Аманда Хокинг - Flutter

“Don’t go after us, then,” I suggested. “Just give us Jane, and we’ll be out of your hair.”

“You know what I think would be fun?” The devilish grin returned to his face. “Is if we made you find her, and bring her to us.”

“Don’t you already have her?” I asked, growing confused.

“Yes, I do, because I know that a good guest always brings something to share with his host,” Gunnar said, his dark eyes started to sparkle. My stomach twisted, knowing that whatever made him happy would horrify me. “You’re looking quite famished, Alice, and I know for a fact that your friend is a very tasty treat.”

Just then, Dodge came out from behind a pine tree a few feet away from us. His hair blond hair was mussed, and he looked much less amused than he had when I met him in the woods. He had Jane in his arms, and he was holding his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. Her heart was pounding franticly, and I would’ve noticed it sooner if I hadn’t been so distracted by Gunnar. Her eyes were wild, and she fought at Dodge as hard as she could, but it didn’t do anything. He restrained her with ease.

“I’m not going after her!” I glared at Gunnar. “You can’t make me kill her!”

“That is true, but I can make it more tempting.” Gunnar nodded at Dodge, who responded by dropping Jane to the ground.

“Alice, I’m so sorry!” Jane cried. She was barefoot in that short green dress she’d stolen from closet, and she fell into the frozen grass. Her clothes were torn and her knees and cheeks were scraped and dirty. “I didn’t want to call you, but they made me!” She was half-kneeling and half-sitting on the ground, with her hands pressed down in the icy slush. As cold as it that must’ve been for her, she was too weak and too afraid to get up.

“It’s okay, Jane. Don’t worry about it,” I tried to reassure her. I wanted to go over to her, but I was too afraid about how Gunnar and Dodge would react. Jack and Milo didn’t know what to do anymore than I did, so we all just stood there, waiting until Gunnar told us what he wanted.

“Dodge, make the food more appetizing,” Gunnar commanded. Dodge reached into his pocket, and before I knew what was going on, he’d bent over and sliced open her arm from elbow to wrist, and she screamed.

“Jane!” I started to run towards her to save her, but Jack wrapped his arm around me and stopped me.

“Alice, no,” Jack hissed in my ear when I started to fight him. His grip was like an iron bar, and I was disappointed with how little I could do against it. I was even weaker than I thought.

I probably would’ve kept fighting against him anyway, but then I smelled her blood. She held it up, trying to stop it, but it was flowing hot and sweet. My hunger intensified, a painful burning that shot through me. I closed my eyes and swallowed it back. I did not want to bite her, and I wouldn’t.

Within a few seconds, I calmed down enough where Jack could let go of me, but he didn’t.

“Put pressure on the wound,” I said to Jane, and it surprised even me how calm I sounded.

“Tear your dress and put a tourniquet about the elbow, or you’re gonna bleed out.” Jane did as she was told, her hands trembling and tears streaming down her cheeks. She struggled tying it around her arm, and Dodge moved to stop her.

“No, let her do it,” Gunnar said, and Dodge straightened back up. He stood right over, watching as Jane sobbed and almost fell over onto the grass. “It’s not fun if she bleeds to death first.”

“I’m not going to bite her,” I insisted, looking back at him. “None of us are.”

“I feel a challenge growing,” Gunnar grinned at me, showing his teeth menacingly.

I heard footsteps approaching, and I quickly turned towards the trail. None of the lycan would be dumb enough to make a sound walking, and they moved too fast anyway. This was a human, taking a stroll through the park at midnight. Admittedly, it was a stupid human, but he was definitely innocent of any involvement in this. Then, I saw him. Just a chubby guy in his twenties with dark glasses. He was walking one of this ridiculous puggle dogs, and it sensed trouble before he did. It had been sniffing along the path, but then it looked towards us and barked. No sooner had the guy looked toward us, then Stellan burst out from nowhere and dove on him.

I wanted to scream, but I opened my mouth and nothing came out. The guy didn’t even have a chance to scream before Stellan ripped out his throat. Jane screamed, and she was the only one that made a sound.

His little dog barked angrily, and then realized the danger was too much for him, and took off down the path.

Stellan was gnawing at his throat, and I could see the blood spurting out around him, as well as smell it. His body convulsed and shook, and I heard the sounds of bone tearing as Stellan completely tore his neck, and the guy’s body stopped moving.

I shrank back from the sight, but I couldn’t look away. I wanted to throw up, and I hated myself for getting thirsty over the scent of blood. When I felt Milo’s hand, I almost jumped, but managed to stop myself.

He put his hand in mine and squeezed. I had never see anything so horrific in my life as Stellan ripping apart the guy, and when I finally managed to look away, I saw that Milo had tears in his eyes.

Suddenly, he looked so young and scared, and he moved closer to me. I wanted to hug him, but I was afraid of how Gunnar would react, so I settled for holding his hand.

“It’ll be okay,” I lied, looking Milo in the eye. “At least it happened really fast. I’m sure he didn’t feel anything.”

“He probably didn’t,” Gunnar admitted. “But he could’ve. Stellan was a little hasty with him, but he can do it much slower. Shall I have him show you?”

“No!” I said too quickly, and Gunnar laughed. Jack had moved so he was trying to block both Milo and me from Gunnar, and we stood behind him, holding hands and shivering like two scared little kids.

“Stellan!” Gunnar shouted without looking at him. Stellan gave up on eating the guy and lifted his head. His face and chest were covered in blood, and he wiped at them absently with the back of his sleeve as he started walking over to us.

“What do you want from us?” Jack asked. He was as scared and sick as I was, but he could almost pass for calm and confident.

“How about… a game?” Gunnar smiled. Stellan had returned to his side, leaving the corpse in the middle of the trail like it was just a discarded piece of trash, like a half eaten apple or a pop can. Gunnar’s eyes moved to something behind, and when I turned, it was already too late.

This giant vampire had somehow crept up behind us, and he wrapped his massive bare arms around Milo. He yelped in surprise and fought against the vampire, but it was completely useless. He was the largest person I’d ever seen in my life, and he had to vampire strength behind it. Milo was still gripping my hand, and I clung onto him tightly, trying to pull him from the vampire.

“Alice!” Jack had his arms around me, refusing to let me be dragged along with Milo as the vampire pulled him away, but I wouldn’t let go. “Alice! Let him go! Alice!”

“Milo!” I screamed, but my fingers slipped, and I let go of Milo. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, and he was still reaching his arm out for me. His huge brown eyes had never looked so sad or scared in his life. I kicked at Jack, but he wouldn’t let me go. “Milo!”

“Alice, as you can see, my good friend Bear isn’t hurting him,” Gunnar interrupted. Bear, the gargantuan vampire, had Milo firmly secured in his arms, but he didn’t even appear to be squeezing him. Milo still squirmed and fought against him, but he didn’t look like he was in any real pain, just terrified. “Milo -