Orsika and I hung back to let the others go ahead of us. I grabbed the back of Georgia Anne’s tunic to keep her with us as she started to follow along. The girl could find her way in the forest, but not in a crowd.
We went together at the end of the line, and after three steps, we entered into what appeared to be a common living area. Rugs in multiple woven colors covered the floor, overlapping each other. A tapestry with a forest scene hung on one wall, and another with mountains and a stream woven into the design hung on the other side of the large space. Round cushions in colorful fabrics were scattered about, along with low tables. The scent of mint wafted through the air. One of the tables held a teapot, with steam drifting out of the spout.
They’d apparently left the space in a hurry when we’d arrived. I wondered if there were any others hiding anywhere. I did a quick scan and counted twenty-one heads, Mihai being the youngest. A man and woman who seemed to be a couple looked older than Lucia, but most seemed about the same age—older than we three, but not by much.
Since I wasn’t good at human ages, I didn’t care.
“We were just having some tea, if you’d like to join us,” Jarren offered.
“Oh yes, please!” Georgia Anne gushed and hurried nearer to the teapot.
“I don’t suppose you have coffee?” I asked, and was met with confused stares.
“No one has that. You’ll have to go on holiday to France to have it again,” Orsika said with a pointed stare at me.
Ugh. That probably meant it wasn’t part of the culture in this time.
I hung my head and lamented my favorite comfort drink. Then I felt a sharp stab in my chest when I remembered I’d come across the same struggle with Gus, how it was only in The Bayou where anyone drank “Frankish” drinks. I had to fight the sting in my eyes as I thought of him now lying unprotected. A wave of regret washed over me for leaving him there alone. I had no reason to believe that Aurora or Danú had truly glamoured him in their rush to leave Breasal.
“Are we still going to go out?” a man—the one who’d spoken in the cave earlier, if I recognized his voice correctly—asked.
“Where were you going? If you’re so concerned about the vampires out there, why would you leave?” I asked.
“You aren’t the only ones to arrive. In the last week, we’ve had five others join us. Our food stores are low, and we need to go into the nearest village for supplies,” Jarren said, then turned to reply to the man who’d made the inquiry. “We will still go, Tankerai. If you’ll continue to get ready while I show our newest guests to a room where they can rest?”
“We don’t need to rest,” Orsika answered. “If you’re going for supplies, I can help.”
“Me too!” Georgia Anne added.
I rolled my eyes. While I wasn’t opposed to helping them, the idea of squishing myself through that hole again made me pause. Maybe I could help inside somehow, but I wouldn’t stay behind. The three of us needed to stick together.
“I’ll go too.” My response was the opposite of Georgia Anne’s in level of enthusiasm.
“We don’t need your help,” Tankerai growled.
“You need Orsika more than you need that food,” Lucia answered. “A dhampir is the only one who can guarantee anyone’s safety.”
I snorted. I am plenty capable as well, thank you. “We can all help.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t have trusted Mihai, but we are highly skilled,” Georgia Anne offered. “I might not look it, but I can handle myself too.”
“Well, I wouldn’t mind the help. The more hands we have, the more we can grab. We’re planning on leaving after dark,” Jarren said.
“Why would you do that?” Orsika asked with a look that said they were complete fools. “Vampires have excellent night vision. You might think you’re hiding, but they’ll be able to see you clearly. You’re better off going during the day. Their skin is sensitive to the light, and they prefer to hunt after the sun starts to go down.”
“The ones around here don’t seem to have a preference either way. They attack day or night, but I didn’t know about their vision.” Jarren scanned the room. “I don’t think any of us did.”
“Maybe if we go earlier, they won’t be expecting us as much,” Cordelia added, apparently warming to our presence.
“That’s a good idea. Let’s get ready and leave now.” Jarren nodded to Tankerai, who twisted his lip into a snarl but nodded back.
“Do you need anything before we head out?” Lucia asked the three of us.
“I’d love some of that tea y’all offered,” Georgia Anne said with a smile.
Lucia grinned and gestured her over to the table, pouring a fresh cup for herself as well.
I was a little hungry, but until we helped gather supplies, I wouldn’t take any food away from these people.
There was one concern I had, though.
“Do you have any other way in and out of this place than the way we came in?”
Mihai giggled, and I suspected the answer was yes.
23
After walking calmly through the door made from branches and leaves hidden on the back side of the caves, Orsika, Georgia Anne, and I found ourselves with the rest of the raiders at the edge of a village. Jarren, Tankerai, Cordelia, and two other men I’d not caught the names of completed our party. It was a village like many I’d been to in the past. Small, wooden homes with thatched roofs, and muddy streets with plenty of wagons and keg barrels sitting around.
The difference was this place was silent.
No children ran through the streets. No clucking of chickens or bleating of goats filled the air. The silence was eerie, and it let us know something terrible had happened.
Mihai had said he was chasing a cat when the vampires appeared . . . I questioned that, however. Why would he have been there? For that matter, why did his people choose to live in caves, if they interacted with such a close village?
There was no reason to be suspicious or doubt the sincerity of Jarren and his followers, but it made me wonder.
