Chapter 1

My first time in a horse-drawn carriage and the damn thing breaks down. My two traveling companions, Mary and Jeremy, huddled at the side of the dirt road.

Mary shivered, holding her skirts high to avoid muddy stains, while her husband Jeremy acted as sentry, top hat tucked under one arm. They looked overdressed and uncomfortable in the old-fashioned garb compulsory to Dracul territory.

Thank god I had an exemption on dress code because looking at them in their ancient era attire made my skin itch. I needed my clothes to breathe and be flexible. None of this corset and petticoat bullshit.

The driver fiddled with the dodgy wheel, muttering curses under his breath. A waste if you ask me. What good was a good swear word if not said out loud with vehemence?

“The sun will have set soon,” Mary said, a tremor in her voice.

“It’s all right, luv. Rising isn’t till tomorrow,” Jeremy said. “And I doubt there are any scavengers this far outside of town. We’re safe.” He hugged her to his side.

They seemed like a sweet couple. A little frosty since I told them I worked for the Order, which was strange considering we were the very organization that kept humans safe. Speaking of…I scanned the road, deserted and gloomy, then the tree line to our left and the fields to our right. All clear so far. We had time.

“Town’s only ten more miles,” Mary said. “We’ll make it before the moon’s up.”

Her husband made a non-committal sound, his eyes on the land around us.

Was he thinking what I was? That we had about thirty minutes before the sun set completely, and it would take at least twice that to get to town, and even if the rising was tomorrow, being out in the open in Dracul territory after dark was a huge red flag.

Yep, the downturn of his mouth said he was thinking exactly that.

My hand went to the dagger at my hip, fingers caressing the silver hilt. The rest of my stuff, including my blessed sword, had been sent ahead to the local Order chapter house on a separate carriage.

I should have kept it on me.

Hindsight was a bitch. “How much longer?” I crossed to the carriage. “We don’t want to be out after dark.”

The driver tutted, the sound sharp and angry. “Ya think I don’t know that? Bloody newcomer tellin’ me how it is. You and yer Order. Pah.”

I bit back on a surge of annoyance. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means if yer Order did their job, we wouldn’t have to hide in our homes after dark or risk getting our asses eaten by scavengers.”

Yeah, that was something I’d need to investigate when we got to the chapter house. The brief I’d been given hadn’t mentioned a curfew, scavengers, or the fact that humans here seemed to dislike Order operatives. I tugged my mobile phone from my pocket and checked the reception bar…again. But nothing had changed, still no reception. This part of Dracul territory was off the grid, which meant I couldn’t call the chapter house for backup or contact the Singer brothers—the two hunters assigned by the Order to work with me this year.

“There won’t be any scavengers out here, though,” Mary said, her sweet, heart-shaped face all hopeful. “Jeremy said so.” She looked up at her husband expectantly.

He hugged her again. “How much longer, Joe?”

“Almost done,” the driver replied.

Shadows lengthened, and despite my best intentions, moths fluttered in my belly.

“Is it true?” Mary whispered. “What they say about him?”

I didn’t have to ask her which him she was referring to. The same question had been on my mind more than once since I’d been handed this assignment. “I don’t know. But the Order believes it.”

“Most people who can attest to his disposition are dead,” Jeremy said.

I shrugged. “Or undead.”

Mary let out a nervous giggle. “True.”

A shadow crept across the road as the sun slinked into slumber, the orange hue dying, leaving the world gray and dull. My scalp tightened in warning. Yep, we needed to be going. Now.

“Joe?” Jeremy herded Mary closer to the carriage and to me.

My nape tightened, instinct guiding me to look not at the fields or the forest, but up at the sky, heavy with churning clouds. My pulse pounded thickly in my throat, a sure sign that some sort of supernatural shit was about to hit the proverbial fan.

“Get in the carriage. Now!”

Jeremy yanked the door open and shoved Mary inside just as the clouds parted to reveal an almost full moon. Dark shapes sat against its silvery innocence.

Birds?

No. Bats!

Crap.

“Move. Now!” I swung myself inside, slamming the door to the snap of reins and a hearty Yah!

We lurched into motion, clattering down the road.

“They’re getting larger,” Mary cried, head sticking out of the window, curls whipping in the wind.

Her husband hauled her back. “It’s all right. They can’t hurt us. We’re safe.”

But he didn’t sound so sure, and one look at the fast-approaching flock of bats told me he had every reason to worry. I counted five. Too large to be a regular species and getting bigger the closer they got. The wingspan had to be at least seven feet, and their bodies…humanoid?…No. How could this be?

I pushed my head out the window. “Faster! We need to go faster!”

“Yah, yah!”

The carriage picked up speed, clattering and swaying dangerously, and all the while the things in the air ate at the distance between us.

“What are they?” Mary sobbed. “Jeremy, what are they?” She clutched at him as he hugged her—a full-body hug that made my stomach twist.

