I awoke, cramped, in what turned out to be the trunk of a car. Even before my captors opened it up, I could smell pine, grass, and fresh forest air. The only woods that I knew of near the city were a few hours to the north—in vampire territory.
My body stiffened as my captors opened the trunk. One of them pulled me out of the car by my hair and dragged me down a rocky path. Every time I tried to stop, the captor who had a hold of me would prod me in the back with a gun and yank my hair until I started moving again.
We took several twists and turns. Though I tried to keep track of them in my mind, I knew that I would never be able to retrace them. All I could tell was that the deeper we went into the forest, the less life I could smell…and the more death that I smelled in its place.
A
