I almost jogged right by the entry tunnel Josh described. If his instructions hadn’t been so clear, I’d have mistaken the small passage for the burrow of some animal.
With a quick glance in either direction, I dropped to my knees and crawled in. The darkness was immediate, swallowing me whole. The smell of brine and sulfur hit me, and I had to pause a moment to gather myself. The scent memory threw me back to the day of my fight with Lilac.
The old fear erupted from deep inside, setting my heart hammering against my chest. I forced myself to calm, to breathe, to be centered. And that was when I felt him.
Carden.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
He was near. He was reaching out to me. It wasn’t clear, though, not like hearing his voice in my head or how I imagined ESP might be. But I felt him nonetheless. He was a tug in my belly. A buzzing in my head. A nudge in the back of my mind, a sensation telling me he was nearby.
Carden needed me to come. Maybe even wanted me to.
I upped my pace, crawling quickly through the darkness until my hands met damp, close air. It was the caverns.
I waited for my eyes to adjust, but there wasn’t the slightest bit of ambient light. On the day of the Directorate Challenge, there’d been torches. There’d also been a terrible rent in the rocks overhead that’d let in fingers of watery sunlight. But the vampires must’ve patched it up, because it was pitch-black now.
I’d have to feel my way.
Without sight, my other senses overcompensated. I became hyperaware of the sound of my breath in my head. Of the plip-plip of distant condensation dripping onto rocks. Of the feel and taste of the humid air. And of Carden opening his mind to me.
“I’m coming,” I whispered, teetering to standing. I made myself keep a steady pace, wary I might accidentally fall into the hot springs—or worse. I wouldn’t have been surprised if this place held a crevasse leading straight down to hell.
I didn’t know how much time passed before I heard the clinking of chains. Carden’s voice was close, a harsh rasp saying, “You must leave me.”
I forgot my fears of pits and pools and ran straight toward that voice. “Carden.” I slammed into his chest, and he made an oof sound that made me feel such a swell of affection.
He chuckled. “We must stop meeting in dungeons, petal.”
“Are you okay?” Though my body responded instantly to him, overcome with thirst and longing, those feelings weren’t as powerful as this relief I felt, touching him again. Knowing he was alive. “We have to get you out of here.” I ran my hands up his arms. The fabric of his sleeves was damp with condensation. I felt for his shackles. “Who did this? Was it Alcántara?” I frantically rattled the chains, trying to find some give. “I’ll kill him.”
“Be easy, love. But I speak truly. You must go. This isn’t safe for you.”
“What happened?” I didn’t stop messing with those shackles—surely there was some way to pick them. “And who killed Judge?”
“I don’t know who the killer is. They came for me—”
“Alcántara? The headmaster? Who?”
“Directorate soldiers. Young vampires. It doesn’t matter.”
There’d been an amused disdain in his voice that I didn’t find funny at all. “It totally matters,” I said. “Could they have been the ones who killed Judge?” Another thought occurred to me, and I struggled to wrap my mind around all the pieces. “Or maybe that has nothing to do with anything. Maybe Judge was killed because he’d planned to escape with Amanda.”
“Annelise,” he said sternly, and his use of my first name jarred me. “Stop thinking of others. You must leave now, before they return. How did you even find me?”
I hesitated, but I knew there would be no lying to Carden. “Josh told me how to find you.”
“Josh?” His voice crackled ice-cold. “The Trainee boy? What are you doing meeting with him?”
“He’s not just a random boy. He’s my friend and he helped me find you.” Saying the words, I realized they were true—somehow, in the past weeks, Josh had become my friend.
“He is just a boy, and you mustn’t trust him or any of them.”
I heard jealousy in his voice, but instead of it making me nervous, the sound exhilarated me. A guy jealous of another guy over me. I took a step back, unnerved that I couldn’t see his eyes in the darkness. Was he really as vehement as he sounded? “He’s okay,” I assured him. “He’s not like the others.”
“The others,” he repeated in a snarl. “None of them are okay. You must swear you’ll no longer confide in any of them.”
