“Because you still fear me? Is that it?” Ruvan’s lips split with his smile, placing his fangs on display. But his ferocity lacks the bite it once did, thanks to his haunted eyes. “You’ll meet the ones you must truly fear soon enough.”
He releases me, leaving without another word. Heart hammering, I sink against the table for support, gripping it tightly. My skin is aflame and I fight for composure.
* * *
There isa sickle on each of my hips. I have a large hunting knife made of steel strapped to my left thigh—for use as a tool more than a weapon. Attached to my right is a similar knife but cast in silver. There are four small daggers hidden in other locations on my body. One on my wrist, two on my ribs, and one in my boot. They’re all practical spots that are easy for me to access in a moment of dire need. I just hope they’re enough. They’ll have to be.
Each of the vampires are armed with their own silver weapons. A sight I never could’ve imagined, even having worked on their respective blades the entire day and night. Ventos has strapped his broadsword to his back. I still catch myself admiring the craftsmanship of it. It must have been forged long ago—when silver must’ve been cheap and plentiful.
Lavenzia is armed with her rapier. Winny carries a short sword and ten throwing daggers that are strapped to a belt stretched across her chest. Ruvan carries two sickles, much like I do. He’s armed with the weapons of hunters. I wonder if he did it to try and provoke me.
No…I don’t think he’d do that. He’s not…well, I can’t call him kind. Can I? At the very least, he hasn’t been cruel toward me when he easily could’ve been. He gave me free use of the smithy. He’s allowed me peace at night to rest. He’s almost been kind, beyond taking me from my home, that is…
The more I think about him, the muddier my thoughts and feelings become.
“You all know the path, right?” Callos asks. He and Quinn are unarmed and unarmored. They stand before the doors that lead into the main hall. They’re not coming to see whatever this old castle holds.
“We do.” Ruvan nods. “If we’re not back in two days, you know what to do.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” Quinn wrings his hands. “A year isn’t a very long tenure for a vampir lord.”
A year?“You’ve only been the vampire lord for a year?” I blurt. Ruvan’s eyes swing to me, along with everyone else’s. I would have turned scarlet with embarrassment if not for the somber aura that radiates from all of them—notably Ruvan.
“Yes, only a year,” Ruvan says with a note of finality, checking his grips one more time. He looks back to Quinn. “We’ll do our best, friend.”
“Right then, off we go.” Ventos steps forward and lifts the thick iron bar that was bolting the doors opposite the hall’s entry closed.
The muscles of Ruvan’s back strain as he pulls open the door a fraction.
Winny slips through. “Clear,” she calls back.
Lavenzia wordlessly creeps through the door.
“You both have it?” Ventos asks as he hands Callos and Quinn the massive iron bar.
“We’re stronger than we look.” Callos smiles up at him.
“I hope so, someone has to let us back in.” Ventos laughs heartily and squeezes through the door.
“Riane, with me,” Ruvan commands.
Right behind him, I pass through to uncharted territory. The door closes behind and I can hear the sound of the bar re-engaging. The same writhing, uncomfortable excitement as the night of the hunt jolts through my body, just underneath my skin even though I haven’t drunk any elixirs. It’s a desire that doesn’t feel entirely my own and whispers with the same surge of power as when I became bloodsworn to Ruvan.
Give me power. Give me blood.
I grip both sickles at my hips, shift my grip, and grip again, trying to shake the urge. I try and inhale slowly, quelling the restlessness growing within me.
“It’s quiet,” Lavenzia whispers. Her usual levity has vanished. I can tell from her pose that she’s ready to draw her rapier at any second. She has the same sharpness to her gaze as Drew right before he would lunge for me during our sparring.
“Good.” Ruvan radiates discomfort as well. Perhaps this gut-wrenching feeling is coming from him and the connection that’s been forced upon us through the bloodsworn. “It’s still early in the day. We’ll need to use every minute they’re sedated during daylight to get as deep as we’re able.”
“Callos is certain about this path, right? Because we certainly can’t go the same way as last time after we had to blow it up,” Ventos says. He clearly struggles with keeping his voice down.
Blow it up? That doesn’t sound good.
“He’s confident.” Ruvan’s gaze falls on me. “And we’ll make it; after all, we have a hunter with us.”
Great, they really want me to be a hunter. Simply marvelous.
