“Don’t ignore me, boy,” he hisses. “It’s impolite not to answer a question, especially one from someone who can break your neck within a fraction of a second.”
His eyes widen in excitement as he keeps interfering with my route, remaining at a distance, and I try to ignore him and get to the inn's entrance. I pause, unsure how to circumvent him; each path I try to take, he seems to block.
“Get lost, you fucking bloodsucker, it’s none of your damn business,” I scowl at him, but he doesn’t back away.
The vampire seems infatuated with the fact that I have access to Aurum somehow. I step toward him, but he tiptoes so swiftly to the other side that I can barely register it. He’s taunting me without the intention to touch me, unlike that vampire in Sadelaer.
“Leave the boy alone, Lucian,” a familiar female voice says behind him.
He turns to her, and her bright red hair comes into sight, a stark contrast with the vampire's dark hair.
“Blood Witch,” he purrs as he creeps around her now, his eyes focus on both of us, flicking between us.
“Is the boy a friend of yours? He seems like an interesting friend to have.”
Caria looks at me. I know she can tell the disgust for her kind in my aggravated eyes after I saw her join the killing frenzy this morning. The memory of this morning and witnessing her in that act of irreverence still gives me a sour taste—her lack of respect and remorse for the passing of an innocent human. A part of me wants to justify her behavior; she can’t help herself.It’s part of her nature. And I didn’t see her kill a human; they were already dead when she took the heart… right?
“No... not a friend. He's just a customer. Now let him be, Lucian. Don’t make me repeat myself.”
Her shadow markings whirl around her in warning to the vampire as she speaks her words carefully. I feel a pang in my chest at the way she is addressing me as if I am not important to her.
“Hmm… are you sure, little Blood Witch? You seem rather protective of your… customer,” he muses. “Perhaps you can tell me where the boy can access such pure Aurum.”
Realization hits her, understanding the magic that protrudes from me—the stench. Lucian does not miss the change in her facial expression, and a loud booming laughter erupts from his chest.
“You didn’t know, did you, Blood Witch? Didn’t you smell it on your human friend? You’re still a youngling, aren’t you,Malefica Mortis?”
The last word rolls off his tongue. Caria grits her teeth, narrowing her eyes at him as she composes herself.
“It doesn’t matter if I’m a youngling or not. My magic is still deadly to you, vampire, and you know it. It might even hurt you worse, be more torturous, as I would just let it wield itself.”
Her shadows are pulsing around her now dangerously, dark and ominous, ready to pounce if she decides to release them. A dark part of me wants to see her unleash her shadows and rip the vampire to bits.
His eyes dart to me and then back to Caria, unsure whether to take on her threat or not. He eyes her up and down and watches how the shadows coil around her, eager to find their way to him.
“Fine, fine, little Death Witch, have your human. I will seek him out later without you as his watchdog.”
He doesn’t wait for Caria’s response and disappears into a fog, his words lingering. Her being my watchdog. It makes me wonder how fast that news will travel throughout Valorya and perhaps outside the city walls—the boy with Aurum, protected by a young Blood Witch for some unknown reason.
“Are you okay, Fynn?” Her worried expression and the fact that she helped me melt some of my hatred and calm me. I nod.
“You smell better again.” She smiles at me, and I smile back a little.
She looks at me tentatively, clicks her tongue, then shakes her head.
“Let's get you inside before that creep returns.”
“Caria… why did he call you a Death Witch?”
I can’t help myself. I saw her face whiten when he called her that, almost as if she were in denial about the truth herself.
“And why did he call you a youngling?”
She bites her lower lip, darts her eyes around, and tells me to go inside; she’ll explain it to me when we’re back at the inn.
“Look, Fynn, I don’t know how much you know about Blood Witches or witches in general.”
She looks at me as she sits on my mother’s bed. It is the nearest she can get to me before the air around me startsburning her throat and insides. I tell her I don’t know anything really, just that they hunt humans and drain our blood for their damn rituals and whatever else they do. I hear the revulsion in my voice as I speak to her.
