Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
She had a good sense of direction, and she didn’t panic. It didn’t occur to her that she could get turned around as many hikers had. The myths surrounding frequent disappearances usually had to do with legendary creatures, not the complexity of the land or the debilitating fog, the real reason for those disappearances. She didn’t believe she would become a statistic. But she was weak.
It was necessary to decide if she was going to climb down and try to make her way back to the cabin. She’d torn something when she’d made the leap for the tree branch. All along, Diego had said she was fragile. She hadn’t felt that fragile in comparison to what she had been, so she’d overestimated her abilities. She had to ask herself if she was bleeding internally. That would definitely contribute to her feeling of severe weakness.
Unease slid through her. Her body reacted to the unknown threat with a surge of adrenaline, providing the necessary strength to steady herself. The internal tremors ceased, and she very slowly slipped her knife from the scabbard at her waist. Keeping the blade tight against her wrist, she held the hilt concealed in her fist.
Listening with her acute sense of hearing, she detected something large sliding along the tree trunk above her. The tree shivered ever so slightly, alerting her, letting her know she wasn’t alone in that tree. Her attacker was above her, making his way down. Slithering like a snake. This was a soldier, and he had snake in him, enough that his sense of smell had been alerted. Why hadn’t he called back the others?
Leila remained still, as if frozen in place, hoping to portray a woman too frightened to move. This was the missing Dillan. Probably her sweat and heat, if he saw through heat sensors, had drawn him to her hiding place. She waited, breathing steadily. Ready.
He dropped down to the same branch, his arm circling her neck with tremendous force, pulling her sideways, away from the tree trunk. The knotted muscles in his arm locked against her throat, cutting off air.
“You stay quiet, girl. Don’t make a sound. Don’t fight me. Do you understand?”
She tried to nod, but he kept her immobile. She tapped his arm with her fist and let out a muffled choking sound as she slumped back into him.
“I said stay quiet,” he reiterated. “We don’t want company, do we?” As he reminded her, Dillan loosened his hold the tiniest bit, allowing her to draw air into her lungs. “Are you injured?”
Again, she started to answer, muffled a cough and reached up to tap his arm with her closed fist, alerting him to the fact that she was hurt.
“Can you walk?”
Once again, she raised her fist to tap his arm, only this time, her fist rose fast from his forearm. She drove her fist straight to his neck, the blade of the knife penetrating deep, severing the artery. Slamming her other elbow into his ribs, she continued the motion with her knife, stabbing deep under the armpit, cutting that artery. His arm dropped away from her, and she leapt from the tree to the forest floor. Blood poured from his wounds, and he tried to shout, to warn his companions.
The sound was somewhat muffled by the fog, but she was certain Dillan’s voice carried through the trees. They would come to check on him, and she had to be ready.
Ignoring the agony radiating through her body, she ran deeper into the forest, the fog a thick gray cover. As she ran, she shoved the bloody knife back into the leather sheath. She would need it soon enough, but she wasn’t taking chances. She was weaker than she liked, and she wasn’t about to fall on her own blade. The soldiers would be coming, and she wasn’t going to be taken to Whitney. The man was mad. Totally insane. She saw what he did to her sister, and going to Whitney’s compound as a prisoner wasn’t going to happen.
The moment the forest swallowed her completely, she stopped moving. Movement produced sounds. If she was going to ensure those men didn’t take her to Whitney, she would have to hunt them. One at a time. There was no way, in her condition, that she could take on all three at once.
Leila considered her options. If she waited, hoping Diego would show up so she didn’t have to move around, she feared the three soldiers would eventually find her. No, it was far better to hunt them. Once she made up her mind, she didn’t hesitate. Ignoring her protesting body, she hurried toward the tree where Dillan’s body was sprawled in the branches.
The sight was macabre, blood running in rivers down the trunk of the tree. The body hung partially upside down, swaying, caught only by one arm and one leg. The fog concealed the hideous sight one moment and then revealed it the next when the wind drew the veil of gray back.