Chapter 14 #2
Droplets of crimson ran down the left side of his face as he came at me again.
Celine shrieked behind me. “Morrow, no!” She threw herself at him; he thrust a hard elbow, hitting her in the face and knocking her to the ground. With blood seeping out of her nose, she stared at him in shock.
His fury turned to me again. Beast went for a second strike, his face depraved and haunting. I jumped back to evade him—Vander caught his arm and twisted it until he dropped the knife.
It clattered to the stone beneath us. With an animal-like growl, Vander gripped his throat, fingers digging deep into Beast’s skin and muscle.
He drove him backward and slammed him into the nearby tree trunk.
“If you ever touch my apprentice again, I will fucking kill you.” He leaned closer and said something in his ear.
Beast’s eyes widened. The color seemed to drain from his face.
My heart pounded. I fought for each breath. Everything changed so fast, my mind was whirling.
Beast wanted to kill me, not just hurt me.
I gulped down the lump in my throat.
A dark flash with a long braid caught my eye. Dred slinked up behind Vander.
“Viper, watch—”
He pulled a blade. The point of it touched Dred’s chest. “Step back.” His calm but frightening command sent a chill down my spine.
“Let go of my apprentice.”
Something brushed against my shoulder, and I snapped my head around to find Falcon. Her hands were fisted at her sides, her jaw tight.
Vander released Beast and marched at Dred, pressing the blade enough to indent his shirt. Dred backed up several steps with his hands raised until they stood directly in front of me, Falcon, and Celine.
Dred’s dark eyes burned with malice. “Calm yourself, Viper.”
“If your apprentice touches her again, if he so much as looks at her, he’ll be fighting me.
And when there’s nothing but a cold fucking corpse, you can send a condolence letter to his mummy and daddy.
” The two men stood toe to toe, ready to rip each other’s throats out.
I’d never seen this wild side of Vander.
My heart hammered in my chest, thundered in my ears. Falcon gripped my bicep and backed me and Celine around to the side of the table. Blood dripped freely from Celine’s nose, and she let it. Like she wanted Beast to see what he’d done.
“You can’t kill—”
“After he just attempted to murder my apprentice, yes, I could.”
Dred’s jaw tensed. “He was defending himself after she attacked him. He’d have left her with a little scar as a reminder, nothing more.”
“Don’t twist it. We all saw what happened.”
Ghost, Scout, and a few other trainers carefully moved closer.
Some I didn’t know the names of inched around to back Dred.
The air felt like menacing black clouds waiting for thunder to crack after a streak of lightning.
In one of the windows, I caught movement.
Commander Ace watched from above with a pensive expression.
“I saw that he was razzing the boy a little and she smashed a glass over his head. Maybe you need to get your apprentice under control.”
“Oh, is that what you saw?” Vander’s voice was low, venomous, every bit the viper. “You’re not going to lie your way out of this one. Me for Bonecarver, you for Beast.”
Dred’s jaw muscles flicked, his eye twitched. A shine of sweat glistened on his brow. “We’ll just let it be a blow for a blow. Your apprentice struck mine and mine struck yours. It’s done.”
“I can smell your fear, Dred. Maybe your apprentice isn’t the only little bitch here.”
Falcon tensed beside me, and she slowly curled her fingers around her dagger’s hilt.
Him for me, what did that mean? “What is happening?” The tension was crackling, palpable.
“The old way,” Falcon murmured. “A challenge. Dred cannot back down now.”
Dred licked his bottom lip. “I accept your challenge, Viper.”
Vander held my hand over the copper sink in our bathing chambers. The glove I always wore was sticky with blood. I’d have to sew the slice in the leather later. “I can clean it myself.”
“Take off the glove. You need stitches, not just cleaning.”
It had been years since anyone had seen my hand. I didn’t even let my family see it. It reminded them of what happened to me and Grandma Thora. It reminded them that I was different, that there was something tainted about me.
“Viper, I don’t need your help. I’ll be fine.”
He shoved aside the few toiletries on the counter beside the sink and they crashed to the floor. “Sit down.”
My stomach coiled with nerves. I tried to pull my wrist out of his fingers, but his grip was ironclad. “I—please, I can take care of this.”
“Your scars aren’t going to make me think differently of you. Sit down, Bonecarver.”
