After, a flick of my wrist and one well-aimed fireball was enough to set it off. I was getting better.
We watched it burn for the rest of the night, spread out and making sure it didn’t jump the lines we’d set. The smell was horrendous and I no longer had any appetite for roasting meat. This smelled rank and rotten, the oily residue it left on my tongue making me want to gag.
I watched our reluctant companions as they stood stoic and angry, watching their companion burn. They had a common goal to ours. They wanted to return to Wyndoor, in their own dimension. But I didn’t trust their willingness to help beyond that.
They’d said that they doubted Will Bennett’s ability to control them when they returned. Living briefly in our dimension had left them immune to his sorcery. I wasn’t so sure what would happen when they crossed over. I wasn’t willing to bet the lives of all my friends and myself on wishful thinking.
We needed to talk more with the vampires. They had never been under Will Bennett’s control and their desire to take back their home had to be equal to our desire to rescue our friends. I hoped.
As the embers burned low and dawn topped the first rise we headed down the mountain towards the cliffs and our new temporary home with the demons that had tried to kill us.
I wondered how one went about capturing a vampire.
WE HAD A FAIRLY EXCELLENT history of sneaking out of Drae Hallow. It was the first time we’d ever had to sneak in. I was tiring of lurking around in the dark. Thomas led us and we got to the path that led off the back of Rule 9 without mishap. We were within a mile of the last place Sirris and I had battled the vampires when we split up. We watched their grim shadows disappear into the inky blackness ahead of us while we hung back.
Thomas and Nick would be the distraction. Their job was to draw the attention of Jorta and Ab’et. Sirris and I would take the pregnant vampire. I guessed that by now she was in no shape to fight back. I felt an actual twinge of remorse. But she was our best bet for information.
It wouldn’t take much to get their attention and interest. Their constant battle with hunger made them desperate. They’d be eager to check out anything that might be their next meal. I only hoped that Thomas and Nick didn’t grant them their wish.
As the guys neared where we suspected the vamps were holed up, they stopped any effort to remain quiet. I believe they hit every branch, scuffed every stone, and used every foul word in their vocabulary to sound like some hapless hiker alone and lost in the woods and waiting to be invited to supper.
Instead, Sirris and I tried to be silent and invisible. We left the trail and hid behind a collection of lodgepole pines that clustered at the path's edge and gave us a decent view of the ledge and cave beneath it. We saw the silent shadows move as the two vamps gave pursuit, gliding over the ground like wraiths. They were utterly soundless as they moved. I shivered and we waited until we hoped they were well beyond hearing distance before we moved in. At the edge of the inky blackness, we waited for our eyes to further adjust before we went in. It wasn’t hard to find her. They’d tried to keep her comfortable. A heavy carpet of pine needles made her bed. We needn’t have worried about her attacking us. We wondered if she’d even be able to move. She reclined back against the needles, hands cradling her stomach. Despite the dimness of the light, we could still make out the devastation too many weeks in Drae Hallow had wrought on her slight frame.
She turned at the sound of a pebble kicked on our way in. “Jorta,” she whimpered, imploring. Was she hoping for a meal, no matter how sick it made her or how it was barely keeping her alive?
“No. Not Jorta.” I whispered. Feeling like a fiend. No matter that she was a vampire and they’d dined on many of the patrons of Bitterroot, she was also a living thing and she was suffering. The gaunt planes of her alabaster profile turned in our direction, the eyes sunken and hollowed in her delicate face. Her eyes met mine, and her teeth snapped and chattered. She moaned and a single pink tear escaped to run down her cheek. She clutched at her stomach and hissed. “Please make it quick.” She begged.
I felt like the worst kind of murderer. “We aren’t here to kill you Elise? But we do need information and you need to come with us.”
She pushed herself awkwardly to a sitting position. Sirris leaned in to give her a hand but jerked back in a hurry when those flashing fangs moved in her direction.
“Sorry. So hungry.”
