Eric wheezed: that idiot thrall wasn’t giving up. ‘I want to make the ultimate sacrifice. I’m happy for this to happen.’
I held my temper. Just. ‘You don’t want to be monster food, Eric.’
He gazed at me with watery eyes. ‘I do. This is my choice.’
I was aware that Alan was smiling. I glanced at him again and, almost without realising, started to hum. I bit the inside of my cheek as hard as I could to make myself stop.
‘Fuck off,’ I said aloud as I pulled back my shoulders. ‘I will take his place.’
Alan was surprised enough to drop his hand. The knife slipped from Eric’s neck for the briefest moment before he recovered and returned it. ‘What?’
Eric’s jaw slackened as he blinked at me. ‘What?’
‘Give me your word that you will let Eric go and I give you my word that I will take his place,’ I said. ‘I will chain myself up – you can watch me do it. Hell, you can stay and watch your monster eat me, if you want.’
‘It’s notmymonster,’ Alan muttered, although I could already see the cogs whirring inside his head. He could control Eric but he couldn’t control me, so his best option was to get me out of the way – and I was offering my life up to him on a plate. ‘Why would you do this?’
‘It’s like you said,’ I told him. ‘It’s for the greater good.’
Eric was shaking his head. ‘No! No! I want to die. It should be me! I want to join my Lord Chester!’
‘Your Lord Chester sacked you,’ I reminded him. I eyed Alan. ‘Well?’
His red eyes narrowed thoughtfully then he jerked his head in assent. He pointed to the empty pole. ‘Chain yourself up there and I give you my word that I will free Eric.’
‘Sacrificeme. Leavemefor the monster,’ the thrall whined.
I ignored him and tossed my stake into my backpack.
‘Drop the bag first,’ Alan ordered.
I did as he asked. ‘I won’t try anything funny but let my keep my bag. I give you my word that I will chain myself up right here.’ Magic crackled around me as I freely offered my vow. Alan must have felt it as much as I did because he visibly relaxed.
‘Leave it anyway,’ he said.
I nodded as if that were no problem although I was cursing inside.
I walked to the pole and picked up the heavy chains. As soon as I touched them, I felt the sting of warded magic bound into the metal; no spell that I knew of would release these chains. I grimaced, looped the chains around the pole and snapped the cuffs around my wrists.
As soon as I was secure, Alan moved the knife away from Eric, dug a key out of his pocket and released him.
‘I’m not leaving!’ Eric wrapped his arms around himself and glared at me.
‘Get him out of here, Alan,’ I growled.
The vampire frowned. That bastard was thinking about leaving us both here. He’d fulfilled his vow by unchaining Eric, so he could walk away with a skip in his step and nary a guilty thought in his head. Then something flickered in his eyes.
Damn. I knew what was going through his head. He could do as I wanted and pull Eric to safety then use him as the next sacrifice in a few weeks’ time.
He was a cold-hearted, calculating fuck. Sure, I had killed plenty of people in my time, but not like this.Neverlike this.
Alan grabbed Eric’s arms and dragged him away. The thrall howled and kicked, but he was weak and couldn’t resist. I watched as the vampire picked up my backpack and turned to give me one last look. ‘Thank you for your sacrifice,’ he intoned.
‘Give me a pretty plaque in your memorialtunnel.’
He blinked. ‘Oh, we don’t do that for sacrifices,’ he said.
At that point, my heart hardened completely. They didn’t memorialise sacrifices because they didn’t want to remember they were responsible for them. Alan didn’t want to acknowledge his guilt in my demise.