His tone left no room for argument. I gritted my teeth and hopped onto the counter. He nudged my knees apart and stood between them. I could hardly think straight when he stood this close. That’s probably why he was inches from me, he knew it would shut me up.
He tugged at the fabric of my glove, but it was sticky and I winced.
His brow pinched and he stopped. A moment later, he held a pair of scissors and slid it against my palm and cut away the fabric.
The gash was wider than I thought, revealing muscle tissue, even white bone.
Feeling slightly faint, I turned my head away.
Warm water ran over my skin, stinging it.
“You owe me a new glove, Viper.”
“I’ll get one for you.”
The soft cloth he wrapped around my hand was cream. It would be stained forever. After he pulled it away, the pads of his fingers glided across my scarred flesh. His eyes rose to mine, flicking back and forth in question. I felt even more ill. I didn’t want him to see the scars.
“What happened? I think we’re past the point of you hiding it from me.”
“A wolf.” I met his stare and lied like I had for years. That’s the story we always told. I was attacked by a wolf, and my father saved me.
“A wolf,” he deadpanned.
“Yes, a wolf. Vampires aren’t the only predators in Lothleton.”
He ran his fingertip over the pink and silver scars that formed in a half-circle. I know what it looked like, I knew what he was thinking. “Some of these look like... teeth marks.”
“Wolves have teeth, last I checked.”
The air thickened. He didn’t believe me, but he couldn’t guess the truth.
It was impossible. I trusted Vander to a point, but never would I tell him what truly happened.
I couldn’t. He’d kill me. He’d shove his dagger straight through my heart.
I wasn’t a vampire, but he wouldn’t understand.
He would hear that I was attacked and bitten and he’d react.
He was an assassin born and bred to kill vampires.
I didn’t know why I was different, or why I didn’t burn in the sunlight or crave blood, or why I didn’t die that night.
I’d read that most children didn’t survive the change, but I did.
And I didn’t turn into a monster. I didn’t know why the only consequences of being bitten by that vampire were these scars and my iris changing black on the side I was bitten.
But I couldn’t tell him any of that. Even if he could see reason and believe that I wasn’t a vampire, he’d tell others, and they would take me away.
I didn’t want to imagine what they’d do.
Would the scholars cut me and test what I could withstand to study me for their books and lessons?
Would the mages lock me in a cage for the rest of my life to take my blood and use it for their spells?
They would probably have another vampire bite me just to see if it were true.
I didn’t know what would happen if I were bitten a second time. Maybe I’d only been lucky the first.
“How old were you?” Vander asked.
“Ten. I went outside to pick apples near my house. A wolf chased and knocked me down. When I tried to push it away it tore into my hand.” I recited it like lines from a book.
No one but my family knew the truth. That secret had never left my home.
I doubt my father would have even told my siblings if they hadn’t heard my screams and my parents panicking.
I still remembered them fighting about what they should do if I survived the night.
My mother couldn’t stop sobbing. It was the first and last time I’d seen my father cry.
He held me in his arms the next morning and said he wanted to watch the sunrise together, and that it would be beautiful, the most beautiful sunrise there’d ever been.
He tried to hold in his emotions, but his eyes were red, and the tears kept slipping down his cheeks.
I knew what that meant. He held me tight to his chest, crying onto my shoulder standing in front of the doorway.
My mother was lying curled in a ball on the kitchen floor with my siblings trying to console her.
I think she wanted to get up to hug me, to say goodbye, but she couldn’t.
“It’s alright, Daddy,” I said, wiping his cheeks. I knew what a vampire bite meant. I knew what going in the sun meant too. I’d heard the stories of my grandfather, and how noble and brave he was. “I am brave like Grandpa.”
When my father pulled open the door, we stepped outside to the cool morning air.
We sat on the bench, and he kept his arm around my shoulder.
He hummed my favorite song, and we watched the sun come up.
And it was beautiful, crimson and pink, like he promised.
The warmth of the light spilled across my face, and I closed my eyes, waiting.
Would it hurt? Would my grandfathers meet me in the afterlife?
But nothing happened. The morning birds chirped, and the sun warmed me, but didn’t change me. I didn’t turn to stone. The blood cravings never came. My father cried even more, but this time they were happy tears. He called me his little miracle.
Vander took a needle and thread out of the cupboard. “You still think about going home, don’t you? You still wish you could go back.”