7. Corvinus
Chapter 7
Corvinus
I pound on the green ornate door, listening closely but don’t hear a word inside. My jaw tightens with mirth. Embry may think she’s won this round, and I’ll leave, but I’m not planning to go back to Chicago empty-handed. It may be trickier now that Romano has put conditions around the entire thing, but still, I’m known for my ability to solve difficult problems, and I’ll figure this out. The little spitfire is not going to get the best of me.
I bang on the door for the umpteenth time. “Embry, I know you don’t want to come back to Chicago, or even to leave the forest, but at least give me something to take back to Lucianna besides you left her a letter. She needs to know that you’re really okay, at least, if I’m to go back without you by my side.” I don’t tell her it’s hardly what I plan to do. One way or another, she’s going back with me.
Her melodic and tired voice wafts through the heaviness of the door. “Come back tomorrow. Then we can talk.”
It’s good she can’t see the smile on my face. I was hoping she had not fled and found another suitable cavern while I was away. “I mean you no harm. Invite me in. We can talk, decide how to proceed, but going back empty-handed will hardly do.”
I wait, not patiently, but still, I wait while the gods from the sky decide the forest is drier than it should be and could use a little mist. I pull my cape over my head and keep a watchful vigil, determined that the vampiress will do as I say.
Finally…The door squeaks as it cracks open, and the wide set purple eyes are the first thing I see, then the stark creamy complexion of her alabaster skin. She no longer wears the black cape she had on while racing through the wind and cold. She’s shed her own natural black cape that should hang from her shoulders, and instead wears only her black boots, jeans, and a heavy sweater.
A far cry from the Embry I’ve seen pictures of, usually dressed in a short little skirt and matching top. But everything seems off, right down to the look on her face, or her sudden decision to let me in. The pulse on the side of her neck is weak. She needs blood, whether she knows it or not. She’s been turned for quite some time, but after learning what Lucas did, who knows if he cared for her transition in the manner that he should.
I could best the sexy little vampiress right now, having had my fill of nutrient rich blood before leaving Romano’s but for the damned promise I made to him only to take her if she is willing to go. Damn this assignment and everything about this night.
The door shifts, and I realize that I can’t see her other arm. No matter my keen vision, there’s no way my sight will see through this door. A curse of the witches no doubt, the haven safeguarded with their own brand of protection against vampires.
If the vampiress doesn’t want people to gossip about her then she sure as hell should have stayed and told her side, and not instead run and begun consorting with the witches’ kind. A vampire who cozies with witches but runs when gossiped about. What did the little witch lover expect?
“I told you I’m not going to hurt you,” I speak through the door, only a guess that her mighty blade of steel hangs heavy from her arm right behind that door. Ready to slash me in an instant if threatened by my ire, which would slowly subside if she would do as I ask.
But instead, she tests me at every bend. “I’ll come out, but the trees have eyes and ears. The witches will protect me if you so much as lay a finger on one hair of my head.”
I scoff. “If I wanted to hurt you, it would have been done. Come out from behind that door. I’m done with these silly games. I have things to do, and it doesn’t consist of spending all my time talking with you in the dead of night, especially in the rain.”
Her purple eyes flash. “If you want me to come out, then I’d watch your mouth. I’m not going to take the sharp side of your tongue lying down, no matter what your rank.”
The young vampiress should calm her ire. She should know that exerting energy like this unnecessarily is hardly the thing to do right now, not when it’s so obvious that sustenance and blood is what she needs. If Lucas had taken care of her as he should, she would know these things.
She opens the door and her eyelids blink, refocusing as she stands taller yet doesn’t break the five-foot-five barrier at all. “I’ll come outside. Better for prying eyes that you aren’t seen entering a hidden cavern that you have no right even to know about.”
I don’t argue the point that if she didn’t want me to find it then she shouldn’t have left. “It’s raining and you need blood.”
The purple in her eyes sparks under a streak of lightning as it flashes across the sky. “I hardly need nor want a vampire lord to tell me what to do. I have lived under the rules of the masters, lords, and warriors for far longer than I should. Now, I take care of myself, I depend on myself, not the males of this world. Understand that, vampire?”
The beating of her heart begins to wane, lack of blood threatening to take all of her energy with no notice at all. She opens the door and walks outside, hefting the longsword with the jewel-tipped handle I’ve been warned of before. But lifting that steel takes strength, stamina, and energy that Embry no longer has and her eyes only flutter once before she slumps over and toward the ground.
