My stomach growled loudly against Alphonso's back.
Everyone turned.
I buried my face in his shoulder, heat rising to my cheeks.
"Sorry. I'm hungry."
"Me too," Ethan muttered.
"We should find sheep," Payton suggested.
"Where exactly?" I asked.
"There's a barn up ahead. I remember seeing one along this path."
Alphonso groaned dramatically. "I'm starving."
"Shut up," Sabrina snapped.
I raised a hand. "Clearly we're all hungry. Let's find sheep, eat, regain energy, and then continue."
Everyone nodded.
"The problem," Ethan said, adjusting Lyra in his arms, "is that we don't have our senses or our wolf forms."
"We still have eyes," Sabrina replied flatly. "Look for fluffy animals that make stupid noises."
"Or we could eat Lyra," Ethan muttered.
"No," Lyra answered weakly.
"No," Lyra answered weakly.
Ethan blinked. "Relax. I was joking. I'd rather eat mud than touch a rotten vampire."
Lyra didn't respond.
"Can you walk yet?" Ethan asked her. "My arms are going numb."
"It's been one week," she said faintly. "I'm still dizzy."
Ethan groaned.
"Let's just follow the path," Sabrina said, already moving forward.
"Sabrina, slow down," Ethan warned, catching up to her.
She clenched her fists. Payton backed up from fear.
"Ethan, stop telling me to slow down. I'm hungry. We need food before I pass out!"
"Don't snap at me," Ethan shot back. "You're injured. Do you want to heal or not?"
She didn't answer, just nodded.
We continued. Then I squinted ahead.
"Do my eyes deceive me?"
"What?" Everyone turned.
"That hill… is that the barn?"
Sabrina gasped. "Yes! That's it!"
Ethan sighed. "Up the hill we go."
The climb was brutal.
Loose rocks slid beneath our feet. Mud clung to their shoes.
Alphonso stumbled. "You good, Zac?"
"Yeah."
My ankle throbbed with every step.
"I feel out of shape," Alphonso wheezed.
"Same," Ethan groaned.
"Careful mud ahead," I warned.
Alphonso suddenly broke into a run.
"I shouldn't have done that," he panted seconds later. "I just wanted it to be over."
"We're almost there," Payton encouraged.
"Come on," I lifted a hand weakly.
And finally we made it.
Alphonso set me down and collapsed onto his stomach, breathing hard.
Ethan gently lowered Lyra. Payton helped Sabrina sit.
Ethan squinted at the field beyond the fence.
"So. Many. Sheep."
"How do we do this without our powers?" Alphonso asked.
Ethan grinned. "We run after one. Use our teeth. Old-fashioned."
Before anyone could argue, he hopped the fence.
"Really?" Alphonso muttered, opening the gate properly.
The sheep scattered instantly.
"Oh, they're fast," Payton yelped.
The three of them ran in circles. Sheep bleated wildly.
"This is awful!" Alphonso shouted.
"We usually kill them in seconds as wolves!" Ethan yelled back.
They kept failing.
Falling.
Panting.
Finally…
"Split up!" Alphonso called.
Payton ran to the far end. Alphonso to the left. Ethan stayed in the center.
"Go!"
They charged.
The sheep panicked, trapped between them.
Ethan lunged, tackling one mid-run. He bit down hard. The sheep cried out before collapsing. He snapped its neck swiftly.
Payton and Alphonso each managed to wrestle one down as well.
All three stood there breathing heavily.
"That was way harder than usual," Payton said.
"No kidding," Alphonso agreed.
They dragged the sheep out and laid them in front of us.
Sabrina's eyes gleamed.
"How do I… do this?" She asked quietly.
"Same way," I said. "Just not as a wolf."
There was a brief hesitation.
Then hunger won.
They tore in.
It wasn't elegant. It wasn't clean.
But it worked.
I ate too fast and smacked my chest. "Ow."
Sabrina wiped her mouth. "I feel better."
"Not hangry anymore?" Ethan teased.
She glared. "You're annoying."
"You lose your temper too much," he muttered.
Her ears perked sharply. "Excuse me?"
"Sabrina," I cut in. "Enough."
Tension thickened the air.
Then Lyra shifted.
Her hood slipped back.
She stared at the blood-soaked ground.
Her eyes slowly turned red.
"Are you hungry?" I asked. "Drink."
She gave a face in disgust. "I'm not touching something you beasts mauled."
Sabrina snorted. "Then starve."
"She can die," I added coldly. "That's her choice."
Lyra said nothing.
But her red eyes lingered on the blood a second longer than she meant to.
I noticed and I didn't comment.
"Well," I clapped my hands once. "We've eaten. Let's move."
"We still have to go down the hill," Sabrina muttered.
"That's easier than climbing."
Alphonso piggybacked me again.
We began our departure.
"Bye, sheep," Payton waved cheerfully.
"I never wanted to hunt like that again," Ethan grumbled.
"Agreed," Alphonso said.
I rested my forehead against his back.
Warm.
Full.
Exhausted.
The world faded as I drifted into sleep.
A food coma… but at least I wasn't starving anymore.