Ellie wandered through the blacksmiths into the workshop at the back and saw Jack working away with his hammer. She had to stand there for a moment in awe just to appreciate him. Tall, muscular, his thick forearms tensing and flexing as he worked. Sparks burst with each monumental hit. Heat flared in the room, making the air feel hot and stuffy. He looked up after a moment and saw her standing there.

“Ellie?” Jack put his tools down and mopped the sweat from his brow before coming over to her. A huge smile filled his handsome face. “What are you doing here?”

“Just thought I’d surprise you and say hi. We had a big haul this morning, so we had to come back partway through the day to unload the trucks.”

Jack swept forward and kissed her, taking the air from her lungs momentarily. When he stepped away she couldn’t help but smile, feeling slightly dizzy as she stared up into his smoldering red eyes. The booming voice of Garret echoed into the room and they both turned to see him at the door on the opposite side.

“No distractions! We’ve got enough to catch up on already! Too much to do for this bloody festival!”

“Sorry Garret,” Ellie said, laughing as she fanned the heat from her skin. Everyone in town was currently making preparations for the upcoming solstice festival and there was a lot to do. The last two days had been non-stop overtime with Malachi and Rourke to try and get enough food for the event. Garret and Jack had been coerced into making metal cradles for lanterns that were going up in the street later tonight. “I just wanted to say hi to Jack while I was back in the village. We’re heading on out again now. Lots to do before the big event.”

“I’ll dare say there is,” the blacksmith boomed. “Everyone’s looking forward to the festival. It’s a much-needed break after that recent attack.” A bell on the wall beside Garrett started jangling and he rolled his eyes with much weariness at the sound. “Looks like the furnace is ready. Say goodbye to your love, Jack, and come help me with this! Bye Ellie!” Garrett disappeared again, leaving Ellie with Jack once more.

“Sorry about that,” Jack said, laughing to himself. “He doesn’t cope well with stress. Still on for our plan later?”

“Sure,” Ellie said. “I’ll be back with Malachi and Rourke in a few hours, I’ll meet you in the Oak just before the festival starts.”

“Sounds good to me princess,” Jack said, leaning forward to give her another long kiss. Ellie finally turned away with some reluctance and made her way back through the shop to the square outside. Posted immediately outside were the eight guards assigned to watch them both. Four were stationed outside the shop for Jack, four stood there temporarily to wait for Ellie.

“Don’t you guys get tired of waiting around?” she joked. The guards stood there in silence with blank expressions on their faces, as always. Talk about a sense of humor.

“There she is! Ellie!”

Ellie looked up and saw Rourke and Malachi pushing toward her. “Take your time why don’t you? Come on. We need to get back into the forest and finish up gathering supplies for tonight.”

“I was just coming to find you both! Impatient brutes.” They all laughed together as they made their way back to the truck parked near the village gates. Her four guards followed behind, keeping their distance, remaining silent and vigilant. Ellie had been in good spirits for the last few days. She struggled to remember a time when things had felt this right before. She was enjoying her work with Rourke and Malachi, and everyone in the village was excited about the solstice festival tonight.

As they approached the truck she nodded to Grant and Lark who were already waiting for them. Everyone climbed in and Ellie followed, only to pause with one foot through the truck door. She had the most unusual feeling that they were being followed. Turning, she looked around her and saw her four guards stationed in the truck that was to follow her. They nodded at her and she nodded back, scanning her eyes across the quiet space for sign of anything unusual.

“Ellie come on!” Malachi hollered from the front. “We haven’t got time to dawdle!”

“All right, all right!” she hollered as she climbed into the back of the truck. “Keep your panties on.” She buckled up, Malachi put the truck into gear and they pulled down the track that led into the forest. She couldn’t quite shake that feeling pricking at the back of her neck. It was like someone was watching her. There hadn’t been anyone else in the quiet sub-square with them when they left, so it must have been her imagination playing tricks.

Shaking her head, she pushed the feelings to the back of her mind and brought her focus back to work. There was a lot to do, and she needed to keep her head in the game.

* * *

Ellie got into a flow quickly, moving about the forest and checking the traps she had reset in the early hours of that morning. She’d developed an extremely streamlined trapping process while working out here in the forest with Malachi’s team. After a few hours of collecting game her radio crackled. Rourke’s voice came over in response.

“What’s the verdict Ellie? You had a good morning?”

