14. Rae
RAE
Vampires.
The word hung in the air like a bomb waiting to detonate. Except it already had. It had exploded with a reality I couldn’t unsee or unknow.
Vampires.
The kind of creature that existed on blood and dealt in death. That were death themselves.
My heart hammered against my ribs in a vicious tempo. It was so loud, I was sure they could all hear it. Did they want my blood? Was that why I was here? As some sort of sacrifice? For them to drain me? To make me like them?
I started backing away as if I could outrun them, knowing full well they could reach me in a single breath. But what else could I do? I looked around.
I might not have had strength on my side, but I had a brain. What did the movies say about vampires? They hated garlic and sunlight. But I’d seen Pax in the sun, and nothing about him had seemed different. A stake to the heart or beheading?
It didn’t seem likely that I had the strength or the stomach to take off one of their heads with my bare hands. My gaze caught on a rock. Slender and shiny black, like obsidian.
I snatched it up and pointed it at Rhys and then Pax as they slowly approached.
Ayden snorted in amusement. “She’s like a doe with a machete.”
Rhys scowled in his direction. “Really determined to rid yourself of that carotid, aren’t you?”
Ayden glowered in response.
Pax held out both of his hands in a placating gesture. “Rhys won’t hurt you, and neither will I. I took a blood oath.”
Heat gathered along my lashes, tears pushing against them, desperate for freedom. “You were my friend.”
Guilt swamped Pax’s features. “I couldn’t tell you. And be honest: Would you have believed me?”
“I would’ve thought you were having some sort of break with reality. Which is probably what’s happening to me.” My words tripped over each other as I struggled to get them out.
Rhys took a step closer, and I swung the sharp rock in his direction. He halted, not out of fear but something else I couldn’t identify.
Realization dawned as I swung my weapon back in Pax’s direction. “Do you even like plants?”
Ayden choked on a laugh. “Plants?”
Rhys’s hands clenched, his knuckles bleaching white. “Fuck off. If I remember correctly, you had a collection of pet rocks until you were about twenty earth cycles.”
A couple of the warriors snickered, but the laughter quickly died as Ayden sent them a look that promised retribution.
Rhys turned his own angry stare in my direction. “Put down the rock, Soraya.”
“No.” I gripped it harder.
“I don’t want you to hurt yourself,” he said through gritted teeth.
I pointed it at his chest. “More like you’re afraid I’ll hurt you.”
I’d taken a self-defense class my freshman year in college and still remembered a few of the moves. It might not have been designed to defend against vampires, but balls were balls, and that had to hurt regardless of species.
Rhys shoved his hands into his pockets, looking completely unfazed by my threats. “What I’d like to avoid is you cutting yourself and sending two dozen Nocturnae into a feeding frenzy.”
My gaze dipped to the rock and the sharp edge biting into my palm. I could see just how easily that could happen. I dropped it.
I expected Rhys or Pax to surge forward and grab me, but neither moved. Pax looked worried, but Rhys still looked completely unbothered.
“Nocturnae?” I croaked, my mind desperate to hold on to something. As if knowledge could get me out of this one. That had always been my answer: outthink a problem. Nothing couldn’t be solved by attacking it logically.
But nothing about this was logical.
“That is the name of our people,” Pax explained softly.
Rhys must have sent him some silent message because his mouth snapped closed.
“But you…you have fangs. You’re not a vampire?” It was only my desperation for knowledge that kept me asking the questions.
At my inquiry, sounds of derision erupted from the warriors.
“Vampires are bad?” I pressed.
Rhys adjusted the watch on his wrist. “Nocturnae are what vampires were born of. We are much, much older than they are. They only come to be when one of us mates with a human.”
“But you all hate humans.” I could tell that much from Ayden’s reaction to anything from that world.
Rhys tilted his head to one side, studying me. “Hate isn’t exactly the right word. They have their uses.”
“As food,” one of the warriors muttered.
My stomach roiled, making the meager contents slosh. “Are you…going to eat me?”
Ayden snickered. “Perhaps.”
Rhys’s head jerked in his direction. “Bleeding out in a long, slow death. Remember?”
Ayden’s hazel eyes flashed, but he didn’t say a word.
“No one will eat you,” Rhys ground out. “You have my word.”
“Notice he made no promises not to drink from you,” Ayden cut in, clearly not all that worried about Rhys’s threats.
Rhys slowly turned to face his brother. He opened his mouth to likely level another threat, but that ominous horn rang out again.
Ayden was instantly on alert, pulling a blade out of thin air. “There’s no time for your censure. We must greet our guests.”
The witches.
I felt a little lightheaded. Vampires with wings were enough. Seeing someone flying around on a broom? That might be more than I could take.
Rhys looked between Pax and me, then muttered a curse. “You’ll come with me. And you’ll stay behind me at all times. Pax will not leave your side.” He glanced at Pax. “If anything happens to me, you are to take her and head for the Feral King’s territory.”
Pax lifted his head in assent.
“I’m sorry. Did you say Feral King?” I choked out.
Rhys grunted.
“I can’t decide if you want to kill me or protect me,” I muttered.
Rhys’s amber eyes flashed gold. “If I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead. Now let’s go.”
My stomach did that sloshing thing again, and I was suddenly glad I hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast.
Pax fell into step beside me. “Come on. We don’t want them to pass the borders. If they do, it’ll be war for sure.”
“War?” I croaked. “With witches?”
Pax’s mouth thinned into a hard line, but he nodded.
Suddenly, I didn’t have any more questions. I didn’t want to know. Instead, I stayed quiet and fell into step behind Rhys with Pax at my side. It was the worst kind of feeling, knowing that my only hope of safety was the two people who’d taken me from my home and life.
I tried to focus on my surroundings, looking for anything that rippled the way the portal had. Maybe I could escape and head back home. Sure, I’d plummet from the sky, but that was better than having my throat ripped out.
Instead, I saw nothing but fiery beauty: a creek that looked like lava, babbling along with tiny, ember wildflowers adorning its banks in a cascade of light and shadow. As we walked up a ridge, a forest of firelit trees swept to our right.
And then I saw it: the stark transition in front of us. Flaming posts marked the end of whatever this land was. What lay beyond it was a good dozen feet of scorched earth. And then past that?
It was as if someone had turned on all the lights.
The land glimmered in every color of the rainbow.
Sun-kissed and full of life, butterflies shimmered, and something that looked like a sparkly bee flitted from flower to flower.
The trees weren’t just shades of greens, but also pinks, purples, and blues.
It was stunning.
But it wasn’t an empty land.
I gasped when I saw them. A good four dozen…people? Witches? Many were on horseback; others were on foot. But the ones on foot wore armor, many carrying bows and arrows or other weapons.
They looked like they were from another time, yet not entirely. The women wore intricately adorned dresses. The men wore trousers with silver embroidery and linen shirts.
The horses were all an otherworldly silver. Not the grays I’d seen in the fields around my small town growing up but a true glowing silver.
They were hypnotizing.
“So beautiful,” I whispered.
It shouldn’t have been loud enough for anyone to hear me, but Ayden’s gaze flicked in my direction. “Looks can be deceiving. They could kill you with a flick of their wrist.”
I swallowed hard. “Who are they?”
Rhys answered without taking his eyes off the approaching party. “Your family.”