Vengeance (The Blood Trail Chronicles Book 1)

by Tara Brown

  I looked at him and grinned a bloody smile. “You're just lucky I owed you for sparing my life once. But now we're even.” I turned my back as Tom, the big man, raised my right arm. The crowd had been uncertain of what to say or do. But once they realized what they had seen, they erupted into chaos and pandemonium.

  I was grabbed, hugged, and squeezed. People cried with excitement, and a few muttered threats in anger.

  I looked up at Tom as the crowd swarmed us, but all he could do was laugh and shake his head.

  “Don't look so surprised. I might have spent my life training for just this moment.” I put my hand out—my broken and aching hand. He slapped a huge wad of money into my palm, making me wince.

  “I never have seen a girl worth yer salt in the ring—never.”

  “Thank you.” I nodded and then looked at the crowd, holding up my winnings. “DRINKS ON ME!”

  The crowd screamed louder.

  My hand was grabbed a little too harshly, making my response match the assault. I had my fist balled and ready until I saw the bright-blue eyes and dropped jaw of Grayson. He looked lost. “Do I need to defend your honor, or his?” He pointed to the twitching man on the floor.

  I laughed and wrapped my arms around him. “Best night ever,” I shouted overtop the screams and chaos.

  “Grayse, she fights better than ya do,” Tom shouted.

  “Aye, Tom. I believe you might be right.” Grayson’s cheeks had lost all their color. I just shrugged and picked up the tattered and destroyed bottom of my dress. I wiped my face with it, as Grayson looked me over. “Well, you don’t really look too hurt.”

  I looked back at the man on the floor. “Not too hurt.”

  He kissed the top of my sweaty head and pulled the ribbon from my hair. “You are one strange girl.”

  “You have no idea.” I pointed to the door. “I owe the bar a round.”

  He sighed. “I think I need a drink. Lord's light, I almost dove into the ring and beat him to death. You scared me.” He pulled my head into his face. He kissed the side of my head again, breathing in my hair.

  Walking through the crowd, people were hugging us both and screaming with excitement.

  I looked up at him. “You fight here?” I shouted.

  His eyes darkened, but he nodded slowly as he led me to the bar. I slapped down my winnings. “Buy drinks till it runs out.”

  The men behind the bar gave me a wide-eyed look. My dress was torn and ripped, my hair was a mess, and dried blood was flaking off my perfectly healed skin.

  The bartenders passed out drinks. I turned to see Tom standing, holding his drink up to me. “Ya were incredible. I thought ya wished for death or something more bizarre, but yer a gifted fighter.”

  I furrowed my brow and laughed. “Thanks. I think.”

  He nodded approvingly. His eyes darted to Grayson. “Grayse, is this yer girl?”

  I looked at him. His eyes sparkled. “I hope one day she might be. Even if she fights and drinks and cusses like a man.”

  “I don't cuss that much.” I winked at Grayson and sipped my drink, unable to fight the grin on my face. “We should fight next time. Me and you. If you're so good, I'd like the challenge.”

  He choked on his ale and coughed as Tom’s eyes lit up. “That would be a match.”

  Grayson shook his head and pulled me away. “See ya 'round, Tom.”

  We left the big guy and walked to a small corner. Grayson looked panicked as he put a finger up. “No more. No more fighting.”

  I stepped back and put a hand up. “I must have missed something. I don't know who you think you are to try to tell me what to do, but I'm not yours to control.”

  “Control?” He looked conflicted. “I don’t want to control you. I want you to live free. Free of the bad things that can come from a place like this one.”

  It dawned on me then, he feared Tom for some reason. I glanced in the big man’s direction and watched as he drank and talked with some of the excited crowd. His eyes flickered to Grayson and me constantly.

  “You owe him money, don't you?” I asked without tearing my gaze from the big man. I would kill that man for him. I would without even thinking on it.

  Grayson never answered, and when I looked back at him his mouth was clamped shut.

  “What do you owe?”

