Out of the Dark
Page 76

A loud rumbling rolled across the sky and the air began to move, rushing over their heads. The sound got louder and louder. Their eyes all widened as they realized what was causing the noise. A hundred or more birds were flying straight at them.
"RUN!" Gavril yelled. "Deeper into the cover of the trees!"
Jen and Jacque didn't have to be told twice. They both took off at a sprint, their arms thrown over their heads, waving wildly. Jen was sure they looked like crazy chicks, running through the woods with birds chasing them.
Jacque looked back over her shoulder to see if the birds were still pursuing them. Her stomach dropped when she saw that it was no longer just birds.
"Gavril," she hollered over to the male wolf, who was trying to stay in between them and the pursuers. "The birds have friends!"
Gavril looked behind him and cursed.
Jen's curiosity got the better of her fear so she too looked over her shoulder. "Holy -"
Jen was cut off by Jacque's stern warning. "Jen."
"Sorry. I mean, bloody hell!"
"Better," Jacque approved.
"Are those -" Jen kept glancing back as she ran, trying desperately not to meet a tree face to face.
"Big ass wild boars?" Jacque finished for her.
"Well, I was going to say big ass pigs, but we can go with wild boar if you'd like."
"Yes, that's what those are. And they have tusks. Big, deadly tusks," Jacque added.
Gavril pointed at a drop off that was to their left. Jen had been trying to avoid it, but apparently Gavril had other plans.
"Slide down it!" he yelled, and Jen and Jacque watched in horror as Rachel fell gracefully into a slide from her steady running worthy of a professional baseball player and went over the ledge.
Jen and Jacque came to a halt right at the edge of the drop off. They looked down and watched as Gavril and Rachel slid, rolled, and slid some more.
Jen looked back behind her as the ground began to shake what she had deemed as the BAWB were getting closer. She looked over to Jacque and shrugged. "Die by being mauled by the BAWB tusk, or die by drop off. I will always chose the latter." She grabbed Jacque's hand and pulled her down to her butt. Jen then gave a huge shove that pushed them both over the edge.
They were falling. Their backs hit the steep hill and they slid, clothes being pulled by anything in their path, cuts appearing across their faces as branches slapped them. They slid, and slid some more, finally coming to an abrupt halt at the feet of a dirt-covered healer and Alpha.
"Get up, we have to keep running." Gavril pulled Jen to her feet while Rachel helped Jacque up. Once on their feet, Gavril turned and began running again. Jen and Jacque didn't bother looking back up to see if the boars had decided to takeflight. They took off running, going faster than they ever had before.
"How did she find us so quickly?" Gavril asked his mate as they ran. He was looking for an opening in the mountain, a place they could squeeze into and take cover.
"I don't know. I thought my cloak was still holding."
Gavril once again began hearing the telltale sound of flapping wings. He picked up speed, motioning with his arm for the others to do the same. Finally, as they rounded a sharp curve around the side of cliff, there was the break Gavril had been looking for an opening that looked like a vertical cut in the mountain. It would be a tight squeeze, but that was better than being out in the open.
"Quickly, into the opening." Gavril stopped to point the girls in the direction of the opening.
Jen squeezed in, followed by Jacque, Rachel, and finally Gavril. It wasn't very deep but it went far back enough that Gavril was able to back away from the opening. They watched the shadows of the birds in the moonlight as they flew over and past them. They all let out a collective breath.
"That won't be the end of it," Gavril told them.
Rachel grabbed some twigs and leaves off the rocky bottom of the opening, piling them together. She placed her hands over them and with a whispered word, a fire jumped up from the pile.
"Wicked." Jen smiled.
"The fire will help deter animals," she explained.
Jacque and Jen sat down, both still trying to catch their breath.
"So what exactly was that?" Jen asked in between breaths.
"She's found us," Rachel answered solemnly. "She's using the animals against us. She will use the weather as well. She is very powerful."
"Okay, so what are we going to do?" Jacque asked rather calmly.
"We need Peri. I cannot fight her."
"Okay, well Jacque and I will talk with our men and get Peri the fairy here."
Rachel's lips quirked up on one side, "Does she know you call her Peri the fairy?"
Jen winked at her, "You know it."
"Hey, B?"
"Jennifer." The relief in his voice made Jen's stomach do funny things. She tried to ignore that and focus on what was important, like staying alive.
"We need Peri to come and save our butts."
"What? Why? What's happened? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, but we were just chased by some crazy birds and then some BAWB." Jen pronounced her acronym for the boar as bob, and grinned when Decebel asked what the hell a bob was.
"Big ass wild boar. Jacque's words. That's not important, what's important is the witch has our location on her radar and we need Peri to bring the rain."