Sounds of screaming and fighting filled the air as the hunter led us deeper into the woods. I ran, scared out of my mind, and might have looked back and tried to watch the horror show like a fool. Thankfully, the man made me run at a dead sprint, so I didn't even have the option if I wanted.

"Please! Stop! Don't leave me behind! Get me outta here!" came a cry from our left.

Against my better judgment, I turned my head just enough to watch as a twisted Granny ripped the roof off the cage and bit the man's head off. Crimson blood sprayed the air, and the demon let out a high-pitched trill.

The man's body slumped to the floor in a fountain of blood.

Oh crap! Oh crap!

I kept my head down and kept running. My feet hurt, and my side throbbed in pain. This was misery—no, this was hell.

Have to move; keep running. Don't stop, Cain!

We ran for what felt like forever, and I wanted to kiss the man's feet when he held out an arm and stopped. It felt like running into a brick wall, and what little air I had left in my lungs was knocked out of me.

"Urgh! Why are we stopping?... We need to get out of here!" I asked through deep breaths.

My head turned on a swivel, but we were alone. The forest kept silent, absent of the wolf howls and demonic screams. It was dark, and I could barely see, even with the moonlight pushing through the canopy above.

I was about to ask him again when the man cursed.

"Damn, Reds. Kid, get up. We can't stay here."

I wanted to demand an answer, to interrogate him about why we couldn't stay-instead I clamped my mouth shut and moved behind him. If the man who battled demons wanted me to shut up and move, I wouldn't question it.

The man sniffed the air like a hunting dog.

It only hit me a second later that the man who saved me was most likely a werewolf.

The man who saved me is a monster.

Something inside my lizard brain began to panic, but another part of my brain couldn't care less. Two sides of me warred with the other, but the one so fried and overwhelmed to the point of inaction won.

So what if he's a werewolf? He's a kind werewolf who saved me—a werewolf who chops off demon children's heads.

The small part of me that dealt with logic understood that the pros were something an insane person would do. But he was keeping me alive and safe and could have killed or left me for dead instead of taking me further into the woods, away from the fight.

He stopped his sniffing and grabbed my wrist. We moved at a brisk jog through the trees further away from the grove. At random moments, he would stop and sniff the air again, only to turn us in a different direction.

Three minutes, then five, and finally, a dozen minutes passed as we maintained our routine of moving, stopping, and adjusting before moving again.

My adrenaline began wearing off, and my side flared in pain with each new step. I couldn't complain; I couldn't force my mouth to form the word stop. Stopping meant death or abandonment.

We came to another, smaller clearing before he released my arm. The sudden change in routine left me confused and forced me to process what happened. He no longer moved nor sniffed the air.

He pulled out his axe from the strap on his back and held it to his side. "Whatever happens, do not interfere. If you do, you will die. Do you understand?"

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Not in the slightest.

I nodded my head. "Yes."

"Good, at least you can follow orders. When the fight happens, stay out of the way. Right now, you are a walking snack bag to these things."

I bobbed my head like a chicken, as my heart began to race.

Silently, I stood waiting for more instructions or information to come, but the man kept quiet. His eyes scanned the dark forest for something, and I had no idea what.

It didn't take long; it happened so fast I couldn't even scream. A blur of living shadows launched at me. The missile came from my right side, and I tried to turn, but it moved too fast. Sharp teeth began to close around my throat, but the man swung his axe.

The shadow wolf rolled away and growled as it began to sink into the ground. Before it could escape, the man extended his arm, and fire erupted from his hand. The sudden light exposed the shadow creature, causing it to make a sound closer to a hiss than a growl.

With casual ease, as if tossing a coin, he flicked the fire off his hand and punched through the creature's head. There was a loud screech from somewhere deeper in the woods, and the shadow wolf burst apart in a small explosion.

Holy crap! That was magic.

"I'll have to thank Astra later. I owe her a drink for forcing me to learn the words." When he spoke, it was done with perfect calm, as if the wolf hadn't been mere seconds away from tearing out my jugular.

"Kid, move closer. That was too cl-"

A massive shadow wolf bit his arm, abruptly cutting off his words and pulling him to the ground. He swung his axe, and the wolf leaped back. Scrambling to his feet, the man hastily raised his hand again.

The wolf didn't like that.

In an explosive leap, the wolf became a blur. He used his axe to intercept the attack, forcing it back, but not quick enough, and received a long, bloody gash on his forearm.

I couldn't move. This was out of my league, and I froze.

Move! Do something! Get away!

My legs began to shift, but the wolf dodged another swing of the axe by escaping in my direction. A single smack of the enormous tail sent me flying several feet, and I felt something crack.

"Fuuuu-" I gritted my teeth and held in my whimper as the battle continued without me.

He sent a few fireballs, and one successfully blasted apart the giant shadow wolf's front leg. The injury forced the wolf to fall, and a quick downward chop of the man's axe severed another.

The wolf tried to stand up, but the man had enough. He threw himself at the wolf and sacrificed his blade to keep the wolf's jaws occupied. With his free hand, he shoved his arm into the wolf's body.

I caught the flicker of flames poking out from within the shadows, and the man growled in the beast’s face. Its eyes widened before there was a sound of air sucking inward. The wolf's body bubbled and promptly exploded, bursting apart into pieces of void substance that coated the forest floor.

The man raised his head and let out a howl that matched the guttural scream that echoed from deeper in the woods. "You dare send a pup against a Grimm? Face me yourself, cowards!"

He lowered his head and stumbled before he caught himself. He stared at me with glowing eyes that paralyzed me the same way the little girl's crimson ones had. He grunted and flashed me a pearly-white smile.

What little moonlight there was shined down on his face, revealing canines too pointy to be normal.

He stopped smiling when he noticed me rooted to the spot. Shaking his head, he turned around and raised his axe. "Can you get up?"

I pushed myself off the ground with one arm, powering through the pain. As I sat up, my arm trembled, and I began to fall. Without thinking, my hand shot out to brace myself, and I had to bite my tongue to contain the scream in my throat.

With a groan, I stood up and clutched the side of my chest. "I'm… up."

"Good." He kept his back turned to me while he pointed behind us. "Sorry, kid. I didn't expect to get caught in their spell. Whatever happens, run. I can't keep you safe anymore."

My head throbbed, and I couldn't contain my anger. "What spell? What's happening? I don't… I don't want to die!"

"Bad night, I get it. But if you stay here, there's a good chance you'll have your head bitten off just like the guy in the cage."

I wanted to argue but stopped. I hadn't noticed it before, but he was dripping blood. His arm bled, and a small pool of blood collected around his feet.

"You're injured."

He didn't acknowledge me but gripped his axe tighter till his knuckles turned white.

He pointed behind us again, and I turned to leave. I couldn’t do anything. Monsters, demons, fireball-slinging werewolves, this was too much.

My foot shifted one step and then another. Within seconds, I was running away as fast as I could.