Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
I AWOKE WITH A START barely an hour later when Raleigh pressed his hand over my mouth. Still half-asleep, I struggled against him, his palm swallowing my protests until my waking mind overtook instinct. Raleigh was trying to calm me, though he was plainly terrified himself.
‘Shh.’ He slowly removed his hand from my lips. ‘They’re here. You need to hide.’
‘We need to—’
‘Don’t argue. They might already be in earshot.’ He looked uneasily to the window. ‘You’re in no condition to fight.’
‘So we run.’
Raleigh shook his head. ‘I could run. You wouldn’t make it past the gate.’
‘So go. It’s better for one of us to live than for all of us to die.’
He ran the back of his fingers along my cheek. ‘I would rather die knowing I’d done everything in my power to protect you than live with your blood on my hands.’
I reached for his hand, intertwining my fingers with his. ‘As would I.’
‘Clara …’ He closed his eyes, pain seeping across his features. ‘Please don’t make this harder than it already is.’
I gritted my teeth in frustration. ‘Fine. I’ll hide. But you need to promise me to do everything in your power to survive. Not just protect me. You need to live.’
Raleigh looked away. ‘I promise. Now, where’s your dagger?’
‘In one of my pockets,’ I said, spotting them draped over the chair where I’d left them.
‘Just take the whole thing. You can rummage later.’ Raleigh’s image wavered, and then he was handing them to me. ‘And put this on. It’ll disguise your scent.’
It was his coat. I pulled it around me, immediately comforted by the sensation of being enveloped by him. Not that I had long to relish it. Raleigh had thrown open the tiny armoire and was beckoning me inside.
I hesitated. ‘That’s the first place they’ll look.’
‘Trust me.’
I did trust him, but that didn’t mean I had to have faith in his plan. Scowling, I did as he bade, and immediately regretted it. There was barely enough space inside to hang a gown. I was hemmed in, my arms pinned against my sides.
‘I’m sorry,’ Raleigh said, then closed the door, shutting off all light.
It took all my strength not to scream. I forced myself to stand still, though all I wanted to do was bang my fists against the door until Raleigh released me.
There came a shuffling on the outside, and the subtle creak of the wood told me Raleigh was leaning against the door.
I couldn’t force my way out even if I wanted to.
I tried to focus on breathing. In. Out. Shallow. Steady. My mind swam, nausea coiling, throat aching under the bandage. Raleigh hadn’t taken enough blood for me to suffer the same symptoms as Moira, but it was still enough to feel the loss.
Downstairs, someone screamed. There was a muffled crash, a laugh, a man’s holler of pain.
I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping vainly that the sound wouldn’t carry any closer while I fumbled through my pockets in the dark, but it wasn’t silver my hand found first. A glass vial fell into my fingers. Raleigh’s blood.
Raleigh was right. I was in no condition to fight.
What would happen if I drank the contents?
My blood was in his veins, his venom in mine.
An hour ago there would have been no question that this single vial would be enough to curse me for eternity.
But now, after my body was no longer aflame from Raleigh’s bite?
I didn’t know. Even if I hadn’t left it so long, the blood in this vial was over three hundred years old.
There was no telling whether it would have the same effect as blood freshly drawn.
It might kill me outright from something else entirely.
I heard another garbled scream, this time from just outside the room. I clutched the vial to my chest and tried to focus on breathing again. There was a crash, a thump. The door was forced open, and they were upon us.
‘Randal,’ Raleigh said coolly on the other side of the door, ‘Elif. I’d say it’s a pleasure to see you both again, but I’m not feeling particularly inspired to spare your feelings.’
There was a moment’s pause. ‘Where’s your pet?’ That must have been Randal.
‘Clara? I haven’t seen her in days. We knew you’d follow the carriage, so she took a horse and went west on her own. You really fell for it, didn’t you? I shouldn’t be surprised – you’ve never been the brightest bunch.’
‘I smell a human in the wardrobe.’ That was a second voice, a woman’s this time, soft spoken and insidiously calm.
‘Ah. No, see, I had a rather unfortunate spillage while dining earlier,’ Raleigh said. ‘You’d be smelling that.’
‘You’re lying,’ Elif cooed.
‘Clara’s long gone,’ Raleigh said again. His voice dropped, the prince of my childhood bubbling to the surface.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Randal said. ‘The others were in charge of finding the human. Our orders were to collect you.’