I had few friends, and I wasn’t going to shut everyone out just because Carden said so. Who was he to demand that? “I’m not swearing anything.”
He sighed, sounding so weary, and I wanted to take back my words. I considered making him any promise he wanted to hear, if it might mean hearing a smile in his voice once more. But I didn’t. We were running out of time.
“There must be some way to get out of these.” I pushed him aside, feeling for the origin of the shackles.
He grunted, and I realized he was holding himself at an angle.
I patted my hands along his body. “Did they hurt you?” His shirt was damp and warm. “Have you been bleeding? Do you need to feed?”
His tone changed, sounding as though he spoke through gritted teeth. “I need you,” he said with a growl in his voice. “But we dare not risk it. They’ll smell you on me. You must leave. Now.”
I ran my hands along one of the chains to the base. I could feel the rust flaking under my nails. “Not without you.”
“They’d only find me again.”
Anger churned me. “Are you giving up?”
“Never,” he said gently. “But the most important thing now is that you remain safe. Alcántara demands a scapegoat, and it appears I am he.”
“Not if I find the real killer,” I said angrily.
“You’ll do no such thing,” he said instantly, his tone hardening. “Think not of me.”
“So,” I said, speaking over him, “that’s why you need to tell me about the Draug keeper.”
“The Draug keeper?” he said, astounded. “What do you know of such things?”
“I know he’s way up on that cliff top, south of the cove. I’m hoping he might’ve seen something.”
“No,” he said, so forcefully that I knew I was onto something. He repeated the word more calmly. “No.”
“I will investigate this whether you help me or not.”
“You’re saying I cannot stop you?”
“Look, McCloud. I like you. As in, I really like you. I want to help you, and considering these shackles, it looks like you can’t really stop me.”
A moment passed. Finally he said, “I am honored.” Emotion infused the words, and it was a foreign sound, striking me as sounding both moved and gallant. “I recognize that you are your own woman, Annelise, and that I cannot stop you. But you must also recognize that I will try. Just as you want to protect me, my compulsion is to keep you safe. At all costs. Even if the cost is my own life.”
Sudden emotion swamped me so intensely that my throat ached with it. I tried to tamp it down, to shore up those emotions, because this was just the bond speaking, right? This was chemical.
Mostly.
His voice came to me in the darkness, hoarse and fraught. “I feel your sadness, but you mustn’t mourn on account of me. You are strong. You have it in you to endure the fever. You will survive my passing.”
“You’re not dead yet,” I said, so fiercely his body leaned toward mine in the blackness.
“There is a myth where I come from. The story of Josa MacIntyre, a sorrowful man, a fisherman who roams the world, gathering souls of the living. Sometimes I feel like this Josa, and the world is my sea, its despairing souls my only sustenance. But now I’ve met you, and it’s been enough. So do not mourn me, love. My life has been long, and if my battle must end here, so be it. I’d rather die now than see
you perish to save me.”
“Forget your Josa.” My spine stiffened. More than ever, I knew I needed to find the killer. I pulled from him. “Nobody is doing any dying anytime soon. Tell me what you know, Carden. Think of it as keeping me safe. Because if you don’t tell me, I’ll leave here and I swear I will search all over this island for clues.”
“You would, wouldn’t you?”
“I would.”
“You brave, wee spitfire.” He sighed again, but this time it didn’t sound tired so much as resolved. “Touch me, Annelise. Quickly, now; we’ve not much time. I’d feel your hands on me as I tell you.”
The words stole my breath. I stepped closer, sinking into him, cradling my cheek against that hard chest.
“That’s better,” he said. “I’ll tell you what I know, which isn’t much. I am an outsider here.”
“But I thought you were from here.”
“Aye, so I am. But I am not of these men. I’ve never pledged fealty to the Directorate, and they mistrust me for it. There are many things to which I’m not privy.”
