by Ava Benton
I had seen a lot of things over the years. Creatures capable of unimaginable violence. Witches who controlled the elements, who could create storms strong enough to level cities.
I had never seen a vampire look truly stunned. Absolutely, completely stunned.
“You.” He was on me in a heartbeat, pinning me to the floor with his hands on my shoulders and the full weight of his body on top of me. “What are you doing here?” he snarled before snapping his jaws dangerously close to my throat.
“Waiting for you.”
He looked into my eyes and the sight of blood-red irises chilled me.
I sought to find my voice again. “What do you think?”
“Where are the others?”
“There are no others with me.”
“Liar!” His roar shook the cabin.
I told myself to keep looking into those horrible eyes, no matter how ugly and hate-filled they were.
A creature with those eyes was capable of anything. If he knew how scared I was, he’d win.
“I’m not lying.” There was a tremor in my voice. I fought to steady it before adding, “I didn’t know they were coming earlier. I mean it. It was as much a surprise to me as it was to you.”
“Why should I believe a word you say?” His face was inches from mine, and his breath carried the tang of blood.
He had fed. No wonder he was so much stronger, so much more powerful than before.
“Because I’m here for your own good, and I always was.”
“Another lie.”
“Alexander!” Claudia filled the doorway. “Let her up.”
“You don’t tell me what to do, witch!” He roared at her, but his eyes remained locked with mine.
So much hatred. Hard, cold, brutal hatred.
It stung worse than the splinters digging into my shoulders and back.
“Remember what we talked about before,” I said.
“And what was that?” he hissed from behind his fangs.
“Kill me, and you kill every vampire in The Fold.” I glared at him just as he glared down at me, and it wasn’t my imagination when I sensed the pressure on my shoulders lessening.
“Treacherous witch,” he spat before rolling off me and springing to his feet.
I happily took a deep breath, then another.
“You don’t have a very high opinion of witches, do you?” I asked as I sat up, wincing when pain spread through my shoulders and back.
I had hit the floor with a thud when he threw himself at me, and my muscles screamed in protest to the rough treatment they’d suffered through. There were so many terrible things I wanted to do to him right now—I reminded myself that a creature such as him could only act as his instincts told him to. There was no rising above his limitations.
“Witches haven’t shown me much over my lifetime to earn a high opinion,” he sneered, leaning gingerly against one of the walls with his thick arms folded over an equally thick chest.
“Then you haven’t met the right witches.” I turned my attention to Claudia, who still waited in the doorway. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you again.”
“Oh, I’m sure you are,” Alexander spat.
“Was I speaking to you? No. I don’t believe I was.”
The idea of leaving the wretch to his horrible, endless fate was starting to appeal to me. No matter how sorry I felt for Nightwardens in particular and vampires in general, there were exceptions to every rule. I was looking at one at the moment.
“Why won’t you just let me go?” she asked, stepping slowly into the cabin. Not sure whether she could trust me.
“It doesn’t work that way. From the day I was born, I became a sworn protector of all witches descended from the original coven. It’s a blood oath.”
“One you had no say in?” Alexander asked, one corner of his mouth quirking up.
“You should talk, spending a thousand years trapped the way you are,” I shot back.
His eyes narrowed dangerously, but he held his tongue.
I focused on her. I had to get through to her. “This is how it truly should’ve been from the beginning. None of this Nightwarden business. That was a terrible tragedy, my however-many-times great-aunt dying the way she did. Her mother wanted revenge. I can’t imagine a mother not wanting the creature who killed her daughter to die. But she shouldn’t have brought the Sire’s family into it.”
“He didn’t know what he was doing! Who he was killing!”
“Oh, Claudia.” Alexander looked at the floor.
“It’s true! I can’t tell you how many times we’ve talked about that night, about how confused he was when it all happened. Ralf had just fought another vampire who felt he was hunting in the wrong place. He was wounded. He took the first person who came along and fed from her in order to boost his strength.”
Claudia was serious, too. That was the saddest part. She believed him with all her heart. It pained me to see that much love and trust on another witch’s face when I knew there was nothing I could do to help her see the truth. Ralf probably didn’t love her at all. He used her.
I might have cared, but Alexander certainly didn’t.
“He lied to you. Don’t you see that?” He scoffed.
“What?” She blinked, uncertain.
“He told you what he knew you needed to hear so you would treat him well. I’d wager he said you were the only person who understood him. Right? And he could trust you because you were special.”
Claudia’s tanned face went pale.
“Alexander…” I warned, taking a step toward her.
The poor thing looked like she was about to faint.
He didn’t care. “And he let you fall in love with him because he knew that would garner him favor and make his imprisonment easier. Didn’t he? Because it suited him.”
“You shouldn’t…” I murmured, glancing at him.
He ignored me, the pig-headed bully.
“Yet you spent all these years trying to find a way to get to him, knowing that I could get you through to wherever he’s being held because we share the Sire-bond. It didn’t matter what you did to me or to yourself, did it? It’s all for him.”
