“Ah,you think I would not trust you with a weapon because you would turn it against me.” He stalks slowly over, coming to a stop right before me. As he moves I ease my legs down onto the floor, ready to bolt, ready to attack if need be. Even if I’m helpless to his vampire abilities, I won’t die without a fight. Not ever. I’m born and bred of Hunter’s Hamlet. We do not die peacefully in our beds. “Do it then.”
I tilt my head slightly, eyes narrowing.
“You have your weapon, turn it against me.”
“Steel will do nothing to you.”
“And yet you risked the goodwill I was attempting to build with you by taking it.” He leans forward, placing both hands on the back of the settee, on either side of me. I’m framed by his arms. Pinned without a touch. The vampire lord’s face is so very close, close enough for me to smell the scent of moss and leather on his clothes and feel the heat of his breath. The last time it was this close I still had a silver weapon. He was a husk, not a breathtaking creature of death and moonlight, and I still had a chance to end him. “So use it.”
I don’t move. I just glare at his stolen face and lying eyes.
“Do it,” he urges harshly.
All the hatred I’d wound up earlier around my heart snaps. I reach for the weapon, yanking it from its hiding place. With all my might I thrust forward, going right for his throat—as though I am trying to stab through, and carve out the mark at the base of his neck. The mark that is supposedly mine.
Thousands of invisible hands wrap themselves around my limbs, holding me in place. The knife quivers in the air as I strain against the unseen restraints. Using every muscle I have, I bring my left hand to my right and grip the knife with both, trying to force it forward. My heart hammers as if it is about to explode from the effort.
But it doesn’t move.
A hair’s breadth away from the vampire lord’s neck, and the knife won’t move forward any more.Ican’t move. An invisible wall holds me back from him. No, it actively pushes me away.
With a frustrated grunt, I fall back. The knife clatters to the floor as my muscles release, exhausted by the effort. A smirk slides across his face. Horrible and exceedingly self-satisfied. The vampire lord reaches down and grabs the knife, turning it over in his hands, making a show of inspecting it.
“Do you see now? Do you understandwhyI will arm you? Why I do not fear you and neither will my kin?”
“The oath.” I’ve never said a word with such disdain before.
“You swore on your blood that you would not harm me or any loyal to me—you marked yourself with your vow to me.”
Until the curse is broken, I add mentally. I am only trapped in this arrangement so long as this curse exists. The second it is lifted, I will be free, and he will be dead.
“So, steal all the weapons you want, Riane. Squirrel them away, keep them in your clothes, in your bed. Hide them wherever you think they will be safe. But know that you will not use them on me, or my covenant. Not now, notever.”
He hovers, looming over me, golden eyes shining, waiting to see if I will try and argue. Maybe he’s waiting to see if I will try and attack him again. But I am a fast learner, adaptable. He’s made his point clear and I will not throw myself against that wall again.
I will have to be clever. Maybe, if I cannot do it by my hand, I can force the hand of another. Or perhaps it could be as simple as an accident, a silver dagger, tiny and unnoticeable, stabbed upward to the base of his pillow. And when he lays his head upon it, he will be skewered dead. A trip of my clumsy feet and the curtains are yanked off as he stands right before the sunlit window.
Yes, there are many things for me to try. And if he thinks that I am only deadly while a weapon is in my hand then his life will be the cost of underestimating me.
“Now go to sleep. You’ll need your strength. The nightmare begins at sunset.”
CHAPTER12
Sleep remains elusive.I can’t commit myself to slumber. Not when I’m in the lair of the vampire.
I should be further investigating my surroundings. Finding possible escape paths. Something of use… But I am exhausted. My want is overshadowed by the more practical knowledge that I am, to an extent, safe at present. I can’t harm the vampire lord or his kin. They cannot harm me. His display was clear enough evidence of that. And I need to keep my strength.
I don’t want to rest. But I should.I need to keep my strength.
When my eyes do close, I’m haunted by the Blood Moon.
The crimson fogcurls around me. Hidden beasts move through it. Ready to pounce. I see my fellow hunters sprinting through the mists. Drew is a blur, gone before I can even call out his name. His scream is quick to follow, cut short with a gurgle of blood.
Deep within me is a spinning thread, pulling me forward. I have to get to Drew. It’s pulling me to my brother, my twin. Pulling me to—
Him.
The vampire lord stands in the center of the ruins where we fought, screaming to the sky. Drew is nowhere to be seen. Dark power radiates off the vampire in waves that crash against the fog, competing with it. His hair is as pale as bone, hanging down to his mid-back in a single sheet.Ruvan’s hair is not that long, my mind rebels. Ruvan’s hair spills over his eyes but tapers at his neck, unlike this man’s. Though, this could just be another face Ruvan can wear.