My own peril was forgotten. A strange and biting clarity washed over me. Raleigh was out there putting his life on the line for me. Moira and Enrique were God knows where – hopefully still alive – and all I could do was cower in hiding, swaddled in Raleigh’s clothes like a helpless infant.
‘Is there still a court to bring me back to?’
‘The court survives,’ Randal said. ‘Divided or otherwise.’
My breath hitched. So the Queen had won. I started to shake. I’d known it was too much to hope she hadn’t survived the attack – not when Raleigh was still undead – but I’d hoped she’d be weakened somehow.
‘If I go with you,’ Raleigh asked, ‘will Clara live?’
The woman tutted. ‘You’re so boring, Raleigh. But yes, those are the orders. You come willingly, and your pet gets to live.’
‘Freely,’ Raleigh said. ‘She lives freely. You can’t take her too.’ I knew, then, what he meant to do. I wanted to scream, to throw open the door and stop him from saying whatever was coming next.
‘You’ll have to take the semantics up with Her Majesty. But I promise you, darling, we won’t harm a hair on her pretty head.’
‘Don’t you dare,’ I hissed under my breath.
Raleigh elbowed the wardrobe door to shut me up. I didn’t doubt his cousins had heard me just as clearly. If he said another word, I was about to make the worst decision of my life. Perhaps the last decision of my life.
‘I’ll go with you,’ Raleigh said. ‘And Clara goes free.’
I had to stop him.
I didn’t know if it would work. I didn’t know how long it would take, if it was already too late.
I didn’t know.
I didn’t know.
I didn’t know.
But I had to try.
My fingers shook so much as I broke though the seal that I nearly dropped the vial, spilling away Raleigh’s last chance at life. The smell hit me instantly.
Was I really doing this? Trading the rest of my life for a single moment? But if we didn’t survive this moment, there wouldn’t be a rest of my life to trade.
I forced myself to pour the contents down my throat, suppressed a gag and swallowed the lot.
The wood around me creaked as Raleigh stepped away from the door. I waited for power to surge through me, for bloodlust and magic to run through my veins. Nothing happened. If anything, my heart was beating faster than ever. The only sensation coursing through me was a sickening realisation.
I fought back another wave of nausea and panic, racking my brains for what I knew about the transformation process.
How long did it take before the curse took effect?
A full transformation could take days, but the sources I’d read implied the early signs would be immediate.
At the very least I should have felt something.
It hadn’t worked. I’d lost my only advantage. And all the people who had died tonight had wasted their lives because we were too selfish to give ourselves up. We were all going to die here, all except Raleigh, who had an altogether worse fate in store.
I’d spent my whole life listening to terrible sounds.
A father’s howl over his wife’s cold body.
The crackle of flames consuming a soul. My own cries, when I woke to find a corpse in my bed.
But the worst sound of all was the resigned silence of Raleigh giving in.
I was human, powerless, but I would’ve killed every vampire in the world if it meant protecting his freedom.
I shoved my hand back into my pockets, searching for the dagger.
‘She’ll be pleased you came willingly,’ Elif said. ‘I hope she isn’t too harsh with your punishment. We’ve all missed that beautiful face of yours.’
‘Well, I’m sorry to say I’m already sworn to another,’ Raleigh said.
I threw my pockets to the ground and hurled open the wardrobe, ready to fight them both myself if I had to, but Raleigh was already in motion, a blur of flesh and fury.
He fell upon the man who must have been Randal and tried to wrap his hands around his throat, but Randal was stronger and quicker.
He threw Raleigh off, sending him flying.
The walls shook as Raleigh made contact, plaster crumbling around him.
The woman, Elif, gaped at the sight of me bursting from the wardrobe. I wanted to kill her, but my chances were better if someone else took the helm. In her moment’s hesitation I sprinted past her and out the door.
‘Moira!’ I screamed over the railing.
I heard a thump and a curse and hoped that meant she’d heard me. I rushed back into the room, righting my grip on my dagger, holding the cross out in front of me for protection. Elif hissed as I advanced, backing her into the corner.
‘Don’t come back,’ Raleigh grunted. Randal had him pinned to the wall, holding him up with one hand at his throat. Raleigh’s feet didn’t reach the ground. He kicked helplessly, trying to free himself.
‘So arrogant for a whore, aren’t you, Raleigh?’ Randal squeezed his throat tighter. A bead of blood welled to the surface in the crest where nails met flesh. ‘You think you can stop us? Stop her? You were only ever good for one thing, and it sure as hell wasn’t fighting.’