Chapter 17 - Glory #2
The gentle order, the interest in my wellbeing, shouldn’t have affected me, yet my traitorous stomach fluttered under his care. Irritated with myself, I tucked into my food while he closed my ink and set my writing implements aside with the book.
Our silence over dinner—fish spiced with foraged herbs, sided with some increasingly stale bread and a waxy cheese—was companionable.
More so than it had been since we’d left the inn.
After our two near-disasters, something between Cammon and me had shifted, the initial tension between us fading.
Dangerous, but also a relief. My secrets dangled over our heads, a constant and impervious barrier to any true friendship, but it was nice to be able to travel with someone who didn’t mock me for my love of knowledge.
“That was delicious,” I said once my plate was empty.
He quirked an eyebrow. “You’re an easy one to impress. Not much of a cook?”
I bristled. “I can cook well enough to get by. But I’m busy, so yes, my fare is usually plain.”
“You mean bland.”
Although I was tempted to argue with him, I couldn’t. “All right, yes, fine. Bland.”
He smacked his knee, making me jump. “That ends here. Going forward, you will help me cook, and I will teach you my ways. No more excuses for bad food. At least this way when you hand the amulet over to your king, you get to keep something from this trip.”
After dinner, I helped Cammon clean up and ready everything so we could leave first thing in the morning.
He looked around the borders of our camp, squinting into the shadows between the trees behind us and the open field ahead of us. “If you’re up for it, we should leave before dawn. Be on the other side of that shifter border before the sun comes up.”
A groan fought to escape me. I was tired, and the thought of getting a paltry few hours’ sleep before more walking made my entire body ache. But he was right. We’d pushed our luck far enough. There was no point making this journey harder than it was.
“If I’m not up, I give you permission to throw something into my tent to wake me,” I conceded.
He grinned, his red eyes gleaming. “No throwing necessary, Buttons. I’ll grab you by the ankle and drag you out.”
Why did the thought of his fingers around my ankle make me clench my thighs together? But ugh, did he have to insist on using that nickname?
“I’ll make sure that’s not necessary.”
I disappeared into my tent and stripped down to my stockings and camisole, and although I did everything I could to fall asleep, sleep evaded me.
What began as thoughts about the clue for the next signpost morphed into a drowsy memory of Cammon’s kiss after the run-in with the shifter and the way he’d gripped my waist after the last puzzle.
Before I understood how it happened, he was whispering his theories about the next signpost in my ear as he thrust himself inside me, and I sat up with a jolt to end those images before they took hold.
I was about to lie back down and wrestle my thoughts in a more appropriate direction when noises from the woods broke the peaceful silence of our camp. Snapping twigs, snarls, howls.
My heart jumped into my throat. The shifters had found us, and by the sounds of it, they’d come en masse and not to chat.
I’d held my own against a single bear-man, but against more of them?
Terror threatened to take hold, but I breathed through it and forced my muscles to unlock.
Yes, my life had been sheltered and the only method of self-defence I knew was how to be invisible, but I wasn’t useless, and I wouldn’t cower in my tent waiting for death to find me. The rest I would figure out. Somehow.
I didn’t bother getting dressed, and when I stepped outside, Cammon was already on his feet, the horns on his brow extended, his black, feathery wings stretched wide, and he’d also grown… a tail? It snapped out behind him, wavering in the air as though tracking the danger.
“Stay close, mage,” he growled without looking at me. “Be ready to run east when I say, and by that demigod you curse at, run fast and do not look back.”
I swallowed hard and crept closer to the space behind him, aware of every flick of that ebony tail.
Instinct pulled at me to summon my built-in defences, and I didn’t fight it.
Consequences be damned, if the shifters had come for us, I wouldn’t run without standing my ground.
Cammon was out here because of me—this wasn’t his fight to face alone.
I had no idea what I was doing, never having trained for this sort of confrontation, but my vampiric nature screamed at me to engage, eager for blood.
I knew we were in for a real battle when two bears barrelled out from between the trees. One went straight for Cammon, and he braced for the attack.
“Go!” he yelled to me before he bared his teeth and threw himself at the shifter. His extended talons slashed through the bear’s chest as it reared up.
The other veered towards me, and I planted my feet, ready to take it down. Before I could move, Cammon lashed out with his tail and caught the bear around its middle. With more strength than I would have imagined from the extra appendage, Cammon threw the shifter to the ground.
My breath hitched, then came out in a whoosh as another creature flew from the woods behind me and slammed into my back.
