I glanced around the woods, sizing up my surroundings to figure out my next move.
Then Valerie shifted back into wolf form.
Before she had a chance to pounce, I grabbed Annika’s arm and jumped. Annika must have had a similar idea, because the two of us landed firmly on a branch of a tree at least ten feet from the ground.
Valerie landed face first in the snow.
She stood up and shook the snow off her fur, and the other wolves paced around the base of the tree. All of them growled up at us.
“I thought you said the wolves wouldn’t attack us,” Annika said through gritted teeth.
I just ripped a branch off the tree, aimed it down at one of the wolves, and threw.
It impaled the wolf straight through its back, pinning it to the ground. Blood splattered in the snow underneath of it. The wolf dropped its head and went still.
“One down,” I growled, snapping another branch off the tree. “Seven to go.”
I aimed this one at Valerie, but she rolled out of the way, the branch missing her by a few inches.
Annika snapped another branch off the tree, preparing to aim.
“We have a limited number of branches here before we’ll have to jump to the next tree and start again,” I warned her. “How’s your aim?”
“Let’s see.” She propelled the branch down, getting one of the other wolves—a gray one—in his shoulder.
The wolf whimpered, blood dripping onto the snow, but the blow wasn’t fatal.
“Nice.” I nodded, impressed that she’d managed to hit a wolf at all. “Where’d you learn how to aim like that?”
“Darts.” She shrugged. “We play a lot at the Tavern.”
Valerie grabbed the branch out of the gray wolf’s side with her teeth, and the bleeding slowed.
The wolf took a few heavy breaths, and then it stood on its hind legs, balancing its front paws on tree trunk and growling.
Annika’s face fell. “The wolf’s healing,” she realized.
“You need to get them in the heart,” I told her. “That shot would have killed a regular wolf—it would have bled out—but these are shifters. They have healing abilities similar to vampires.”
The gray wolf was being reckless—standing that way exposed its chest.
In a flash, I broke off another branch and threw it down, impaling the wolf straight through its heart.
It fell backward, the thrust of the throw shooting it to the ground. The wolf landed on its back. Its eyes were blank, and the branch stuck up toward the sky.
One of the other wolves—a snowy white one—let out a long howl and ran toward the gray wolf, poking him with her nose. She howled again and again, the pain-filled cries echoing through the forest.
I could only guess that the fallen wolf had been her mate.
“We didn’t come here to fight,” I yelled down to them, loud enough to be heard over the howls. “No one else has to die today. Just let us pass.”
Valerie shifted back into human form and sped over to the corpse of the gray wolf, yanking the branch out of its chest. “You’ve killed two of my pack.” She snarled. “And you’re going to pay.” She pulled her arm back, red hair flying in the wind as she heaved the branch up toward Annika.
I shielded the human girl with my body and moved us both to the side, but we didn’t have much room to move in the tree. Pain shot through my body as the branch entered my back near my right shoulder. I sucked in a deep breath, stopping myself from crying out.
Vampires might be able to heal, but every injury hurt us just as much as it would a human. More so, because our senses were heightened.
Annika held onto both of my arms, steadying me to stop me from falling. “You risked your life to save me,” she realized, staring up at me in wonder. “If you hadn’t done that…”
“The branch would have gone straight through your heart.” I reached behind myself and yanked out the branch, breathing steadily as I felt the skin knit together. The injury—and the energy it took to heal it—would cost me. I would have to feed sooner than intended.
But I couldn’t worry about that now. Right now, my only worry was defeating the wolves.
I turned around as another branch soared toward us, but I threw my arm out, catching it mid-air. I shot it back down toward Valerie at the same time as she threw another branch up at us.
I reached for Annika’s hand, trying to anticipate the path of the branch so we could both avoid it.
But both branches came to a sudden stop mid-air. They floated there, as if someone had pressed pause, and I held my breath as I stared at them.
I only knew of one creature capable of performing such a feat.
A witch.
Camelia had found us.
Annika
The floating branches flew up, over the treetops, and out into the depths of the forest.
Suddenly the tree tilted, and I gripped Jacen’s hand as the tree tipped slowly to the side until we couldn’t hold our balance any more. We both rolled out of the branches, the snow cushioning our fall.
The wolves turned away from the Vale and ran.
Once we stopped rolling, I saw a cluster of boots in front of us.
“Well, well, well,” a familiar voice said from above. “If it isn’t the blood slave I was looking for.”
I stood up, brushing the snow off myself and glaring at her. She was backed by what looked to be twenty vampire guards. In seconds, they formed a circle around us.
“Camelia,” I said her name steadily, holding my gaze with hers. With Jacen’s blood in my system, I felt stronger than ever. Yes, vampire guards surrounded us, and yes, our odds were now worse than they’d been when we were only against the wolves, but at least I was more powerful than I would have been as a human.
Jacen reached for my hand again and held it tightly, as if trying to tell me not to say anything more.
