Escaped the Night (41 page)

I knew she
was right, but
I
felt terrib
le
about leaving
the others behind. We had
helped her and she managed to break
free from the spell. What if we could help the other doomahorn or even the
werewolves?
Wasn’t that
worth staying for?

I looked around. The werewolves paced frantically around their cages. However, t
he
doomahorn didn’t seem ne
arly as aggravated.
It
remained
still with its head
low.
The
fiery
red eyes that
had
bur
ned
so fi
ercely before were now dim as a
hint of
light bl
ue
grew
in the cent
e
r
.

“We can’t leave them.
Look!” I pointed
at
the doomahorn. “Don’t you get it?
We might
not get another
chance to come
b
ack
and
help the
m
.
So I’m asking, will you help me?”

No one offered.

I looked at them in surprise. Hadn’t they
witnessed
what happened? Goodness still remained in these creatures.
T
he unicorn proved it
.
We couldn’t
just
leave them
behind
.

“Fine,
” Kaleb said
,
after a moment
.

I was thankful he
’d
broke
n
the silence
and chosen to help
me
.
This was a good thing we were doing. I
felt
it
all through me
.

Kaleb
walked over to the
doomahorn,
grabbed o
nto the chain and led it upstairs. As they
passed me
,
I noticed
her
head still hu
n
g low, but her
eyes were
show
ing twice as much blue
.
Definitely a good sign
.

The un
icorn
followed
Kaleb and the
doomahorn
upstairs
.
Kael
decided to stay and help me
unlock the
werewolf
cages when Kaleb yelled fro
m upstairs. “You’
ve
got
to g
et out now. Time’
s up!
Move
it
!
”

Kae
l
and I made it
to the top of the stairs when we
heard the
sound of the
door
to the back room
crea
k
open
.
I turned
as
Lakylee
emerged
from her slumber. Du
sk had arrived. She looked at us
, then at the unicorn,
and
let out a vi
c
i
ous snarl
. I paused
only
long enough to exchange
a quick glance
with her. Kael
grabbed me by the arm
and we made
a dash down the hallway. I heard
a
nother
hiss
followed by a crash. W
ood splinters f
lew past us. Lakylee
looked
upset and the thought of this
made me run even faster.

Shea
flew
between us.
“
A
lmost there
, don’t slow down
.
”
We rounde
d a
corner
to find the front door
open. Kael and I burst though the opening and kept
on
running right out of the overgrown gardens.

I was
running out of breath
. I didn’t have the speed
or stamina
of
the boys
. I
started
slowing
down
just as K
aleb
emerged in front of us. B
eside him stood
two beautiful unicorns. We’d
succeeded. This made me feel so proud. We hadn’t saved
them
all
, but at least we
put an end to the doomahorns.

“Get on
, Shanntal!” h
e hollered
,
leaping
on
to
the bare back of the unicorn
.

I
forced myself to keep running. When I reached him, he
grabbed me by the arm and tossed me up
behind him. Kael leaped o
nto
the other one. The unicorns raced
away from their prison.
I l
ooked back towards the house.
Lakylee
stood
alone on
the front deck
,
watching us depart
.

The look of betrayal on
her
fac
e weighed heavily
on my conscience.
For a moment,
I
found myself feeling
badly for her
. She’
d
shown me a different side
, o
ne
that wasn’t as d
ark or evil as
she
usually
projected.
I watched her grow
smaller
and the distance between us gre
w larger.
Was she
also
capable
of more? How much
goodness
did she have
left in her? Why wasn’t she coming after us?
Then, the worst thought happened.
What if
I
’d just wrecked my chance of finding Daray
and learning everything he
knew about my family’s deaths?
Without her help, h
ow would I ever fi
nd him
?

I turned my head around
. I needed to
stop directing
my attention to
the
many unanswered questions
. If I didn’t ignore them
,
I’d have to
turn around and I
wasn’t sure the outcome
would be good
. I hoped for the best as we
made our way
deeper into the darkening forest.