  “I don't owe him anything but my undying allegiance.” He looked around the room, not meeting my eyes. I put a hand up to his face and touched his cheek softly. “Why?”

  “He technically owns the inn, not my stepmother. My father bet the inn and lost it to Tom. When Tom realized the inn doesn't make the sort of money he’s used to, he wanted coin instead. When my father never paid for it, they came for him when I wasn't there.”

  I clenched up realizing I could kill Tom easily. He could be next on my list.

  Somehow Grayson recognized the burn in my eyes. He bent and kissed my brow. “I fight to pay it off,” he whispered onto my forehead. “It isn’t a big deal, just a fight every week or so until Tom says we are squared up.”

  “Did Tom kill him—your father?”

  “I can't prove it. It looked like he drowned while fishing.”

  “I can help you,” I muttered, glancing in the direction of Tom and his darting eyes.

  “With what? Pay my father’s gambling debts off for me, like my princess in shining armor?” He laughed. “You are the strangest girl I've ever met.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You and the compliments.”

  “Let's dance and think of nothing else.” He pulled me out onto the dance floor.

  The more I drank and the more I danced, the more sober I got. It was upsetting, but I couldn’t relax. I was wound up. I watched Tom, the big man, all night. I watched his eyes and his smiles. I let my bloodlust take over. I could feel his life leaving his body upon my swords.

  I stepped off the dance floor for a drink just as a girl grabbed Grayson and pulled him out onto the floor. She was pretty—pretty enough to bother me. He wasn't mine, and I had no right to be angry, and yet I didn't want him to dance with anyone but me. She spoke to him in a way that made it seem as though they were close, but he avoided her eyes and eventually she just looked wounded.

  Before I ended up being a petty and jealous mess, I shook the feeling off and drank more of my sweet ale.

  When the song ended he broke from her grip, looking annoyed but his face lit up when he saw me. I glanced past him to the girl. “A friend?”

  “You could say that. Her name’s Ginny.” He seemed unimpressed by the whole event, beyond being a little annoyed perhaps. But I watched her face and shook my head. “That’s not a friend, Grayson. She clearly has feelings for you.”

  “Drop it.” His words were growled slightly.

  Something about him, or rather everything about him, became intensely attractive. I hadn’t ever appreciated being growled at or told what to do, but the hostility was overwhelmingly aphrodisiac-like. I leaned in, noting the heady difference in the air near him. “What is that?” I whispered.

  He looked at me with a sparkle in his eyes that lit my stomach on fire as he grabbed my hand and pulled me out the doors and into the street. He dragged me around the corner and spun me quickly, instantly cupping my face. I was prepared for something heated and violent, but for all the effort that went into dragging me outside, the actual kiss was soft and sweet.

  His lips caressed and feathered against mine. He hovered over me, brushing the sides of our faces so lightly against one another that my skin tickled everywhere.

  The smell of him and the violence of the fight mixed with the ale and the dancing, creating a mood inside me. One that required something a little more.

  I slid my hands up into his dark hair, intensifying our kiss, forcing my tongue to meet his. His hands stayed on the building, but I wanted them on me. I grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled his body against mine, crushing me into the building. He never lifted a hand from the building though. He let me climb him li
ke a tree, let me be the aggressor.

  He let it go until he couldn't, then he shook his head, breaking off our kiss. “I can't do this. I like you. It's not the right way to court a lady.”

  “I am no lady.” My breath tried to choke my words. “I just beat a man till he passed out and then drank more than most of the men in there. I'm not a regular girl, trust me.” I pulled his face back down on mine and whispered, “Take me home.”

  He jerked back, his eyes flared, and his breath was out of control. He shook his head. “I can't treat you like that. I won’t.”

  “You won’t?” I asked, confused and a little dazed from the kissing. I pointed back to the dance hall. “Is that how you treated her? Is that why that girl gave you that look? You sing and fight and love, but not with me?” The same old sting that had followed me around with Maddox was suddenly burning its way through my heart with Grayson.