With no visible activity, we crept forward and hid behind the first structure we came to. Several barrels laying on their sides were stacked three high along the back wall. We shuffled around them and crept along the side of the building. Jarren led with Cordelia and Tankerai right behind him. Orsika, Georgia Anne, and I followed next, while the other two men guarded our backs. According to Jarren, the supplies we needed would be best found in the buildings across from where we hid.
Again, I questioned his choice. I could see bread on the table in the home next to us as I peered through a crack in the boards of the outer wall. Before we left, Jarren had explained that we needed to maintain silence, so I kept my observations to myself.
Vampires had excellent hearing, so we couldn’t risk giving away our position. Orsika had confirmed those details. Adding that to their extreme vision at night, I was really beginning consider that vampires might be the most formidable foe I’d ever met.
With a gesture of Jarren’s hand, we all hurried across the street. We’d just made it to what appeared to be a tavern, when one of the guys behind me screamed. I dove to the side and got out of sight just in time, as an arrow dug into the mud where I’d been standing.
What vampire uses arrows?
I grit my teeth and felt my heart pound against my chest. There was more going on here than we’d been told.
Jarren and the others hurried to hide, but Georgia Anne and I hesitated, looking back into the street to see if we could save the man who’d been hit. He made no motion, and it seemed clear he’d already died. I tugged on Georgia Anne, and we rushed together to reach the others at the back of the building.
“Your man is dead,” I told our hosts through my teeth.
“He knew the risks,” Cordelia hissed at me.
“I’m not going another step until you tell us what’s really happening here. This isn’t just an average food raid. Vampires don’t use arrows,” I said.
; Orsika snapped her attention to me. “What are you talking about? What arrows?” Apparently she’d not seen what had taken place behind her.
“The man behind us died from an arrow to the chest, not from a vampire ripping out his throat,” I exclaimed.
“The village seems to be empty. Who else might be here looking for supplies?” Georgia Anne asked Jarren. “What do y’all have to tell us?”
Cordelia got in her face. “Help us finish this mission, and then we’ll talk.”
I didn’t like being deceived. It was just one more incident where I’d given someone my trust, and they’d betrayed me.
“Are we really here to gather food?” Orsika asked.
“Yes, we’ll be getting food,” Jarren said. “Along with some other supplies. Help us now, and we’ll outfit you later. There’s no time to waste talking. Let’s move.”
I really didn’t like my options. Someone was out there, shooting at us with arrows. I realized that I didn’t know what would happen if I got hurt, and the idea of dying in a strange time and place didn’t appeal to me.
Besides the fact that Gus is still back in Breasal . . .
I swallowed the rest of my thought. Was he in Breasal? My stomach turned over on itself. I wanted to trust Aurora, but in my heart, I believed she’d lied to me.
Why would she take time to glamour a sleeping man when everyone was evacuating? No one would have. We escaped because the demons were coming. If anyone thought we had a chance to beat them, I’m sure we wouldn’t have run. That most likely meant that Gus was now in the hands of the demons, or would be soon.
The best thing I could do was get through this raid, or whatever it was. Then, get back to Breasal to see if I could save Gus. I was his only advocate, and I wouldn’t leave him behind.
Not again, anyway.
I could see Orsika’s profile and knew she was angry. So was I, but it was Georgia Anne who caught my attention.
The petite redhead was fuming. Her hands were clenched at her sides, and she was muttering quiet words under her breath that I couldn’t understand. When her accent got going at such a quick pace, it was almost impossible to decipher.
I laid my hand on her shoulder, intending it as an act of solidarity, but I pulled my fingers away quickly. She was burning up. Georgia Anne was literally too hot to touch. I leaned toward her, and the heat billowed off of her in waves.
“Georgia Anne, what’s wrong with you?” I whispered.
She stared at me with wide eyes, and a crease across her forehead. Clearly, she didn’t understand what was happening either. But crouched down behind the tavern like we were, the heat coming off her was easy to feel.
The four humans edged away from us.
“It’s like you’re on fire,” I said.
Orsika had heard me and turned to face us. “What?”
“You said you were human. I think you lied,” Cordelia whispered. Daggers shot from her eyes, as if Georgia Anne was the only one who’d been keeping secrets.
“I never lie. My mama taught me better’n that. I don’t know what’s happenin’ to me, but I do know that you are makin’ me very, very angry. All I did was stop to help your young boy, and now look at the mess we’re in!”
“Georgia Anne.” I spoke very quietly and very carefully, trying to calm her down. Her heat had manifested into something visible.
I was used to seeing auras. All of the Valkyries in the harvester sector had red ones. The regenerators were green, the provisioners were blue, the einherjar that we claimed always had black or some varying shade of gray. Except Gus. Once he awoke I needed to find out what made his gold. If he was still where I left him, that was.
But nobody’s aura had ever burned my flesh.
Georgia Anne’s form shimmered all around with a bright red that flickered from orange to yellow, as if she had an aura of fire. The angrier she got, the higher the flames danced.
“There’s alcohol in these barrels,” offered Orsika. “If you’re some kind of fire demon, you’d better get back before we all explode.”
