Escaped the Night (40 page)

I moved in closer as his rage
changed to calm
.
He sat still as I approached.
A growl came from behind me. The beast
that
tricked me before was
communicating with
Kael. I
assumed
it was
telling him to attack
me
while he had the chance.
Kael responded with
a loud rumbling growl
. It sounded like a
warning
to the others that he
was
in charge
now
and they’d better listen.

I was so impressed
with the way
Kael assumed the
ir
identity
and
mimicked their personality. He was so believable. If I hadn’t seen him shift before me, I would have believed he was one of them.
I had to take my chance. It was now or never. Our window of opportunity was shrinking and i
f we didn’t act now, it’
d
be
too late.

“I want to sh
ow you that I mean you no harm.” I took a step forward. Kael remained still. “
I want you to trust me
.” I stepped even closer. “I want yo
u to know there’s a better way. Y
ou can be free
.” I reached over to
unravel
the chain from around
his
neck.

He let out a small rumble
, taking
me by surprise and I stumbled backwards a few
steps. I
took a second to
reassure
myself
that
it was Kael and
that
he’
d never hurt me. I walked back to where I
stood before and finished removing the
chain
.

Kael was now free.
He let out a fierce growl and the others repea
ted it back. H
e never moved a muscle. He
stood there
acting unsure
of
what
to do next. Whoosh, he shifted into human form.

I gasped. What was he doing?
I looked to Kaleb for assistance.

Kael began speaking. “Thank you for showing me
that
there’s
a better way. Thank you for allowing me to calm my rage.” He looked at the others. “I’m free and always will be. I’ll never let my rage cage me again.”

I followed his lead. “
When the moon is full, you will transform.
There isn’t any way around it, b
ut you don’t have to be in wolf form all the time. If you learn to control the rage
within,
you can have better control over when you transform and when you don’t.”

Two of the other werewolves moved closer to their cage doors.

Kael said, “They’ll be alright.
You can let them out now. They’
re no longer ruled by rage. They want to know a better way.”

Kaleb grabbed the key off the wall from beside him and tossed it over to me.
I walked over to th
e closest cage. The werewolf
pressed
itself
up
against
the door. A
fraid
,
because
of
what had happen
ed the last time we tried this, I hesitated. Was this a trick or
real?
I held my breath and unlocked the lock.

The werewolf pou
nc
ed forward
,
knocking me over with
the steel door of the cage
as i
t
smashed against me with a mighty force. I tried to regain my balance only to be knocked ov
er again. This time the blow came
from the werewolf
. I
lost
my balance and
flung my arm
up
in
to
the air;
the beast
bit down, its teeth sink
in
g in
deep. B
lo
od gush
ed
from my arm
, which was
trapped in the mouth of my attacker
. I screamed out in pain
, smashing
my free hand against its head in hopes of
breaking the hold it had
. It worked. I yanked my
injured
arm out as the beast opened its mouth to growl.
Stunned
and hurt
, I turned
and tried to make a run for it
.

Everything
felt like a dream, I wasn’t sure which way to go.
I
heard
Kaleb and Kael
shouting
back and forth as they tried to get a handle on the
beast before it could attack
again.
I stopped
running
for a minute
,
just in time to
receive a
nother smashing blow
from the werewolf. The hit
pushed me up
against
the wall.
Beside me was
the
blood red eye of
a
doomahorn
looking
right
in my direction.

I thought I’
d met my
doom. This
was so stupid to have c
ome here. Now I was
about
t
o die and there wasn’t a thing anyone
could do about it.
I
scrambled to get to my feet,
and
lifted my wounded arm up
trying
to
protect my
neck and
fa
ce. I
kept
my good arm
free so I could
push the beast off
when it came in for the kill. I’
d fight as long as I could.

Once again, t
he werewolf
broke free from Kaleb
and
Kael
.
I watched in horror as
it charged straight
at me. Excruciating pain radiated through my wounded arm as
it
bit down
another time
. Blood sputtered out
of the new wound
,
sending a spray over everyt
hing
. I cried out
.

A loud sound came from the doomahorn
beside me. A
second later the werewol
f howled out
in agony.
I watched in disbelief as
it
stumbled around
before hitting
the floor.
As it lay in front of me
,
blood
poured
out of
two
gaping
puncture holes
in its chest
.

I tried
moving
away from the werewolf
, but m
y
knees buckled and I fell to
the ground. My arm
hurt so badly
. I couldn’t think of anything else except the
pain
.
Remembering
I wasn’t safe,
I opened my eyes
.
The
red eye
of the doomahorn stared
back
at me.

I clenched my eyes shut
,
waiting for
it to finish what the werewolf started
. A few seconds passed and
nothing happened.
I
opened
one eye to find
that
the red eye
had
turned into a light shade of blue. The dark
fur
c
hanged into a shining white coat
and t
he double horn
merged
into
a
longer single horn on top of the beautiful white head
before me
.

I
sat up on the floor
, cradled my injured arm and stared
in awe at the amazing creature before me. I
glanced around for
Kaleb and Kael
,
wanting to make sure I wasn’t the only one seeing this. They both stood with
th
eir mouths hanging open
and S
hea flew
beside
them
wearing a
huge smile across her tiny face.

I
turned my head
back
around
as
the newly transformed
creature flicked
her long flowing white hai
r
while sha
k
ing
her
beautiful
head. She
shimmered from head to hoof. Th
ere was no sign
of the
evil
beast that had been here moments earlier.

The pain st
arted getting
the better of me. Sharp burning pains shot thro
ughout the bite marks
that covered
most of my arm. The sight and smell of my blood
made
me feel dizzy.
I looked back over at the others
for
some
assistance. “
Guys, I
could really use
some help.”

From
the look
on Kaleb’s face
I understood the
true
extent of my injuries.
I was in rough shape.

The shimm
ering beauty walked
over
and
placed her
shining horn gently down
on my arm.
I stared
at the
glorious
creature in
sheer amazement. She was so
beautiful.
My eyes drifted down to
her horn
because
the pain was no longer there.
No
marks
remained;
i
t was as if I’d never been bitten
.
There wasn’t one piece of evidence remaining
of my near-death struggle.

This
felt so much like a d
ream. I couldn’t comprehend that
an honest
to goodness
unicorn
stood
before me. How had
she fall
en
under the powe
rs
of the
nightwalkers to
become such an
evil beast?
I
got up
from
the floor and
ran my hand through her silky hair.
“Thank you. Thank yo
u so very much for saving me.”
I looked deep
into her light blue eyes as I spoke.

‘Thank you
very much
for
saving
me. You
’ve
showed me the way back
in
to the light. I’m forever in your debt.’

We
all heard
the voice of the
unicorn though she hadn’t spoken the words aloud.

“What about the other one?” I said
,
pointing at
the doomahorn still cha
ined up to the wall. It held it
s dark head down low.

‘
She
’ll be alright, s
ome of us
just
need a
little
bit longer to find
the light
. It may
take a while
,
but when she’s ready
,
she’ll come around. We should get out of here
though.
D
usk isn’t too far
off
.’