Chasing the Shadows - 7. Chapter 7

The tiny town hugged up against the foothills at the bottom of the mountain. It was the last stop for supplies and a taste of civilization before embarking into the wild wilderness terrain.

A steep dirt road snaked up the mountain for a few more miles before splitting off into thick overgrown paths. Beside that there was only the occasional abandoned logging trail. No other way up the mountain.

People who lived high above where the last roads ended were either completely self-sufficient or paid top dollar to have deliveries airlifted in to them once or twice a year.

Shade smiled. This was his mountain. It was dark and secluded, just how he liked it.

Making the trip into the little town, he stopped at the deli first to place Kieper’s pizza order. The three of them had spent hours back at the cabin sorting out the facts from myths about whether a supernatural creature could in fact change another.

Shade’s mind had been spinning and he volunteered to go pick up the tasty treat and when the overload of information had finally befuddled his brain. He needed some time to think, besides, Kieper was getting sick of the canned foods and dried meats that Shade kept supplied in the cabin.

While the pizza cooked, he popped over to the liquor store. Purchasing a bottle of their most expensive wine, which was still only $12, but heck, what could you expect out here in the middle of nowhere? They were lucky that the town carried wine at all.

Thinking back to their last conversation before shade left the cabin, apparently, Garrett believed that a Werewolf could be changed into a Vampire, but the same wasn’t true in reverse. A Vampire could not be infected with the Werewolf virus.

The virus is only contagious during the full moon and is transmitted only to a child in the mother’s womb, like Kieper, or through biting a Human. Unfortunately, Vampires are not susceptible to any kind of disease. Garrett believed that Kieper’s strong body could withstand the Vampire transformation, making him the world’s most powerful supernatural. Shade listened to them discuss the possibilities in silence.

Shade pushed the conversation out of his mind. When he got back to the deli, the pizza was ready. The tangy smell of tomato and cheese made his mouth water. He had to hurry if he wanted to get the tasty treat back to the cabin while the cheese was still hot.

Tucking the bottle of wine under his arm freed up both of his hands. Kieper would kill him if he got home and the cheese has slid off the pizza. He chuckled and shook his head trying to get the Wolf’s adorable grin out of his head.

He rounded the corner, walking behind the building to the parking lot. Nobody was there and just as quick as he had arrived, Shade vanished into a mist of thick black fog.

*** 

SNAP! Shade heard a twig breaking in the distance. It was probably just a deer. The forest was filled with them. The creatures usually had found a nice little spot to settle down for the night by now, but one of them must be a night owl, like him. He loved flying through the shadows under the cover of night.

Appearing in the center of a dark shadow, Shade’s black eyes pierced the night. He listened to the wind rustling dried leaves still clinging to their branches, not quite ready to give up and float away on the cool breeze. The night was perfect.

The cabin sat just over the next ridge.

Balancing the pizza box in one hand, Shade adjusted the bottle of wine under his arm. The crisp cool wind ruffled his hair. Tonight thick clouds covered the large bright moon, but he knew that the full moon was only another night away.

Shade headed towards the cabin and the two sexy men waiting there for him. His cock twitched at the thought of Kieper and Garrett. They had spent almost every waking hour in bed having sex and he couldn’t wait to get back to see them again. Neither could his hard-on, which continued to grow.

“NOW!” A shout echoed off the mountaintops.

Beams of blinding light sliced through the night. The attack was sudden. Lights, lights and more lights! All of those lights suddenly trapped Shade in Human form. He tried to run, but he was immediately surrounded by men in deadly military gear. Every one of them held a UV light mounted to the end of their assault rifles, which were all now pointed at Shade.

Their faces and bodies were covered in some sort of futuristic material, keeping their identities hidden, but he didn’t need to see their faces to know that they were Vamps, somehow Shade just knew.

The Queen had put together her own secret army of Vampires and Shade had gone from her hunter to the hunted in a matter of days.