He fixed blazing eyes on me. “Do something, Miss Lighthart!”

I was a member of the Order. Protector of humanity. But without my sword, I was just a human with a dagger.

It would have to do. “Be prepared to make a run for it if need be.”

Mary’s whimpers were lost beneath the ominous beat of wings and the thunderous rumble of the carriage wheels, but Jeremy nodded his understanding.

I took a deep breath, grateful that I’d declined to don a dress, and made to swing my body out of the window and up onto the carriage.

A loud whoosh was followed by a gust of air.

“Argh!” The driver’s scream shattered my eardrums.

The carriage lurched.

The horses whinnied.

The driver was gone.

“What is it? What’s happening?” Jeremy cried.

There was no time to explain. The creatures fell back, their shadowy frames getting smaller. Maybe they were done with us. Satisfied with the driver as prey.

But I wasn’t taking any chances.

I swung up onto the carriage, clinging to its wooden frame as I made my way to the driver’s seat. The reins had snagged on a post by the driver’s footrest. I grabbed them and sat down.

Now what? I’d ridden horses but never driven a carriage.

The principles had to be the same, right?

The horses seemed to have the right idea, though, running as if the hounds of hell were after them and taking us along for the ride.

If we kept this pace, we’d see the town soon, right? Surely the bats wouldn’t follow us into town.

We’d be fine.

I’d take us straight to the nearest tavern. Anywhere occupied by people and?—

A shadow blocked out the moon. The horses reared up to paw at the air with their hooves as a figure landed on the path ahead.

Humanoid but not human, with the face of a bat, wings flexing to test the air, the creature spawned primal fear in the pit of my belly.

I’d been trained to master fear, but I wasn’t sticking around to try reasoning with a monster when I had humans to protect. I pulled the reins, urging the horses off the road and into the forest.

Darkness closed in, the canopy above blocking out the moon from shining on a trail so slender I was shocked the horses could follow it.

If the fuckers wanted to get to us now, they’d have to land and attack on foot. It should slow them down.

The carriage rocked, the mechanism tethering us to the horses creaking. “What are you doing?” Jeremey bellowed out the window. “This is the silverwood It’s filled with wolves. Get us out of here!”

Wolves or humanoid bats? I knew which one I’d take my chances with.

Trails led to roads which led to civilization, so as long as we?—

The wheels bumped and snagged. A loud crack shocked my ears, and in the next moment, the reins were torn from my grip as the horses ran free.

Mary’s scream was followed by silence then the distinct, ominous howl of wolves.

With the horses gone,the carriage was useless, and with bat people overhead and wolves closing in, we needed to move fast. We did just that.

“The trail’s gone. Where is it? Miss Lighthart?” Mary’s voice was thready with panic, but to give her credit, she was holding it together. Her outer skirt was gone, and Jeremy had ripped her petticoats, making her faster on her feet.

“Call me Orina. Please.”

That earned me a tremulous smile. “We’re going to be all right, aren’t we, Orina?”

The Walkers had been married for twenty-five years. They had children and, just recently, a grandchild. I’d make sure they lived to see them again. “You’re going to be fine.”

Everyone was going to be fine, because as the new head of the local chapter I was going to make sure we worked harder to keep the streets safe after dark.

Mary stumbled on a root, and I grabbed her arm to steady her. It was dark, even with my excellent night vision, so I was impressed at how well my companions were coping.

Another howl, farther away this time. Good. We were putting distance between them and us.

“I can’t hear wings,” Jeremy said.

Neither could I. “They’ve hopefully given up. Now all we need to do is get to a main road.”

Jeremy consulted his compass again. Yeah, the guy had a compass attached to his pocket watch, and it made me like him even more.

“We’re on the right track,” he said. “There should be a road coming up soon.”

Soon needed to come quickly before the beasts in this wood found us and I had a fight on my hands.

I was adept with a dagger, but it wasn’t ideal when taking down wulven beasts, all teeth and jaws. Having to get into close range increased the risk of getting bitten. And that always sucked.

Trees rushed past, silvery trunks gleaming here and there where moonlight managed to break through the dense canopy to rake its fingers along the bark.

“Once we get home, I’m making cocoa,” Mary whispered. “You can have a hot toddy, and we’ll get the fire roaring.” Her voice quivered. “It’ll be fine. It’ll all be fine.”

People dealt with fear in different ways, and Mary was a talker. Grounding herself with thoughts of the mundane to stave off the horror. Jeremy, on the other hand, was silent and watchful, his body all tension, ready to react.

Good.

A howl to the west, closer than the last.

“Fuck,” he said.

We picked up the pace, and the howling grew louder, coming from both sides of the trail.

Where was the damn road?

Movement in my periphery warned me that we were being tracked. If I told them, then they’d panic. I needed to keep them calm. Maybe if we acted oblivious, the wolves would hold off on attacking and?—

A growling mass hit me from the side, and the world erupted into fresh howls of triumph.