Chapter 1 #2
“Go. Get away from here,” Aryana shouted at the women and children still lingering at the cage’s entrance. As if that broke their trance, they scurried from the wagon, fading into the shadows.
An older woman paused and nodded toward her. “Thank you, Princess.”
Well, double shit.
Jonas, the only man left standing in the camp, let out a bark of laughter. “Raydin is trying to cheat me out of my due, isn’t he? And he sent his whore to do his dirty work. No matter. As soon as your venom wears off, I’ll have the little heifers and calves rounded up and returned to their cages.”
She threw aside the crossbow. “Like hell you will.”
She came at him, but he drew a knife and lashed out, slicing the back of her hand.
A gasp ripped from her as her flesh burned, and in seconds her arm was raging in pain and refused to move.
She backed up, clutching her limb and snarling.
Only one thing could make her respond this way. Holy water coated the blade.
“You don’t think I didn’t come into vampire territory prepared?” Jonas taunted.
The agony and paralysis spread, sinking to her legs, causing her to stumble. Damn it. It was only a little nick.
He approached her, blade at the ready. “Vampires, apparently, are untrustworthy.”
A shriek pierced the night, an unearthly howl somewhere off in the bushes.
Jonas spun to look, but Aryana saw her chance.
Using the strength she had left, she lunged toward him, her teeth sinking into the arm that held the knife.
She drew his blood once, twice. He roared, tearing his bleeding limb from her mouth, deadly rage in his eyes.
He took a step forward, stumbled, his pupils growing hazy before he collapsed onto the ground, the blade rolling out of his grasp.
For a moment she stared at the trees, waiting for whatever had made the noise to show itself, to attack. Perhaps it was nothing. The cry of a bat or some other creature of the night. Maybe it wasn’t the only living thing losing its life tonight.
But she required blood if she was going to overcome her spreading paralysis. Plus, her small bite wouldn’t keep a big man like Jonas down for long.
She limped over to the other four fallen men and took bites out of them to render them incapacitated.
Their fresh blood in her system already made her feel a little better.
With a final check of the surrounding forest, she confirmed that there was no sign of the women and children.
Hopefully, they made it across the border into human territory.
She walked over to Jonas. She kicked the knife a considerable distance before leaning over him. “You find pleasure in killing innocents? You think it’s enjoyable to cause terror for those around you? Know this. Tonight, Jonas Harns, you forfeit your life for your bloodlust.”
A cold panic settled in his eyes. Good. If he was conscious enough to understand her, then he knew what was about to happen to him. It was how she wanted it. Briefly, she considered snapping his neck and leaving, but she refused to waste this delicious treat.
There was a fine line between monster and survival, and Aryana walked it with the skill of a tightrope walker.
She knelt and breathed in his cloying scent of fear, letting the predator in her awaken. With a snarl, she sank her teeth into his skin, draining his crimson fluid in a slow, satisfying draw. “Mmm,” she murmured. “Beasts like you have the sweetest tasting blood.”
And then she let everything go as she got lost in the taste of him, as she feasted, gulping every precious drop until there was nothing left, leaving Jonas Harns a dried-out husk.
She sat back, the desperate gnawing hunger sated. Before she rose, the slight edge of a scrap of paper jutting out of his breast pocket caught her attention. Carefully, she lifted it out and examined it.
It was a hand-drawn image of a man, a woman and two small children.
A boy and a girl. Aryana stared at it. A dull thudding in her chest reminded her that she lived while the man in front of her was no more.
That his life force coursed through her veins.
The lines of the picture were curved and squiggly, their forms slightly out of proportion.
Clearly, a child had created the drawing. She flipped it over.
I love you, papa.
Her heart plummeted, the paper fluttering in her shaking hand. Even this rotten, no good man had someone who loved him. And from the fact that he carried the sketch next to his heart, he probably adored his family very much.
It was more than Aryana had ever experienced. As a vampire, it was more than she could experience. This beast of a human who turned on his own kind was less of a monster than herself.
And now she’d deprived two young children of a father without a second thought.
Swallowing hard, she returned the picture to the body’s breast pocket. She grasped her cloak’s black folds and rose, raising the cloth to her lips and cleaning off the last vestiges of Jonas’s blood. It wasn’t enough, like attempting to wash away a sin that burned too deeply into her soul.
She’d barely taken a step when an arm came around her from behind. Aryana stiffened as she was pulled against a firm chest, alarm sparking through her. Had she forgotten one of the men? But this arm was much stronger than that. Most human bones she could snap without a thought.
And his scent. The shiver that had lingered on her spine all night froze into icy dread.
Demon.
“Good evening, Princess. Sorry to interrupt your activities, but I have need of you,” a deep, silken voice murmured in her ear before a cloth was shoved against her face. Belladonna filled her nose, and immediately, the world around Aryana faded into blackness, snuffing out any attempt to struggle.