“What are you doing in my forest?” The voice resounded inside my head, but I never saw the woman speak.
I swallowed hard. “I was just passing through,” I managed to get out while I watched a large white snake enter the clearing. My heart drummed as its red eyes honed in on me while it flicked its tongue out. The woman’s laughter was loud inside my head. Eight of her surrounded my horse.
Worst case scenario was I would end up snake food. Best case scenario was I might get out alive.
I was hoping for anything not involving the snake.
“No one just passes through my forest without a gift.”
“You want a gift?” I asked.
“No!” her voice shouted in my head, and I couldn’t help but cringe.
My forehead scrunched. “You don’t want a gift?”
“I couldn’t care less about man’s trinkets,” she said while eight women walked in circles around my horse.
“What do you want, then?” Please say a lock of hair or a piece of dirty clothes. Because that was all I had.
Her head tilted again, and I imagined she was thinking. The clearing was suddenly filled with woman after woman. Then they became one again.
“A bite.” Her voice was soft in my head, and it only added to the eerie feeling of her demand. My stomach dropped while I tried to process what she was asking for.
“Why?” I choked out.
She smiled. “You have fresh blood . . . virgin blood.”
Note to self: lose my virginity as soon as possible if I ever survive this.
It was a terrible question, but I couldn’t help but ask it. “Do I have to?”
“Please decline. Then I can slit your wrists and hang you upside down above my pond. It’s been a long time since I’ve swum in virgin blood.”
I swallowed hard. “Where?”
“Your wrist will do fine.”
I wondered how painful one bite to the wrist could be.
“Then I can leave?”
She nodded her head in an odd way, and I held my wrist out before I could change my mind. Horro
r squeezed my lungs when I saw three-inch fangs extend and black fill the whites of her eyes. A burst of air hit me in the face before she sank her fangs in my wrist. I clenched my teeth to stop from crying out from the pain.
As soon as it began, it was done.
When I looked at my wrist, the two holes were already closing up. There were about twenty of her, and they were all spitting the blood out on the ground. My blood covered her lips when she looked at me with wide black eyes.
She bowed her head. “I am sorry,” her apology rang in my mind. “I am of service to you if you ever need it.”
Had she tasted that I could open the seal? Why she would feel indebted to me because of it was a mystery. My heart was beating too fast to worry about anything but getting safely out of the forest.
“I have a gift for you that I hope will help you accept my apology.” A small crystal attached to a chain appeared in my hand. “The crystal will glow red when there is danger near.”
“Thank you . . .” I stopped, not knowing what to call her.
“Sahara,” the word slithered into my mind. She bowed one last time and then was gone. The snake was still lounging around, and I gave it a generous berth while I left the clearing.