“Be grateful for the terms of our oath; it means we’re both guaranteed safety.”
“Vampires and safety, something I still have a hard time even thinking could go together.”
“Vampir,” he tries to correct yet again. Ruvan takes a step closer and I don’t move away. We stand toe-to-toe. He searches me without a touch. I can almost feel the faint caress of magic running down my shoulders and arms. “You really think you could never be safe around me?”
“You are my sworn enemy.” My voice has fallen to a whisper without my bidding.
“But what if it didn’t have to be that way?”
The question begs an answer, one I don’t have. Not because I want to dodge it…but because I’ve never given how things would look if they were different genuine thought beyond childhood musings. However, since I’ve been here, the question seems to return relentlessly.
What would I want? A forge, I think. It’s in my blood. It’s who I am. But what would I make if not sickles and armor? Where would it be if it could be anywhere?
What would Ruvan want beyond his fae courts, songs, and great plains? Do I care to know? Dangerous. Forbidden. I might.
“Why do you care about what I think of you so much?” I can’t help but ask. Even though there’s a small part of me that wants to ask whathethinks ofme.
I can feel him withdrawing slightly. I’ve put him on the spot. His hand twitches as though he’s about to reach for me, but he doesn’t.
“I have lived my life surrounded by creatures that want to kill me.” His voice is soft and on the verge of breaking. “Perhaps, in you, is a strange sort of redemption—hope, that if I can turn a hunter into an ally, then ending this curse should be a trivial matter by comparison.”
“I will never be your ally.”
He moves lightning fast. His fingers are wrapped around my chin, thumb nearly touching my lips. I flinch. I have never been so focused on a touch so delicate. So light it hardly exists at all.
“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 himkind. 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.