  “There are different kinds of women in the world. I want you to be something more important than a girl like Ginny.” He nodded slowly, but I could see his eyes were ablaze with passion. “Besides, I treated her much worse than just as a whore.”

  “Maybe that's all I want to be. Maybe all I want is to have some fun. Maybe I’m not looking for a guy to treat me like a lady. Maybe I’ve always been treated that way and I’m tired of it.“ My voice cracked. I wasn't hurt—I was annoyed and angry. More angry than I should have been. It made no sense.

  He looked disappointed. “You are already more to me than that. Hasn't nearly a year convinced you of my affections? I have never been anything but a gentleman with you—it’s the way I see us—more permanent than something so shallow.”

  His words burned me. I should have been grateful for them, but I was tired of chivalry and desperate for depravity. “I’m not in the market for anything but shallow. And you don't have to worry about me; I won't follow you around like a puppy if you treat me that way. I won't have hurt feelings. I understand the needs you have. I have them too. I feel it right now—a clear and obvious high from the fight, and maybe I just want a release.” My eyes lowered. “I don't understand why it has to be more than that for now.”

  He chuckled, muttering cuss words like he too was on his last nerve, and I had aggravated him somehow. He reached forward, lightening fast and jerked my hand, turning and dragging me up the street.

  I tried to pull my hand from his, but he was strong—too strong. He dragged me for several blocks before stopping abruptly and grabbing my face tight. “I don’t want to treat you like that, because I want you to be mine. All mine.”

  Those were the words I wanted to hear.

  My heart raced. Reality was frantically trying to take over—trying to tell me to leave him alone and keep him safe, but I shut it down and nodded. “I want to be yours.” My brain whispered about the impossibility of it all, but I ignored it and let him kiss me again.

  He hadn’t tried to convince me to leave him alone or to end the relationship. He wanted more. Even if more was a hard reality, I too wanted it.

  Chapter Eighteen

  He didn’t take me home; he took me to the sea where we sat on the docks in the dark. I didn’t know what we were doing.

  “I fight tomorrow night. Will you come?” he finally spoke after a few moments.

  “Of course.”

  He glanced at me sideways. “You are terrifying me. I knew you would, the minute I met you.”

  “Why?” The sentence was hurtful but I hoped he meant it in a positive way.

  “Because I knew I would love you. I knew I wouldn’t be able to fight it. You dressed like a little boy, but you were still more beautiful than any person had the right to be. I knew you were trouble—I could smell it on you then and even more so now.”

  I glanced down, blushing as my stomach stabbed with guilt. I wanted to tell him the truth. He said the word love, and yet he didn’t even know the real me. Didn't he deserve that so he could make a fair declaration of love? Instead of being the brave girl I had always assumed I was, I leaned my head against his shoulder and clamped my mouth shut. I could live a little longer in his love before I had to be honest.

  “This is where they found him.” He pointed to the water below us. “My father.”

  I looked up at his face and felt a need for vengeance crawling and slithering around inside me. I wanted to kill them all. Retribution had become a drug for me. My fingers bit into my palms. The pain was a sweet and agonizing bliss. It calmed me, a little.

  “He'd gone to try to buy some fish for the lunch special, but he never came back. I was so angry. I assumed he'd gone gambling again or had promised to sing to someone and left me and his new wife to take care of the inn, as he always did. I hated her—I still do. We had been together for so long—just me and him.” His voice was dead inside. I knew that pain more than anyone. He sighed and continued, “So, essentially, he was dying here at the very moment I was cursing him. In one part of town he was literally having the life stolen from him, just as in the other part I was wishing for it to happen.”

  I wrapped my arms around him. “You didn’t know.”

  He looked down on me and shook his head. “If I had, I would have killed them all. He was a kind man. He didn’t deserve what they did to him.”

  I smiled and nodded. “I know.” And I did. “Why didn’t you ever get revenge? Why didn't you kill Tom?”

  He shook his head. “I like my life. I like having the inn and living in the city.” It was the most pathetic thing I had heard in a long time.