Camelia looked down at our clasped hands and raised an eyebrow. “Daniel informed me about the… state he and his men discovered the two of you in when they went to find the girl at the Tavern,” she said, her voice so eerily calm that it raised the hairs on my arms. “And I see you’ve given her a taste of your blood. You do know the long term effects of that, do you not?”
Jacen just stared at her, his gaze so dark and hollow that I wondered if he was planning on demolishing her and the guards in a single swoop.
“What’s so special about this blood slave?” Camelia continued, smiling as if his murderous expression didn’t bother her in the slightest. “Why has a vampire prince gone so out of his way to attempt to free her from the Vale?”
“Why did you send the guards to take her?” Jacen tightened his grip around my hand, his voice cold. “With explicit instructions not to harm her?”
“You’re always looking for trouble, aren’t you?” Camelia laughed, the sound high and melodic, like bells. “I shouldn’t have expected anything less. First that murder spree you went on in the village last year, and now this.”
I gasped, pulling my hand out of his. “Murder spree?” I repeated, but as his face fell, it all made sense. All of the information I’d known, but hadn’t put together until now.
Jacen had been turned into a vampire soon before I’d been brought to the Vale. I, and many others who’d been kidnapped around that time, had been needed because a freshly turned vampire had lost control of his bloodlust and rampaged the village. It had been a bloodbath. Mike’s parents had both been killed. Nearly everyone who lived in the Vale knew someone who’d been killed.
If those murders had never happened, the vampires wouldn’t have needed to recruit so many humans last year. They wouldn’t have kidnapped me. They wouldn’t have murdered my family.
The vampire who had lost control was responsible for so many lives lost.
But that vampire had been caught and executed.
At least, that was what I’d been told.
“He never told you?” Camelia smirked, speaking to me since the
first time she found us. “And here I thought the two of you were close.”
“It was you.” I looked to Jacen, wanting to hear it from him—not from her. “You killed all those people in the village last year.”
“I warned you I was dangerous,” he said darkly. “I’ve built up my strength so I can now control the bloodlust, but when I first turned… it consumed me. That night, I didn’t even know what I’d done until afterward.”
I backed away, unable to look at him. Because yes, I knew vampires struggled with bloodlust. I knew they’d all killed.
But most of them didn’t go on mass murder sprees through an entire village.
The worst part was that I’d trusted him. I was going to let him help me escape.
Was he even trying to help me at all? Or was this some elaborate plan concocted from the first night he’d met me? He never did explain why he’d asked me to dance that night instead of any of the other humans in the town square. And for unknown reasons, Camelia clearly wanted me in the palace.
I’d been a pawn this entire time.
As a human, I would always be a pawn in the supernaturals’ game.
“The two of you were working together this whole time, weren’t you?” I voiced my hypothesis out loud.
“No.” Jacen reached for my hand, but with his blood in my system I was just as fast as he was, and I pulled away.
“This is getting better by the second.” Camelia looked back and forth between the two of us, that smug smile still on her face. “You didn’t actually think a vampire prince would care about a human blood slave—at least as anything more than a play toy. Or did you?”
I wanted to say that yes, Jacen cared about helping me escape. But did he? After all, he hated that he’d been turned into a vampire against his will—he’d told me that much, and I believed him. He also knew that Camelia wanted me, for reasons unknown to both of us.
What better way to anger the leaders of the Vale than to steal away something they wanted?
“Don’t listen to her,” Jacen said. “She’s lying.”
“As if you’re any better?” I snapped. “You lied to me from the moment you met me. You made me believe you were human.”
His eyes flashed with hurt, and for a moment I felt guilty. But only for a moment. Because I owed none of them anything. As long as I was human, I was worse than trash to all of the supernaturals in and around the Vale. None of them could be trusted.
“As much as I’m enjoying watching your pathetic drama, this game has gone far enough,” Camelia interrupted. “Annika needs to come with me to the palace. Now.”
I looked around, but the vampire guards surrounded us. Escape was impossible. Still, I had to try. After all, I’d always been quick. Nimble. With my temporary vampire strength, perhaps I stood a chance.
These woods were huge. All I needed was to get far enough away that they would lose my trail.
It was risky. But better to take the risk than be brought back to the palace for unknown reasons that would likely result in my death.
So I leaped into the air, aiming for the branch of the nearest tree. But right before reaching the tree, I smacked into an invisible wall and crashed back onto the snow.
Camelia must have cast some sort of barrier around us. Similar to the boundaries around the Vale, but keeping us in instead of keeping others out.
My head pounded, and I blinked a few times to get the stars out of my vision. When I finally steadied myself enough to look up, I saw Jacen fighting with five of the guards. One of the guards was already lying in the snow beside him, his neck twisted in an unnatural position. Jacen snapped another guard’s neck, and he went down beside his comrade.
They weren’t dead—they would heal—but not for a few hours.
I forced myself back up, ready to help him fight. I could come up from behind and snap another guard’s neck. They would never see it coming.
But before I could start to run, something pricked the back of my neck—a needle.