“Take him!” One of the men in the crowd shouted. The others stepped forward, guns raised, following the man’s orders.

“RUN!” Shade tried to warn Kieper and Garrett back at the cabin.

The attack was imminent. Shade needed to give the others time to escape, but before he could get out more than that one single word, a shot rang out in the forest.

It was deafening. He flinched at the unexpected sound. Vampires didn’t use guns! The ringing still buzzed inside his ears as Shade looked around him, confused. What the hell was happening?

The Vampire leader stood his ground. He was a big man and only a foot or two in front of Shade, with his pistol in his hand, still aimed at Shade, misty smoke swirling from the barrel of the gun.

Pain suddenly flooded the Shadow Chaser’s body. He was shot!

Shade tried to take a step forward, but stumbled when his right leg refused to move. The pain was excruciating. He had to get out of here, but there was nowhere to go. His dark eyes glanced around, searching for any escape, any shadows, but there were none.

The muscles flexed in his jaw while his heart raced out of control. Damn it! There was no way out. Not only was he was trapped…he was trapped in Human form. Really bad had changed to incredibly worse as his blood continued to spurt with each beat of his heart, staining his pant leg.

Shade gasped from the intense pain. Every little move brought a new wave of pain.

Noticing that the Shadow Chaser was unable to vanish, the leader gave another order with the flick of his hand. Metal walls instantly snapped up around Shade. The hard polished surface was inlayed with thousands of lights as the cage closed around him, locking him inside. Shade was helpless to do more than just watch his freedom vanish.

“Radio the chopper. Tell them the cargo is ready.” Muffled shouts came from outside.

Shade banged his fists against the walls, but he was Human. He was weak and injured and he hardly made a dent.

A tornado suddenly roared outside. Violent winds shook the narrow box and it tipped back and forth when the helicopter lifted him and his prison off of the ground.

“Let me out! I’m an enforcer for the Vampire Court!” Shade yelled and pounded his fists even harder against the walls.

They obviously knew who he was, it wasn’t going to do him any good to try and throw his authority around. These guys were under orders of the Queen, and any privileges Shade had from the Vampire Court had been revoked.

Just when Shade thought that this couldn’t get any worse, gas started pouring into the box.

“No,” Shade gurgled and choked, unable to breath. Ripping off his t-shirt, he pressed it to his mouth and nose as breathing became harder and harder. His eyes fluttered as he struggled to stay awake. The last thing Shade remembered was hearing a roar before everything went black.

*** 

“RUN!” Shade’s frantic warning had Garrett immediately ready for an attack.

Something was wrong!

Kieper took the stairs three at a time as he rushed towards the cabin door, smashed through the wood, leaping out into the darkness. Paws pounded the solid ground. Kieper threw his head back in the air, releasing a ferocious growl that shook the forest, just as a shot pierced the night.

“Where’s Shade?” Garrett shouted. He had to move with super Vampire speed just to keep up with the racing Werewolf. They both spotted the bright lights hovering just over the ridge and rushed to help Shade. In the distance, a helicopter thumped as its blades sliced through the air overhead.

The thick forest hid the Vamp soldiers, crouching, waiting to attack. Kieper reached the ridge a few steps before Garrett. A hooded man stepped from the tree line. His gun aimed at Kieper’s broad furry animal chest, he tracked the Wolf’s movements and then pulled the trigger.

Moonlight shimmered on the silver flashing through the night. It was a lucky strike, but only hit Kieper in his forearm. He howled in pain as the silver burned through his flesh, dropping him to the ground.

Gasping from the pain, he realized that it wasn’t a bullet ripping through his flesh, it was a long silver spear attached to a heavy chain. He only had a moment to react when a second spear hit him in the lower leg. The powerful Vampire tugged on the chains, but Kieper was stronger. He wrapped both chains around his arms and pulled the soldier off his feet with one swift jerk.

Kieper whirled the heavy chains around like they were no heavier than a cowboy’s braided rope that he used to lasso the Vampire. The chains wrapped around the soldier’s neck and with a swift yank of his clawed fingers, Kieper snapped his neck, completely popping his head from his shoulders.

