by Lucy Lyons
Was that a smile, or was she only imagining it?
“I’ll protect her with my life,” Peter promised, breaking Viktoria out of her thoughts and reminding her of one thing: Desmond was going to lead an attack on hunters to the east, very soon.
She bit her lower lip, torn. She didn’t understand why she should feel so conflicted, but part of her wanted to convince Desmond not to do it… while the rest of her knew that she didn’t owe a random group of people anything like that. It wasn’t worth risking his reluctant acknowledgment of her over, was it?
Maybe Hannah was right and it’s time to stop treating vampires like they’re exactly like humans. They’re more people-like than I expected, but they aren’t human. It isn’t… fair.
However, she herself was human.
Who was she supposed to be loyal to now? The vampire who had been protecting her from the very start, or her own kind? The people she was born to be part of, or the vampire who had taken her into his world and shown her things she never would have known?
Chapter 9
Something very small and subtle seemed to change between Desmond and Viktoria after that. She couldn’t quite figure out what it was. The vampire continued to watch her in the same manner and boss her around, but it felt different somehow.
Maybe it was because she knew that he was actually paying attention to what she said. Before, she only used to make comments out of nowhere, urged on by frustration or anger. Now, she turned her head right at him to observe him while she spoke, and sometimes his dark gold eyes landed on her while she did. He might reply, or might not, but he seemed more willing to actually converse.
Probably just my imagination, she tried to tell herself, even though she knew it wasn’t.
The next time he had to walk her down to the humans to get something to eat, he took her hand as always but his grip wasn’t harsh. It was firm, yet somehow gentle.
Viktoria looked at him sideways. “Do you feel okay?” she asked, and then blushed a little, because of course he did. Vampires had one physical state and that was superhuman and heathy.
Desmond glanced over at her. “Are you concerned for me?”
She didn’t know how to answer that. She didn’t know how to answer many, many things that came up between them in the next few days. It seemed like everywhere she turned, something stumped her with its newness. What Hannah had said to her about treating vampires as something other than humans kept nagging and nagging at her, until it finally broke.
He was playing piano when she came to him. He must have been able to sense that something in her intentions was different, because he stopped and looked up at her with an eyebrow raised.
“Do you remember what it was like?” she asked.
“Do I remember?” Desmond said. She saw by the look on his face that he knew exactly what she meant.
She nodded and sat down on the piano bench beside him. The fit was tight, because he was sitting in the middle, but she didn’t move and neither did he. His cold skin pressed against her side, and it didn’t fill her with repulsion. Instead, it felt rather nice. Desmond was firm and solid, an unchanging constant in this new, uncertain life.
“To be human, I mean.”
“Why are you asking me this, Viktoria? I haven’t been human in centuries.”
“But do you remember?” she insisted, knowing full well the boundaries she was pushing against.
He sighed and looked down at his fingers. His hands slid down, pressing into the keys to raise a discordant sound. “I haven’t thought about it in centuries.”
“But you remember?”
“It was cold, and it was warm,” he said finally, after much deliberation. “I don’t remember where I lived or with whom. I’ve been in so many places since then.”
Viktoria’s heart started pounding with excitement as she listened, almost out of her mind with happiness at finally getting some answers.
“I felt things not as sharply as I do now, although in some ways…things are duller as a vampire.”
“What?” she asked, confused. Was this some sort of secret?
Desmond turned to her and his expression was very serious. She understood that whatever he was about to say, it was groundbreaking. He had never said it to anyone else.
Hannah said I would learn about him in time. Damn. Old people really do know what they’re talking about.
“I have met many people. I have smelled many things. Perfumes, feasts, the forests. I have touched and seen and heard everything a thousand times over again. You never forget the first time. But, Viktoria, what do you think happens when you chew the same piece of steak for hundreds of years?”
That seemed like a really odd analogy to her, but she suspected that he was trying to be relatable, to put this in a way she could understand. Either way, she knew what he meant. Everything flavorful or amazing that he was able to experience for the first time, would eventually become normal when you had time to experience it over and over again. Something really amazing, like the landscape outside the fortress, would eventually become nothing.
“I don’t think we are meant to be vampires,” Desmond murmured. It seemed as though he was speaking to himself now, lost to her presence. “I don’t think vampires are meant to be at all. What is the point of having so much time if you become immune to it?”
Her heart twisted and broke in her chest. Although he sounded as moody and brooding as always, the words themselves were bitter, poignant, and somehow profound. They also made her very certain that Desmond did not like being what he was.
“Isn’t there ever anything new you can do?” she asked. “Like… go to Antarctica?”
“I’ve already been there,” he said dismissively, and then his eyes slid up to her face and he gazed at her fiercely. “I can think of one new thing I have experienced in the past decade, and no more.”
She would have asked, but his gaze was filling her with the terrible and wonderful suspicion that he was referring to her.
She opened her mouth to press him for more but that was when he got up and walked away.
