Read Online Flutter by Amanda Hocking - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Amanda Hocking
Tags: Speculative Fiction
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had pause and look, and nothing
stopped him in this trip.
If yesterday Ezra had been driven on his pursuit of Peter, today he was relentless. I refused to go out
in the sun, so he let me sleep until four in the afternoon, but I’m not sure how much sleep he’d gotten
himself. Using his phone and his laptop, he’d been busy trying to get coordinates for where he thought Peter
would be. I’m still not entirely sure who or what his sources were because of his insistence on everything
being so anonymously vague.
When I got up, I responded to a couple text messages to Jack, got ready, and over ten hours later, I
found myself in the middle of the Finnish Laplands, staring up at the spectacle of lights above me. Smartly, I’d
just put on boots, a sweater, and jeans, so I wasn’t suffering from all the constraints I had been the night
before. Plus, since I’d avoided the sun and actually slept, I felt surprisingly good on our hike.
My attention shifted from the Northern Lights when I heard a crackling rustling sound
coming from
39
the woods. I could see something dark shifting through the trees, and then I caught a whiff of the familiar
farm-y smell of reindeer. A few yards down the river from us, six huge reindeer came
barreling out through
the trees and charging across a shallower part of the river.
“Alice,” Ezra whispered icily. He took a step back towards me, holding his arm out in front of me.
“What? They’re just reindeer. Did you have a run in with Blitzen once?” I teased, but he hissed at me.
“They wouldn’t be running like that at this time of night unless something was chasing
them.” His
words were nearly drowned out in the splashing of their hooves as they tore across the river, but they made
my heart freeze solid.
Cautiously, I moved closer to Ezra, and strained to see what could be following behind the reindeer. I
crossed my fingers for wolves, but I had a feeling that it was a something a little more anthropomorphic than
that. Once the reindeer had plummeted back in the woods, other than the sound of their
depleting hooves,
there was an odd silence.
Straining, I realized that wasn’t exactly right. There was silence, but not silence. I could see things, but
not things. It was like every time I almost caught something, it was gone before I could even register. Almost
as if there was a ghost spooking the deer, and then I thought hopefully, maybe it was just the run-of-the-mill
ghost. No extra brutal crazed vampires.
“Alice!” Ezra shouted suddenly and grabbed my arm.
I was about to scream what, but the splash in the river directly in front of us answered my questions
completely. Literally out of nowhere, a man had leapt into the river. When the black water settled around him,
I got a look at him under the glowing green lights. He was shirtless, but he appeared to have pants on,
although it was hard to tell when the water came up to almost his waist. His arms and chest were very well
muscled, more than Jack or Peter, and covered in dark hair. Not like an animal or a
werewolf, but rather, just
like a very hairy man. He had jet black hair that went past his ears, and his strong jaw had a thick stubble. He
was very attractive, but there was something about his black eyes that didn’t sit right with me.
He stared at us for a moment, making my heart hammer nervously in my chest, and I was
about to say
something, just to break the tension, but then I saw movement from behind him. Across the river, walking
40
deliberately slow, two more vampires came out from behind the trees, going down to the
shore opposite of
us. They were flanking in the one in the water, but they looked much less imposing.
For one thing, they were both fully clothed, even though their clothes were rather ragged and they
were barefoot. The one on the right had blondish hair and light facial hair, and he looked totally amused by all
of this. His jeans were in pretty sorry shape, but
stopped him in this trip.
If yesterday Ezra had been driven on his pursuit of Peter, today he was relentless. I refused to go out
in the sun, so he let me sleep until four in the afternoon, but I’m not sure how much sleep he’d gotten
himself. Using his phone and his laptop, he’d been busy trying to get coordinates for where he thought Peter
would be. I’m still not entirely sure who or what his sources were because of his insistence on everything
being so anonymously vague.
When I got up, I responded to a couple text messages to Jack, got ready, and over ten hours later, I
found myself in the middle of the Finnish Laplands, staring up at the spectacle of lights above me. Smartly, I’d
just put on boots, a sweater, and jeans, so I wasn’t suffering from all the constraints I had been the night
before. Plus, since I’d avoided the sun and actually slept, I felt surprisingly good on our hike.
My attention shifted from the Northern Lights when I heard a crackling rustling sound
coming from
39
the woods. I could see something dark shifting through the trees, and then I caught a whiff of the familiar
farm-y smell of reindeer. A few yards down the river from us, six huge reindeer came
barreling out through
the trees and charging across a shallower part of the river.
“Alice,” Ezra whispered icily. He took a step back towards me, holding his arm out in front of me.
“What? They’re just reindeer. Did you have a run in with Blitzen once?” I teased, but he hissed at me.
“They wouldn’t be running like that at this time of night unless something was chasing
them.” His
words were nearly drowned out in the splashing of their hooves as they tore across the river, but they made
my heart freeze solid.
Cautiously, I moved closer to Ezra, and strained to see what could be following behind the reindeer. I
crossed my fingers for wolves, but I had a feeling that it was a something a little more anthropomorphic than
that. Once the reindeer had plummeted back in the woods, other than the sound of their
depleting hooves,
there was an odd silence.
Straining, I realized that wasn’t exactly right. There was silence, but not silence. I could see things, but
not things. It was like every time I almost caught something, it was gone before I could even register. Almost
as if there was a ghost spooking the deer, and then I thought hopefully, maybe it was just the run-of-the-mill
ghost. No extra brutal crazed vampires.
“Alice!” Ezra shouted suddenly and grabbed my arm.
I was about to scream what, but the splash in the river directly in front of us answered my questions
completely. Literally out of nowhere, a man had leapt into the river. When the black water settled around him,
I got a look at him under the glowing green lights. He was shirtless, but he appeared to have pants on,
although it was hard to tell when the water came up to almost his waist. His arms and chest were very well
muscled, more than Jack or Peter, and covered in dark hair. Not like an animal or a
werewolf, but rather, just
like a very hairy man. He had jet black hair that went past his ears, and his strong jaw had a thick stubble. He
was very attractive, but there was something about his black eyes that didn’t sit right with me.
He stared at us for a moment, making my heart hammer nervously in my chest, and I was
about to say
something, just to break the tension, but then I saw movement from behind him. Across the river, walking
40
deliberately slow, two more vampires came out from behind the trees, going down to the
shore opposite of
us. They were flanking in the one in the water, but they looked much less imposing.
For one thing, they were both fully clothed, even though their clothes were rather ragged and they
were barefoot. The one on the right had blondish hair and light facial hair, and he looked totally amused by all
of this. His jeans were in pretty sorry shape, but
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