Bloodbane
Rasping whinnies shook my dying mare. Steel scraped upon steel and arrows whirred as the violent meeting of armed Travelers and raiders escalated.
I didn’t appear injured beyond a throbbing pain radiating from my hip. I winced as I sat up and yelped, immediately ducking to avoid another arrow.
I should have gone to the fucking axe.
One Traveler clutched his leaking gut. The feathered tip of an arrow protruded from his middle and a fountain of blood spurted from his gasping mouth. A viscous rattle cut each breath in half.
My jaw dropped as a dozen raiders emerged from the woods. The darkness swallowed their black uniforms, but the glinting moonlight off their swords and daggers betrayed their positions. When they drew closer, the fuzzy edges of a circular symbol embroidered on their chests came into focus.
“Fucking Veilbreakers,” a rough voice growled.
Strong arms dragged me away from the dying horse. My eyes fixed on the inky pool creeping beneath its mane. The beast shrank as I was pulled away from the skirmish and into the tree line.
“He’s taking her to the woods!” a voice shouted through a grunt and ping of a sword.
“There, hurry!” Another assailant drew the attention of their comrades.
My heart pounded, matching the chaos of the moment.
A white hot pain seared through my arm, stealing all breath from my lungs as I looked down at the arrow piercing my outer muscle.
A wild scream clawed at my throat as agony like I’ve never known ripped through my body.
Instinctively, I reached for the wooden shaft of the bolt.
“Leave it,” Dommik barked. He’d shed his blue robes, revealing intricate black leather armor sculpted to his muscled form.
The sleeveless cuirass featured bronze buckles across his chest and sheathes for three daggers near his ribs.
The corded muscles of his forearms flexed as he retreated with me in his grasp.
I let out a string of curses. At the arrow. At him. At the whole bloody situation.
“Who the fuck are they?” I gritted as we rounded a mature thicket of thorned shrubs. My heartbeat firmly relocated itself in the marred tissue of my injury.
“Veilbreakers. Stay,” Dommik hissed as I thumped to the unforgiving earth.
The pounding muscle around the arrow roiled my stomach with its incessant pulse. He couldn’t be serious. He couldn’t just leave me here.
“Veilbreakers? Who—” I panted through my panic.
Dommik knelt beside me, his broad body shielding me from the danger. I sucked in a breath and trained my focus on his dark brows furrowed into a hardened line above steely, pleading eyes. “I need to deal with this and then I’ll come back for you.”
Leave me? Alone? In the Eckwood? Absolutely not.
I huffed in protest.
Dommik sighed before lowering his face dangerously close to mine. The rough bark of the tree scratched through my cloak as I pressed further into its base, searching for a nonexistent escape. I held my breath, suddenly all too aware that no one could see us here, alone in the looming dark forest.
Delight flickered across his gaze as he came closer and closer, until the tip of his nose hovered above mine.
Horror sunk its claws into me—he could do anything here. Take my body. End my life. Tell the Hive and the Crown I tried to escape and had to be struck down. Go back to Illica and steal Cova or Lydia next.
“Please,” I gasped, fear written on my face. “Don’t hurt me.”
“Hurt you?” His attention shifted from my lips and carved a path to my neck. Slowly, his gaze slid back to my wide eyes as he purred, “Hold still.”
With an unnatural swiftness, he broke off the shaft of the arrow and I shrieked, more from fear than actual pain. The frayed shaft still lodged in my flesh throbbed angrily at the disruption.
“You fucking—” His gloved hand muffled my curses and knocked my head against the tree.
The nerve of this man. I scowled in fury and disbelief, huffing heated breaths beneath the scent of leather and pine.
“Such language.” He clicked his tongue as he tossed the broken wood over his shoulder. “You’re lucky. Went clean through and looks to only have hit muscle. Do not take this out before I return.” He slapped my hand away from prodding at the arrow. “Stop that! I’ll bandage you up when I’m back.”
A single rivulet of hot blood trickled from the wound. The wooden shaft did little to block my life force from escaping.
Beyond the shrub, a loud thud preceded a squelching gurgle.
The tell-tale sound of someone’s luck running out.
I winced as they drowned in their own blood.
Dommik’s fierce eyes fixed to the lazy, red river traveling down my arm, the attack momentarily forgotten.
He removed his glove and traced the trail of blood, collecting the crimson liquid on his thick, bare finger.
My breath hitched as he wrapped his lips around it, closing his eyes at the taste like he was savoring a well-seasoned meal.
“On the other hand, your blood is…” His words disappeared into a sigh as unmistakable, deadly fangs emerged among his already hypnotizing smile.