“I ain’t no demon,” Georgia Anne said between her teeth.
Somehow, I felt that calling her a demon was just about the worst thing anyone could do. I’d never been to Kentucky, and I didn’t even know what year Georgia Anne was from, come to think of it, but she had a very strong sense of right and wrong according to what she’d been taught as a child. And demons didn’t land on the side of right. In anyone’s world.
The fact that she looked like a human fireball was something we’d all have to figure out how to deal with later.
“Georgia Anne, you need to calm down,” Orsika tried again to soothe her.
I chuffed under my breath. Thinking of Orsika as comforting was like thinking of me as gentle.
The ground was already muddy from earlier rains, as a light rain started to fall once more. Waterdrops sizzled as they landed around us.
A noise from around the corner of the building caught all of our attention, and the entire group silenced. Even Georgia Anne seemed to dull her flames. Perhaps if she concentrated on what was going on in front of her, she’d be able to return to normal.
Jarren hissed for all of us to get back against the wall, but it was too late. The man next to me was bludgeoned by the spikes of a morning star. I jumped back and ran into Georgia Anne, who thankfully looked like a typical nervous human again.
Jarren, Cordelia, and Tankerai pulled daggers from under their tunics. We were unarmed.
I met Orsika’s glare, the anger flashing from her eyes telling me how she felt about these people we’d tried to help. Georgia Anne clamped her mouth tightly shut, but at least she didn’t turn into a fireball again.
“I don’t care who these people are, or who they think we are—I’m done with this,” I said. “I’m changing forms and going to see what’s happening out there.”
“It’s about time,” Orsika said. “Georgia Anne, whatever happens, don’t burn me.”
“You can’t leave us. You said that you’d help,” Cordelia said.
I snorted right before I changed, not caring to hide my form or my abilities. Watching Jarren’s, Cordelia’s, and Tankerai’s eyes bulge from their heads as I disappeared was completely worth it. Orsika could take care of them. I needed to see what was going on.
I flapped my wings and went over the top of the tavern. A group of six, all appearing to be males and dressed in leather armor, had three sides of the place surrounded.
How had we allowed three foolish humans to get us into this situation?
I grumbled under my breath and flew to the back of the building. Orsika and Georgia Anne were still arguing with Cordelia when I landed.
I switched back to corporeal form, lamenting the loss of my wings. Tankerai startled from my sudden reappearance, and I smiled.
“We’re surrounded by men with leather armor, bows and arrows, clubs, and axes. There’s no way that we’re getting out of this. Who are they, and what is going on?”
“Help us get out of here, and we’ll explain everything,” Jarren said.
“Why should we help you with anything?” Georgia Anne asked. “Y’all have done nothing but lie to us from the very moment we met any of you.”
“You’re right, but when you hear what we have to say, you’ll understand why.” Cordelia’s wide eyes revealed that she understood the situation we were in, even if we did not, and knew she needed our help.
Orsika, Georgia Anne, and I stared at each other. We had about ten seconds to make a decision.
“I can’t do anything in my ethereal form, so I’m gonna have to do it the human way. That would be easier with a weapon.”
“I’m basically worthless in hand-to-hand combat,” said Georgia Anne. “I can shoot any gun, though.”
Orsika and I both rolled our eyes. Guns from this timeframe were rare, so she’d be no help to us.
“You take one side, I’ll take the other,” I said to Orsika. Then I turned to Georgia Anne. “You s
tay here and try to keep these three alive so we can question them—then kill them properly, if need be.”
That garnered the panicked expressions I’d hoped for from the fools.
Orsika and I nodded to each other and took off in opposite directions.
I was immediately met by the man with the mace. Ducking below his swing was easy, as the big brute was slow.
I rammed his midsection with my shoulder, and he knocked into a man behind him who fell over a barrel, breaking some crates. I snatched a jagged slat and impaled that man’s neck. The original attacker stumbled to his feet, and managed to come after me again. I punched him in the mouth and kicked his knee out from under him.
Groaning, he tried to get up. I came down hard with an elbow straight to his temple. He went slack.
I grabbed the club and raced toward the street. From the screams, it sounded like Orsika had already made it there. When I arrived, I saw she’d tackled the last guy who’d had us surrounded. She snapped his neck before I could even get close.
“You said there were six. I’m assuming you were able to handle at least two?” A grin slid across her face.
I liked her better every day.
“Get over yourself. Let’s go find Georgia Anne, and get some answers.”
24
“It’s all clear,” Orsika called out to Georgia Anne and the others.
Jarren appeared first, peeking around the side of the building. He strode to the center of the road, stood next to the two of us, and surveyed the dead bodies on the street.
“Thank you,” he said, nodding to us. “We do need to gather some food, that part of the plan was real. If you’ll help us, we’ll explain everything.”
“I’ll help you ‘cuz I’m a good person, but y’all wouldn’t understand about that.” Georgia Anne stormed across the street and headed back the way we’d come. She slammed open the door to the same home where I’d seen the bread on the table, and went inside.
Jarren let out a big sigh. “She’s got the right idea. Everybody spread out and gather as much as you can.”
Time Academy Page 14