United

~ Chapter Ten ~

O
ur group
traveled into the forest and fur
ther away from
Daray’s
h
ouse amidst the black
ening night.
I couldn’t f
ight off the overwhelming guilt
that was
taking
over
.
Lakylee
had
trustingly
opened
up
the house to us
and we betrayed her
. Actually,
I b
etrayed her and worst of all, I did it when s
he just started
trusting
me.
This wasn’t how she should
’ve been paid back
for letting her guard down
. She had the power and
means to track us down and
she
still h
ad two werewolves on her side
. T
he three
of them
woul
d make
a lethal combination
.

I began
deeply
regret
ting the decision to Daray’s house
. We could’ve made up some kind of story
about
how the doomahorns transformed into
the
unicorns. We could have blamed it
all
on the de
ad werewolf that
attacked. Oh, w
ho was I
kidding? It was fortunate
that
we’
d
all made it out alive and in one piece.

The unicorns agreed to s
ta
y with us for the night and
would
go their own
way
once the sun rose.
This was like a dream come true
for me. T
heir bea
uty was even more magnificent than I ever imagined
.
When
I
read stories to my younger sisters, I was always
drawn to the
ones
describing the
undeniable
magic of
unicorn
s
. Now
, here I was
rescuing not only one
,
but
two of them.
Right now,
I was
t
he girl
in the story
.

T
he dark forest continued castin
g shadows and making sounds around us, putting me
more
on edge. We weren’t i
n the best position and I hoped to
find
some f
orm of shelter soon,
before we encountered
any
wicked vampires or vi
c
i
ous werewolves.

The graceful stride
of the unicorns helped put my worri
ed
mind a little more
at ease
. I found myself getting lost with the
relaxing rhythm
of their hooves
as they travelled.
Moonlight
broke
through
the
treetops
, reflecting
off the
ir
shimmering white coats
. It helped light
up the night
and
attempt
ed
to keep the shadows at bay.
Their presence reminded me that
we had pure goodness on our side
. In every book I
’d read or
movie I
’d watched,
the good side
usually prevailed. I hoped it was
true
in this case
and
that
we had
enough to get us
safely
through the night.

We
stealthily moved
deeper into the thick
forest.
Regrettably,
the further we went
,
the darker it got. Even the moonlight couldn
’t sn
eak through the
se
thick trees. The shimmering from the unicorns was
down
to a minimum
. Shadows flooded around
us
,
casting shapes and playing with our minds. After this much time in the forest, the trees and bushes all began looking the same. We could’ve been walki
ng in circles and not
known any better. This
journey
w
as one of the longest nights I
remembered. Whenever I thought day w
as about to
break, I
was
shocked to find nothin
g lighting
up the darkened sky.

Perhaps my sense of timing was
off due to
by the fact
that
w
e were so deep in the forest
,
or because
I couldn’t clearly see the sky. Or maybe it
was simply
because
it was
the middle of the night and we
were
all
exhausted
.

“It feels like w
e’ve been going all night,
” I complained.

“I hear you,
” Kael said. “My
butt is
killing
me
.”
He ho
p
ped off the unicorn and
started walking
.

“Complain all you mu
st, but we need to keep moving,
” Kaleb
said, pushing
us onwards.

“Do you think they’
re going to come afte
r us?” I asked.

“Laky
lee
seemed pretty ticked
off
,” Kaleb said. “
She’s
not with
the other vampires
, so I’m not really sure
what
she will
do
.
The werewolves seem to be harder for her to control.
Either way, we can
’t afford to take the
chance.”

We sustained our rhythm and kept
on
moving, this time in silence. So
many things raced
through
my mind.
Thoughts
of
how I
could
s
et t
hings right with Daray. I
wasn’t able to
make myself
believe
he was a
s
bad as everyone said.
Yes, I
’d
seen the monster in him
first hand
, but that
same man
also
left me alone
and unharmed. This
showed me
the old Daray was still in
side
him somewhere. He’d said kind words about my family and if he
’d
really
been in love with me
, what c
ould he
have
possibly
gain
ed by killing them?
I had a building suspicion
there was more behind this, more t
ha
n anyone was aware of. The
feelin
g in the pit of my stomach told me
Daray was the key to finding out who
was
really behind all of
this.

