It was dark enough that the group wouldn’t have been able to make out Stan even if he’d been there, but it worked both ways. In his rush to catch up, he nearly collided with Joe. He pulled up at the last second when the shadow in front of him turned, revealing a pale face in the darkness.

“Nice trip?” Joe asked, his voice edged with sarcastic humor.

“Fuck you,” Steve said and listened for the front of the pack. Their footfalls were farther along the path, a good ten to fifteen feet, and he focused back on Joe. “Why rape?” he asked.

“It’s part of the initiation,” Joe answered. “Fuck ‘em any-which-way we can and then he gets her.” His voice trembled and Steve heard the distinct sound of a swallow. “When he’s done, they’re usually in pieces.”

He could make out another bend in the path and knew it was now or never. He gripped the knife in both hands. Raising it high in the air, he plunged it into the back of Joe’s neck, severing the spinal cord with a snap that could have been mistaken for a twig. He caught Joe’s limp body before it hit the ground and quietly set him down. With a deep inhale, he yanked the knife from the body. His stomach lurched, but he pushed the sensation aside. He didn’t have time to get sick and he certainly didn’t have time to mourn Joe or examine his actions. He knew that would come later and he’d pay for it in spades, but for now, he had to get Jennifer away from Bill and Jake.

Hustling forward, he slid around the bend just in time to see Jake enter an opening in the woods. He quickly put his hands behind his back with the knife in his grip. He stopped at the opening, taking in the cove. Jennifer was right—this is as desolate and cold as you can get.

Jake threw Jennifer down in the center of the pentacle carved in dead moss, and turned towards the wood line. He pulled the dagger out, tossed it to Bill, and then knelt, putting the sharp edge of his hunting knife to her throat.

“Where are Stan and Joe?” Bill asked, stepping closer to Jennifer.

Steve smiled. “Probably roasting in hell right about now,” he answered, looking squarely at Jake.

Bill threw the dagger and it hit Steve half an inch away from his open wound, sending him back a couple steps. Pain gripped him and he realized too late that his hands and the knife had come into full view, and he lost his element of surprise. “Fuck!”

“No!” Jennifer screamed.

“Do you want her to die right this second?” Jake shouted, gaining Steve’s attention. “Drop the knife and get your ass over here.”

He dropped the knife immediately and reached for the dagger, muttering under his breath.

“Don’t touch that,” Jake warned.

Steve put his hands back down and took a shaky step into the clearing. I should have launched the knife at Bill the minute he stepped into the opening. Fucking idiot!

With every step he took, he silently berated himself. He still had the gun tucked away in his boot holster and he prayed for an opening.

Bill stepped out of reach as Steve approached, and Jake pulled Jennifer back a few feet. “In the center.” He pointed the knife and then brought it back to her throat.

Steve did as he was told, his eyes never leaving Jennifer’s. I promise I’ll get you out of this, even if it’s the last thing I do.

“Kneel.”

He knelt.

Jake nodded for Bill. “If you make a move, I will kill her.”

“That’s getting old,” Steve said, but kept his hands on his knees, digging his nails into the denim as Bill grasped the end of the dagger and yanked it out. Steve blinked and the world spun. Oh shit was his last thought before the world went black.

* * * *

“No! Steve!” Jennifer’s scream echoed on the water. Steve’s limp body tilted backwards onto the moss and she reached for him, but Jake yanked her back. Panic clouded her mind and she struggled in Jake’s grasp, screaming Steve’s name over and over. “Get away from him, you bastard!” she spit when Bill collected blood from the wound.

Bill glared in her direction. “You’re lucky I don’t cut his fucking head off.” He handed the cup to Jake and grabbed Steve’s wrists, dragging him outside the circle surrounding the pentacle. “And while I’d love to do that, I think having him meet the beast is a much better choice. I imagine he’ll do a lot of screaming before he dies.”

She broke away from Jake, spinning and delivering an upper cut that snapped Jake’s head back. He backhanded her, sending her sprawling on the moss. Before she could recover, Jake yanked a handful of her hair and dragged her back toward the center.

Jake ripped her shirt and she swung, fury blinding her and the will to fight, to kill these bastards overrode common sense. She swept Jake’s feet from under him and he landed on his ass. She didn’t wait for him to recover, sending a kick into the side of his head, hoping to break his neck.

Arms grabbed her from behind and she twisted, reaching back and flipping Bill onto the ground at her feet. She stepped back and tripped over the challis, knocking it over. Steve’s blood seeped into the ground and the horror on both Bill’s and Jake’s face made her laugh.

“Run, Jen.”

Steve’s labored voice made her spin, her gaze skimming over him, following his frightened gaze, and landing on the form in the water. Her nightmares flooded her muscles with fear, freezing her in the spot.

“Run,” Steve said, his voice barely a whisper, his vocal cords strangled with fear. He took a deep breath, struggling to his feet. “Run!”

Chapter 42

Steve’s command loosened her paralysis and Jennifer bolted in the opposite direction into the woods, flying within a few feet of where Bill had found his footing. Jake reached for her before, but she knocked his hand away, fleeing from the beast from her nightmares.

The dream surrounded her and she sobbed, the branches cutting her skin more deeply than the dagger had.

She slid to a stop, leaning over and vomiting the foul contents of her stomach on the dark forest floor. She spit and turned back toward the clearing, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, her entire frame trembling.

She couldn’t let him die; she had to stop that thing.

Chapter 43

The beast reached Jake first and swatted him like a fly, his claws ripping through skin and bone like a master sword, separating his torso from his legs and sending his top half toward the wood line near Steve.

Steve’s gaze landed on what was left of Jake and snapped to the metal object just short of the brush. He launched toward it, praying the thing wouldn’t attack him next. When his hand swiped the gun from the ground, he spun, aiming in time to see Bill dart toward the path they came in.

The beast caught Bill before he left the crunchy moss. It toyed with him, raking a sharp claw over his back, and Bill screamed.

Its laugh cascaded over the cove, throaty, dark and full of menace. “I promised a painful death.” The beast’s voice scraped out of its throat and into Bill’s ear, and then it tore his arm from his torso.

Bill’s screams continued and Steve stared at the carnage. His stomach dropped and acid lined his throat when the beast disemboweled Bill. Intestines spilled out of the gash along with a torrent of blood. Bill’s scream caught in a gag, bile and blood spewing from his mouth, encircling the now continuous scream. The beast sheared clean through Bill’s leg, tossing the limb aside like a discontented child before dragging a still-screaming Bill under the black water.

Steve stumbled toward the path, but he only got as far as the center of the pentacle before the black shape rose out of the water again. Fear made his heart ram against his chest and each of his wounds throbbed in concert. Black like an oil slick and remotely in the shape of a very large man, its eyes glowed, altering between red, orange, and yellow, just like the embers in a hot fire. Steve’s his mind reeled and he pulled the trigger. The gun jammed and he stared at it for a moment before his gaze snapped back to the thing approaching. “Shit!”