"The creature was starved," Arlonne said, and cast an almost pitying glance back at the corpse. "All of them are. The birds were startled by the beast, just as much as we were."
Thank goodness. It was because of the birds that we’d even found them, but it meant that the creatures in this area were affected more than I’d thought. Even in the Leftovers, these animals lacked their usual amount of food, which made scavenging more important. My stomach growled. I can understand that.
"I'm glad we found you," I said, and scanned the dozen fallen birds around the area. Arlonne was right. Their bodies were thin and worn down. It looked like these creatures hadn't seen food in a few days. I glanced warily into the trees. "Should we get out of here?"
Chandry hopped from one foot to another. "They'll stay up there. I bet they're waiting for us to leave so they can pick at the body for food." She gave me what I thought was supposed to be a reassuring grin, but it came off as morbid given what she’d said. I just nodded and snuck a glance at Arlonne, who was headed over to Bryce now. How had these two vampires ended up working together? Arlonne struck me as the kind of person to dislike anything that was overly bright and cheery.
Sike's face brightened as I came over with Chandry. He smiled at her, his eyes glittering with interest. Maybe he was also shocked by the newcomer's personality.
"I'm Chandry," she said, before he could get a word out, and offered him a handshake. “Is this how the humans say hello? You’re practically one of them, I’ve heard, with all your adventures. I can’t wait to ask you a million questions.” He stumbled out an introduction, and suddenly, I felt as if I might be in the midst of the universe's strangest meet-cute. I focused on Bryce, trying to ignore my disappointment that Dorian and Cam weren't among this group.
"How's he doing?" I asked, crouching down beside him. It looked like a scratch was causing most of the bleeding. I couldn’t see any other sign of injury.
Arlonne grunted. She was staying several feet away from Bryce. "The creature caught us off guard." She met my gaze. "Chandry and I had already found the gate, so we came through. We were here a few short hours, and then I sensed Bryce’s presence when he fell to the ground close by.”
Hope surged through me. A gate was good. We could do a lot more now that she’d found one, like get help from our allies in the Immortal Plane to form a bigger search party if needed.
"Nearby?" I asked.
"Yes, I can sense it more easily now that we've found it," she informed me and then cast an annoyed glance at Chandry. "My new partner is exceptionally good at sensing gates. I hope she'll come in handy, if she doesn’t get us killed first." Chandry wasn't paying attention to us but merrily chatting with Sike and asking him a million questions about his scanner.
"I'm happy as long as we know where the gate is," I said with a sympathetic shrug. New members were an adjustment for every team on this mission, it seemed. “We lost Bryce’s nephew and Dorian in this mess. Have you seen them at all in the forest?”
Arlonne frowned and shook her head. “Not at all. I haven’t sensed anyone else until I felt Sike coming up.”
I cursed inwardly, turning my attention to Bryce. “We’ll need to check for a concussion when he wakes up. Did the bird attack and knock him out?” I needed to know. It wasn’t good for him to sleep if he had head trauma.
“Not quite,” Arlonne muttered, and averted her gaze to the trees for a moment. A hint of embarrassment crossed her face. This is a first.
“If he fell on his head, he shouldn’t be sleeping. I’ll need to check his neurological—”
“It was the curse,” Arlonne replied sharply. She glanced down at Bryce. “I didn’t realize what was happening until he fell. The thing swiped at him, and he fell, but he was struggling to get back up. I heard the thud when he fell. It didn’t sound that bad, but I panicked, and when he got back to his feet, I rushed toward him. I felt my heart rate spike when I saw him, and then, when I got too close…”
I tried to stop the shock from playing on my face. It was great news for avoiding a potential concussion, but I hadn’t realized they’d progressed that much in their relationship. I cleared my throat.
“Well, luckily, I’m an expert in that department,” I said awkwardly. “He should come around in a bit, but you might want to stay back just in case.” Sike and Chandry were lost in conversation about the scanner. Arlonne bent her head, perhaps to thank me for my discretion. It would get out eventually, but Arlonne needed this moment of privacy to sort out her feelings. A strange invisible alliance formed between us as I hovered over Bryce’s unconscious body and she watched from several feet away.
We had a gate to the Immortal Plane, one leader passed out, two members missing, and an emotional forest with slimy trees and crazed animals. Things were getting interesting but incredibly unsettling for our team.
15
Roxy
The road looked like something out of a post-apocalyptic film—and I knew, because I’d watched every single one in existence. Usually, my favorite films had zombies. I sincerely hoped, for my sake, that it would be zombies coming for me instead of a terrifying invisible creature that snatched humans up.
I was alone and waiting as bait. Maybe for a zombie, but more likely for whatever had snatched poor Fred.
In an attempt to block
