Chapter Eleven
Eleven
MOST PEOPLE, WHEN FINDING themselves thirty feet in the air, would cling for dear life onto whatever they could find, even if what they found was their vampire captor.
That would be the natural response, if anything about this situation could be considered natural.
My reflex, however, was to shove Raleigh away.
His hands slipped as we reached the peak of his jump.
The moment seemed to last forever, suspended in midair, while I struggled to free myself from my saviour.
Then we crashed onto the roof of my father’s house.
I scrambled to find purchase on the shingles, but Raleigh had less luck.
He fell on his injured shoulder, then rolled off the edge before he could right himself.
A heavy thud sounded in the darkness. Heart in my throat, I scanned my surroundings, trying to find some way of getting down safely.
Below, on the other side of the house, I could hear the outraged questioning of my father, wondering where we had vanished to.
Neither he nor Yann thought to look up. They disappeared into a nearby alley, but it was only a matter of time before they worked it out.
I slid down the roof as quickly as I dared, using the gutter to stop myself before I fell. Raleigh lay in a twitching heap far below me.
To think he was once my greatest fear.
It was too far to jump, but my mother’s old window box was close enough to help me part of the way.
I’d never climbed anything more than a tree in my life, and even then not for almost a decade, so my arms protested at the exertion.
The old box creaked as I lowered myself onto it.
I prayed it would hold my weight, but apparently God doesn’t look too favourably on those who side with infernal princes.
The base of the box fell through the moment I shifted my weight, and I had to scramble to regain my hold on the gutter as the wood clattered to the ground.
I really wished I had listened to Moira.
‘Hold on,’ Raleigh called as loudly as he dared. ‘I’m coming up.’
‘Hurry.’ My arms were already shaking.
There was a rustle of movement somewhere below me.
When the noise was close enough that I dared to look, I turned my head and instantly regretted it.
I suddenly had the answer to how Raleigh had reached my window earlier.
He scaled walls not by searching for handholds in the masonry, but by sprawling his legs like a spider and shimmying in a manner I was sure I would see again in my nightmares.
I was used to the idea of him not being human, but this was grotesque.
He was struggling by the time he reached me. The bolt in his shoulder glinted as he hoisted himself up with his left arm, the gutter creaking dangerously under our combined weight, and then he was standing on the roof above me, hurling me back up over the edge with impressive strength.
‘What the hell was that?’ I managed between breaths. Raleigh had no issue standing on the dramatically sloping roof, but if he hadn’t kept his grip on the back of my nightgown, I would have toppled right back over the eaves.
‘That was climbing.’ Raleigh crouched and wrapped his arms around me in a passionless embrace. It was an odd sensation: not at all warm but comfortably solid. ‘I’m going to jump off the roof and this time I need you not to struggle. Can you do that?’
‘I think so.’ I squeezed my eyes shut so I wouldn’t make a liar out of myself, but it almost wasn’t enough.
My stomach lurched as we fell. I clenched every muscle, waiting for the crash, but it never came.
Raleigh alighted gently, then set me down.
Only when my trembling legs were grounded once more did he whisper that it was all right to open my eyes.
‘We need to hide,’ he said before I had fully recovered.
I shook my head. ‘We need to run.’
‘I won’t get far with this sticking out of my arm.’ He jerked his head towards his injured shoulder, then winced. ‘Give me ten minutes somewhere secluded to deal with this. Then we can run.’
I scanned the yard. Nowhere would hide us for long.
The stable wasn’t an option; Father was likely readying his horse that very second.
The old hen house, maybe? Someone would think to look there eventually, but with any luck Father wouldn’t be expecting us to stay inside the grounds. It was better than nothing.
‘This way.’
I hurtled off into the darkness, hoping Raleigh would follow.
The weeds had grown dense around the old coop, slowing our progress but providing much-needed cover.
In the distance the occasional yell broke through the silence as the men of Orlfen were roused, but they remained far enough away, for now.
The coop had been dilapidated so long that the smell of chickens had long since faded.
The wood was rotting, walls on the verge of collapse.
It was certainly no place to bring a visiting sovereign, but Raleigh fell to the floor without a care.
With a grunt he braced himself against the wall, eyes closed, clutching his shoulder while blood oozed around the bolt between his fingers.