“Thank you for telling me,” she said after him, but received no answer.
The next time she saw Hannah, she told the doctor that she was right.
Hannah waved the issue away dismissively. “Of course I was. Age will do that. Age does many things.”
“I realize that now,” Viktoria murmured.
They helped themselves to some venison steaks and lumpy mashed potatoes, which was the food for the day. Sitting down at a table with several of the others, they were greeted and immediately welcomed into the gossip.
“Have you heard?” a woman named Jessie said excitedly.
Viktoria shook her head, trying to smooth out her potatoes a little bit. “Heard what?”
“The hunters are coming.”
She dropped her fork. It clattered off the edge of the table and dropped to the floor, the metal ringing loudly. “What?”
Jessie looked pleased to have gotten such a big reaction. “My Isaac was one of the vampires chosen to be the bait to lure them here. He left two days ago and just came back this morning. He told me in private that the hunters were moving very slowly and cautiously but that they’re definitely coming.”
“When?” Hannah asked breathlessly. Her face was flushed with excitement and a little bit of fear.
“I’m not sure. They’ll be here when they get here, I guess.”
Everyone murmured excitedly, but the whole mood of the Sanctuary was actually rather sedate. Viktoria couldn’t quite understand that. She got a new fork and tried to start eating again, but the food just stuck in her throat. “Hannah, what will the humans do during the attack?”
Hannah blinked at her, chewing tough venison like a cow grazing on her cud. Viktoria thought of Desmond’s steak analogy again. “Why, we won’t do anything at all. It’s not our place to do anything.”
“But, the hunters are humans too. Shouldn’t we�
�� warn them? Or something? Or?”
Hannah shook her head. “Our loyalties have changed, remember? We don’t belong to the humans anymore.”
I don’t belong to the humans anymore.
As much as she tried to convince herself of that, she felt like it really didn’t sit right in her mind.
The next day, terrible news came. Desmond had gone back to being particularly touchy, insisting nothing was wrong, so she made sure find out what the others in the Sanctuary knew.
“It’s worse than we thought,” Hannah said, her voice hushed.
Viktoria had gathered that, because every vampire they passed seemed right on the edge of exploding with either anger or tension. “What is it?” she asked, lowering her voice as well.
“It’s not just one group of hunters.”
Her chest went tight.
“It’s…well, no one knows. It’s a lot of them. It was a trap. We aren’t ambushing them. They’re ambushing us.”
Of course.
It would have been foolish for one group of hunters would have been foolish to attack a fortress on their own, but if there were others waiting in the wings to see where they were being led to, the others could swoop in and attack in a more coordinated manner.
Viktoria’s heart started hammering rapidly; her stomach was nervous. She imagined all the special weaponry that hunters came equipped with, that she herself had been learning to use. Rifles and pistols with silver-cast bullets, cruel hooked swords, slender knives meant to pierce rib cages… All those things that she thought were so wonderful and clever, now she winced to think of them being used against the vampires. She could imagine the agony twisting across their features, to the point where it made her stomach start to cramp with nervousness.
What if Desmond was caught by a blade, his swift movements just a fraction too slow to save him?
When he came back to retrieve her, she ran over and jabbed her finger at his chest. It was like poking a boulder and only succeeded in hurting her and earning herself a scowl. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” she demanded. “About all the hunters? When are they coming? What were you planning to do with me when they came?”
Desmond gave a frown, obviously trying to hush her. All around them, the other humans were watching. She knew he didn’t like being contested in front of anyone, especially people so much weaker than him, but she couldn’t wait until they got back to his private quarters.
“Viktoria…” he began, but she cut across him.
“Desmond.”
She glared at him with a look to match his, fearsome and terrible. At least, she thought so. However, instead of intimidating him, she thought she saw a ghost of a smile dart across his lips instead.
“The plans have not changed. You will be safe with Peter, in my rooms. It doesn’t matter how many humans there are. They won’t reach you.”
“But… what about you?”
“That’s enough,” he growled, and said no more on the matter. She followed along behind him, hardly needing to rely on him anymore to guide her when as feet had memorized the route. He pulled her into his arms and leapt up to the tallest point of the fortress, but she balked at going inside.
“Desmond, I… I’m worried, okay? I’m worried about you.”
Desmond turned to look back at her, his expression unreadable. He moved in closer to her, crossing the space in a fraction of a second. His hands settled onto her shoulders, possessive and claiming. His head lowered and his back bent, their faces so close that their noses nearly touched.
Viktoria couldn’t help herself. She started to close her eyes, waiting for something to happen that she could hardly believe she wanted.
It never came. After a full minute of nothingness, Desmond backed away and took her hand to lead her inside. Without a single word, he had made it very clear to her that she had no reason to worry. He had no intention of losing anything in the upcoming fight.
Still, she continued to worry.
Chapter 10
They came at the dawn of the next day.
