Bite Me

Chapter 8

Kiara

Hissing as an enlarged thorn snagged my arm, I broke through the overgrown shrub covering the exit from the tunnel. Crawling the rest of the way out of the overgrown shrubs, I rub at my arm where a thorn pierced my skin. “Well, at least no one will ever stumble across the opening.” I murmured, trying not to draw attention to any of the potential enemies out there.

When Ryka appeared behind me with Lorenzo draped over his shoulders, I looked around trying to get my bearings in the darkness. “I have a room booked for us to hide out for the night but I’m not quite sure where we are.”

“No room,” Ryka breathed out heavily, Lorenzo’s weight clearly weighing down on him, “They’ll search there first. We need to keep moving.”

“It’ll be fine, I know the guy who owns the place,” I turned my face away so he couldn’t see the smirk as I recall just how well I know him, “He-”

“Will be a liability if under pressure,” Ryka cut me off, “I won’t risk you getting locked up or tortured, Kiara.”

We stood facing each other, neither willing to budge, “Then what do you propose?”

“We run until we cross the Blood Moon Pack,”Ryka stated making me blanch.

“But we hate them. They lost her, Ryka,” I pleaded, “We can’t trust them. They’re wolves.”

“They’re allies of your mother,” Ryka’s body language seemed resolute, “They will protect us based on that alone.”

“Protect us like they protected mum?” I challenged, feeling a wetness in my eyes.

“Kiara,” Ryka moved closer to me and placed his hand on my shoulder, “No one could contain your mum if she didn’t want to be contained. Either way, we don’t have time to just stand around waiting to get caught, we need to move.”

Sighing in frustration, I reluctantly agreed and nodded for him to lead the way.

As we walked, my mind wandered to our options, ‘If they allow us in the pack, I’ll have ample opportunity to slowly torture that she wolf until she begs me to kill her.’ I considered with a smile as images of her hanging by one arm slowly bleeding out came to mind.

The thud of walking into Ryka awoke me from my fantasy. I was about to question what was going on when his hand suddenly covered my mouth and the air whooshed out of me as my body was slammed against a tree trunk.

I turned my wide confused eyes up to Ryka, searching for answers but he merely removed his hand from my mouth and raised a finger in front of his mouth to instruct me to remain quiet.

It was then I heard them, a group of men heading towards us. I watched as Ryka carefully peered around the trunk to scope the situation.

When he returned back to face me, I mouthed, “How many?”

He held up six fingers and I couldn’t help but bite my lip in anxiety. This was why I’d booked the room for tonight, I didn’t want to be caught out and about on the first night.

“Do you think it’s her?” one of the guys asked. My heart began thumping in my chest as I watched Ryka. ‘Do they know I’m here? That we’ve escaped, already?’

“I think there’s a high chance since they called her Marama,” another returned.

“Marama? What does that even mean?” the first guy asked again as Ryka indicated for me to shuffle to my right.

“Goddess of the moon and death.” At my sharp intake of breath, Ryka’s hand once again covered my mouth, “Did you hear that?”

“What if it’s her?” the first guy whisper yelled. “Let’s get out of here, Mick. I don’t want to die.”

The rest of the group agreed before I heard the sound of their feet running as they ran adjacent to our position.

When the sounds dissipated, I released the breath I was holding as I looked up at Ryka hopeful. “Could it be her?” I whispered, still not daring to speak to loudly incase someone else was out here.

Without a word, Ryka shrugged Lorenzo higher on his shoulder and started walking again. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was also trying not to get his hopes up either.

*

After what felt like an age of walking in silence, I released an exaggerated sigh.

I saw Ryka glance over, giving me a quick look over to ensure I wasn’t injured, then look back ahead in the direction we were walking.

“How long will it take to get there?” I asked, feeling the need to have some sort of connection.

“A bit,” he responded, and I subtly rolled my eyes. While I knew he wasn’t much of a talker, I needed more than two word replies to distract my overactive mind and paranoia.

Sighing loudly again, I bit my lip, wondering if he’d be willing to talk about her, “Ryka?” I hesitated, “Could you tell me about her? About my mum?”

A few beats passed and my heart sank, certain he wouldn’t answer, until he finally broke the silence, “What do you want to know?”

“What was her favourite colour?” I asked. It sounded lame even to my own ears, but I couldn’t help the little thrill of wondering if she and I had any similarities.

“Red,” came his single word reply and I felt my body sag a little, until he continued on, “she looked beautiful in royal blue and wore it happily because it was Dylan’s – I mean, your fathers’ favourite colour. She always loved the way you lit up when she wore it too.” He gave me a soft smile and I could almost see the memories flicker in his eyes as he recalled them. “But when she wore red,” he shook his head as though he could barely find the words for it, “She was something else.”

“Confident?” I offered, willing him to continue talking.

“Breathtaking,” I nodded when he finally landed on the word, “You couldn’t take your eyes away from her. But yes, part of that was the confidence she radiated from wearing something she truly connected with.”

I tried to visualise her but found I couldn’t even recall any details about her face, only her beautiful long blonde hair. All photos had been burned or destroyed beyond repair and it had been too many years to return a clear recollection.

“I barely remember her,” I whispered, “I keep trying, but I can’t get a clear picture of her.”

“Mmph…” we both stopped in place, and I looked at Lorenzo still propped on Ryka’s shoulder. Mumbling as he started to come to, Ryka gently lowered him to sit at the base of a nearby tree, “K-Kiara?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” I squat down in front of him, Ryka standing close behind me.

“You… You hit me,” his looked up at me confused then swivelled his neck realising we were no longer in the coven. “Where are we?”

“I know, I’m sorry but I needed to escape,” looking briefly at Ryka, “We needed to escape.”

“They’ll think I’m an accomplice,” he panicked scrubbing his hand through his hair. “They-”

“Can’t hurt you,” I cut him off, “It’s way I didn’t leave you behind, I knew they’d kill you first and ask questions later.”

“They’ll find us and kill us all,” he looked around in fear as though he expected someone to jump out and hunt us down any minute.

“Lorenzo don’t make me knock you out again,” I warned, “You’re welcome to go back if you feel the need, but they will kill you on sight, so it would be smarter to stay with us. We know what we’re doing.”

Resigned, he slumped his shoulders and I saw the slight nod of his head, “You better, because if they come for us, my blood will be on your hands.”