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My head suddenly snapped up.

Adrenaline coursed hot through my veins.

I didn’t know if I saw it or heard or just fucking felt it, but I was certain there was movement deep within the trees.

I didn’t hesitate.

I tossed myself up over the edge of the balcony, used the railing to slide down a fraction, then dropped onto the soft earth below.

I landed low on my feet with a heavy thud that reverberated through my body. A buzzy pain that only poured gasoline onto the rage that singed my insides.

Bolting upright, I hurtled into the darkened forest. Racing through the shadows and underbrush.

Heavy limbs sagged low, and in the wind, the thick, leaf-laden branches swished and swayed to stifle the hunt.

Like wisping demons that romped and reveled in the vapor in an attempt to disorient me.

A thousand tree trunks rose high. Statues that concealed the monsters that lurked deep within the asylum of the dense, weeping woods.

Mist and fog lit by the faint murky rays of moonlight obscuring sight.

The roar of the river in the distance only amplified the gloomy murk.

Still, I ran, my boots thudding hard against the damp dirt that squished with each desperate step.

A flicker of something indistinct fluttered in my periphery to the right, and I turned, diving in that direction.

Teeth gritted, I propelled myself as hard as I could go.

Branches smacked against my arms and face, and I batted them back as I dashed in the direction of the grainy echo that I wasn’t even sure was real.

Eyes scanning through the ambiguous shadows. I was basically only moving on a feeling and the need to bring an end to the one who was again using Elena as a lure.

Bait.

Air wheezed from my lungs, the exertion straining as I sprinted through the forest.

Desperation my guide.

Then I skidded to a stop when I suddenly broke out of the trees and onto the two-lane road that cut through the thick.

It was the same two-lane road that extended beyond Elena’s apartment complex and the resort that was about fifteen miles farther up the road.

My head whipped in all directions.

Trying to pick up a trace.

A scent.

Something that would tell me where the perpetrator had gone.

Stillness howled back.

A quivering silence that crawled over my sweat-slicked flesh in a slow slide of dread.

The bastard was fucking gone.

“You’d better run, motherfucker! Because I’m coming for you, and you’re not gonna like it when I catch up!” My vicious shout banged and echoed through the air.