17. Embry
Chapter 17
Embry
M aybe it’s true, maybe every single thing the vampire says is true, but he wasn’t the one who went through what I did. He wasn’t the one who dreamed of being a vampire all his life and then was let into their world and transitioned to become one, risked his life to catch the traitor either, and then became an outcast through no fault of their own.
All of a sudden, everything, all the emotions, the dreams, the memories of the gossip, and the way Lucas’s once smiling face turned into an evil grin as he displayed the monster he had become floats into my mind and it is just too fucking much.
Everything is all too much.
And nothing about standing here, hashing it out with the vampire lord who is here to haul me back to endure more of the same is making it any better.
Rupert, I need to find Rupert.
I need to find out what he knows about my gramma that I do not know. And
he’ll know who the girl in the woods was, and where to find her. I don’t need a bossy vampire who doesn’t know what I’ve been through telling me what to do or dragging me back to a life that I’m not ready to face.
“Sorry, vampire. I’m going to have to do this one alone.” With that, I transport without another word or a backward glance to a place deep in the woods, one that gramma told me about long ago, hoping that Rupert and his family still reside there or at least can be seen close by. Someone in the forest will know, they will help me. And if not…
Gramma will guide me.
Who the hell else could have or would have thought to put blood in that refrigerator or my clothes in that closet? It has to be her, and there’s a reason she left. I’m suddenly convinced more than ever that I’m here not just on a mission to find myself, but on a quest, one that gramma must have put in place a long time ago.
Psychics can see into the future. Maybe she saw something so many years ago, something that made her believe that I would need help, the guidance of her instruction as I made my way through the forest, and to the very cavern that is my housing and protection today. My grandmother and hers before her had it too and I have the same sight. Psychics. That’s what she always said.
We’re not witches, but powerful psychics, at least that’s what I’ve been told, but it would sure as hell be helpful if I could see well into the future right now, too. Because nothing at this moment makes a bit of damn sense. Least of all my unwavering feelings for the vampire beast who wants to drag me back in a wave of shame.
Maybe gramma led me away from the vampires for a reason. Yet, I’ve let my need for touch, for someone to hold me in their arms, and fulfill basic needs and desires to alter my normal wariness of strangers. I let the enemy in, let him get way too fucking close, and even opened up about things that should have stayed locked up. Sealed in that closed off compartment of your soul that is for your eyes only, and not to be shared.
But yet, that chemistry, the way he looks at me, and the way he touches me is not something that can easily be cast aside. A sound in the distance draws me from my speculation, luring me deeper into the Mystic Forest, pushing long wayward branches whose leaves have still not dropped aside in my effort to get through the densely wooded land.
The backwater stream, a small tributary from the larger main bubbles gently against the rocks on its shore, beckoning me to the fresh and clear water of the forest. I walk softly, knowing that while many of the animals have already come to feed and drink, when day is just turning to night, the blackness of the time now, it will draw the true night creatures.
Predators… The ones with long sharp teeth who would relish a meal of raw meat, no matter the type.
I walk softly, anxious to avoid claws and razor-sharp teeth that will rip your skin to shreds. My mind back in the game, I draw my longsword in my right hand while keeping a firm grip on my dagger in the left.
The large forest cats are fast, and they like the smell of vampires in any shape or form. Flying would probably be safer, but instead, I transport closer to the area I recall from gramma’s stories, farther down the creek bed, closer to the edge of the forest, where anything goes.
The witch side…
At least that’s what they claim. But Rupert’s family has always nested this side of that and as long as they stayed neutral no one on either side was going to throw them out.
It doesn’t take long before I hear the distinct sounds of their caws in the air, their guard alerting Rupert and the others that a stranger is near. The outline of the guard can be seen high above me, just a hundred feet away, perched high in a majestic oak tree that is undoubtedly home to more critters than we know.
“Looking for Rupert,” I whisper hiss into the night. The fucking bird probably heard and saw me tromping through the woods a thousand feet away and no doubt Rupert has already been alerted to my arrival. The guard looks down at me, flaps a wing and turns, cawing into the night.
Creatures rustle and scurry from the tree, jumping from one to the other, crashing onto branches and sending a flurry of autumn crisped leaves to the ground in their hurry. Rupert does not make his appearance quietly, instead making a dramatic show, loudly barreling through the trees to take his perch above me on the branch. “I knew you’d be back, girlie. If your gramma wasn’t such a good friend to us over the years, I swear, I would leave you to fend for yourself.”
“Rupert!” I admonish.
“And don’t you ever take that highfalutin tone with me again. Just because the dark-hearted beasts have made you one of theirs does not mean that you forget everything and everyone you left behind or look down that pretty little nose of yours at us.”
My chest tightens with angst. “That’s not what this is about at all Rupert. I have always thought of you as a very close friend. I’m just frustrated that I came here for peace, and all I keep running into is people who bring up the past but then shut me out when I want to learn more about how I’m part of that past.
“My gramma sent me here. The more I think about it, the more I think she could see the future and knew one day I’d need to come here. But other than to get my head on straight, I have no idea why.”
Rupert caws but looks into the trees and not at me.
“Rupert, I apologized, now tell me what you know about my gramma, about why you think I’m here and why it’s upset the balance of the forest. Please?”
The damnable bird swings his head, his beady eyes focusing in on me. “Ding, ding, ding. She hasn’t forgotten the magic word. It’s true what they say, please goes a long way young lady, and don’t you forget it again.”
Exasperating bird. “Please, pretty please even. I said I was sorry; I meant it Rupert. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
He sends his beak into the air. “But yet you bring the dark lord of death with you by your side. What do you think the witches will think? When they heard whisperings of you traveling through the forest, they thought you were coming to build a life here. There were discussions of allowing it since your parting with the vampires and your friendships. They took pity on a woman with a heart who had nowhere to go. Even allowed you to get to the cavern without interception.”
My chest tightens. I knew something was going on, something amiss as I walked through the forest. The feel of eyes on me, all around, watching me while hidden from sight no doubt. “I didn’t even know they were watching, or that I needed permission from them to come here.”
Rupert nods. “So much to learn, girlie. The witches claim all the land in this area, as do the vampires, but for years they’ve had a truce, witches on this side, and vampires on the other. The witches allowed you, a vampire, into what they believe is their sacred land, their side mind you, and you betrayed them by bringing the dark lord into the forest with you and even further by allowing him into the cavern that you shared.”
“I had no idea. About some of the history, yes. Of course, but I had no idea that the lines were that clearly drawn, that the cavern was still used by the witches or at least controlled, and no idea whatsoever that the dark lord would follow me into the woods. This is not my fault.”
He shakes his head. “But yet, you are being blamed.”
My brow furrows with frustration. I was trying to get away from trouble, from gossip, from being an outcast and now it’s just followed me into the woods. “What about my gramma? Is she alive, a spirit? Tell me something Rupert. And what about the girl in the woods last night? Is she a witch? Watching me? Someone who knows my gramma?”
Rupert rolls his eyes and tosses his head toward the clearing behind me. “Better that you should ask her yourself, girlie.”