I fisted my hands in his shirt, wishing we were someplace else. Wishing I were brave enough to slide my hand under his shirt. That the day might come where I’d even have the chance. Such wishes galvanized me, focusing me back on my goal. “You must know something. You’ve been alive for hundreds of years.”
“I do know things, it’s true. I know there is a man, a human man, the one you call the Draug keeper.” Carden was thoughtful for a time, then added, “Your instincts are good. The keeper sees much and speaks little, and he is perhaps a good place to start. More than one body was discovered at the base of that cliff.”
“How do I find him?”
“He stays on an abandoned croft on the southern tip.”
“Have you ever met him?”
Carden gave a startled bark of a laugh at that. “He won’t speak to vampires unless forced.”
I pushed away, looking up to where his face would be. I felt a pang of loss that I couldn’t see his expression. “I can’t believe the vampires would put up with that sort of disrespect.”
“The keeper distrusts vampires, but they need him. His is a putrid, dangerous job—not many men would do it, and certainly no vampire.”
I nodded in the darkness, feeling resolved. Giving our alibi wasn’t an option, and giving up on Carden wasn’t, either. But this—missions and secrecy—this I could do.
The last time I’d felt this optimistic, I’d been packing up my Honda, getting ready for what I thought would be my illustrious college career. “He may not trust vampires,” I said, “but maybe he’ll trust a girl from Florida.”
“You seem to have that effect,” Carden said quietly.
Had I misheard him? Was this vampire actually telling me he had faith in me? “Really?”
“Aye,” he said with a low, rumbling chuckle. “Really. Trust is a foreign sentiment for me, and I thank you for allowing me to experience it once more.”
I reached through the blackness, right to where I knew I’d find him, and cradled his face gently in my hands. His chains clinked as he strained his arms, leaning down to meet my kiss.
Sealing my resolve.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
After Priti’s class, I lingered at the back as everyone headed from the beach to the dining hall. My plan was to slip away gradually until I could split away from the group unnoticed.
That is, until I was noticed.
“Well, look who it is,” a menacing voice said from behind.
I stopped, blinked my eyes shut tight, gathering strength. Inhaling, I turned. “Rob the Trainee. What a surprise.” I glanced down at his pants. “Glad to see you fixed your uniform.”
For once, I was glad to be surrounded by the other girls. I’d humiliated him. It was only a matter of time before he demanded retribution. But surely he wouldn’t do anything in a crowd.
Sure enough, he gave me his worst scowl, warning, “I’m coming for you.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Twerps like him no longer scared me. The repercussions of a feud between us—now that scared me. “You sound like a bad Vin Diesel movie.”
“Oh, it’ll be dramatic, all right. Someday when you don’t expect it, I’ll be there, waiting.”
“Then get comfortable,” I told him. “You’ll be waiting a long time.”
“It’ll be worth it.” His mouth peeled into a speculative grin. “So worth it. I think my friends might even join in.”
I started walking again. I wasn’t in the mood. “Perfect. I’ll be happy to have an audience for when I take you down.”
“Watch your back,” he called to me.
“Maybe you should watch yours,” I said over my shoulder. “Make sure there are no rips.”
“Hey, D,” Yasuo called.
I spotted my friends on the path and waved at them. Rob blended into the crowd of milling students, then was gone. I was sure he’d turn up again one of these days, like a bad penny.
Yas jogged over in that easy lope of his, and Emma was right behind him, weaving her way toward us.
I pasted a smile on my face. “Hey, guys.”
“Hey, stranger,” Emma said, giving me a hug. She glanced to where Rob had been just a moment before. “What’d he want?”
“Rob?” I rolled my eyes. I had more urgent issues to deal with than stupid adolescent Trainees. “Oh, we go way back. Forget him.”
Yasuo looked impatient, his eyes aimed in the direction of the dining hall. “You going to dinner?”
I hedged. No. I was going to skip dinner and go in search of a mysterious Draug keeper who may or may not be willing to help me.
But I couldn’t tell them that. Instead, I said, “No. I was just about to turn around. I left my towel down on the beach. I need to go back for it.”