Garrett met up with Kieper and joined the fight just as two more Vamps sprang from the trees.

One soldier wielded a deadly sword, but the last guy, held a special pair of handcuffs in one hand and electric whip in the other. Garrett had seen a similar pair of cuffs before. Shade had used similar ones that first night in the alleyway. Kieper tilted his head to the side and gave Garrett a quick wink, who returned one of his gorgeous lopsided grins.

“After you, babe.” Garrett gave a sweep of his arms, letting Kieper decide who would be the next Vampire to die. The Werewolf immediately leaped towards on the guy with the whip. Garrett chuckled, he wasn’t about to let his lover have all the fun tonight.

“That just leaves you and me,” Garrett smirked at his Vampire opponent. “You want to dance, big boy?”

The Vamp twirled his sword around his shoulders in an elaborate display of skill.

“Impressive,” Garrett complimented him. The guy was fast, but Garrett was able to easily sidestep out of his way. On multiple swipes, he missed Garrett’s flesh; however, he was still close enough to slice the fabric of his t-shirt covering his arm. The cotton might be ripped, but at least his skin was still intact.

Garrett dropped lower to the ground when the guy lifted his heavy sword over his head, needing to get more momentum to wield the powerful blow. Rushing for his leg, Garrett hooked his foot behind the man’s muscled calf and kicked his feet out from under him.

The big man went down with a thud, but he was a Vampire and wasn’t about to be down for long. With his body zinging as Kieper and Shade’s blood pumped through his veins, Garrett scanned the forest floor, spotting just what he needed to bring down the big bad Vampire.

Grabbing a broken tree limb from the ground, Garret vaulted himself on top of the guy and plunged the twisted tree limb deep into the Vamp’s chest. The man cried out as he convulsed and contorted in pain. Garrett leaped off of him, watching in horror, when his pale skin became ashen, then grayed, before black soot flaked from his decaying body.

Garrett has had millions of injuries over the years, but being staked through the heart, topped his list of the worst way a Vampire could die, sunlight and losing his head were almost just as bad.

As the big man disintegrated, Garrett glanced over to check on Kieper, just in time to see the other Vampire crack his whip at his lover’s wide chest. Yet that didn’t stop Kieper as he continued to charge the man. Massive paws landed on top of him, pinning him to the ground. The wolf snarled and clamped his sharp fangs around the guy’s neck.

“Stop--” His gurgled cry was cut short when Kieper decapitated his head with one powerful bite. Crimson red smeared across the animal’s pale fur as he looked up, licking his bloody chops.

“Well, aren’t you a good boy,” Garrett praised the Wolf, but he cocked his furry head and listened to something off in the distance. The WHOOP, WHOOP, WHOOP of the helicopter blades brought both of them back to why they were here in the first place, in the forest surrounded by dead Vampires.

Shade!

They both raced toward the sound. Kieper growled and picked up speed, pulling away from Garrett as he quickly chased behind him. Cresting the hill, they saw the rest of the Queen’s army inside of the chopper as it hovered a few feet off the ground.

It wasn’t the sight of seeing them retreat that had Kieper and Garrett’s hearts racing, it was the small metal box dangling from chains underneath the helicopter. Bright light radiated from the box as it swayed back and forth from the force of the pounding wind.

Kieper lunged for the first tree. Clawing at the limbs, he propelled himself higher towards the helicopter lifting into the sky. Leaping from tree to tree, he looked more like a wild cat then a savage wolf.

Garrett watched him narrow the space between them and Shade. At the last second, Kieper was close enough to jump. The Wolf sprang from the tree top...legs outstretched…paws reaching…muscles flexed.

Louder than a clap of thunder, a roar exploded the night.

Suddenly, the helicopter revved up power and took off, flying through the night, taking Shade with it. One second, Shade was there, within their reach and the next, he was gone.