The Coven's Source

Chapter Ten

Nothing happened during the night. I woke not feeling as rested as I should from the stone I slept on and unease filling me. Grigore sat where I had last seen him, looking tired but awake and unhurt, watching the door tensely like a wolf.

'It was quiet.' He said to me the moment he saw me stir. 'Much too quiet.'

So he had been expecting something. I frowned at him, annoyed he'd taken such a risk with his dwindling magic, and rose, placing my hands on my lower back to stretch out the kinks. Stone was never comfortable to sleep on.

I slipped over to the door and tugged it open. Dawn had broken a little while ago but morning was still young. Light shone down from above, causing the wet mud and shrubs outside to glisten softly, and a thin layer of mist curled halfheartedly over the earth. The holes remained there however and were beginning to crumble away from the night rain's assault.

'I've thought about it all night but I can't think of what it could be.' Grigore said, making me stiffen and blush at his sudden closeness. He could be very quiet when he wanted to be.

He leaned on the door-frame, holding himself up with his forearm, unintentionally surrounding me with his strong presence and caging me in. I fidgeted a little, shoving my magic aside when it twittered curiously, knowing full well Grigore could do with a feed but would refuse me, and did my best not to look at him.

'None at all?'

'None, which is why we should get moving as soon as we can.' His hand slipped to my lower back and his fingers circled there, massaging me gently. I felt my magic shift, surging towards his hand and heating up my skin when it couldn't reach him. 'Do you sense anything?'

With some effort, I managed to get my magic to ignore him and focus on our surroundings. It came back with nothing. No magic, song of ghosts or slithers of monster souls. I shook my head lightly, making Grigore grunt softly with irritation. I felt it too myself. So far everything we'd seen pointed to a monster and yet our magic was saying nothing magical had been here, pointing more to mundane human activity.

'Well, something's done this but we're not going to be the ones to find out. Mila's our priority.' His finger hooked into the band of my trousers and he tugged me from the door, closing it sharply. 'Get ready to leave. I'll go wake Petrov and Kirill.'

We were ready swiftly, fed and armed with weapons and packs once again. Grigore did one last sweep of the grounds this time with me by my side as Petrov and Kirill stood in the courtyard, watching for trouble. But our sweep revealed nothing; no corpses and only the same holes, devoured crops and a sea of black congealing blood in the barns. Nothing was here.

Frustrated, Grigore told us to leave. Petrov slipped ahead, acting as our scout once again, but Kirill remained close to us this time. We were all quiet, watching the hills and fields warily. It remained like this until we found the next hamlet an hour or so away from the farmstead. Grigore honed in on the first scrawny woman he saw, sitting out on the doorsteps of her house as she scrubbed clean her family's clothes.

'Do you know of a farmstead near here?' Grigore asked gruffly, earning a sigh from me at his aggressiveness.

The woman jolted at the abrasive tone and narrowed her eyes. 'What's it to you?'

'We came across one a short while ago. Nothing's there but blood.'

She paled rapidly and her mouth thinned with fear. 'I know nothin' about it.' She said sharply, rose and slammed her porch door behind her, locking it firmly.

Grigore grunted but hadn't given up and began to ask others people within the hamlet. Most acted like the first woman, paling and vanishing without a word, but some tried to give information. No large monsters or small threatening ones had been spotted within the last three days and, when we spoke to the hamlet's hunters, they hadn't seen any roaming bands of brigands either. But it was clear no one was telling the entire truth. They were scared of something and wouldn't talk about it openly.