It gave me an odd sense of relief to realise it was red.
‘I’ll be fine,’ he said unconvincingly.
‘I didn’t say I was worried.’
‘You didn’t have to. Your emotions are incredibly loud as it is.’
I didn’t know what that meant but resented it all the same. ‘We can’t stay long. They’ll find us here.’
‘I can’t sense anyone nearby. We’ll be fine for now.’
‘You couldn’t sense Father before and he was right behind you.’
‘Only because I had a bloody great cross shoved in my face.’ Raleigh grunted and clutched his arm tighter. ‘Help me get this out.’
I didn’t move. ‘We shouldn’t. The only reason you’re not bleeding is because it’s plugging the wound. If we take it out you’ll be in more danger than if we leave it in.’
‘Yes, thank you, Clara. I spent my youth training to lead my father’s army. I think I know field medicine better than you do.’
‘Don’t patronise me.’
‘Don’t patronise me.’ He grunted and tilted his head back against the wall. ‘No. I’m sorry, you didn’t deserve that.’
I blinked. Most men wouldn’t have apologised so quickly mid-argument. It hadn’t occurred to me to be offended yet. I was glad he couldn’t see the flush of shame that crept onto my face. I mumbled that it was all right, but really I should have been the one apologising.
‘This bolt is made of silver,’ he explained. ‘Every moment it’s in there it’s poisoning my body.’
‘How can you tell?’
‘Because it fucking hurts, Clara!’
‘Right. Right, okay.’ I fell to my knees and tried to get a good look at the bolt through the moonlight.
The blade had pierced Raleigh’s clothing, but the thick fabric with all its embroidery must have slowed the blade; it hadn’t penetrated too deeply.
I hoped it would come out easily enough; the only experience I’d had with extracting bolts or arrows were from animals that were already dead.
And, no, Raleigh wasn’t technically alive, but I didn’t want to make him any more dead than he already was.
‘This is going to hurt,’ I warned.
‘Just do it.’
Before either of us could change our minds I grasped the bolt with one hand, pushed against Raleigh’s back with the other and slowly eased the bolt from his wound.
Raleigh bit down hard on his sleeve in an attempt not to scream.
Then it was out, the bloody bolt glistening in my hand.
Raleigh slumped against the wall, his eyes unfocused.
‘I need to bind the wound. Can you take your jacket off?’
With trembling limbs Raleigh did as asked, though I had to help him with his injured arm.
His shirt was easy enough to tear through where the bolt had already made a hole.
It was hard to see the wound in the dark, but even with my limited vision and more limited medical experience, it was worse than I expected.
The swelling had spread down his arm and was reaching for his chest. There was something coating the rim of the wound, a gritty powder mixing with his blood.
I dabbed at it as best I could before he winced away. It felt like ash.
‘How is it?’ he said through clenched teeth.
‘Not good,’ I admitted. I tied the torn sleeve as tightly as I dared, trying not to pay attention to the noises Raleigh was making. I gave him a moment to catch his breath, or whatever it was he did with his lungs, then helped him to his feet. ‘Will you be all right?’
He rolled his shoulder, testing the mobility. ‘It’ll heal once I’ve fed.’
My pulse suddenly felt thick in my throat. I became aware of every vulnerable artery pulsing in my body. How easily they could be slashed open. Bitten open.
How much would Raleigh need to heal? And how much could I afford to lose? The last thing I wanted was Raleigh losing control of his sanity and bleeding me dry to replace what he had lost.
‘I can’t offer much,’ I said quietly, ‘but … if you promise to stop …’
‘Absolutely not.’ Raleigh’s eyes snapped wide open, his horror plain. ‘I can manage until we return.’
‘But you said—’
‘Don’t tempt me any more than you already do.
’ His voice was low, smooth. A flash more tooth than usual appeared as he spoke.
‘I told you before. I don’t drink from anyone who isn’t already dying; it’s too hard to be certain I haven’t taken too much.
I don’t intend to risk your life simply because I couldn’t wait to get home. ’
I cast my eyes downwards, ears burning. But before I could dwell on Raleigh’s words, a voice from afar carried me out of my thoughts.
‘Someone’s close,’ Raleigh whispered. ‘There’s four of them. No … five. Looks like your father found reinforcements. We need to go.’