I gave out a girly cry when the wolves crashed through the bushes next to me before I realized it was just Chris, Adrian and Shannon.
I pushed harder. Raced around trees. Branches scraped my arms hard enough to draw blood, but I had to keep moving. I couldn’t lose the feeling, the connection to Dastien. And if I didn’t get there fast enough, he was going to be seriously hurt. Or worse.
I stumbled to a stop.
“What is it?” Meredith said.
“I don’t know. I think we’re here, but I don’t see anything.”
I scanned the forest. Oak trees towered above me, but there was a strange silence. I closed my eyes and focused in on Dastien—that bond that we had. It had gotten stronger since that first vision I’d had in Los Angeles, but it still took focus for me to find it.
We were close. Really close. I climbed up a massive fallen tree. The cave’s entrance gaped behind the dead branches.
The three wolves were sniffing next to the entrance. The red wolf—Shannon—let out a quiet growl. I wondered what their wolf-y noses could smell that I couldn’t.
Meredith moved closer to the wolves and inhaled deeply. “Do you smell that?”
I closed the distance to the wolves and a foul stench hit me. I pulled my T-shirt over my nose.
“Vampires,” Meredith said.
“Why do they have to smell so bad?”
Meredith stared at me for a second. “They’re undead. Piles of rotting flesh that live by drinking blood.”
“When you put it that way, yuck. I guess when I think of vampire, I picture Brad Pitt or Robert Pattinson. More sexy, less stinky.”
The black wolf—Adrian let out a quiet howl, and nudged the fallen tree with his nose. Shannon went under the tree and Adrian quickly followed.
I started to move the trunk over, but Meredith stopped me.
“Don’t touch anything. It might be a booby trap.”
I wondered how she knew, but didn’t ask. We’d already wasted enough time. She slid herself under the branches. I followed her into the mouth of the cave. It stunk something fierce—worse than rotting fish on the beach—inside. I gagged and tried to focus on breathing through my mouth, but then I could taste the smell. My pulse hammered and I wondered if vampires could hear it like they did in the movies.
It was pitch black in the cave. “I can’t see anything. Can you?”
The blond wolf—Chris huffed, and started walking into the darkness.
I pulled my backpack off and started digging around. If my cousins stuck a flashlight in there, I was going to owe them big time.
My hand touched a familiar shape, and I flipped the button. “Nice.”
There were three tunnels ahead of us. Christ. We didn’t have time to get lost.
“I’ll go down this one,” Meredith said. “Adrian, you go down that way—”
Chris turned back to human. Fully naked human.
I spun around. “Jesus. Give me some warning next time.”
He chuckled. “Didn’t mean to offend. But I wanted to tell Meredith that splitting up was a terrible idea. Have you never watched a scary movie?”
They started arguing, but I ignored them and focused on Dastien again.
He was down the left tunnel. I was sure of it. “This way.”
“Wait. What?” Meredith said.