Leaves, dirt, and blood filled my mouth when my face smacked against the ground, and sharp teeth sank into my shoulder, piercing my flesh and snapping the strap of my camisole.
I screamed and swung my elbow backwards into the shifter’s jaw.
Its yelp echoed in my ear, but its weight remained heavy on top of me.
Until a low, menacing growl sounded above us and a dark, winged shadow passed over my head.
The animal yelped again, its body flying off me, and a few seconds later there came a sickening crack as it crashed into a tree.
I jumped to my feet and spared a quick glance at the dead wolf that had pinned me before turning my attention to the other animals charging my way.
Three badgers darted out of the shadows.
I readied myself to defend against them, but they moved with lightning speed, climbing my legs, their sharp front claws shredding my stockings.
I writhed, attempting to fling them off, but with tooth and claw, they latched on.
All fear of the badgers disappeared when a drake scurried into the camp.
The wingless dragon was the same height as the bear, but wider in the shoulders, its horns and brown scales adding inches to its width.
Its golden eyes scanned the scene, its gaze bouncing off Cammon, who was at war with the second bear and the other wolf, and landing on me.
My magic threatened to slip from my hold and raze everything in the entire clearing, and in my efforts to tamp my power, my hold on my vampirism slipped.
My vision sharpened, my teeth elongated, and my nails lengthened into talons.
Years of habit pushed me to pull back and hide myself, but I knew if I did, I would be overrun.
Even if I’d planned to obey Cammon and flee, I would never have been fast enough with this many enemies in pursuit.
My choice was either to let my instincts take over and risk Cammon finding out or to die right here, today.
There was no space to think the way I had when I’d dangled over that pit. I had to act.
The need to survive won. Strength filled my muscles, and I grabbed the scruff of one of the badgers and flung it into the trees.
The other two were on my back, out of reach, stabbing and slashing until sparks flashed in my eyes, but my attention remained on the drake that was now tearing at the earth in its haste to reach me.
I shoved off my toes and rushed it, unwilling to wait until it made the first move.
It raised its front foot as I came within range, but I launched myself over its head.
Claws grazed down my front, and its horns caught on my camisole, slicing through to my stomach, but I passed over the drake’s head and landed on its back.
The knife-sharp scales cut through my thick stockings, shredding cloth and skin.
I held on as the shifter bucked, doing its best to dislodge me, and I could only imagine how I looked: smeared in blood, fangs bared, covered in badgers, and riding a pissed-off drake.
In my battle-fuelled haze, I cackled. At the sound, one of the badgers shuddered, its claws sinking deeper along my spine.
Pain shot through my nerves, setting fire to my insides, and my laugh turned into a scream.
I needed to get these fuckers off me so I could focus on the drake.
Thinking only of getting free, I hurled myself towards the ground and landed on my back.
One of the badgers leapt off me in time, but the other crunched beneath my weight.
I rushed to roll to the side and out of the drake’s range, but it moved faster than it should have been able to given its size.
Its jaws closed around my ribs, its teeth piercing, gnawing, stabbing into skin and sinew.
I screamed and flailed, trying to escape, but its hold was too tight.
Terror cut through my bloodlust, and I appreciated how out of my depth I was.
My pulse rushed in my ears, and my stomach churned with nausea. I wasn’t a fighter; I was a librarian.
But I was also desperate to survive. And clever.
Shoving my fear away, refusing to be crushed by these creatures, I grabbed hold of the drake’s jaws and applied all my strength to pry them off me.
It struggled to shake free, but I dug my fingers deeper into its scaled lips, barely feeling when the flesh of my palms ripped open.
A gasp burst from me as its fangs unhooked from my hips and it jerked away, but I didn’t let go. Its eyes widened, and it did its best to retreat, but I tightened my grip and let it haul me to my feet.
“You could have let us be,” I rasped. Blood spilled down my chin, and I dragged my thoughts away from how cold I was getting. “We’re right on the fucking edge of your territory. None of this had to happen.”
The drake hissed, acidic saliva splashing from its maw onto my face, and I hissed right back, baring my fangs.
Uncertainty flashed in its eyes as it realized its foe was not what it expected.
Rage swept over me—exhaustion, frustration—and I wrenched my hands apart.
The hinge of its jaw snapped, and the drake slumped to the ground.
I followed, my knees striking the hard earth first, then my shoulder, then my head. I struggled to catch my breath. Dark spots danced in my vision, and all I tasted was blood.
I needed my pack. I needed blood to replace what I’d lost. To help me heal. But I couldn’t move. Moment by moment, my limbs grew heavier, and I lay staring up at the stars, accepting they might be the last thing I saw.