I had an unexplainable
sense of respect for him. I w
ouldn’t deny it.
Perhaps it was due to the
past
we
once
shared.
A
fter all,
it was one that
couldn’t be ignored. H
e’d
saved me, searched for me and
even
forced hi
mself to let go when he saw
I wasn’t ready to commit
.
He
’d
back
ed
off
when he realized
that I loved Jayce with all my heart and soul.
Instead o
f
retaliating, he
simply
left me alone. If I
could make things right with him,
perhaps
we could end this feud.
Jayce and I could be together peacefully and no one else would get hurt because of
me
.
Lakylee
loved Daray and it was clear he had feel
ings for her
too
.
In spite of everything,
she
managed to fill
the void for him while I was
absent
from his life.

Then another feeling crept over me
and I suddenly felt sad.
It was only a matter of time now until the
unicorns
left
us. I felt proud
to
have brought
t
hem back from the darkness and wanted to share their light
with the world
.
I wanted to show them to
all the little girls
, so they could
also
believe in them
.

I remembered back to the
moment when the unicorn
healed my
wounded arm with a single touch from
her silver
ho
rn. I found myself secretly wanting
to ask if she could use her magic
once again in order to heal
my breaking heart
.
I honestly missed Jayc
e with every ounce of my being and disliked being away from him. I
wondered if he missed me as much
. What was he doing? Was he awake and on guard o
r sleeping peacefully in his fluffy bed?

I
let out a sigh as I
tried very hard to
put my mind to rest. I wanted
to shut
it off completely, so I could
be numb and think of absolutely nothing
; j
ust
for
a few minutes so
I could have some form of peace.
Silently, Kaleb reached back and
gently
slid my arms forward.
He pulled me
up
tightly towards him and
I rested my head on his back as I wrapped my arms around to
hug
him
.

I loved how he
pick
ed
up on my feelings
without me having to announce them
to the world. He knew when I was in pain and when I was scared. He always knew when I was in serious trouble, sometimes even before I did.
He looked
back at
me when I lifted my head. I
gave him a gra
teful
smile
,
let
ting
him know
that
I was okay. He was
not only
my prote
ctor; he was my
big brothe
r
and
very best friend.

I knew
this
was for more than
just
Jayce and
me
. It
was for literally everyone
,
because I
was the key,
the one who risked hav
ing the elements destroyed. This
wasn’t something I was prepared to live with. The elements were my friends and I needed to protect them. Meriel
was
hurt and
Garrison
had been
killed
because of me
.
Lakylee
never would ha
ve been in the forest that night
if she w
as
n’t
search
ing for
me
,
and
if I hadn’t escaped from Daray
,
none of
this would have
ever happened.
I couldn’t
let anyone else
get hurt. I’d figure out
how
to find Daray to
get this sorted out peacefully.
Together, we
c
ou
ld find a way to keep
him and
the other nightwalkers away from me as well as
the people I cared
about
most
.

We came to an opening in the forest and t
he unicorns slow
ed their pace
.
I
felt overwhelmingly tired by
this point. I wasn’t used to staying up all
night.
It
had been well over thirty-nine
hours since I’d last slept.
I was
really
starting to
feel the
effect.

The unicorns headed off to the right si
de of the clearing. Lowering their shimmering heads, they
began feeding on the
greenery
.
Kaleb hopped
down and then lent me his hand for support
so I could
dismount
.
Kael followed as we
moved
further
into
the field where the grass
es
and wildflowers were quite tall.

Kael dropped his large body to the ground.
“Guys, I’m beat.” He
let out a yawn
a
s
he
sprawled
his large body across the g
rassy field.
Once
settled,
he completely disappeared
out of sight
.

Kaleb nodded his head in agreement as he watched his sidekick
vanish.
A second
later he
flopped down in the
tall wild grass
.
I heard his
voice
clearly
say
, “Wow, the sky’
s
just amazing, look at them
…
they’re so…”
and
his sentence trailed off with a big yawn.

The tall gr
ass and wildflowers
managed to hide their large bodies
quickly
. Pieces
poked up all around concealing them, it was
really
good camouflage and I hoped it
would
be enough
to keep us safe
. At least we were
out of sight from any animals passing by. I wasn’t sure
it
would
do anything to
protect us from the
immortal animals
,
but
I
was sure it would be
enough for the mortal
ones
.