“What are you doing out here?” I chastised, then I saw it glistening in the space between his shoulder and neck. A bite wound deep enough hints of bone showed. I shoved him off of me and stepped back. This was a fresh bite. My heart sank into the pit of my chest.
“It was back that way.” His arm shook pointing south. Vander’s blue eyes dropped to the boy’s neck, then shifted to me. “I was playing a game with some friends. It was stupid,stupid. They dared me to go out and then locked the door. They wouldn’t let me in!”
“I’m sorry,” I said softly. Truly, I was. “They are not your friends.” Friends wouldn’t do that when it was life or death.
The vampire shriek was close. I dragged the boy behind a tree trunk and Vander took the one beside us. A minute or so later, footsteps beat the ground.
“I smell him. Smell. Blood. Fresh. Where is it?” I peeked around the trunk and a filthy man with a scraggly beard steppedinto the clearing between trees. The difference between the starved wildlings and the Nocturnus vampires was jarring.
“It’s here,” the boy whimpered. I put a finger to my mask over my lips, but it was too late, the vampire’s head snapped in our direction. Vander slipped around behind him, and before the vampire could even turn to his approach, a blade stuck through his chest. The monster hit the ground with a sickening thud. Vander stepped over the body and marched back toward us. He looked plagued with duty. I knew what he planned to do.
“Wait.” I gripped the boy’s wrist and pulled him behind me. “What if he doesn’t change?”
“Everyone changes.” Vander sounded irritated.
“But what if he doesn’t? Can’t we wait to see? How long does it take?”
“A few hours. The wound heals, the fangs show, then he needs to drink.”
My breath was uneven, ragged. “It feels wrong to do it while he’s still...” The boy must have finally realized what we were arguing about and tugged. I gripped his wrist harder.
“I’m not waiting hours for the inevitable.”
“I want to go home,” the boy whined. “It’s not what it looks like. I’m sure my friends will let me in now.”
What if he was like me? Wasn’t there anyone else like me? “Viper, please.”
“Fine, we’ll wait and you’ll see the change when it happens. It will be a good lesson for you.” He roughly grabbed the boy’s arm, dragged him to a tree and shoved him against the coarse bark.
“I promise I won’t hurt anyone. I just want to go home and see my mother.”
My heart shattered. His mother. My mother. Mine was gone.
Vander jerked his arms back and tied them together behind the trunk.
“The ropes are hurting my wrists.”
Vander ignored him and leaned back against the tree opposite the boy, crossed his arms and watched. I kept an eye and ear on our surroundings, but the night was quiet now. Crickets chirped as we settled in silence. An owl hooted nearby.
“You’re assassins, aren’t you?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Am I going to be a vampire?”
“Yep,” Vander said, curtly.
“Are you going to kill me?”
“I’ll let you figure that out yourself.”
Tears streaked down his face. He lowered his chin to his chest and sobbed. As the boy cried for his mother, I wanted to side with Jaeda and her ideals to try to save vampires. I didn’t let myself shed a tear for him even if I wanted to.
After a while I thought he dozed off.
My heart ached when I watched his neck wound close and his head snap up. His eyes flared wide. His breathing changed, fast, too fast. He let out a scream like he was in pain and his body jerked strangely. Then he stilled; his gaze shifted to me.
The vampire scented my blood.
