CHAPTER 131: BEYOND THE SHADOW

She chided herself for not noticing the absence of some of her men as she ran towards the direction of the small stream she'd noticed before. Her heart was racing, and her legs trampled the damp grass as she hopped over smell rocks until she stopped before the small group, hunched over something….or someone. "What happened?" she asked, pushing herself amid the clustered soldiers. She froze when her eyes fell on the dead man on the floor, and she was pretty sure she had stopped breathing, too, because her head started to swim. "He's dead, Milady," she heard someone mutter behind her when she squatted down and placed two fingers to his pulse. His skin felt cold, but not from his demise; it was colder than ice. And his skin had turned completely white. "What is that on his neck?" She asked, turning his head so she could inspect it. "They look like bite marks, Milady," another soldier answered, and her fingers trembled as she ran them across the wound. "They're some of those in priva