Beyond The Walls (NOW ON AMAZON!!!)

A Hiccup

Ruq was right.

There was only so much of her blood that Anette had harvested from that underground clinic to turn into dead blood. And by now, Sleritu must have wised up on what was happening, Hadley not bothering to hide smearing her friends' weapons with her blood.

Her blood's secret was in the open and that made her more of a target than any name and legacy ever would!

"I see the Hybrid!" someone shouted before an arrow hit Ruq on the side of her thigh, just above her right knee.

Hadley watched in horror as Ruq buckled and fell to her knees, her face twisted in agony as she pulled out the arrow. Hadley knew what her blood could do. And now she was witnessing just how much worse it was as dead blood!

"For fuck's sake! I said don't kill the hybrid!" Anette yelled. "You fucking moron!"

"And that's Hadley with her!" the Scavenger who shot the arrow yelled.

"Run," Ruq pleaded with Hadley, blue and green rings thickening around her irises. "Please!"

Hadley realised why! There were a lot more vampires suddenly pouring into the clearing to confront the Scavengers! Sleritu's army must have found a way to call for help! Hadley smiled when she heard Anette's frustrated yells behind her at the arrival of the new vampires.

But that wasn't the only thing Hadley heard behind her.

"I'm not going to let you get away that easy! Not after killing my Apollo and his brothers!" the words were uttered in a loud snarl.

Hadley groaned.

Apollo's master was chasing after her! She had a significant head start, but it wouldn't be nearly enough!

Hadley ran harder and faster than she ever had. If the vampire caught her, she would fight and maybe even kill him when he inevitably tried to bite her, but that would slow her down and Anette would then get a chance to capture her. Or Sleritu. She couldn't decide who between the two would be worse. However, Hadley didn't know where she was going as she ran through barely visible game trails, and she could feel herself burning out. She was already exhausted from all the fighting and was functioning on pure adrenaline at this point. That wouldn't last long.

Someone suddenly sped past her.

"This way!" it was Kade.

Relieved, Hadley followed him, forcing her feet to push past oblivion.

"There's a waterfall up ahead! At the edge, jump!" Kade yelled.

"What?" Hadley called out. He wasn't serious!

"Don't think! Just jump!"

Kade inched further forward. Hadley heard the vampire getting closer. There was no way she was winning this race – he must have been drained, close to being blood-starved. She didn't dare look behind to confirm this though. Kade suddenly disappeared ahead. Hadley committed, pushed as hard as she could, raced to the edge of rocks past the trees and jumped!

The vampire's fingertips scraped her forearm just as she launched herself into the unknown.

The fall was long enough to give Hadley time to chastise herself on how insane it was to have blindly leapt from dozens of feet up. She slammed into the water below, quashing every single thought in her mind and breath in her lungs. Her feet almost instantly touched the riverbed, and she quickly bent her knees to keep them from exploding out of their sockets. Thankfully, the water was deep enough to have killed most of the momentum of her jump. She pushed herself up from the riverbed, gasping a lungful of air when she resurfaced, and then tread water as she got her bearings. But when she looked up, she saw Apollo's master sneering at her.