Not Even Human

Chapter Nine

My skin was ablaze as I ran with excitement towards the others whilst dodging trees and jumping over shrubs. Around midway through the ten mile was when I started seeing people that were classified as minnows around me. I ran towards the closest one towards me, tackling her with a triumphant laugh, then quickly getting up to tag more people. Some of them were great at avoiding me, which I would’ve gone back for but it would take too much time. I tagged ten, maybe eleven easily before reaching the yellow tape line.

I panted with a chuckle as I looked at Gabriel’s grinning expression as he stood beside me, “How many did you get, Gabe?”

“About thirteen, I think. You?”

“Ten, eleven maybe.” I looked over at Benjamin and Gabriel’s siblings, “How about you guys?”

Victoria smugly c****d her head, “Fifteen.”

Nico perked up, “I got eight.”

Benjamin stayed quiet as he observed all the minnows turned sharks walk our way. I looked over at him with a furrow brow, “How many did you get?”

He slightly smiled, “I don’t wanna brag-“

I scoffed, “Oh please, it can’t be that-“

“Twenty-seven, give or take.”

My eyes widened, and I shut my eyes as I nodded in both respect and understanding. They all snickered at my reaction, and Nico walked up to me as we all got ready for the next round. “How are you liking game night?”

I smiled, “It’s actually really fun.”

By the next round, the game was already finished with all of us being too fast.

I walked up to Gabriel, “Well, that was quick.”

He shook his head, “It’s not over yet. The runner up is next.”

I frowned in confusion until I heard Benjamin speak, “Time for the next game!”

The one most voted after Sharks and Minnows was Freeze tag. I clapped my hands, “Okay, so how do you guys know who’s it?”

Gabriel shrugged, “There’s always volunteers. My dad just randomly picks.”

On cue, Benjamin shouted with a grin, “Monroe!” A woman, seemingly around thirty years old, with blonde hair squealed. “You’re it! Now, give us all a second to disperse, then chase us to your heart’s content.”

Gabriel nudged me just as I noticed everyone started to disperse, and I nodded, telling him I knew to go now, as he disappeared from my sight. I ran, not really knowing what direction I was going. I was just running as fast and as far as I could. I stopped, looking around my surroundings with a small sigh. It was just a clutter of trees with dirt and grass under my shoes. I could hear others from far squealing and laughing, but luckily I wasn’t encountering Monroe. Had I gone too far?

I saw something shine in the distance in the moonlight, and went to examine it better. It was gold, exactly like the rest of the vampires, like mine, except it was torn. I frowned, wondering what could’ve happened to someone to have it torn from their neck. I heard a growl in the distance, and I froze.

“Hey!”

I heard a whisper, and I looked around frantically.

“Up here.”

I looked up to see what seemed to be a young girl on a tree branch, sixteen at most, waving at me to come closer. I climbed up to her in no time, “Are you a-“

“Shh!” She pulled me close just as I heard the patter of… paws? I looked down, covering my mouth to restrain my breath as I saw a large wolf sniff at the golden necklace on the floor. It howled lowly, and two others came up to them to smell the necklace as well. They seemed to huff in frustration before running in a different direction from whence they came. Once I couldn’t hear them, I looked at the young girl.

“What happened to you?”

“I got a little lost earlier when we were supposed to get away from Monroe. I tried to go back, but I ran into wolves and I guess they didn’t see my necklace-“

“They totally saw it, they just didn’t care. Isn’t there a law about us being in their territory? They're not supposed to attack unless we do, right?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged with a frustrated face, and huffed, “I’m just trying to get back.”

She was obviously fed up with me. I sighed, “We’re probably gonna have to pass them through the trees. What’s your name?”

“Reyna.”

I smiled, “You know, that means ‘queen’ in spanish.”

She scowled, “Wow. I’m so shocked.”

I rolled my eyes, “You know what, whatever. Right now, we’re gonna have to work together to get out of this. But first, we need to get your necklace.”

She groaned, “That’s gonna be annoying. They’re almost as fast as us.”

“Not as fast as me. We just need to drop down, then come back up.”

“We? This is a one person job. You do it.”

I scoffed, “If they come back faster than expected, one of us needs to be the distraction. You get it, and I’ll intercede before anything happens, okay?”

