Thirst for Vengeance - Victoria Sinclair (to read list .TXT) 📗

the sack his had attached to the horses saddle. Jarvin pulled out what looked like a long glass tube filled with beautiful white flowers with yellow centers. I had never seen anything like them.

Jarvin walked over to me stifle and raised the glass tube toward me. "I'm sorry for being so harsh. Take this as my apology. It is a werewolf repellent. Only use it when you know werewolves are near." His voice was gravely and flat. Carefully taking the tube in my head I nodded as thank you and put it in my bag. Looking over at Alex I saw a suspicious look cross his eyes briefly but then it was gone. It happened so fast I almost thought I had imagined it but I knew Alex too well.

"What king of plant is that Jarvin? I've never seen it before and too my knowledge the only werewolf repellent is wolfs bane."

Jarvin looked over to Alex, his facial expression never changing. "It is called Paper whites. They also repel, it is a well kept secret within our society." He stared at Alex a moment longer before Jarvin walked back over to his horse and mounted.

"Safe travels my friends. You will need it." Jarvin said before pulling his horse around and taking back off down the trail. Blinking with curiosity I watched as he disappeared and looked down at my saddle back. I had never been taught about Paper whites and looking over at Alex I could tell that he was just as troubled to learn this information just now as well. "Come on Aurora, lets continue up the path. We will make camp when we get close to the top of the mountain." Alex turned his own horse around and started back up the path. I stayed turn around for a few more moments reflecting everything that had just happened.

It made no since why Jarvin would follow us all the way up the mountain to give us werewolf repellent that we had never even heard of. As a gift to me to top it all off. That made even less since because it was very obvious he still did not like me. Was there maybe a more sinister reason he gave it to us? I looked up at the sky, there was three giant black birds circling us. That was never a good sign. Sighing I turned my horse around and went to catch up with Alex. This day was starting to make less sense. In fact, the past two days were just not making sense. I thought things were suppose to get easier after I turned 18, not more difficult. I thought to myself. Little did I know things were about to get a lot more difficult.

Valley

As we made our way up the mountain everything that had happened to me in the last two days was starting to weigh on my mind. First the incident at the market with the fair haired man. He was still an attractive mystery and I just couldn't figure out why he had affected me so much. Then there was the incident in the streets of the village where I saw a shadowed blur crossing the street. Finally there was the foot print next to the stable and Jarvins strange behavior.  Was life always this strange away from home? I hopped not.

Snapping out of my thoughts, I realized that the trail ahead of us was about to open up into a small valley. As we entered the small valley the first thing I noticed that the grass was not as high as you would expect it to be. In fact, it looked almost like it had been cut short. There was also no wild flowers in sight, was a bit odd for this time of the year and region. I got a very uneasy feeling as Alex dismounted.

"Since it is only about mid day based on the sun I think this is a good as place as any to set up a fire and eat." Alex said as he tied his horse to the nearest tree, giving the rope plenty of length so the horse could graze.

I was not comfortable in this clearing and I wasn't sure why, Alex didn't seemed too concerned. Or maybe he was and just didn't give any indication.  Running my hand through my hair for a moment I dismounted, my stomach growling. Whether I was comfortable or not with this clearing, I couldn't deny that I was hungry. I went and tied my horse to the tree next to the one Alex had used and lengthened the rope so my horse would have room to graze as well. Looking around for a moment I didn't see Alex and figured he had went to get firewood. 

Not sure if Alex needed help or not I decided to go into the woods myself and look for some firewood. I was not going to be useless if I could help it. I wasn't even a couple steps away from the valley when I heard a sharp crack of wood not to far off from me. Immediately freezing I look around slowly, trying to identify what made the sound. 'It was probably just Alex, stop being so uptight.' I thought to myself as I continued to collect some sticks for firewood. Still though, I had the strange feeling of being watched.

When I finally had an armful of sticks I turned around and made my way back toward the clearing the feeling of being watched weighed heavier on me. The feeling was so intense I almost started jogging back to the clearing.  That was when I heard another loud crack behind me, something big was definitely behind me. However when I spun around to face whoever it was nothing but trees, leaves, and grass met my stare. 'Aurora you are going crazy.' I thought as I turned back around and walked quickly into the valley. 'It was probably just Ale-' I couldn't even finish the thought as I looked up and saw Alex a few feet in front of me, building a fire pit with some wood beside him.

'Ok, so it was not Alex behind me. Maybe just a bear then, or a mountain lion. Stop getting yourself so worked up.' I thought again as I walked over and laid down my pile of sticks next to his. He looked up at me and smiled. "I appreciate the help, I even brought you back a surprise!" Alex then pulled up two dead rabbits by there back legs. "It's been awhile since we had rabbit and I don't feel like living off bread today." He smile widened as he tossed one of the rabbits over to me. "You can skin it by yourself though, since your a big girl now." He winked at me before pulling out a knife to skin his own rabbit.

About an hour and a half later we were stretching our legs one good time before we finished the ride to the other side of the mountain. I felt amazing, not only did I get a break from riding but I had at cooked rabbit for the first time in who knows how long. Alex was scattering the put we had the fire in when I felt the all too familiar sense that we were being watched again. Not being able to place the feeling I scanned our surroundings. Nothing seemed out of place that I could tell. Alex noticed me looking around. "Did you see something?" He started scanning the valley and the edge of the woods himself.

"No, I just can't shake the feeling we are being watched."

Alex glanced at me for a moment before continuing to scan around him. "I don't see anything and I haven't felt that yet. It could just be where this is your first big job. I wouldn't worry about it until we actually see or hear something." Alex walked over and patted my shoulder before going over to his horse and untying the rope. "We still have a few hours of sunlight before dark. Lets make the most of it and get as far as we can. Woods are a scary place to sleep without a home." 

As soon as Alex had the rope up he walked over and mounted his horse and waved for me to hurry up. Running over I un-tied the rope quickly, but not without noticing a giant claw mark in the tree about a foot above where the rope was. It was fresh, maybe a day or two old but it still unnerved me. Quickly putting the rope in the saddle I mounted my horse and quickly followed after Alex. In a day or two we would be facing a nightmare and I was still not one hundred percent sure I was prepared.  As we were leaving the valley I had the sudden urge to turn my head and look back. I can't explain why but I was compelled to look. Sure enough just as the valley was about out of few I thought I saw the sun shinning off of pale hair.

I pulled sharply at the reins making my horse come to an immediate stop. After focusing my vision for a second what I thought I had saw was now gone. There was no way this man could be following us, why would he even want to follow us. Realizing then that Alex had not noticed me stop and was still continuing up the trail I went ahead and squeezed my thighs slightly, signaling for the horse to continue forward. 'I'm going crazy. That's all that is. I am just crazy.' I thought to myself as I continued behind him. I couldn't wait to lay down and rest, maybe that's all I needed was a good nights sleep. However, I had a feeling in my bones that I wasn't going to get a good nights sleep for a long time to come.

Hunted

 

It was almost night-time as Alex and I reached the top of the mountain. It felt almost as though I hadn't eaten anything all day by the time we dismounted. Alex had decided we would make camp off to the side of the trail about one hundred feet, that way we were far from the trail but not too far. We also had our horses tied a couple of feet in front of us. That way if they where spooked by something on the trail they would alert us. We