Once Betrayed Never Forgotten

Chapter 47: Hunted

“So, who should I devour first? The black–scaled water serpent asks in a low hiss, its forked tongue lazily tasting the air as it speaks.

In the dimly lit cavern, the air is thick with tension. The distant sound of water trickling echoes through the darkness as we face off against this unspeakably ancient evil.

I’m still in shock after having witnessed the sweet, frail, terrified little boy transform into this monster before my very eyes.

No wonder he was so keen to get us to the lake. He probably needed to lure us here into his lair before he could change into his true form.

distant nightmare. Luka is on the lake’s shoce,

Mircea has fallen to her knees, her expression blank and hollow, as if she is far away, trapped in some distant standing between me and danger, huge and furious in his deadly silver wolf form.

“If you don’t choose amongst yourselves, I will have to choose for you,” the serpent hisses, uncoiling its vast scaly body as it undulates atop the lake’s

surface.

“Arianna… start walking backwards towards the way we came… slowly,” Luka whispers to me, his voice a low growl.

“Ah, but haven’t you noticed, wolf man?” The serpent says, swinging its enormous sightless head in Luka’s direction. “The way is gone. There is no escape. There is no question of you leaving the only question is, which one of you delightful morsels I should feast upon first? It’s been so, so long since I’ve eaten anything but boring flavourless cave fish. In fact, I seem to recall, it’s been about twenty years. Isn’t that right, Mircea?”

Mircea looks up into the grotesque eyeless face of the serpent. Her eyes are wide, haunted, filled with grief unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

“No… please… I don’t want to remember… she murmurs, her entire body shaking with fear.

“You couldn’t have been more than three or four years old, which is the only reason you escaped my notice at the time,” the serpent hisses. “Like a tiny crumb falling off the dinner plate, negligible, too small to bother myself with- when I had your parents and older brother to savour. How sweet that you returned all grown up and ripe, ready for the harvest.”

Mircea begins to sob. I want to step forward, run to her, pull her to her feet and run away – but where? There’s nowhere to run. We are totally screwed.

“You were so very young at the time, my sweet Mircea, that the memory of your older brother Vasile must be as faded as the morning star at noon, a pale ghost in the sky of your mind. I’m sure you’ve forgotten the details of his handsome little face. But I never forgot. Didn’t you find it odd how familiar that little boy in the cave seemed? How your heart split in two the moment he -I- approached and begged for help?” Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Mircea is shaking her head in denial, moaning now, her hands balled up into tight fists as she trembles on the ground.

“That’s right, Mircea – your brother’s image is now one of the many masks I wear when I please,” the serpent hisses, the delight clear in its voice. “Just as yours shall be. I am glad to finally add your pretty face to my collection.”

“Vedoshny…” Luka murmurs thoughtfully. “Yes, that’s got to be it. Listen up, Arianna, I need to tell you about what we’re up against. It’s an ancient evil, older than time itself. It dwells near water, drawing strength from it to transform and to kill. But that’s not the worst part. Vodoshny can shapeshift into anyone it’s devoured. It can mimic the loved ones of its victims, leading them to their death. Once it kills and devours a victim, it wears their appearance like a mask.”

“So what do we do?” I whisper back to him. “Fight, or run?”

“There’s nowhere to run to.” Luka replies, his voice a low growl. “We can only fight.”

“And how on earth do we do that?” I ask, glancing up at the long, horrifically razor sharp white teeth that glitter in the creature’s gaping mouth.

“Our best chance is to keep it away from water,” he says. “This creature can’t transform or kill without the presence of water. We need to draw it away from the like, towards the back of the cave. We’ll figure out our next move after that.”

“I’ll get its attention then,” I whisper, and before Luka can stop me, I wave my arms high up in the air, before remembering it can’t see in its serpent form.

“Hey, you overgrown pool noodle! Yes, you! Loch Ness Noodle! Listen up!” I shout at the top of my lungs.

“Loch Ness noodle?!” I hear Luka’s amused voice echo through my mind via our mate bond mind link.

Chapter 47 Hunted

“It was the best I could do,” I reply via the mate bond. “And it worked. Look.”

The giant scaly eyeless head swivels to face me, Mircea forgotten as the creature fixes its attention on a new, more interesting prey.

Now all 1 have to do is get it to chase me, follow me far away enough from the water for Luka to kill it…

well then. I will do you the honour of killing you

“You want to be the first to die, golden haired creature?” The serpent hisses the question. “Very w slowly, and painfully. Die, delicious morsel.”

Everything moves very quickly then. One moment I’m standing on the lakeshore, about to turn on my heel and run away into the dark to lure it away from the water – but before I can even move a muscle, everything explodes in a blur of chaotic motion.

Panic surges through me as the giant serpent lunges out of the water toward me, the slick, scaled body propelled by raw, terrifying power. The image of those dagger–like teeth inches from my face is seared into my mind.

“ARIANNA!” I hear Luka’s roar through the mate hond as he leaps into the air trying to intersect the serpent, but he’s too far away.

Instinct kicks in, and I leap backward, narrowly avoiding the snapping jaws of the monstrous creature. My heart hammers in my chest as I scramble to my feet, adrenaline coursing through my veins. Mircea is crying again in thick heavy sobs and wails, and I can hear the echoes of her sorrow and terror in the cavern’s vast expanse.

The creature is directly above me, poised to strike and finish me off.

Thoughts rush through my mind at lightning speed. We’re trapped, with no way to escape except back the way we came and even that is no longer an option, now that the entrance is blocked. Luka will fight to the death trying to defend me, and Mircea has already given up, her heart and mind broken by being tricked with the image of her long lost dead brother.

We’re in a truly hopeless situation, and I can’t see a way out,

Or… can 17 In that final moment, on the precipice of death, I see it. A chance. A slim chance, but a chance.

There’s hope. A way out

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