She slanted us a crafty look. “I don’t think I can get up. You can see how weak I am.”
Hating myself, I pulled the knife at my side and brandished the glittering steel. “I’m hoping you will try.”
“It’s okay. Can you at least walk?” Sirris asked. Not as willing to get as close anymore.
Elise struggled to her feet, wobbled for a second, and then seemed to steady herself. She shot me a glare of dislike. Then those silver eyes narrowed on me and her nose twitched.
She frowned. “Sweet. Smells so sweet.” She mumbled in confusion.
I ignored her. “Sure, whatever. Come on. We need to get out of here before they come back.” I brandished my knife. “I don’t want to have to hurt Jorta and Ab’et if they return before they should.” I threatened. She gave a slight whimper as the fight went out of her and she moved to walk between us.
I left the way we’d come, taking the first path away and towards the portal leading beyond Drae Hallow. Before we made the turn, I sprinkled the pungent leaves of ground skunk root that Fern had given me behind us. She believed it would throw off our scent and make it difficult to track us. We didn’t want any visitors before we interrogated our new friend. We didn’t have to escape them forever, only long enough to make it through to the other side of Shephard’s Mountain. The other vampires wouldn’t know how to follow.
By the time we made it to the gate and Sirris spun the pattern, Elise was tottering, barely able to support her own weight against the side of the cliff face. We each took an arm to help support her along the corridor, leaning as far away from her grinding incisors as we dared. We were not on the menu. We had gone only a hundred yards up and east on the mountain when she collapsed. We crouched beside her in the dirt. Her wan face turned up towards mine, eyes on my neck. Her gaze met mine, filled with anguish and a helpless knowing that snagged at my heart.
I was curious about something she’d said that the others had whispered in my presence. “What’s sweet?” Sirris looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had.
“You are,” Elise whispered, the sound slurred around her sharp incisors.
I laughed. “Lady, there are a lot of people out there that would claim otherwise.”
She frowned and licked her dry, cracked lips. “No, your blood, it’s not sour. It’s sweet.”
I wasn’t sure where she was going with it, but I knew one thing. “You’re from the same dimension as the Macu and the Demon wolves.” She frowned in confusion. “From Wyndoor?” I added. Her eyes sharpened in recognition. “Anyway, I’m fairly sure you don’t want what I have. My blood kills your Macu immediately and it makes the Demon wolves sicker than anything else you’ve had. No telling what effect it would have on you.
Her eyes fell to my neck and she shook her head once, holding my gaze. “I’m dying, anyway. You can’t kill the dead.”
I watched her face blanch even whiter and she moaned suddenly, eyes rolling back in her head and her feet pistoning in the dirt.
“Oh no, don’t you dare go into labor on us!” Sirris said, frantic.
I seconded that opinion. Besides, I knew beyond doubt that in her condition she would never survive the birth. She wasn’t going to survive the night; I realized.
I gulped a bucket of nerves. I’d hated giving blood before, but it had been for a good cause. I’d bought us all the time we needed to defeat Will Bennett the first time round. I’d helped save Drae Hallow from a war that nobody would win. I looked at the gaunt young woman fading into the dirt. I followed the line of pale blue veins, translucent under the parchment
of skin beneath her thin arms. The rounded mound of her belly under her hands gave a faint roll.
She was right. Sirris eyes met mine over the fallen woman. She shook her head no in alarm.
But Elise was dying as we spoke, I could feel the tick of life slowing. I had no choice.
But I wasn’t offering my neck. That was just weird.
Unwilling to give myself more time to think about it, I thrust my wrist against her lips and rubbed it back and forth. She did nothing, and I felt the spark wane further.
I was too late. I’d waited too long. I shook her. “Elise. This isn’t for you. Try for the baby. Give her a chance to live.” I rubbed my wrist harder over the sharp edge of those incisors, feeling the sting at my wrist as the soft skin there split. And then movement, slight at first, gentle; and then not as her teeth expanded and sunk deep on a whimper of need. The pain was blinding at first, worse than anything I’d ever felt. But within seconds it was gone and a curious euphoria washed over me, not pleasant really, but peaceful.