  “You wanted to remain in the city so you never avenged him?”

  He scoffed. “If anything ever happens to Tom, the guards will know it was me. He always has a bodyguard, or five, with him, so I would have to be able to kill at minimum three men at once without being seen.” He shook his head. “No, that is too much to worry about and obsess over. At the end of the day, all I can do is keep up with the arrangement we have. Tom and I keep it friendly because the truth of the matter is that my father owed him, and now I owe him because of it. He owns me in a way, I suppose. And really, what would I be defending? My father was a drunk and a gambler. I'd rather just pay the debt and have the inn.”

  It sounded callous and cold, and I didn't understand the words he spoke. But as much as I wanted to judge him for his lack of action, I couldn't. My actions had caused me to live alone like a refugee, whereas his had made it so he could still live in the city and keep his home.

  Perhaps his way was better.

  Not that I would ever know; my vengeance was going to be had. I would kill Herrick and his family and everyone who betrayed us, no matter what.

  We sat in silence, though I suspected both of us were deep in thought as we watched the night move along to dawn. When it was fully dawn, he got up and lifted me into his arms. I fell asleep on the way home. Whatever the reason was, I felt safe with him.

  I woke late in the day in my bed. My body was refreshed. I liked the sweet ale better than the fire ale. I looked to my right and jumped.

  Grayson slept beside me, fully dressed. I looked down. I was in my knickers and my band. I shrieked and jumped up, pulling on breeches and a shirt.

  He woke with a grin. “Good morning.”

  “What are you doing in here?”

  He frowned and stretched. “You asked me to stay and hold you till you fell asleep. I fell asleep too.”

  I glanced down at my clothes on the floor. “Why did you take my dress off?”

  He laughed. “I never. You did. Stripped down right in front of me and I'll say you were awfully brazen about it. Doing it slowly and bending down—“

  “STOP! I beg you!” I put a hand out and closed my eyes, covering them with the other. My crimson face felt like it was ablaze.

  He reached and pulled me back onto the bed and tucked himself around me. His warmth made my tense body shiver.

  I couldn’t look him in the face. I lay there with my hands covering my face. He pulled them away, shaking his head. “We had fun.
Do you remember that?”

  It took a moment for me to recall the fun we’d had. It was drowned out by the memory of me offering myself to him blatantly. My humiliation worsened. “Thank you.”

  He frowned. “For what?”

  “Not taking what I clearly offered last night.”

  “Oh, I wanted to. Badly.” I could hear the grin on his face. I shook my head. I was humiliated. I had practically begged him.

  “I was forceful.” I shook my head, feeling foolish.

  He lifted my red face and brushed my lips with his. “You were amazing. I've never had that much fun—ever.”

  I kissed him and pulled away. “I have some things to do today. Before your fight tonight.”

  He looked hopeful. “You're still coming?”

  “Of course.” I nodded.

  He climbed off the bed. “Okay. I'm going to go help downstairs and see if cook needs anything and if the devil herself is all right.”

  More guilt washed over me.

  “Dear God!” He raised an eyebrow. “What's that look?”

  I bit my lip. “Oh nothing. I mean—errr—I did scare her a bit yesterday, on purpose.”

  “Oh, thank God.” He laughed. “I’m sure she deserved it. Whatever it was.” He pressed his body against mine and kissed me softly again, always teasing me. “Be outside at dusk again.”

  “Okay.”

  He got up and walked to the doorway, pausing a moment. I suspected he wanted to say something but he didn't. He just shook his head and walked off.

  My belly burned at the idea of the things he might have said to me—the things we might have done here in my room alone.

  Not to mention, the satisfying feeling of being desired for no reason other than being desired. That was a refreshing feeling for me as was the feeling I had that he wanted me more than anything. He wanted to love me and keep me safe and protect me and cherish me. And I wanted to let him.

  But my brain wouldn't stop with the whispering of what lay ahead for me. My feelings and emotions were everywhere. The good battled the bad, but I ignored it all and floated on the kisses and looks that had passed between us.