I hated lying; the words felt thick and awkward coming out of my mouth. Once I would have spilled my guts to them, but now I had no other choice.
I told myself this was Emma and Yasuo. They were different. But in my heart I knew there was an undeniable gulf between us now, one that I’d felt even before Carden’s pronouncement echoed in my head. You mustn’t trust.
Something else nagged in the back of my mind. An unsettling voice telling me, Especially Yasuo.
Yas was my buddy, it was true. But seeing as he spent most of our limited coed free time with Emma, our own bonding time had been cut way back. It’d allowed me to see from a distance the changes he was undergoing—his longer fangs, the more remote eyes, and most disturbing of all, an essential stillness and coldness that was gradually enshrouding his natural charisma like a fog.
His eyes were on me, and unlike the first time we’d met, they were unreadable. His arm snaked around Emma’s shoulders, claiming her.
Was he claiming her from me?
But then Emma smiled, and it was as sincere as it’d ever been. “Want us to wait for you?”
Was that Yasuo’s hand tightening on her shoulder? Was he giving her a silent message? “Yeah, D,” he said. “We’re happy to wait.”
I didn’t believe he meant it. “Don’t sweat it,” I told them.
If I’d been concerned before about the implications of their affair, now I was really worried. It wasn’t healthy—or safe—for them to be so isolationist like this.
Amanda’s death had made it clear that we girls were allowed to fraternize with only one set of guys, and they were of the undead variety. That meant no Tracer boyfriends and probably no Trainees, either.
I refused to contemplate my own singular relationship obsession, and if that made me a hypocrite, so be it.
“Can we save you a seat?” Emma asked.
“I don’t know if I’ll make it back.” I’d have to last without this evening’s shooter of blood. But since kissing Carden, I felt like I could go for days without the refrigerated stuff. “Grab me a couple dinner rolls, though, would you?”
The sun made its final dip behind the rocky horizon, casting us in cool gra
y twilight. Emma peered at me through the dusk. “You sure you’re okay?”
How long had I zoned out, thinking of Carden?
“I’m fine,” I replied, seeing how Emma didn’t totally believe me.
But Yasuo believed what he wanted to believe. “Then we’re outta here,” he said. “Let’s go, prairie girl. Gotta grab the good stuff before it’s all gone.”
Guilt gnawed at me as I watched them walk down the path, away from me. They were my friends, but my bond with Carden set me apart from them whether I liked it or not.
It’d set me apart from everyone. There was no one I could tell about it all. And I probably shouldn’t tell anyone I was investigating on his behalf, either. Not even Ronan. If I told him, I knew I’d see only condemnation in his eyes, and I wouldn’t be able to stand that.
I turned my back and pretended to return to the beach. When it was safe, with a quick glance all around, I jogged off, headed south. In search of the keeper of the Draug.
I smelled it before I saw it. It was something I’d smelled once before—the stench of sickness and rot. The scent of Draug. And by the distant echoing snarls, there were several of them.
I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. Could they be tamed? Why were they kept? Was this what prevented them from roaming free, decimating the human population or coming to get young, tender girl flesh in the night? I shuddered, my skin crawling with revulsion.
I knew a spurt of fear, too. It was impossible not to be afraid—anyone who’d ever spied a Draug would be. They were neither vampire nor human, creatures for whom something had gone very, very wrong in their transformation. Which meant some of them had been Trainees. Maybe all of them were—I didn’t know. I’d encountered only two in my life. One whose flesh was so decayed, all I’d been able to discern were rotted black strips of skin, a couple of shining fangs, and the creature’s complete and all-consuming urge to eat me.
By the time I’d encountered the second Draug, I’d known what it was I faced and so had been able to keep my senses about me. Which only meant I was very aware of my tearing flesh, cracking bones, and imminent death. I’d thought I was dead meat until Ronan showed up to stake it. Where blood had once flowed, black tar oozed, seeping from its wound, bringing with it this stench I smelled now. It was the stench of evil.
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