Viktoria woke up abruptly in the darkness of her bedroom. Her eyes very wide, she took a deep breath and immediately recognized the scent of a vampire nearby. Fear wormed into her heart for a moment before she recognized that the metallic scent had a bit less of an edge, which meant that it was Desmond.
“Viktoria,” he said as she sat up, rubbing her eyes. The sound of his voice tore through her sleepiness because it was hushed, husky, and urgent. “I have to go.”
“Go?” she repeated. Behind him, a torch on the wall flickered into life so that she could see him. His face was solemn and proud, full of arrogance and something else. Concern or anticipation, she thought, or perhaps a mixture of both.
“The attack is about to begin.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, using the last breath she’d taken to push out the words; very suddenly she couldn’t breathe anymore at all.
Desmond nodded and took her hand, quickly pulling her through his rooms to the cliff outside. Even before they reached the opening, she heard it: the sound of many, many footsteps and hushed voices. When she leaned over the edge, she saw them.
There must have been hundreds of hunters!
Viktoria was astonished at the sight of them. They operated undercover, anonymous from the government, common citizens, and vampires alike, but she hadn’t realized that there were so many hidden that not even her family had heard of. This looked like an army force, coming to deal a huge blow and turn the tide of the war.
Pale fingers of dawn light slashed across their metal equipment, illuminating swords and guns on their backs and at their hips. They came through the shadows, walking with the rhythm of the wind, but they weren’t hiding. It was impossible to hide so many.
“Desmond,” she whispered. “What’s happening?”
Desmond did something then that she never would have seen coming. He reached out and lightly wrapped his arm around her waist, and she took the invitation to lean into him. It was just a little bit, and the moment passed quickly because she straightened up again and his arm fell away, but it lasted just long enough for her to begin to feel just a little bit better about everything.
“They all must have heard of the end of the Willows,” he said softly. “They come to seek their revenge.”
“What’s going to happen?” she pressed. “What are we going to do?”
“You will do nothing,” Desmond replied shortly, guiding her back inside. “The humans will never get past the base of the mountain, and they will never breach the fortress. Peter will stay here with you, and the other humans will remain in Sanctuary. I have already had Peter designate guards to stand as blockades at certain tunnels and cliffs, but our main force will be in the fight down below.” A twisted little smile played on his lips. “You don’t have anything to fear, Viktoria. I will keep you safe. I will kill as many of them as I need to, to ensure that none of them ever come close enough to know you’re here.”
“You’re going to be in danger!” she said desperately, trying to cling to his arm. She had to make him understand. “They have guns with silver bullets, and silver swords, and…”
Desmond hushed her with a single rough look. “I’m aware of their weapons. I’m aware of anything they could throw at us. We all are. This will be finished by the time noon comes.”
“But what if something happens to you? I should come with you. I can fight. I can…”
Again, he silenced her. She swallowed hard, fidgeting anxiously. “You will not fight. You will stay right here because I don’t want anything to happen to you. I promised to keep you safe.”
“But why do you have to be in the middle of it? Aren’t you supposed to be the king?”
Desmond shook his head. “I am, and that’s why I must fight. I don’t really relish the thought of it, but I’m not going to be the leader my parents were. They sat bac
k and let everyone else do the work for them. I can’t stand for that. Enough questions. Peter will be here in a moment.”
Peter was there in exactly one moment, probably because Desmond had heard him coming and Viktoria hadn’t, what with her pitiful hearing.
The two vampires faced each other, and Desmond let his lips part in a growl. “I don’t trust you.”
Peter actually smiled. “You don’t trust anyone.”
“You’re right. If I find out anything has happened while I’m gone, you’ll regret it.”
“Nothing will happen.”
“It had better not,” Desmond said, and he turned to walk away. Just before he disappeared out of sight, he turned back. “Viktoria.”
Her head snapped up and she started towards him, but he held up his hand to stop her. His golden eyes bored deeply into hers, making her feel as though he saw everything she was thinking. He glanced at Peter and nodded his head slightly. Then, the shadows of the exit tunnel swallowed his figure and he was gone.
Viktoria understood the terrible message. If Peter did anything, she had permission to do whatever it took to get him to stop. She had permission to kill.
Her heart felt fuzzy with fear as she turned towards Peter. Up until this point, she wasn’t used to being around anyone but Desmond and the other humans. All the other vampires had been too busy ignoring or trying to kill her.
He’s going to do something to me.
But, all Peter did was smile sedately. “So, what should we do now while we wait, then?” She knew then that he wasn’t going to hurt her.
“Peter, do you think everything will be okay?”
A flicker of surprise crossed his face. “Of course it will. I’m going to protect you.”
That sounded so wrong coming from someone who wasn’t Desmond. He should have been the one staying with her.
There was nothing she could do now, though.
“I’m not really sure what I want to do,” she admitted.
Peter nodded. “Don’t let me bother you.” He pointed over towards a bookshelf. “I see something I would like to read. If you need me, don’t hesitate to call for me.”