Still, I had no intention of ending up like the victims in the infirmary, waiting, hoping to wake up.
Thirty seconds of me was plenty. I tried to jerk my wrist away, but she held fast, a mewling sound deep in her throat at she held on. “Elise!” I hissed. I ripped my arm away and this time she let me go.
I expected there to be a gush of blood from the puncture wounds, but there was almost nothing.
I held my wrist cradled to my stomach and sat back. Is this where we watched her die and take the baby with her.
She lay in the dirt, breath coming in heaving pants as she gasped and I wondered if she was seizing. Then she looked up. Brilliant silver eyes stared into mine. She no longer looked like she was dying. She sat up and stared at me, fingers trembling over the curve of her belly.
Elise was suddenly a beautiful woman in the prime of her life. Gone was the lank blond hair and waxy complexion. Her hair now hung in curly waves around her slim shoulders and her cheeks had plumped and filled out to match lips that were rosy and pink. She smiled, another tear welled and she didn’t brush it away as she glanced down at her bulging belly, her hands smoothing over the life she contained there. I watched a tiny fist roll from one side of her stomach to the other, every little knuckle visible. I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped.
Then I caught myself. “Is this where you suddenly decide you’re greedy and attack me with your newfound strength and finish the job?” I asked, joking. Well, maybe I was.
Sirris looked worried.
Elise flushed, and a soft smile graced her lips. “No, I’m still hungry, yes. But I can control it. Where I come from we don’t feed every day. We can go weeks if the supply is good. Before they forced us from our homes, there were donors that worked at the castle who were well paid for their voluntary contribution. We took only what we needed and it came in a cup.
But when the Demon wolves and that, that man who was controlling them came... there were too many and they overtook the castle. With his help, they killed many and the rest of us escaped to the woods where we were forced to hunt and live like animals. And then he caught the three of us in the forest one day. He sent us here and we couldn’t come back. We are trapped in this horrible place.” She sent an apologetic glance in Sirris direction. “And nothing is right. The supply of blood is substandard and makes us sick.”
Her eyes met mine again and she reached out and clutched my hand in a crushing grip that made my bones grind together it was so powerful. “Until you Sadie. We want to go home to Wyndoor. But we can’t go back the way we came, we tried.”
“That’s why we need to talk to you. We think our friends are there. The man that controls the wolves? We think he’s from our dimension, Will Bennett. He kidnapped our friends and has them prisoner in the keep of your castle home.” Sirris explained.
I extricated my fingers before she ground them to dust.
She nodded and frowned. “I heard about them. Last I knew, they were still alive. But the castle keep is beneath the ground and the labyrinth that leads to it is full of twists and turns to confuse the unwary. You’d never make it in or out, not with so many and not guarded by the Demon wolves and your Will Bennett.”
I considered what she’d said. Things were not looking good for our rescue attempt.
“But I bet another vampire could get us in, am I right.”
“Yes, that’s right. But why would they want to? Sorry, but my kind is not known for doing things out of the kindness of their hearts.”
“No, maybe not. Would they do it to take back their castle home?”
Her face lit up. “Oh yes, Sadie Cross, I think they might.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“We need to see your father, Sirris. I think Jerry can help us.”
Sirris glanced at Elise, reposing and looking far healthier than before. I shared her look. I wondered how much more dangerous Elise was now that she wasn’t starving. I wasn’t eager to find out.
“What about her?” Sirris hissed in a whisper.
Elise laughed, tapping her head. “You’re going to have to try harder if you don’t want me to hear you. What about me? I want to go back to my Jorta, my mate.”
I looked at her, considering. “Who is Ab’et?”
“He’s my mate’s father. My father now, too.” She ran a slim hand over the mound of her belly again, tracing the bulges and ripples as they moved beneath her skin.
