Stuck In Between

chapter 6

My imaginary heart fluttered in my chest. Well, I did have a heart but I did not beat anymore, leaving me to feel a very weird feeling inside. Never had I ever before had a choice to be with a non-beating heart to be used to this situation. So, I had to do with an imaginary beating of heart for the moment to overcome this weird uneasiness. Every second felt like an eon had passed by, leaving me even more restless. Especially when everything felt so slow in this fast moving body...

The sound of cricket in the grass was the only sound breaking this death like silence until the cuckoo in a nearby tree decided to join the happy morning singers, singing about some bullshit joyful dawn song.

I strained my ears trying to hear any other sound beyond the forest noise just to hear the faint gushing of water beyond the forest. The howling and the sound of paws hitting the ground had died down.

Had they finally stopped following me?

But then they were wolves not some poor sense of smell creatures who would get lost in the forests when the gentle breeze bustled past them. It must be one of their tricks. First of all, I needed to get out of the open sight. I can't lay here like a sitting duck and expect them not to see me. I looked around and found that one of the tall trees were within a few meters of my reach. I would have to dodge the sunlight, which was on the impossible side since it was light not a solid thing to dodge, or tolerate a little pain noiselessly which looked more of a possible situation. But how noiseless would I be when burnt in the sunlight?

The memory of the time when Rome had half of his face burnt flashed before my eyes. Even when he was an experienced and old vampire, he himself couldn't tolerate the burn of the sunlight as he kept on screaming in pain. How was I supposed to go undetected when I didn't even know how bad it hurt?

And like a bulb in my heart switched on, I pulled out the vials that Urdahl had given to me. Never thought I would be needing one this soon. The colorful vials looked harmless in my hand making me wonder if they would be of any use at all. Gently pulling the c**k out of the opening, I let my nose smell the liquids of different color. The red one smelled like sea. Was it salt water? The green one smelt like rotting flesh making me pull it away immediately away from my nose as I wrinkled it in displeasure. The yellow potion didn't have any smell while the blue had a fruity fragrance. The transparent vial had a very strange smell which made my head swirl for a second. I couldn't actually describe how it smelled. Kind of pleasantly, unpleasant. A very different one indeed.

The question was which vial to use? I was in a really confusing dilemma...

Urdahl had told to trust my instincts. And my instincts had gone for a toss after smelling the last vial... literally.

And just like that another bulb lit up in my brain. If my senses can go on a toss on smelling the transparent portion, what would be the condition of the wolves? I looked at the sky to find the clouds floating towards the sun. Lord was having mercy upon me and letting me a chance to escape. Without any further delay, I closed the other vials before sprinkling the transparent potion all over the place as much as I could and quickly created a false trail before retracing my footsteps back to the same place. The smell overpowered my senses and made my head spin but I held my breath and endured it. The passing clouds covered the sun briefly, giving me enough time and shelter from the sun to climb up the nearest tree and hide in the canopy leaves. Not even a few minutes later, I could hear the silent growling as the very quietly placed footsteps could be heard, more like felt through the vibrations in the air.

I was right, they were trying to trick me into false relief of them letting me leave and then they would easily lure me into their trap. The wolves came into the view and started grunting, whining and shaking their heads like they hated what they came across. They whined like little puppies stepping away from the area and just in a matter of few minutes two of them even fell on the ground unconscious, overwhelmed by the weird scent. Some other wolves, grabbed the scruff of their fallen comrades and dragged them away from the area. Even, this up on the tree, I could still faintly smell it and hated the effect it had on me, no wonder they behaved this odd.

The familiar naked male figure with burning amber eyes came into my view. He hadn't completely shifted into a wolf rather only let his wolf take over his human body. Or had he just shifted back to his human form and was still getting control over his wolf? Well, I wasn't an expert in these matters since I wasn't a wolf that shifted into human.

He wrinkled his nose before going into a frenzy coughing fit. His structure stumbled back away from the area as he fell on the ground teary eyes as if it was paining him from inside.

"what in the hell is that?" he wheezed in pain making my heart ache for him.

The wolves howled in reply, some barked making my skin crawl.

Another wolf bounced around the area to reach the other side and barked in alertness.

"you found her trail?" Duke coughed some more.

The wolf bobbed his doggy head and pointed his snout in the direction I had laid a false trail.

"let's get going before she slips out of our hands!" Duke got up commanding before shifting into his wolf and running in the direction of the false trail along with others. Looks like they fell for it or I hoped that they had.

Just to be on a safer side, I waited for them to go away for another fifteen minutes patiently before getting down and running in the opposite direction, dodging all the paths where I could get burnt in the beams of sunlight. My head still buzzed with that weird smell and my senses had gone completely numb, yet I ran like I knew the entire forest like the back of my hand. And to be frank with, only yesterday I had noticed that there was a mole on the back of my hand...

I don't know how fast I travelled or for how long. I just let my feet carry me till the sun started to set behind the forest and all the time, the fear of getting caught by duke or his pack members.

Somehow stumbling with my useless senses, I came to a stop when the truck moved on the road before me. It still amazed me that the potion affected my senses till now. Beyond the road was the wooden fencing marking the start of the suburb of whichever town or city I had stumbled upon. Being a city girl, nothing brought me more happiness than finding the civilization! A human civilization to be specific. Though I loved the forest back when I was a human but now I knew the value of having life around myself. I found myself missing my human life and relief flood through my system. I had found myself a settlement. A hope that I had stumbled upon. A hope to find Rome again.