9. Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
Captor and Captive
Valda:
I ’m almost finished plotting my revenge against Konrad when the door swings open.
“Are you done running from me like a coward?” I demand, whirling around.
Except, it’s not Konrad in the doorway. It’s the little girl and a pigeon, both with wide, frightened eyes. The fear in Eloise’s spirit is strong and sour, and something darker wafts in the surrounding air.
A wave of bloodlust.
I frown. “Eloise? Is something wrong?”
“Mutiny!” she gasps. “They want to cut off your finger!”
“ What ?!”
“Come with me!” Eloise rushes off before I can respond.
Since she’s not present to witness my unnatural speed, I rush to put on my cloak and pocket the comb I discarded since I was already kidnapped once without one.
I slide out of the cabin just as Eloise comes running out of hers, a pigeon perched on her shoulder. She’s pulling a bloated satchel over her shoulder that’s not harboring a fowl .
The chaos of men yelling and sabers swinging sounds very close.
“The dinghies are over here,” Eloise gasps, grabbing my arm and yanking me away from the sound of chaos.
“Where is your father?”
“Holding them off.” Eloise draws a tiny black dagger from a crudely made leather sheath.
I stare at it. “Is that . . . is that my dagger?”
Eloise blinks. “No, it’s my dagger.”
Snatching it from her hand, I study it. Then I slip it into my garter sheath. It fits perfectly as it was custom designed to do. “You little scamp!”
“Prisoners don’t get daggers,” Eloise counters, yanking it out of my sheath. Then she uses it to slash a rope on the side of the ship. “We have to hurry—”
“Not without Konrad. And this conversation isn’t over.” Glaring, I run toward the chaos, calling back, “You leave, though— and don’t look back!”
“He can take care of himself!” Eloise yells at me.
Ignoring her, I slide around the cabins and see a dozen men surging toward Konrad. His back is to me, and he is wielding a saber in each hand, doing his best to keep the men in front of him, even though they keep trying to come around him. With the bloodlust I smell on these men, I know that if Konrad gets surrounded, he’s dead.
Well, it was nice having a secret while it lasted.
The saber Konrad was wielding in his left hand goes flying backward even as he disarms the man he’s fighting on the right.
Konrad’s saber slides to me, and I stop it with my foot.
I stoop to grip its hilt, but I’m momentarily distracted by the ferocity Konrad puts into his fight, countering multiple blades with his last saber. His golden hair flies dramatically behind him, as does the tail of his frock coat, which he then strips off, tossing back at me.
Catching it, I look up to find his gaze locked with mine instead of the men wielding the blades his saber is currently preventing from stabbing him.
“Run,” he growls at me as he grows before my eyes. Claws protrude from his fingers and tear through his shoes.
I clutch both the saber and his coat and, for once in my life, do what I’m told. Sliding back to where Eloise has her dinghy halfway lowered from the ship.
“You were right!” I yell, going to cut the ropes of the other dinghies. “He can certainly take care of himself!”
Konrad:
T here are many reasons I hate becoming a wolf. One of them is that the transformation is quite painful. Another is that it is harder to think straight in animal form. A major reason should be that werw?lfery is punishable by death, even though it wasn’t my choice to be made so.
However, my least favorite reason is that it is an unfortunate waste of good clothing.
But I’m down to one saber and zero other options.
Shrugging off my prized coat, I throw it back to spare it, and my gaze locks on Valda.
So, Eloise understood my instructions. But why is Valda here and not fleeing her captor now that she has the chance?
Well, she’s about to find out how truly frightening I can be.
“Run. ”
When I unlock my tainted blood magic, there is no davar prayer for me to pray and harness bloodline magic actually gifted by the Creator. There is only my animalistic instinct and a single statement Pa once gave me echoing in my head as sure as any davar.
“You were made to be a werw?lfe, but you were not meant to be a monster.”
Valda’s eyes widen as I surrender to the beast within. It’s been dormant since the night after the Night of Broken Walls, and I began my revenge.
There’s only a moment of remorse for that bloodshed, though, before I see red again. And it isn’t because one of the twins has taken my moment of distraction to stab my side.
The inner wolf sees red because there will be more bloodshed than just mine.
A howl escapes my throat as my back arches. Claws extend from my fingers and toes, and my clothing tears as my body grows much greater than any mortal— certainly than any mere wolf.
“Werw?lfe!”
“He is a werw?lfe!”
“Saints save us from the blood-tainted!”
The mutineers realize what they have summoned and retreat as I arch over and flee. I can run on all fours or upright in this form since my hind legs are still longer than my forelegs. My back is arched strangely by the strange balance, and my ears twitch on my head as they listen for the closest mutineers.
Then I give chase.
A thrill fills me with all-consuming passion and all I want to do is pursue. I know I am mortal, and I know I will regret these coming actions. But it is hard to think past the desire of this moment.
Rather like kissing Valda .
I hesitate as I corner a mutineer whose name I do not recall. He cowers before me, trying to cover his vital organs while also being unable to tear his gaze away from me.
Would Valda still want to kiss me if I ate this man’s face?
He whimpers, his fear feeding the frenzy in my new form. But it doesn’t prevent me from seeing the dinghy halfway between this ship and the island I spotted before. Two females are on the boat. Valda is rowing and angling her body in an attempt to shield the eyes of the other girl aboard.
But Eloise cannot look away.
The wolf in me lowers its ears at the thought of frightening my pup when there are already so many other evils in this world.
Turning back to the cowering man before me, I open my mouth. Then I howl in his face.
He screams, as do several other mutineers, even though I’m not even cornering them .
None of these cowards will be following us for some time. They aren’t the danger to Eloise. But I will be the monster in her eyes if she witnesses just how brutal I can be.
Pulling away from the man, I jump overboard.