12

They parked the jeeps in a relatively dense and shrouded area that strayed from the road.

As Lily stepped from the vehicle, a sudden wind swept through her clothing, straight to the bone. She shivered and pulled her fleece closer together as her eyes drew instinctively to the mass of forest looming beneath the moonlit sky.

She knew very little of the Carpathians aside from that neighboring towns and villages called it their ‘Green Pearl’. She could see how the mountains had earned its sobriquet. Thick, lush greenery flourished in all angles, covering the forest floor like a blanket weaved of grass, leaves and tangled roots. Meadows and valleys nestled between jagged rocks and towering mountains, gently flowing streams and swift rivers divided terrains.

A brilliant, silver moon hung from above with an occasional obscured cloud drifting lazily by. It was all so very beautiful, and so unlike her world back home.

Lily…

She stiffened as if the word had been whispered at the nape of her neck. She turned and found nothing but Ward’s men moving anxiously around the jeep.

When she turned back around, Ward watched her gravely.

“Reed!” He called sharply, jarring her from her reverie.

A man, whom she suspected to be Reed, appeared at her side, “Professor?”

“Have you assembled your team?”

Reed nodded, “Yes.”

Ward gave a curt nod, “Good, good. Stick to the trails and move up the mountain. Call on the transmitter if you have anything, understood?”

He gave another nod and Lily watched as Reed joined his group and the five of them vanished into the night.

“We’re separating?”

“To cover more ground.” Ward replied flatly as he attached a transmitter to his belt.

“These men-“ she glanced at the five crowding the jeep, hoisting shoulder bags and handling tranquilizers, “-have they done this before?”

“Yes.” He said as he attached items to his belt; she noticed one in particular, a small black bag, dangled loosely from a loop.

“If this is illegal or an animal on the brink of extinction, I want no part of it.”

He inhaled deeply through his nose and pegged her with a sharp glare. “I assure you, it’s nothing like that.”

“Than-“

“Soon!” he exclaimed his face flushing red and startling her.

Her stomach knotted with tension as she stepped away from Ward and watched the men finish unloading the jeep.

The moonlight glinted off something strapped to a man’s waist, and when her eyes settled on the object, her stomach turned with unease. A large and jagged knife hung from the man’s belt and as she studied the others, she noticed, they too, all carried a similar looking knife.

She grew more leery of their assignment when they revealed the cage. It was the object she had spied earlier and now that she caught sight of it, noticing its size, her fear turned to dread.

What on earth had she gotten herself into? This supposed trip of merely collecting research, somehow, along the way, had changed drastically into a full blown animal hunt. She moved to seize Ward’s arm, “I’m not so certain I want to be apart of this.”

His face hardened in the moonlight as he said, “You’ve been apart of this for some time.”

She didn’t have a moment to fathom his meaning. Ward stalked away from her and the others moved past her, leaving her standing there alone.

Her instincts demanded she go back to town, but realized, the man who’d driven them to this point, traversed with the other group.

Whether she liked it or not, she was stuck in the Carpathians until the task was done. Surely Ward wouldn’t go so far as to put her or the others in danger? Though their relationship was anything but doting, at the end of the day, she was his daughter.

What of the animal? The thought of harm coming to an innocent animal, doing instinctively what it knows best, no matter how dangerous that animal may be, she wouldn’t forgive herself if something terrible became of it.

They began their ascent, with Ward leading them further into the forestry abyss. Lily had eventually worked her way to the center of the group, slightly comforted by the men at the rear. She was keen to notice their uneasy manners, the way their eyes swept the darkness with wariness, how their fingers trembled as they readjusted their grips around their brandished weapons, and moving with such stillness that time painstakingly passed them by.

She didn’t know how far they had traveled but knew civilization was well out of range.

“Professor?” Reed’s voice permeated the still like a loud crack of thunder.

The bodies’ surrounding her jolted in their skins and it was all Lily could do to not scream.

Why was everyone on edge?

“What do you have for me?” Ward called softly and she detected a hint of anxiousness in his voice.

A tiny flicker of fear began to swell in her chest as they stood in the darkness, the only sound being, a slight crackling of the transmitter as Reed’s voice carried through it.

“We have activity-“ Reed’s voice faltered out and Lily watched Ward’s face grow taut as he waited.

“Reed, come again?”

“Something-is-here-“again his voice drained in the crackle and Lily’s heart began to quicken.

The silence was suddenly shattered by violent screams that channeled through, not only the transmitter, but the forest.

Lily had little time to react as the men broke away, dispersing in the darkness some fleeing from the screams, others moving towards them. Fear propelled her forward. She ran, simply because the others had, along with a sudden and terrifying fear that flowed rapidly through her body.

She could hear the men shouting, more alarming cries resounding in the darkness followed by a stream of gunfire, the shots ricocheting through the trees.

Her chest heaved to catch a breath, as she spun around, suddenly finding herself very alone. She felt tears welling behind her eyes and a rising panic.

Father!

“Ward!” she heard herself cry, turning wildly around, her eyes strained against the foliage she had thought beautiful hours ago.

More screams. She pressed fists against her ears but it didn’t block the ringing shots of gunfire that followed.

Ward suddenly appeared and grabbed her arm. Relief flooded through her and in that moment, she felt secure in her father’s hands, an unlikely feeling she hadn’t expected. He said nothing but kept a firm grip on her hand as he pulled her through the darkness and despite her doubts, she trusted him, believed he would take her to safety.

The ringing sound of screams became instantly louder and realized he had pulled them directly into the fray of frantic men who trampled over one another as they followed something with their eyes, shielded among the trees.

Everything suddenly came to a still as Ward reached around and untied the black pouch, withdrawing a syringe.

She didn’t see an animal that needed sedating so when he turned to face her, she stiffened. Alarm and a mixture of shock gripped her icily as he popped the cap, and horrifyingly, plunged the needle straight into her arm.

The blood fled her face and she felt her body go cold the moment its contents drained from the barrel, into her vein.

The terrifying factor of it all was the deadness in his eyes as he uttered, “Happy birthday, Lilith.”

**********