. His mouth was stained red, and he bared his teeth at me, showing his bloodied incisors with bits of flesh still clinging to them.
“Stellan! Don’t kill the girl!” Gunnar shouted. “We need her! Just scent the ground with her blood!”
Keeping his dead black eyes locked on me, Stellan yelled something back at Gunnar in Finnish, and Gunnar responded wearily in Finnish.
I tried kicking at Stellan, but he refused to budge, and he had my wrists locked into the cold slush.
Dodge and Jack were still fighting, but now Dodge was holding Jack back from getting at Stellan. Milo had managed to get Bear to the ground, but he wasn’t free yet. Through it all, Gunnar didn’t enter the mix. He just stalked around, observing our futile attempts at escape. Bobby was screaming at us, but I doubted that Leif was hurting him.
Stellan bent down and head butted me incredibly hard. Shooting pain shot through my skull and everything went black for a second. Had I been human, I’m sure he would’ve killed me with that. I could hear him saying something to me in Finnish, but I couldn’t see him or understand him. When my vision started clearing, I was holding my head, my natural reflex. Belatedly, I realized that that meant he’d let me go. He was standing over me, repeating the same word over and over again.
“He’s telling you to run, Alice,” Gunnar told me. I was curled up on the ground, and I could see Gunnar through Stellan’s legs. His expression was blank, and that was strangely disturbing.
“I suggest you listen to him. Stellan loves a good chase, and believe me, you want him happy when he catches you.”
I didn’t give a shit what Stellan wanted, but if I ran, he would chase me. I was what they were really after, so maybe they would all follow me away. They would leave Jane and Bobby behind for sure, since carrying humans along with them would just be cumbersome, but maybe even Milo and Jack. And even if they didn’t it was the only plan I had.
My head had stopped hurting, but I still felt dazed. I tried staggering to my feet, and immediately slipped and fell onto my knees. Stellan laughed, so I tried again. This time, I got up, and I ran.
Sliding through the grass, I fell more than I actually ran. Stellan was clearly giving me a head start, because I wasn’t making it very far. He was going to be awfully disappointed when he caught me, but I didn’t know what more I could do. I was running as fast as I could. If he hadn’t head butted me so hard and the ground wasn’t so slushy, I might’ve actually made it somewhere.