Nikola was certain that someone must have lost their dog. Or dogs, plural.
The animals have been barking for the better part of the hour. Nikola had a mind to just take some of the meat Dimitri had brought him and throw it at the animals.
Thinking that they must be hungry.
But there was something about the barking that stopped him. Something about how angry the dogs sounded.
When Dimitri entered the cabin, he began to pack.
"Did something happen?" Nikola looked up from the television he wasn't really watching anyway. The vampire looked first at him and then at the window.
"The darn Selkie," he began, for he knew just who had been wronged enough to call this disaster on them. "Called a Wild Hunt on us!"
Nikola blinked. He had heard about that a couple of times, but the very thought that some ghosts would be hunting him made him snort in disbelief.
"Love, I know that you are a child of the modern times, but the Wild Hunt is no laughing measure. We are being given a head start. We have to go."
Nikola took his phone and did a quick google search.
Hounds from the beyond. Old druids who had not survived their trials.
And ghosts.
If he fell to the Wild Hunt, he was going to become a part of it. But if he won… if he won…
"I am staying," Nikola said so, as if Dimitri wasn't perfectly capable of just swinging him over a shoulder and carrying him off caveman style.
The man was taller than he. And a vampire, besides.
"I know that I can prepare!" Nikola had read on Wikipedia that if one has passed through all three of their trails, then the Wild Hunt left them be.
"Niki, I don't know what sort of nonsense you read on the internet, but…!" Dimitri protested.
Only to see Nikola with a smoking hand.
"You stole from me!" Dimitri roared, making a fireball in his hand.
"And you stole my virginity card, so zip it," Nikola stood, winced, because he was still a bit sore, and then looked out of the window.
He could see the ghostly hound.
"As far as I am concerned, being able to set myself aflame without dying means that the death by fire is now a thing of the past," Nikola walked to Dimitri, who was still looking so, as if he was considering whether to throw the fireball and test the theory. "Think about it, Dimitri. These are ghosts. If you have watched Game of Thrones, you will know, that…"
"You are a child!" Dimitri yelled in his face. "If you think that some porno TV show which masked itself as a fantasy movie has even a kernel of truth…!"
"Run, then! But I won't run!"
Nikola walked past Dimitri, opened the door, and then looked at the lake.
He could see the dogs on the other side of the banks. He could see the challenge in their eyes.
"You can't start the hunt before nightfall!" Which was something he yelled with a bit too much confidence. Seeing as he had read it on Wikipedia. "And so, I will prepare!"
The lake was full of life. Nikola had read about druids and their rituals, using Married with Children as background noise.
More barking was his answer. He saw as someone rode a horse to the other side of the lake. The horse was pure black; its skull was bleached white and there was no flesh on it.
"You don't scare me!" Nikola yelled.
"Niki!" Dimitri tried to take hold of him, but Nikola had already placed his hand in the water. He thought about the power in those waves. Those waves which had hidden the Selkie once.
Only… to get his hands wet and nothing else.
"I don't understand," Nikola said, as he backed away from the water. Suddenly, his bravado evaporated in the air.
"It is what I am trying to tell you! No druid can use their mana during the Wild Hunt! It is why it is called a Wild Hunt! What do people hunt mostly?"
"Foxes?" The word slipped passed Nikola's lips so, as if he was testing it.
The irony was finally known to him.
"Yes. And foxes, just like you, think themselves clever. They try to lose the hunters on their turf. Not knowing that every barrow is known to their pursuers and their hounds already! Now, get in the truck! We still have a head start! You are right about one thing: they can't attack before nightfall!"
Dimitri went back inside the cabin and took a small bag. When he noticed Nikola, still anchored before the water, he took a hold of his arm and yanked him away.
"Don't let them remember your face!"
"If I am a fox," Nikola said, as he took a branch from the ground. "Then what is the point in running? The fox always gets caught!"
Dimitri could see the panic in the green eyes. Hated himself for not having any kind words to calm his lover. No teasing remark to spell a smile on those lips he had grown in love with.
"Most foxes don't have a vampire to guard them and a truck to take them to safety," Dimitri told him, as he tugged him. "Come now. It is just this way."
They rushed to the driveway. Then got in the truck just as the storm began to set in.
Nikola's eyes were glued to the water. He was still clutching the dead branch from the tree he had used to kill the Selkie with.
"Here," Dimitri passed him a hunting knife. It was the same knife Nikola had used to eat the Selkie. To get the mistletoe. "It is silver. It will be effective."
Nikola nodded. He was just about to unsheathe it, when Dimitri yelled out a "No!"
"Silver is effective against us as well! Make sure to never touch the blade!"
Nikola blinked. He placed the blade down on the seat next to him.
For some reason, the branch was giving him more hope than a knife which he had nearly burned himself on.
But…
He had eaten with that knife. Had touched the blade more than once.
Why… why had he not been burned?
To asked Dimitri that, while the man was driving out of the forest and towards the highway was not the smartest thing.
The storm was rolling in. They needed to be careful.