Chapter 28

After giving Anna the night to ponder over their conversation, she returned to the girls room.

“Good morning Anna,” Agnes said, entering.

Hearing no reply, she pulled open the bed curtains surprised to see the room empty. Looking around, she saw no sign of the girl anywhere. Looking around the room she saw a note addressed to herself.

Scanning its contents, her hand went involuntarily to her mouth. Anna had run away.

“Christian!,” Agnes cried, bursting into Christian’s rooms. “Anna has run away.”

“What?” he asked, rising from his seat. “Where did she go?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, pressing at a stitch in her side. “She just left a note saying goodbye.”

Christian paced the room, his mind racing. While he had planned on sending her back to town, the thought of her running unprotected in the woods filled him with anxiety.

“You have to go after her,” she finally said, grasping Christian’s arm, her eyes wild with concern. “You know what kind of animals roam our forests. They’ll kill her.”

Without a word, Christian vaulted over the edge of his balcony, using outcroppings in the side of the manor to slow his descent, made it to the ground in seconds.

Dropping to all fours, Christian dug his claws in the gravel of the drive and took off at incredible speed. In one leap he was over the wrought iron fence hot on Anna’s scent. She hadn’t tried to hide her trail as she’d run leaving branches snapped, scraps of fabric snagged on thorns, and drops of blood from where she’d obviously cut herself.

An hour later, his keen eyesight caught sight of her just a hundred yards ahead.

Hearing a noise Anna turned to see not a wild animal, but Christian gaining ground on her. In her blind panic, she lost her footing and fell into a gully, her head hitting numerous rocks on her way down.

Roaring in anger and frustration at losing sight of her, Christian made one final leap clearing the last twenty feet of the forest floor, coming to land at Anna’s feet.

“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” he yelled, planting his paws on either side of her mud streaked form as she cringed in fear.

“I just want to go home,” she sodded, pulling herself into a fetal position, wrapping her arms over her head.

“You fool,” he screamed, foam dribbling from his maw. “I was going to send you home today!”

“You were?” she asked, peering fearfully through her arms at him.

“I was,” he breathed, sitting back on his haunches, his arms still firmly placed to keep her from escaping.

“Then why are you here?” she sobbed, “Why not just let me go?”

“There are animals in these woods that haven’t been seen in your world since the dawn of time,” he explained. “Any one of which could tear you apart without the slightest effort.”

“The only monster I’ve seen here is you,” she spat, still keeping her body tight. Despite her anger, she wasn’t sure he wouldn’t hurt her.

Falling back as if she’d physically struck him, Christian couldn’t believe the amount of venom in her voice.

In his moment of confusion, Anna took the chance and climbed to her feet. Quickly she scrambled up the side of the embankment only to find herself face to face with a creature out of her nightmares.

It had the head of a fox, the forelegs and wings of an eagle and the hindquarters of a wolf, but its proportions were completely off. Everything about it was triple in size from what one would find in nature.

Screeching fear, Anna slid back into the gully straight into Christian’s arms.

“Quiet,” he whispered in her ear, his hand moving to cover her mouth. “It’s an enfield. They are ravenous creatures, with a taste for human flesh.”

Shaking in abject fear, Anna molded herself to Christian’s fur covered form.

The enfield climbed into the ditch with them, it’s nose searching for the source of the human blood he’d been tracking. Approaching Christian, it bared its teeth, sensing that his quarry was near.

Leaping suddenly, the creature feinted left then right, trying to get past Christian’s protective embrace. Its sharp teeth closing on his arm, biting deeply into the flesh.

Christian let out a cry of pain, lifting the creature off the ground. Using his other hand, he grabbed the enfield around the throat and pulled until it released him. Crying out in triumph, he flung the creature as hard as he could against the largest tree.

Despite the resounding crunch, the enfield was on its feet in moments, circling for another attack. Anna turned in Christian’s arms, clinging to him like an infant, her tears plastering his fur to her face.

Wrapping his uninjured arm around her protectively, he began to run trying to put distance between them and the enfield.

Taking wing, the creature followed closely, diving to dig its claws into Christian’s unprotected back. With each pass, it left deep gauges in his flesh as it tried to reach Anna.

With the gates in sight, Christian fell, his injuries finally taking their toll. Slumping, he tried dragging himself forward, still keeping Anna protected with his body. Slowly, inch by inch, he finally made it to the gate.

“Go,” he breathed to Anna, pushing open the heavy iron gate. “It can’t hurt you once you’re inside.”

“Not without you,” she sobbed, clinging to him tighter.

With the last of his strength, Christian pulled himself through the gate into the magical protection of his manor, but not before the enfield delivered one final attack taking a large piece of his leg with it before he could get completely inside.