“Enough. Enough.” She seemed to crumple in on herself, almost folding up as she slid to the floor.
I caught her, held her to me, stroked her filthy hair with my teeth gritted.
“He’s only being cruel. Don’t listen to him.” I couldn’t believe I was saying it. He was absolutely right—but he was wrong in his approach. “He’s angry and feels powerless, like he should.”
“Watch your mouth,” he snapped.
“Why don’t you try watching yours?” I stared daggers at him. “You’re lucky I don’t take you with me right now, with or without her permission. Though something tells me she wouldn’t mind at the moment.”
“He loves me,” she whispered. Her body trembled like a leaf ready to let go of its branch
“I’m sure he does, and I know you love him, too.” I was being devious, maybe. Something I’d reproach myself for later, probably. But it was a way to get through to her, to get her on my side. “You don’t need Alexander anymore. Let me take care of you. I can help you get through this. Dragging a Nightwarden into it—that was never going to help you. If you cut ties with him, the High Council will have less of a reason to search for you.”
“I don’t know… Even if he can’t tell me where Ralf is, the Sire-bond will help us get through any restrictions put in place…”
I blew out a heavy sigh, counting to five in my head to calm myself, which gave Alexander a chance to chime in.
“She’s right. Even though the bond won’t tell me where he is, I share his blood. I’ll be able to get to him.” He raised a brow, as though daring me to counter his logic.
I couldn’t help but stare in wonder. “Why are you doing this?”
“I don’t have much of a choice. I’ve imprinted on her, and vice versa. We’re connected. Thanks to the curse your anc
estor placed on us, I can’t deny her. And I can’t part from her.”
Damn, damn, double damn.
What could I do? My mind spun as I searched for an answer. There wasn’t a problem in existence without an answer. I had believed that all my life and knew it to be true.
What was the answer to what I faced in that cold, dark, decrepit cabin?
She wouldn’t let him go, and he couldn’t part from her. She needed him to get to her “love,” the thought of which turned my stomach. There was little chance they’d ever find Ralf.
But a Tracker might be able to.
I couldn’t believe what I was about to suggest. “What if my team tracked his location? It’s what we do, after all. That would be helpful, right?”
“You think you could do that?”Hope flickered in her eyes.
A twinge of regret touched my heart. “Of course. That’s what we do. We help our own. And once we’ve found him and your Nightwarden helps you get inside to be with Ralf, you won’t need him anymore.” I looked up at Alexander. “You can hand your Nightwarden over to us at that time.”
“I just told you—”
“I know enough about the curse placed on your Sire and his family to know how it works.” I stared him down as I stood, and made sure to keep my hands free in case he tried something funny.
He got the jump on me before, but I wouldn’t let him catch me off-guard again. “And I know that once your charge agrees to release you, you’re free to go. That’s how a High Sorceress releases her Nightwarden once her term of service is up. Otherwise, how would you ever break the connection?”
His nostrils flared. “You think she would do that?”
I sneaked a glance over my shoulder.
She was smiling, probably imagining herself in the arms of her love.
“I think she would. Don’t you? I can tell you do, or else you wouldn’t be so close to throwing me through the wall.”
“I could still do that. Easily.”
“You could try.” I held out my hands, and a few random zaps of electric energy shot from my palms. Not much, but enough to remind him who he was dealing with.
His voice dropped a half-step as he watched Claudia from the corner of his eye. “I hope you know what you’re doing. You realize this isn’t going to be easy, don’t you?”
The first time he had spoken to me as an equal.
It occurred to me then that while we were foes, we were united in a single cause: to protect her, even if it meant keeping her safe from herself.
“It hasn’t been easy yet,” I reminded him, suddenly feeling very tired.
8
Daniela
“I won’t bring them back here. I promise.”
“What good is your promise?” he sneered, folding his arms again.
I was starting to wonder if he wasn’t deliberately trying to distract me by doing that. How could I help but notice his biceps, his muscular chest? Especially in the tight t-shirt Claudia had provided him. He could’ve used a slightly larger one.
“You’re going to have to trust me. If I wanted to, I could bind you up right now and make sure you couldn’t use those fangs or claws of yours. I could play rough. I could be unfair. But I’m not, am I?”
“Not at the moment, no.”
“That’s going to have to be enough, then.” I nodded in the direction of the cabin, where Claudia rested inside. “She’s what I care about at the moment. She needs my help.”
“Our help.”
Don’t roll your eyes. Don’t roll your eyes. “All right. Our help. The sooner we can find Ralf for her, the better for everyone involved.”
“Except me,” he growled.
The power radiating from him was extraordinary, like waves of heat coming off a fire. Every instinct screamed that I needed to protect myself from that power before it burned me. It would be good to get away from him for a little bit while I checked in with Gwyneth.
“That’s your opinion. There has to be something better than this for you. And you’ll be able to find that once you’re free.” The lies poured from my mouth, but he didn’t challenge me on it. “Besides, I think we have more to worry about with her. What happens when she finds Ralf, and he doesn’t want her?”