She hauled another bag onto the cart before picking the radio up from her belt. The cart was the most recent addition to her process. One bag had quickly proved not enough for her spoils. “Let’s just say the cart is pretty much full. How you guys getting on?”

“Good. Mac’s saying we’ve got enough to take over to the kitchens. Said we can finish up early and head back now if we want. How long will it take you to get back to the trucks?”

She looked up to double check her position in the forest and realized she wasn’t that far. She had nearly completed her trap trail and was almost back at the trucks. “I’m just over the hill actually. I can be there in two minutes.”

“Aight. We’ll finish up here and be back soon. See you then.”

Ellie clipped the radio back into her belt, picked up her cart by its handles and started pushing it back to the trucks. She saw one of her guards in the distance up into the right. They waved a hand back at her in recognition and she nodded back. The guards, to their credit, hadn’t been too much of a disturbance while she was working out here. She’d felt a little annoyed about them following out here at first. She’d insisted to Kara they would disturb her work, but they made little noise and didn’t get in the way.

They did blend into the background as well, just as Kara said. It was funny, but it still surprised Ellie to look up and see them standing off in the distance, watching her with care. It was startling how quick she’d forgot about them, but they did make her feel a little safer out here.

It’s not like the forest felt dangerous. She could defend herself against Order members most likely. She knew how they fought. It was the prospect of running into Circle vampires that daunted her most. There wasn’t much she could to fight back against a vampire. Everything in the forest had felt normal anyway until that morning. She still couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching her. Someone was following her. Yes, her guards were technically doing just that, but that was different. This felt like something else. This felt… different.

She arrived back at the trucks, unloaded her cart on the back of Mac’s pickup and sat down in the truck bed to catch her breath. There was an odd stillness in the forest, which usually hummed with the constant—yet quiet—trickle of life. Wind in the trees, birds singing into morning. There was none of that now, and she felt an unnerving feeling creep up the back of her spine.

A quick glance around the clearing by the trucks didn’t reveal the position of any of her guards. Odd. Were they hiding in the trees somewhere? She could usually see at least three of them at any time while in the forest. She stood and turned around now, looking deeper into the tree line to see any sign of a familiar silhouette, but saw none. As she spun around to face the truck again she saw a man leaning against the truck, watching her with a careful smile on his face.

“Jack!” Ellie jumped back, feeling her heart race as she attempted to stilt her breath. “You scared the life out of me! What the heck are you doing here?!”

Jack walked forward with a slow confidence, turning his head as if he were examining her. “What? Am I not allowed to come and visit my mate?” He brushed a strand of hair from off her face. Something about the gesture felt a little forceful to her. She smiled at him but stepped back turning around to check for the guards. Where were they?

“Of course, you are,” she said and laughed, wondering why he’d come out here to see her exactly. “I thought we were meeting at the Oak after my shift? Did Garett let you out early?”

He was silent for a moment before answering. There was something strange about his voice. It felt flat, calculated… it was off. “Yes. That’s exactly what happened. I didn’t want to be late for the festival tonight. Remember? I came right here after he let me out.”

“What about all the work?”

“We finished it.”

“Oh.” She looked down at his clothes. Jeans and a plaid shirt. “If you came here straight from work then when did you get chance to change?”

The vampire looked down at his clothes and stared back at her. The flatness in his eyes glimmered slightly as he smiled. “Come on. I brought the clothes with me this morning, so I could change after work. I told you that.”

“You did?” she said, trying to remember if he had.

He stepped forward and stroked his hand through her hair, wrapping his other hand around her waist. “Yeah… don’t you remember? What’s got into you? You’re acting so… strange?”

That old familiar scent of oak and earth lifted through the air to intoxicate her slightly. It put her at ease and helped to break up the uncertainty she was feeling. She laughed and shook her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s got into me. I’ve been feeling weird ever since I left the shop. I’ve just had this strangest feeling that someone’s been following me.”

His eyes widened slightly. “Oh? Well… don’t worry. I’m here now. Nothing can hurt you.”

She smiled, but that uneasiness came back to her for some reason. Voices echoed in the trees behind her and she turned to see Malachi and his crew return with their catch.

“Bad news!” Rourke shouted as the group approached the truck. They all paused at seeing Jack stood next to Ellie. “What the heck are you doing, here Jack?” Rourke asked.

“Finished early. Though I’d come and surprise my mate,” Jack said. He smiled at Ellie and she smiled back, but she still couldn’t ignore that feeling of unease. It was unusual for Jack to call her his mate in front of other vampires. It felt a little overprotective and unnecessary. His voice was kind, but there was a suggestion of aggression lingering in his words somehow. It wasn’t like Jack at all, but Malachi and Rourke seemed to think nothing of it.