Vampire.
A cold rush plunged through me at the sight of the protruding canines. I wanted to shrink into the moss and mold to the forest floor, but all I could do was stare. The skirmish battle cries finally drew close enough to steal his attention.
His features struck me harder now that I knew what he was—which was not a Traveler at all. Because Travelers were mortals. Servants to Illica and its human realm.
“You’re a—” I gasped, my words failing as the cold, harsh truth slammed into me.
Dommik tapped his canine with a newly unsheathed dagger. “Afraid so.” He forced the blade into my hand and closed my fingers around the hilt. “Stay hidden. If you’re found by one of them, call for me. Fight. Aim for the neck, ribs, or groin. Do not let them take you, do you understand?”
No. My thoughts spun in a violent tornado. Who were they? Who was he if not a Traveler? What would happen if they found me? Took me? What would happen if they didn’t?
Metal sang as he drew the serrated sword from his back, its sharp blade a twin to his own deadly teeth.
“I’ll come back as quickly as I can. Wish me luck, lovely.” He winked a stormy eye and disappeared with the wind. His unnatural speed accentuated the difficult truth, he was a fucking vampire.
The clash of steel was drawing closer and I tried to make myself as small as possible.
A twig snapped nearby—too near for comfort—and I adjusted my grip on the hilt of the dagger. I didn’t know how to fight, it’s not ladylike to wield weaponry. Command a household? Now that, I could do. But this…this felt so wrong. So foreign.
My heart thrashed like a rabid animal caught in a snare as an assailant stepped into view. The sheer size of him made the dagger I shakily clutched seem like a sewing needle rather than a formidable blade.
“There you are.” His caramel eyes peered down at me between strips of fabric covering his hairline, nose, and mouth.
Do I even bother to fight this mountain of a man?
He reached a bloody hand toward me. “You’re not going to need that.”
I slashed at the air. “Stay away! I mean it!”
“Easy,” he cooed, raising his palms.
I didn’t know Dommik well, or at all really, but he was the devil I knew versus the devil I didn’t. And what little I did know was his task to deliver me to the Hive, and if he didn’t deliver, it could put my family in danger.
I should have gone to the fucking axe.
Death in the Illica courtyard would have been clean, quick, simple. But had I agreed to meet my end that day, it might be Cova, or Lydia sitting here in the brush with an arrow sticking through their arm and an assailant threatening abduction.
My heart thundered, encouraging the heated rage through my veins.
No. I couldn’t be taken. I wouldn’t be taken. I slashed again, baring my teeth and crying out as the blade struck flesh.
“Shit!” The assailant backed away, assessing the paltry cut on their palm. “You’re a vicious little thing.”
Not really. I thought, having surprised myself with my strength and aim. But I was backed into a corner and couldn’t risk abduction. I just had to fight him off long enough for Dommik to return.
Shock ricocheted through me as I realized I genuinely hoped Dommik—the deadly vampire—would come back for me, and soon.
“Stay back!” I snarled.
“Enough,” he barked, lunging toward me.
If he got his arms around me, there would be no way I could break free. I held out the blade again, every muscle clenched, ready for the inevitable. He inched closer and closer until he was a pace away. As he took the final step, a black mass slammed into my attacker, throwing him to the ground.
The devil I knew.
Dommik glanced at me in a quick assessment with charged, murderous eyes. His chest rose and fell gracefully beneath the tight leather as if he were barely exerting any effort at all.
“Fucking leech,” the Veilbreaker groaned from the forest floor.
“Fucking false martyr,” Dommik retorted, stalking toward his prey.
The man’s panic-laced pupils darted as he gasped, “You have to get away from him. Don’t help them—” The whites of his wild eyes flared as Dommik drove his sword into his sternum.
I gasped as the light left his stare and my body convulsed as the raider’s went limp. A gentle owl hoot rolled through the forest, quiet once more.
Dommik pulled his sword from the body. “Are you hurt?” He winced, placing a hand on his side.
“No more than before,” I whispered, my eyes still fixed on the warm corpse. “You just—he’s—” My vision blurred as the truth of what I’d witnessed settled in. Dead, I mouthed but no sound accompanied the word.
“Dead. Yes.” Dommik turned to me. He lifted his hand away from his leathers revealing a sizable wound. His pointed nose scrunched and he hissed as he twisted, trying to get a better look at the gash. Blood, black as ink, spilled from his waist.
“Fuck.” Dommik groaned to the canopy as I pushed myself to stand.
Silence blanketed the night. No swords. No voices. No movement.