Reyna rolled her eyes before jumping down and grabbing the necklace. She showed me the gold jewelry with a sarcastic smile, and I shook my head at her antics. A howl was heard, and I can hear the giddy patter of their paws. She jumped up with fear in her eyes, and I quickly jumped down as a wolf replaced her spot. My eyes widened as I happened to stomp on the wolf, and lost my balance easily. I rolled onto the grass and got up in a hurry, looking at them with wide eyes. The two wolves seemed to narrow their eyes at me as the one I stomped on ruffled itself and snared its teeth in annoyance.

I grinned, “Come on, doggies.” The wolves growled at the nickname, and got in position to pounce, “Fetch!”

I took off in the opposite direction from Vampyr territory, hearing the wolves take off after me the minute I turned away.

Hopefully, Reyna would’ve taken off immediately back to where she belonged. I ran as fast and as far as I could until I started to get a little tired. I heard more wolves join in the hunt, but they were behind the first three. I skidded to a stop, turning and backhanding the wolf closest to me. They flew away, hitting a tree and whimpering.

I chuckled dryly, “Yeah. I’m not doing the wolf bite thing again.”

The second closest wolf pounced, and I jumped backwards before speeding off to the closest tree and climbing as fast as I could to the top. The wood splinters ingrained into my skin as I gripped at the bark for leverage while climbing, but I grit my teeth and kept going. I made it to the very top, gasping at the view from the pine tree, and suddenly cursed as I could barely remember which direction I came from. I huffed, thinking for a second before spotting the Romaro building, before I started hopping from tree to tree. There was a tree a little ways away, but I made the jump anyways.

My nails dragged along the bark, my teeth gritting as I slightly lost my grip. The splinters hurt like hell, and my nails broke under the intense pressure. I could hear howling, and jumped faster. The air was thin, and I was tired from all the exertion. I was finally close by the building, and slowly climbed my way down before accidentally slipping on a branch a little more than half way down the tree.

I groaned as my back hit the dirt, and examined the palms of my hand. They were bleeding, dirty, and literally chalk full of splinters. I let my head fall back into the dirt, feeling exhausted. My eyes closed, and the last thing I heard was footsteps as I drifted into unconsciousness.

-

I woke up with a gasp, the skin on my palms actually feeling smooth instead of the splinters I remember. I looked around and sat up, finding myself in a bedroom. I swallowed, slowly getting up off the blue navy comforters. I could hear low murmurs, and opened the door to the bedroom to see Gabriel and Benjamin lowly arguing. It was more like Benjamin arguing over Gabriel, because he could hear everything he thought, so Gabe didn’t even need to talk. They stopped once they saw me, and Benjamin’s face remained stoic while Gabriel scowled.

“What’s wrong?” I felt my mind race through all the terrible possibilities, and Benjamin smiled.

“Nothing you’re thinking of, love. It’s just that that little spat with you and the wolves riled up some… politics-“

“They want your head.” Gabriel’s glower turned soft as he looked at you, distress obviously prominent in his mind.

“For what? They attacked Reyna.” I recalled her thrown necklace, her fearful expression, and her shushed words at me.

Gabriel raised a brow, “And who’s that?”

Benjamin nodded in understanding, “One of the turned. She was attacked at once in the forest for going into their territory.”

“Isn’t that against the rules, or something?”

He sighed, frustrated, “Yes, but they will just argue her locket was missing or behind her clothes. And she was in their territory. Doesn’t change the fact that you stomped on one of them.”

I withheld my smirk, thinking of the wolf’s ruffle of annoyance.

“Though indeed humorous, since you haven’t gone through the official initiation yet, they are stating your head is only fair game.”

“Well…” I frowned, shaking my head in annoyance. “What now?”

Gabriel clenched his jaw, cursing under his breath as Benjamin stayed silent for a moment before speaking. “Well, they said that we have to deliver you in fourteen days or suffer the consequences. But, we do have one failsafe. It’s a rule that the treaty enforces the most beyond all.”

I huffed, “What is it then? What’s the rule?

Gabriel looked at me, his expression full of guilt. “Mates are to come to no harm.”

“And what does that mean exactly?”

Gabriel grimaced, “We have to get married.”

"I'm sorry, what?"