“I’ve thought about that ever since she told me she was in love with him. I honestly don’t know. She’s so close to the edge already, this could push her over.”
“It will be better for her to have us around her—meaning my team,” I explained. “She’ll need those of her kind to help ease her through it. I wish I could kill that bastard.” It came out as a snarl.
“Even though it would kill me?” he asked in a light, almost taunting tone.
“Don’t sweeten the thought,” I warned with a look.
He only shook his head.
“How long until you get back?”
I looked up at the rapidly lowering sun. “I’ll hurry to make it back by nightfall. Don’t waste your time in trying to get away with her, either—she’ll fight you on it, for one, and I’ll find you again. I have my ways.”
“We’ll have to discuss your ways sometime,” he suggested.
“Don’t make me show you what we’re capable of.” I wasn’t playing, and I could tell he knew it. “I’ll show you my ways and a lot more than that. Just stay put. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
I told myself as I walked away that the flush creeping over my cheeks was anger and nothing else. He had worked his way under my skin, no doubt about it.
“He’s an animal. Nothing more than an animal,” I reminded myself in a tight whisper as I walked.
He had been a man at one time, and probably a very handsome, strong, virile man. I almost wished I could’ve known him back then, when he was human, though I had very little time for humans in general. Of course, they had little time for us, so I didn’t feel any guilt over it.
I had been staring at him back there. At his chest and arms, his eyes, the dark stubble covering his cheeks and highlighting his square jaw.
He was a beautiful animal, but that didn’t make him any less of one. Thinking of him as anything but a dangerous creature would only get me killed, or at least seriously maimed. A tiger cub could be trained and domesticated, and it might even play with its owners, but there would inevitably come a time when it would act like a tiger because that was its nature.
It was his nature to crave blood, to stop at nothing until he got it. When the blood lust overtook him, nothing else mattered. He would cease to think, to feel, to reason. It was common knowledge among those of us familiar with vampires. I wouldn’t stick my hand in the tiger’s mouth just because he looked like a cute little kitty.
Footsteps sounded in the brush.
I stopped, ears attentive, barely breathing. They didn’t sound heavy, but whatever it was, it was coming toward me. I spun to my left and held my palms up, ready to attack.
“Stop! Stop! It’s only me!” Gwyneth jumped back a step, hands up in a defensive gesture.
I let out a huge sigh and bent at the waist, palms on my knees.
“I told you to stay at the camp,” I almost wailed. “Why won’t you listen?”
“I didn’t bring any of the others. You know I couldn’t leave you alone with those two for long without worrying. I’ve been checking all the areas on the property maps which show the presence of cabins, looking for you.”
I believed she was sincere, too.
“There’s absolutely no reason for you to worry,” I insisted. “Please, Gwyn. If he senses that you’re close, you’ll break the trust I’m trying to build with him.”
“Why do you care whether he trusts you?” she sneered, nose wrinkling.
“It’s nothing personal, and you know it. If he trusts me, it’ll make my job easier.” I gave her the brief rundown of the arrangement I’d sketched out with the two of them. “You’ll have to track where they’re keeping him and report back. I’ll do everything I can to keep Claudia even-keeled.”
�
�What about him?”
“He’s nothing. I can handle him. Besides, he’s completely imprinted, so he can’t do anything without her say-so. Including leaving. If she needs him to get to Ralf, she’ll keep him close.”
“You’ve already said she sounds unstable.”
“She’s not that unstable. If it means the difference between getting to Ralf or failing, she’ll choose Ralf every time.”
And whenever I so much as spoke his name or even thought it, my blood simmered.
I wasn’t being hyperbolic when I told Alexander I wanted to kill his Sire. Certain men used women, took advantage of them, and tossed them aside once their needs were met. Ralf was obviously one of those. He didn’t deserve to live.
“Where do you plan to go?”
“We can’t stay in that cabin. It’s barely more than a few boards and a roof.” I chewed my bottom lip, thinking. “There’s bound to be motels off the main highway. I could get us a room there. Take a decent shower for the first time in weeks. And Claudia certainly needs to clean up.”
“What about him? You would share a room with him?” She grimaced in horror.
“Oh. That’s a good point. I suppose I would have to, unless I get a second room. Let me worry about that.” I waved off the question.
That was the least of my worries—and it wasn’t as though he needed a bed, since he didn’t sleep the way we did.
“Be careful,” she warned, closing her hands around my shoulders. Her fingers pressed in just a little tighter than they needed to. “Don’t forget what he is. I won’t lose my sister to one of them.”
“You’re right. You won’t lose your sister.” I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, then ran my hand over the back of her head. “But that’s even more reason for you to hurry with tracking Ralf.”
“We’ll do everything we can. The sooner we can be done with this mission, the easier I’ll sleep.”
“Same here. Keep me posted on your progress. I’ll text you with our location once we’ve found a place to stay.”
“And I’ll get your message as soon as I have a signal,” she snorted before throwing her arms around me. “Please, please, don’t take any chances with him.”