My arms cradle her fall, drawing the young vampiress into the folds of my cape’s protection, wishing for not the first time tonight that I had not given my word to Romano. A promise that I cannot go back on without severing our friendship and driving a wedge even further between the witches and vampires, which will never do.
Not for the pureblooded vampires, the witches, or the future if there comes a time we must battle the rogues again. Overmaster Descallia is wise, and there’s a reason he’s allowed concessions over this land and allowed the trust, however tenuous it may be.
He is right, now is the time for healing among the groups after so many battles. This land is the only point of contention at the moment, and I will tread softly in order to keep the peace. No matter that I would much rather be in the comfort of my estate than walking through the door of a witch haven without an official invitation and with a very skilled warrior and her blade of steel in my arms.
I’ve heard all the horror stories about opening a witch’s door without being asked to enter. Yet I need to get her comfortable and find a source of blood. Hopefully in that little knapsack that she carries, although I can hardly fathom that she’ll have enough to sustain for long.
I approach the door with hesitation with the vampiress in my arms, and at first, I think I’ve lost my mind, or at least that it’s playing tricks on me after such a long and relentlessly fiasco-filled day. The melodic voice speaks in Embry’s voice, yet she remains fast asleep. I’ll invite you inside, but only because the cavern will protect me from any of your tricks, vampire.
It’s not as though vampires communicating telepathically is new, quite the opposite, but nothing of the like has ever happened to me. My black boot pushes the heaviness of the green door, moving it slowly, not knowing what I’ll run into on the other side. It protests, squeaking loudly as I enter, while bolts of lightning fly through the sky as though sending a message to the witches to let them know that an intruder is near.
The damnable Mystic Forest, a pain in the vampire’s ass since the dawn of time. A place that centuries ago would seclude us, and keep us safe from prying eyes, at least until the intruding witches decided that it was a pristine place to live too. Now the creatures are torn between allegiances. It’s no wonder they run whenever they see either side.
The cavern is empty other than some furniture that’s seen far better times, but the bed along the far wall will do while I find the vampiress some blood. I walk with her in my arms and her heartbeat is so slow that it feels as though it stops beating against my chest.
I lay her down gently and scan the small living space for her knapsack, unzipping it to take a look inside. Nothing but two small zipper bags of blood in the side compartment, which at the onset of her journey were probably full.
This will never be enough. My jaw tightens as her head turns, rousing from the fog but without the strength to open her eyes. She’s fading fast and there’s only one thing to do.
I tell myself it’s to ensure she can make the journey back home, so that I can finish the mission, and not because the lovely purple-haired vampiress can speak to me without words at all, or because the feelings of protection for her seem to grow with every passing minute.
Somehow even as enemies and adversaries, our souls can communicate.
I don’t believe in fate, fated mates, or any such nonsense of the kind. And I certainly have no personal interest in anyone who betrays their kind or runs from the truth, or any of the other things the young vampiress is said to have done.
Yet, when I look at her, I see resilience, determination, a resolve to follow her heart wherever that may take her. Even through the dangers and lurking creatures of the Mystic Forest with a vampire lord on her tail.
But she made the journey and did it all by herself. Maybe with a few navigational tips from the friendly forest creatures along the way, but by and by, she did it by herself when others far more seasoned than her would have likely failed.
I have no doubt she’ll hate it when she learns what I’ve done. But there’s not a choice now without blood of any other kind. I grab my pocketknife and deftly open a vein, allowing the blood to pool on my wrist before tipping it and opening her delicate pink lips so my lifeblood can pour into her mouth and give her nourishment to sustain.
Little by little her color returns, and in short order her pulse has returned to normal. The rumors of yesteryear say vampires don’t have a heart. The purebloods’ hearts beat just as soundly as the humans’, only our hearts will turn dark, death taking over if left without sustenance, and left to that, we’ll be just like the rogues. Killing and maiming for any sources of blood they can get their hands on.
No, nothing like that is going to happen to the purple-haired beauty, not on my watch. Whatever the reason, I’ve been asked to bring her home and I will keep her safe, from the creatures of the forest, the witches, and the rogue vampires, but after watching her take my lifeblood, I’m not certain I want to keep her safe from me.