Hell To Pay

"What happened to them! Why aren't they here?!"

"K, calm down, getting upset isn't going to help find anyone. Whatever happens, we will figure it out, but we need to keep our heads on straight," Tim said, trying to calm me down.

How could have this happened? Everyone was gone, and there was no tore up ground or anything out of place. Did they just leave and go somewhere else?

"What do you think happened then," I asked while looking down at the tracks where the wagon and carriages were, but I couldn't tell what was coming or going.

"I think the vampire might have taken them, but that's a lot for one. No, it's really hard to say at this point. It looks like they went peacefully, but one of them could have got caught and been used as a hostage. As I said, I have no idea what to say, and I don't want to put ideas into your head about this," Tim told me as he bent over the tracks and followed him.

"Then what do we do? I am not tired, and I can see in the dark. Can we lead the horses and track through the night?" I asked Tim as I walked up to him.

"Yeah, but I will have to take my blindfold off, but don't worry, it won't hurt you unless I want it to, so you can look at it. It isn't as bad as Kevin made it out to be," Tim said, putting a hand on the black cloth that was covering most of his face.

"Sure, if it will help you see, then yes, take the blind off," I said.

I wasn't sure what I was going to see, but it was probably just going to be like a green glowing eye or something.

"I just need to warn you, and I know we are in a hurry, but you need to listen to me. This thing looks bad, so don't pass out when I take this off, okay?" Tim told me with a serious look.

I gave him a look that said for him to just get on with it. Tim sighed and pulled off the black cloth covering his face.

I gasped and took an involuntary step backward, Lesha and the girls momentarily forgot. Tim's eye was massive, over five times as large as his other one, and it was a soft glowing sickly green-yellow color.

"See? Ain't that pretty, but I can see better than you can with your eyes. I have seen the way you can study things from far away, just like a vampire's telescopic vision. Anyways, I found the trail, come on. I will assume that they went around the way we would have gone tomorrow to go back and avoid the town," Tim said while turning away and grabbing the reins of his horse, who didn't seem to mind the eye.

That eye was like a massive lizard's eye slapped on his face, but If it helped get the girls back then I didn't care what it did. I grabbed my horse's reins and followed Tim. It was already starting to get dark so it would just be best to walk and hope that they would have to stop.

We had two of the horses, so unless they had brought horses of their own, they would have to take a break or run the horses into the ground. We had to hope for the future, and soon we hit the fork in the road.

I hadn't really paid it any mind the other two times I had been past this place. Now that I was on my feet, I walked constantly looking for signs, but there were more than just on the roads, and I had a hard time telling one wagon track from another.

Thankfully Tim kept us on track, I would have been already lost, but we were still not getting any closer. I just had to hope that whoever took them didn't want to hurt them, or I wouldn't be held responsible for what would happen to everyone around me.

These people that took them were already dried husks, and If it did turn out to be one of the other girls that did this, there would be some serious hell to pay. I just couldn't figure out who could get the jump on them like this, and I didn't want to keep asking Tim the same thing on repeat.

Tim had said that the people out here wouldn't be skilled and that any skilled adventurer would be earning a living in the dungeons. That made sense, so I just didn't get it.

That's when the hackles on the back of my neck started to rise, and a wave of thirst hit me like fire. Ice Cream and Tropical Punch, the flavors were both close, and it was like an energy in the air, a palpable heart thud reaching out to me.

"K, I see light up ahead," Tim said quietly.

"Wait!" I hissed. "The other two are close, but they are coming from different directions!"

"Like the werewolf and vampire? Right now?" Tim asked in confusion, and I agreed, this was horrible timing.

If that was the girls up ahead, and these two were trying to play a game I was going to be very harsh with both of them. I turned to the Ice Cream, the closest scent, and I burned Red Blood, a lot.

There would be plenty to refill after when I was done. I dashed at the smell, flying through the trees and barely making a noise.

Then, I was in a clearing, and she was there, a massive wolf that stood on two feet. I rushed at her, filled with rage, and the wolf tried to slap me away. I burned more blood, using Eosinophil to target a weak point and multiple showed up as I backhand the slap away.

I sent a hard jab just below the rib cage on the right side, making her howl out, but I was already around her. I leapt to her back and sank my teeth deep into her furry neck.