“Lucky bastard, wish I could have finished early,” Malachi said, laughing as he threw some hares onto the truck.

“What’s the bad news?” Ellie asked.

Rourke turned around and rolled his eyes heavily. “A bear broke into our stash from this morning and ate half our god damn catch. We’ve only got half of the food we thought we had.”

Ellie clenched her teeth at the news. It was an irritating setback, but there wasn’t much they could do about it. The festival would be starting in a few hours and there wasn’t enough time to get back out there and hunt. “What are we going to do?”

“Not much we can do,” Malachi said and shrugged. “Kara’s going to be pissed, but let’s be honest, when isn’t she? All we can do is climb into the trucks and head on back. We’ve still got a bigger haul than usual, it’s just short of festival expectations.”

An idea came to Ellie. “I might be able to make up the difference. I only checked half my trail. I reset the traps on the first half this morning. There’s a chance some of them might have tripped already. I’ll go back and check them.”

Malachi stood there for a moment as he considered it. “Normally I’d say not to bother, but it is the festival. Want us to come with you and help?”

Ellie shook her head. She preferred working alone anyway. “It’ll be faster if I do it myself. You vampires think you’re all quiet, but you’re noisier than you think.” The guys laughed. “Plus, Jack is here with me too. He can help me finish up and we’ll head back in the second truck. Shouldn’t take us too long. Sound like a plan?”

“Shit, sounds good to me,” Mac said. “Just don’t hang up too long. Don’t want you missing the festival!” Ellie watched as the rest of the guys climbed into the truck and pulled out of the clearing. She waved as the truck disappeared back down the track, turned back to Jack and bounced on her heels.

“Looks like it’s just me and you,” he said.

“Yeah…” She laughed to herself nervously and found herself questioning his gaze. She reasoned her strange paranoia was probably just a leftover from the attack a few days ago and ignored the nagging feeling at the pit of her stomach. “Come on. The faster we check this trail the faster we can head back to the village.” She turned to walk back through the forest and Jack followed behind her. A quick scan of the horizon revealed no guards. Maybe they were taking a break somewhere? She shook her head again and told herself she was just being paranoid. The first trap on the trail revealed a small bore. Looks like coming back to check them twice was a good idea after all.

“It’s so remote out here, isn’t it?” Jack said from behind her.

“Yeah. It’s kind of why I love working out here, it’s just me and my thoughts.” Struggling with the trap, she looked up to Jack. “Could you give me a hand with this?”

He smiled back at her and approached, holding out his hand to keep the trap open as Ellie worked. She paused momentarily, looked down at his wrist and noticed that the tattoo of the black hammer was missing. Standing, she stepped back and looked up at him.

“What’s the matter?” he asked.

“Your tattoo…” she said slowly, staring at the blank spot on his arm. “It’s gone. Why is it gone?”

Jack let go of the trap, stood up slowly and looked down at his arm. “Oh, that thing? I had it removed. Never liked it anyway.”

She stared into the flat red eyes of the man standing before her, becoming more aware with each passing second of the nauseous feeling rising in her stomach. Her jaw opened slowly, and she spoke with a broken and shaking whisper. “W-What are you?” Her feet stepped back instinctively. The man in front of her stared back with hollow eyes that tried their best to look kind.

“I’m Jack darling. I’m your mate. I’m your betrothed.” He stepped forward. Something dark glimmered in his eyes.

“No, you’re not,” she said and shook her head. “You’re not him… you’re—”

She turned and ran as fast as she could, but the creature was on her in a flash, sending her crashing to the ground. She cried out as he hoisted her up to her feet, tugging her sharply by the wrist back across the forest floor. “Stop!” She cried. “Stop it! Who are you?!”

The creature seized her by the jaw and forced her to look into his eyes. “I’m Jack, darling. Don’t you recognize me?” His features twisted and changed momentarily, revealing another face that was a gruesome patchwork of different faces. “I’m here to… kill you.” The face shifted back into that of her lover and she stood there trembling in horror.

The creature jerked his head as if arguing with something, it straightened itself and looked down at her with a kind smile. “Not kill you.” He said. “Love you. Take you. Breed you.”

She could only shake with terror, her breath quivering from her open lips. “Come mate,” he said as he pulled her through the trees. “It’s time for us to leave this place.”