I opened my mouth to warn Jacen, but the world spun around me, and everything went dark.
Annika
I woke up shivering. The floor was hard and rough, uneven spots jamming into various places in my body. Everything hurt—my legs, my arms, and mainly my head. My stomach, too.
I’d only been hungover once—New Year’s Day sophomore year, when a group of us had stayed over one of my friends houses whose parents were away. We’d all had way too much champagne while celebrating New Year’s Eve, and had woken up the next morning feeling like crap.
This felt similar, except multiplied by a hundred.
I lay there, unable to find the energy to open my eyes, and all my recent memories flooded back to me.
Jacen coming to see me at the Tavern, kissing him in the alley, the vampire guards coming for me, Jacen revealing he was a vampire prince, the two of us running away, my drinking his blood, escaping the Vale, confronting the wolves, and finally, the fight with Camelia and the vampire guards.
They’d injected me with something.
What had they given me? How long had I been out?
And what had happened to Jacen?
I groaned and rolled over in the dirt. I needed to open my eyes and figure out where I was, but I had a dreadful feeling that I wasn’t going to like what I would find.
“I expect you’re feeling like Hell,” a familiar voice said—Camelia.
Her irritating voice felt like pinpricks in my brain.
I doubled over and retched, heaving out everything I’d eaten in the past day. The smell filled my nose, making me retch again, until my stomach was empty. The mess was all over the dirt floor beside me—bile mixed with blood.
I rolled over to my other side, not wanting to look at it.
There were bars in front of me—this dirt-floored room must be a prison. And sitting beyond the bars, on a small beach chair sipping a margarita, was Camelia.
“You look like Hell, too,” she said with that irritating smirk. “In case you were wondering.”
“What did you give me?” I croaked, forcing myself to sit up and lean against the stone wall. I reached behind my neck to where the needle had entered—the area was puffy and sore.
“Just a sedative.” She shrugged. “But that’s not why you feel like crap.”
“Enlighten me, then.” I glared at her, having a feeling from the way she smiled in return that she couldn’t wait to do so.
“You drank Jacen’s blood,” she said. “Which gave you the abilities of a vampire for a day. But you didn’t think doing so would come without consequences, did you?”
He’d never told me about any consequences. But I remained silent, not wanting her to know that.
“You did, didn’t you?” She laughed. “You humans are so naive. Would you like to hear what the consequences are?”
I stared at her, waiting. Then, realizing she wasn’t going to continue without my asking, I forced out a strained yes.
“I thought so,” she said with a smile. “The vampire blood temporarily gives you strength, but it takes a huge toll on your body. You won’t feel normal for a week, at best. But there are ways to speed up the recovery process…” She took a sip of her margarita and watched me, clearly baiting me again.
I said nothing. I wasn’t going to give into her silly games.
But I also could barely move. My head spun, my mouth tasted like sandpaper, and my muscles felt like they’d been torn to shreds. If there was a way to feel better, I wanted to know.
“What ways?” I finally gave in.
“Most usually jump for more vampire blood.” She smiled. “That would do the trick instantly. But there’s also an herbal remedy I can whip up—it’ll make that hangover disappear in hours instead of a week.”
“And why do I have a feeling you won’t be supplying me with either one of those?” I asked.
“I won’t be, but not for the reasons you might think.” She tilted her head and pulled her hair over her shoulders, some
how managing to look regal despite sitting in a beach chair in a dungeon. “Firstly, you’ve done nothing to deserve the herbal remedy. And as for the vampire blood… the human body isn’t meant to have power like that. It feels fun at first—exhilarating. Addicting. But over time, it would wear your poor, weak body down, fast-forwarding the aging process until killing you completely. And neither of us want that to happen to you, now do we?”
I clenched my hands into fists, my nails digging into my palms. Why hadn’t Jacen told me about any of that? He’d just given me his blood recklessly, and I’d taken it.
Once more, I cursed myself for trusting a vampire. It was yet another reminder that as long as I was human, I would be a pawn in a game ruled by supernaturals.
“Where am I?” I asked, wanting to change the subject. I had a good idea about where I was, but I needed to hear it officially.
“The dungeons of the palace, of course,” she answered. “But don’t worry—you’re not a prisoner. We simply needed to keep you somewhere you couldn’t escape from until the vampire blood left your system.”
“If I’m not a prisoner, then why am I behind bars?”
“Because if you don’t agree to what I ask, then you will be a prisoner,” she said firmly. “I thought it would be best to give you a taste of what your short future would hold if you decline my offer.”
I looked around the small cell. It was dank and dingy, without even a place to sit. The only item inside of it was a small pot—likely the equivalent of a toilet. But the strangest thing about the dungeon was how quiet it was.
“Are there any others here?” I asked. “Or am I the only one?”
“There are others,” Camelia answered. “But I’ve cast a sound barrier around us to keep our conversation private. After all, I have an important proposition for you, and I don’t want anyone listening in.”
The Vampire Wish Page 12