I nodded. I’d felt that when I left him.
“I could leave and never come back, or it was time to choose you. And not as my apprentice, Aesira. So here I am. I was worried and I still worry about how dangerous this is between us. But even knowing what I am, you didn’t turn on me, and I was being selfish in thinking it was only up to me to decide. So if you want me, all my flaws and risks,” he ran his tongue over his canine, and curved the corner of his mouth, “and teeth, I’m yours. I want you. I have desired you since the moment I saw you.” He tucked away the dagger and slid his rough hand up the side of my neck. He was unarmed, vulnerable; he let me see the emotion in him rather than the mask. “There was a time I wanted to die, but you have given me a reason to live, Aesira.”
A tear slipped down my cheek. “I want you, Vander. I gave you that pendant after I knew what you were. I want you.” Icurled my fingers around the protection knot on his chest and pressed a kiss to his soft lips until distant screams caught my ear. I barely heard them over the music and rowdy crowd, but I was attuned to screams from a life in Lothleton.
I glanced toward the window. Was it children screaming in fun? At this hour, most of them would be at home... A few people ran by outside. The torchlight near the entrance flickered as movement passed.
More screams, still distant but definitely not playful. There was danger. Vander peered out the window and slowly removed his hands from me.
“Something is going on out there,” I said. “A fire maybe?”
Vander eased me off his lap and we stood side by side. He turned toward the gambling tables. The games went on. People cheered and booed when they lost. No one else inside seemed to be aware of the disturbance outside. Vander let out a whistle. “Taewyn, Celine, Camden.” He waved at them to join us.
They stopped their game instantly and moved. “Is something wrong, sir?” Camden asked.
My stomach started to tighten. An eerie feeling washed over me and my eye drifted to our weapons on the wall.
A scream just outside the door made most of the room quiet. The music still played, but the chatter died down. The warriors at the table a few over from us stood.
“What’s going on?” someone asked.
The entrance door burst open and a terrified man stood in the threshold. “The city is under attack! Vampires are inside the wall!”
Chapter 28
The room erupted—tables flipped as people scrambled to get to the exit. Coins from the gambling den clattered to the ground. Glass cups shattered and metal mugs crashed. The group of warriors were the first out the door. It was their duty to protect the city and if vampires were inside, they’d failed.
We dashed to our weapons and followed Vander outside. The four of us apprentices waited against the red brick building for his command. We weren’t in uniform and should be for any combat.
I peered down the street, my heart pounding as groups of terrified civilians ran in our direction. Warriors rushed toward them. Horse hooves thundered on the cobblestone as mounted soldiers rode by.
Vander swore and fisted his hands at his sides. “The attack must be coming from the entrance gate and that’s pushing civilians this way.” He let out a sharp breath. “Here’s what we’ll do. The four of you will follow me to fight at the gate. There is no time to go back to Drakthar to inform the Commanders. Someone else will do that.”
I bounced nervously on my toes. I’d thought that Nighthaven was impossible to penetrate. “Has this ever happened before?”
He nodded. “Yes, but not in our lifetimes.”
I couldn’t help but question the timing of this attack. The assassins were planning to move on Dravyn Knox and his battalion of vampires and then the first attack in over twenty years happens the night before?
A screaming middle-aged woman ran toward us. Scarlet glistened down her neck from large puncture wounds. The blood stained the chest of her violet dress. “Vander,” I choked out and pointed at her. He turned and in two quick steps he cut her down with a slice to her throat. Followed by a quick thrust to her heart. She clutched at herself before she fell. Beside me, Taewyn jerked back. Celine gasped and Camden’s mouth dropped open. “Destroy the heart even if someone is only bitten. We can take no chances.”
“Sir!” Taewyn gaped at her body crumpled on the ground. “She’s, she was?—”
“Bitten by a vampire,” he snarled. “Kill anyone you see with a bite mark. Weapons in hand. With me.”
“Yes, sir,” all of us said at once. My head spun as the screams rose and more people ran by us. Everyone here, even me, had become accustomed to being able to go out in the dark. There were no shutters on windows here. No warning horns to get inside before the sun set. The people of Nighthaven didn’t hide from the monsters that would drown in our blood and smile. The speed at how quickly this city could be overrun with vampires if we didn’t stop this soon chilled me to the bone.
I ran in step with Vander, keeping up with his fast pace. Ahead, a man had a woman pinned to the brick wall with his face buried in her neck. She screamed and clawed at him. I was the first there and drove my sword through his side, cracking ribs. He arched, half his face covered in blood, and fell back, turningto stone before he hit the ground. Without thinking, I stabbed her through the heart too.
Blades cracked blades, screams and shouts came from the top of the wall as archers let loose their arrows. We were a couple hundred yards from the entrance gate to Nighthaven—and the doors were open. Barely, but enough to let them in. Through the fighting I spotted a group of warriors struggling to push it closed while vampires rammed the other side.
“We must close the door!” Vander shouted over the chaos.
“We’re with you, sir,” Celine said.
“Stay close to me. All of you.”
My heart thundered as we pushed forward. Most of the civilians were gone now. Golden warrior armor glinted in the torchlight but the vampires who fought them wore black armor. My blood chilled. These vampires were not the wildlings from Lothleton, they were from Nocturnus. Trained soldiers able to wield swords and weapons, not just their teeth. Engraved at the center of their chest plates were two wolves snarling on each side of a crown surrounded by a wreath of belladonna flowers. The royal crest of Nocturnus.