Sirris complained. “I don’t like it. We might have a chance against her, but dad would just be a snack.”
Elise stared hard at her, showing teeth, the pearly white incisors glinting as she grinned.
“Stop that!” I admonished, frowning. “You’re just being mean.”
Her gaze slid to mine and her eyes danced with cunning. She shrugged.
“I have no desire to make myself or my baby ill again. You gave me a gift Sadie Cross. I won’t forget what you did for us.”
“We have no intention of keeping you prisoner forever. But we need to visit Mr. Waverly and ask him some questions. He may have some questions for you as well, so I’d like you to come with us. But Sirris is right, no snacking; and that includes me! Mr. Waverly may be your best bet for finding the way back home, Elise. It’s in your best interests to cooperate.”
Elise chuckled, the sound light. “I think you should be grateful it is I you are in the company of. Jorta, and especially Ab’et, would not be so accommodating.” She glanced at both of us and added slyly. “Since I am your prisoner, I will walk in between, yes?”
She leapt to her feet with a blur of speed that caused both Sirris and myself to take a hasty step back. I wondered who the prisoner was, in fact.
I didn’t even bother to try to contain her. I had to hope that the lure of possibly making it back through to Wyndoor and our ability to help make that happen would earn her cooperation. Because I was sure coercion was out of the question at this point.
We headed down the mountain trails at a much faster clip than we had previously. Elise kept up with no problem. She had taken little from me, but the change in her appearance was startling. I wondered how long it would last before she decided what she’d taken was just the appetizer and wanted the rest of the meal.
I moved faster.
JERRY WAVERLY HAD SETTLED in at the Tuttles in their secret room off the barn with alarming ease. Contractors were working on rebuilding their home. The other one had been a total loss, and rather than rebuilding over the top of it, Jerry had opted to hire contractors from out of town and had purchased a sliver of land on the mountain instead from the Major, close to the Tuttle farm.
I’d asked him why he felt it necessary to hire workers that weren’t local, when it would have been cheaper and quicker to do so. He’d smiled and mumbled something about local secrets weren’t secrets. I wondered what kind of surprises he was having erected at their new homestead.
The three of us arrived to gloomy skies and the threat of rain as we entered the side door to t
he barn. As we skirted the walls of the lamb enclosure, I felt bad for the ewe and her twin lambs as they huddled in a corner, frantic eyes on Elise who eyed them with a predatory red glow to her eyes she didn’t bother to hide.
“Come on. No snacking, remember?” I urged her through the door and away from the temptation the livestock presented.
“Spoiler of fun.” She grumbled, mouth turned down in a moue of disappointment.
“That’s spoilsport, champ.” Sirris ground out.
My lips twitched. Usually I was the one correcting Sirris on her choice of euphemisms.
Elise threaded a dirty look in her direction, which Sirris ignored.
Jerry looked up from whatever he was working on at the long table in the front, his glasses riding on the very tip of his nose as he looked at us in surprise over the top of them. They lit on Sirris and he brightened, straightening.
“Sirris!” All thought of grouchy vamps forgotten, Sirris went to her father and gave him a welcome squeeze. “Daddy! We’ve come to visit. Aren’t you the lucky one?”
He chuckled and chucked her under the chin, glancing towards Elise, brows raised. His sharp eyes took in the pale skin and the gleaming eyes in the beautiful young woman. His gaze slid towards the mound of her belly and sharpened in speculation.
“And who might this lovely young lady be?” he asked, coming forward.
“This is Elise. She’s helping us. In Return, we hope to help her too.”
In shock, we watched as he stepped forward and clasped her slim hand and shook it, bending in a slight bow of acknowledgment. “Nice to meet you Elise. When are you due?”
We watched as Elise blinked, a faint rosy glow rising in her alabaster cheeks. “In about thirty days. I’m not sure our time line runs the same, maybe your June?”
His eyes shifted to mine and rose at her odd choice of words. “She’s not here by choice. She came through from the same dimension as the Demon wolves. She’s a...”
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