Chapter One:
"Ayden! Ayden where the hell are you?" I hissed crawling through the underbrush of the forest floor. His soft laugh drifted through the air calming my nerves.
"Right here silly. Don't worry," his face popping upon front of me. Sliding back quickly I glared at him.
"You should know better than to sneak up on me. Especially now days!" I hissed. Ayden smiled at me and placed one arm protectively around my shoulders.
"I'm not gonna let anything happen to you Ella, you are too important," he replied, "I'm gonna scope out you stay here 'k?" Before I could protest Ayden slithered away into the darkness and unknown. I could hear the twigs scraping the dirt floor as his feet kicked them over his new path.
"Not gonna let anything happen…sure," I whispered crouching down, pressing my sun kissed skin into the dirt.
It was silent for a while, no movement, even the crickets had gone silent. Then the eerie feeling pressed down, they had come…they found us.
"Ayden…Ayden!" I whispered into the darkness.
"What the-" I heard a gun go off, "Ella RUN!" I scrambled backwards through the bushes and jumped to my feet running towards where I saw the flames of a burning vampire. A strong arm wrapped around my waist pulling me back words.
"LET ME GO!" I screamed lashing out, a hand clamped over my mouth as my holder continued backwards.
"Shut up Ella," Ayden whispered quietly, as he pulled us backwards. I relaxed slightly before turning my attention back to scanning for vampires.
"Where are they?" I whispered turning my head quickly left and right.
"I'm not sure. There were only two that attacked me but something says there are more on the way," he replied as we melted into the shadows.
"Next time, I go with you," I muttered turning to face him as he let go of my waist.
"It's to-"
"I don't care if you think it is dangerous, I'm going," I replied stubbornly. I heard him sigh but nothing else, I over to a tree leaning against it waiting for his next idea.
"Look, let's just get somewhere safer than the ground and sleep, we can figure everything else out in the morning ok?" he said, I didn't like waiting, not when tomorrow could be our last day but I didn't argue.
"Ok," I felt his finger intertwine with mine and he squeezed my hand reassuringly.
"Don't worry Ella. I'm always here, I'll always protect you."
I woke up to the early dawn light drifting through tree leaves, I rolled over feeling my back dig into the trunk. I sat up to get a bearing of my surroundings, Ayden had helped me get situated in the crater between roots while he searched for better shelter. I pulled myself up and started wandering through the trees, we were in the middle of no where. I didn't see any form of shelter within easy walking distance not that should have been a surprise. Most places were destroyed if they weren't in the city, the vamps tried to make it harder for the resistance to hide.
"Ayden?" I called retracing our steps from last night. I came across where I had been hiding, about a hundred yards away I could see a pile of ashes from where Ayden had been attacked the night before. I continued to wander when I got the feeling of someone following me. I could hear footsteps, they were too loud to be Ayden, to careless…I heard voices and man and a woman's.
"All I'm saying is it is dangerous for you to be risking your neck like that Edward," the woman's voice said. I spotted a tree with plenty of leaves in the upper boughs I ran for it hoisting myself up and situating on a branch as the two came closer.
The man was about Ayden's height so around six feet, he had longish black hair and a semi sun kissed complexion. The girl was tall as well maybe five feet and eight inches tall, she had long straight brown hair. She was tan as well but much more so that the man or even me for that matter.
"Look, if this cure is gonna work we need to test it. My brother died to save us that day. It's only fair that I test the theory," the man, Edward, replied.
"I knew it! This is all for Frankie. He wouldn't want you wasting your life on a possible theory. He would want you to be able to live through this," the girl replied.
"Look Audrey, I know you disagree but you aren't gonna win this. Just let it go, the faster we get back to the safe house the better," the two disappeared from my view and I let out a tiny sigh of relief. They were researchers, with a cure for the vamps? Was that even possible?
"Ella? Estella!" I dropped down from the tree running towards where I heard Ayden's voice.
"I'm here," I called, basically colliding with Ayden.
"Don't do that. Jesus, I thought they had gotten you," he muttered.
"Nope, I'm still kicking. But I did find out something. Two people, and man and a woman just walked by. They were researchers, they have a safe house…Ayden I think we should follow them. Hide out until we know if they are trust worthy," I said, Ayden's face was a mask of mistrust.
"I dunno Ella," he was thinking back to our last meet up attempt, the group had gotten attacked and we had barley escaped.
"They were different Ayden. Something about them, they were only a little older then us…twenty-three maybe. There is no harm in following…" I said.
"Are you sure they didn't know you were there?" he asked.
"I'm not one hundred percent positive, but I'm pretty sure they didn't know," I said. Ayden sighed but I guess the hopeful expression on my face won over.
"Alright, we will watch them a couple of days before we decide ok?" he compromised, I nodded enthusiastically. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder kissing the top of my head. "Which way did they go?" I pulled him in the direction of the tree I climbed and then off in the direction they had taken.
They were a ways off, but the barren landscape allowed us to keep them in eyesight pretty easily which was comforting for Ayden not having to get super close. We traveled in silence, gazing at each other every once in a while. In my case hugging him randomly just to make sure he was real and not my imagination. He liked when I did that, it made him feel like I needed his protection.
We kept walking until an hour before dark, that's when the safe house the two we were following disappeared came into view. We picked up our pace happy to be back among trees again than out in the open air as we had been all day. Ayden gave me a boost up into a tall tree making sure I was invisible from the ground before pulling himself into a tree, I leaned back and listened as slowly but surely all the sounds in the house went silent just in time for sundown.
The wildlife never picked up that night, I heard the cracks of vampires wandering the forest below us but thankfully the tree provided enough protection that my scent didn't float down to them. I fell asleep at some point I'm not exactly sure when, but a peaceful nights sleep was not in store for me.
"ELLA JUMP!" Ayden screamed.