Page 64 of Eternal Craving

“How old are you now?”

With delicate fingers, she stroked my face and kissed my cheek and with that very movement, she conveyed that she didn’t want to answer.

She guided my chin up so that she held my gaze. I sensed the last remnants of daylight slipping away, like an internal awareness, a natural connection to the night.

A chill reached my bones. “Help me understand what I’m feeling. Are we being followed?”

She nodded. “They’re easy to evade.”

“Who are they?”

“The elders.”

“Are they like us?”

“Yes.”

“Why are they following you?”

“There are statutes that we must follow.”

“And you broke one of their rules?”

Sunaria stilled and then let out a deep sigh. “I turned you,” she whispered.

I gestured for her to continue.

“Elders rule our kind.” She twisted her delicate fingers around a lock of my hair. “Or try to. They deem who is worthy of being turned.”

“I wasn’t considered worthy?”

“It’s not that simple.”

I met her troubled gaze. “How many of us are there?”

She shook her head. “Impossible to keep track of the numbers. Wayward nightwalkers are turning people all the time.”

“What would the elders do to you?”

She sighed as though bored with my questions.

I hated the idea that we were being hunted. An internal coercion ignited my senses, the promise of what the night might offer. “I need to see my son.”

“And you have unfinished business.” Her gaze left mine. “To have any chance of surviving, you must see it through.”

I acknowledged Sunaria’s command and slid open the tomb lid. I offered my hand to assist her out. When we withdrew, I had a strange feeling that we were being watched and discreetly studied Sunaria to see if she also detected it, but she didn’t react.

Within several minutes, we arrived at the edge of the graveyard where a horse-drawn carriage was parked. The horseman’s face was half-hidden by a low tipped hat.

“He works for you?” I asked as I climbed in after Sunaria.

“Tonight, he does.”

“You feel safe?”

“One thing you’ll learn, Daumia, and this is imperative for your sanity, is that we easily mingle.”

“Does he know we just slept in a mausoleum?”