The air was cool and mixed with a light drizzle of rain as the three students gathered a ways away from the student dorms at the edge of the woods.
Despite it being dark they could all see as if it was around sunset, but they didn't head in right away, waiting for some kind of signal from Crowley.
However as they neared the thirty-minute mark Lisa's eyes began to shimmer with light, after a few seconds they faded and she looked to the other two, "We have to go now or not at all."
"B-But Varric hasn't-", Yvette stumbled over her words, she may have talked big but it felt far more dangerous now than it had before.
Dane put his hand on her shoulder, "It'll be fine, Lisa and I know how to defend ourselves and you're at least able to fight, Varric will be prowling around too, it's no more dangerous than it was before."
Yvette quickly nodded and began walking into the woods behind Lisa before she could change her mind, but her heart sank as they entered, the canopy of the trees made everything far darker reducing their vision to that of early morning light.
Focusing her eyes ahead of her she saw Lisa was shaking lightly, she came up behind her and put a hand on her friend's shoulder, "Are you alright? You seem more scared than I am?"
"I'm good, it's just nerves, last time I was in the woods didn't go well... my family thought it'd be funny to tell me scary stories and then wander off when I wasn't looking, just kind of stuck with me.", Lisa looked over her shoulder and gave Yvette a quick smirk, "Kidding about the story, I'm just cold."
Yvette fell back a few steps, she hadn't felt truly cold or hot since she turned, but then again Varric's blood was different, perhaps other vampires were more human than vampire?
As she continued to ponder this she felt a chill go down her spine, then her friends seemed to freeze in place.
"Lisa? Dane? Why'd you stop?", she walked close to each of them neither were moving at all not so much as a blink, "This isn't funny you two, come on!"
Not reacting to her words Yvette took a deep breath and looked around the woods closer, as she did she felt as if she was being watched.
Carefully she took a deep breath and powered through the pain as her hands changed into their combat state, she followed it up by focusing her sight as she had been taught in the city.
"What?", she spoke under her breath in disbelief, there was nothing there, on top of which her friend's hearts were still.
Another chill ran down her spine as a whisper came from beside her, "Young one, I require your aid."
Whipping around to face the voice she found no one, "Who's there?! What'd you do to my friends?!"
At first, there was no reply, but once again following a chill came the whisper, "They are safe, I'm using illusions to keep us safe while we speak."
Holding her breath to try to calm down Yvette responded, "I don't think illusions should be capable of this, but it doesn't matter let us leave."
"I need your help young one, I must receive your aid! There are hunters not far from here and they have found my true body, they intend to destroy me.", the whisper pleaded, its once calm demeanor shattering as panic set into its voice.
She was incredulous, what was she supposed to do? It should've been speaking with Lisa or Dane, "I can't help you with that, I'm still learning you should ask them or my sire Varric!"
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
"P-Please, I'll die before I can talk to them, you were the strongest being I sensed! You must help me!", Yvette could hear the tears forming as the whisper began to choke trying to hold them back.
"Fine, undo whatever you're doing we'll save you.", she didn't get a reply but she could feel something pulling her away from the path she stood on.
She cast a glance towards her friends to see them beginning to move again, then with a hand wave and quick call to get their attention Yvette began to move in the direction she was being called.
Dane quickly ran up behind her with Lisa trailing behind, "Yvette where are you going? The old bridge is that way."
"I can't explain it right now, we have to go this way, someone needs our help.", with that she picked up the pace to just below sprint in order to navigate the thick trees.
As they made their way through the trees a fog began to envelop the forest floor and they could see light up ahead, drawing ever closer they began to hear voices.
The students came to the edge of a clearing, being sure to stay out of the lights, in the center of the clearing was a large tree with a few men chopping into it with axes.
A few held guns while others had knives and machetes, Lisa whispered to Yvette, "Okay, now what? There's gotta be at least ten of them, where's the person you mentioned?"
Yvette pointed to the tree in the center, she could feel the connection pulling her towards it, "How are we going to deal with these guys? Either of you happen to bring stuff for traps?"
Dane shook his head, "Just snacks really, there was no reason to bring anything else."
Looking around Yvette tried her best to come up with a plan, the trees leading up to the clearing were pretty thick, perhaps they could do an ambush?
Hiding behind trees or in the tree branches and try to lure them out one or two at a time, but with that, they'd have to do something to lure them in.
"Okay so, best thing I got is an ambush, but do you two have any ideas on how to lure them in?", as she finished speaking she looked back to the tree to see that they had found a hollow spot.
"Well, we could always just start screaming for help, we're far enough in that no one outside of the woods will find us... but the templars might show up and force us back to school or better case Mr. Crowley will.", The two girls looked at Dane as they pondered his suggestion.
Cries rang out in the woods, Lisa screaming for help while Dane did his best to sound like something scary, Yvette waited up in the treetops near the clearing.
At first, the hunters didn't do anything, four of them gathered up and ran into the woods after a minute.
Yvette sighed in relief, Lisa and Dane said they believed they could handle five of them, it was Yvette's turn to make a move.
She quickly made her way from tree branch to tree branch doing her utmost to move quietly and without falling from the trees, making her way over to a hunter who sat alone nearest to the clearing.
Changing her hands to their combat state she lowered herself out of the trees and began to creep up behind the man, moving quietly as quickly as she could.
She got right up behind the man and squeezed her eyes shut as she covered his mouth and with as much force as she could muster raked her nails across his throat.
The feeling of his flesh parting like butter, the scent of blood, and the quiet gurgle as he tried to yell... her stomach began to twist in knots.
Once she had dragged him into the woods she climbed back into a tree and waited, sure enough, two noticed he was missing and quickly called over a few more as they ran into the woods following the trail Yvette left.
In and out, after a few deep breaths she trailed them from the treetops, she had drug the body to the general area Dane and Lisa were meant to be in, just in case she needed back up.
The men came to a halt at the corpse of the man she had killed, then they split up to search the area, two teams of two.
Sneaking through the branches she trailed one of the teams, waiting for the right moment, luckily it didn't take long. They both wandered away from each other to search a bit more ground but staying within seeing distance.
The moment they turned away from one another Yvette dropped on one, sinking her nails into his throat, then turned to go after the second.
Closer and closer, cautiously choosing each step, then as she reached up to finish him a snap of a twig came from right behind her, and a flashlight was trained on her.
The second man turned to see Yvette and Yvette turned to see the first man using his hand to suppress the bleeding as he trained a pistol with a flashlight on it on her.
Yvette's heart began to sink, her breathing quickened, and just as a shot rang out... she opened the eyes she had squeezed shut to see she was still alive and without a bullet hole in her.
She was somewhere else, she was above them, in the tree branches she had been in before dropping down on them.
The second man dropped to the ground and the first ran over to him, dropping his gun, and began to cradle his friend, "H-He-y, n-noo", the man's voice was hoarse and strange as he did his best not to gargle the blood pooling in his lungs.
Watching in horror, Yvette watched both men die slowly, with the sight she had gained she could see the moment their hearts stopped.