*** This story contains some mild language, suspense, romance, and some frightening images and situations—13 and older, please.
In the Grip of Twilight
By:
Olivia Tannis Moore
Chapter Forty Nine:
Week One, Night Two
Into the Forest
When we reached the fork where we'd escaped the first pair of Lycans, I paused, and searched the floor of the passageway. Thaddeus's book had bounced and landed between the two tunnels. But now there was only the red-brown dirt floor. It was gone.
Demetri sighed. The guard probably found it, he warned me. He didn't say, I told you so, but it was there in the tone of his voice inside my head.
I shuddered. It appeared that everything was going wrong on this night. And if it was true that the guard had recovered the book, Aro would have it once again, and everything I'd hoped to accomplish would be a big failure. More than that, if Aro guessed who had taken the book in the first place (and who else but the curious new Reformer?) Demetri's life could be in jeopardy…as well as my own. I remembered then, Demetri's comment about imprisonment…how I wouldn't like it. He hadn't gone into detail, but in my mind I pictured something dim and sinister like a dungeon. Maybe even a small cell like the one where they'd kept Edward.
The dark Lycan was already in the left tunnel, the one we hadn't taken the first go around. He stopped and looked over his shoulder. "No stalling," he called out.
"I lost something here," I tried to explain.
He turned and scanned the floor where we stood, before looking at us warily as if expecting some kind of trickery. "I don't see anything—keep moving."
Demetri removed his arm from my shoulder and shifted his weight from foot to foot, testing his strength. I can walk on my own now, he told me.Through the shredded uniform I saw that his wounds were healing fast, but he still grimaced when he moved.
Sure? I asked.
Demetri scowled at the dark-furred Lycan. Yeah, still burns like hell but that'll take a while to completely go away.
The Lycan leader watched us for a short moment, then stepped to the side and indicated that the young Lycan would now take the lead, perhaps thinking that if we tried to escape it would be wiser to cut off any attempt at the rear.
I opened my mouth to tell him that we weren't going anywhere. But then I closed it. Why bother? He probably wouldn't believe me anyway.
So we fell into line behind the younger Lycan into the tunnel, following him from tunnel to tunnel, until the passage abruptly dead-ended.
Demetri frowned.
The dark Lycan smirked at Demetri as he walked past us and to the front. Then, he leapt into the air above and pushed at the ceiling of the tunnel.
A trap door opened.
Demetri growled low in the back of his throat.
Surprised at this sudden show of animosity, I gazed at Demetri. What's the matter?
Demetri's jaws were clinched together and his eyes blazed with fury. Only a handful of us know about this door. We have a traitor amongst us.
***
The Lycan seemed pleased at Demetri's anger. "You really should be more careful of who you entrust your secrets to," he said smugly.
Demetri bristled. I grabbed his arm, afraid that he was going to lunge at the Lycan and quash the fragile peace that was between us.
You're in no shape to fight, I reminded him. Let it go. There's nothing you can do about it now.
Demetri continued to stare menacingly at the Lycan. I reached up and took his chin in my hand, turning his face to look down at mine. There was so much pride there in his face. To have the Lycans come in this way…I tried to understand the rage that threatened to overtake him… Which one of the elite had betrayed them to their bitter enemy? Was it Aro himself attempting to start the war?
Let it go, I whispered. And then I used the words he'd said to me earlier when he'd discovered me in the Chamber of Knowledge with Thaddeus' book: It's not worth dying over.
He closed his eyes and nodded. And when I felt the coiled tension in his arm loosen, I released his arm.
Demetri turned to the Lycan, his eyes hard with restrained anger, "Let's get on with it."
**
The trap door opened onto the forest floor. I took a deep breath of night air and looked around me. The air was crisp and fresh after being in the tunnels. I looked up; the trees were so thick here I couldn't even see the sky above. It was disappointing. I thought seeing the twinkling stars overhead would somehow make things more hopeful, or at least it had in the past.
The dark Lycan was almost invisible in the complete darkness of the forest. I had to listen carefully for his movement or search the ground for his shadow, until he turned his pale eyes in my direction.
"Julius will take you to Muriel," he told me, nodding toward the younger gray Lycan. It was the first I'd heard of either of their names.
I glanced at Demetri. "What about—"
"He goes with me," the Lycan said.
"No. I don't agree to this," I said loudly enough that the two Lycans swiveled their heads and gazed out into the forest. They seemed concerned that my voice might be overheard.
"Quiet!" the Lycan demanded in a low voice.
"We won't be split up." My voice was lower but still not to the level they wished for. I decided then and there that I would yell my head off if they split us up. I was certain that the only reason Demetri lived at all was because of me—or rather, my humanity. I folded my arms against my chest.
Come on, Bella…you're pushing them too hard, Demetri cautioned, which I thought was ironic given that he'd almost provoked his own death just a few minutes ago.
Shut up, I told him, not caring. My back was to the wall no matter where I turned, whether it was the Volturi or the Lycans…
The Lycan huffed, and then he looked out into the forest. After a moment, I realized he had slipped into that strange trance again, some kind of distant communication that they shared, not unlike the vampires.
When he finally broke the communication off, he wasn't happy. He looked to Demetri, his rage barely suppressed. "Muriel says it's highly unusual…but you can come." And then he stalked into the forest demanding that we follow quietly.
***
(Thanks for reading! OTM)