Fair enough.
The wolf headed for the stairs on the right, the ones that led down, and I couldn't do anything but follow him.
Stairs were even harder than running. I hadn't used stairs since I was six years old, and you would be surprised at how difficult it was to move down stairs at a decent speed without stumbling and falling.
It took all my concentration just to keep myself upright with one foot moving in front of the other.
Just keep going, right?
The wolf froze. I had to backpedal to keep from plowing into him and falling face first down the steep stairs. I ended up landing painfully on my ass. The stone was not a forgiving mistress.
Sucking in a deep breath, I resisted the urge to snap at the wolf for not giving any sort of warning before stopping.
The wolf turned itself and with a jump darted down a hallway I hadn't even noticed—we weren't on a landing, we were still on the stairs, but there was a corridor right there. I stepped off carefully into the hallway, paying attention to the movement just to make sure I didn't fall again. Safely off the stairs, I took off at a run after the wolf.
The corridor was long and dark—I couldn't see my hand in front of my face when I lifted it to test. But I thought better of trying that again when I almost fell flat on my face.
Right, no multitasking while you're running. My brain just couldn't handle it right now, apparently.
I was like a goddamned toddler. I had to use all of my brain power just to keep my legs moving.
Fat lot of good I was.
It felt like ages passed, but at last we reached the end of the corridor.
A fairly unimportant looking door stood in front of us. My gut clenched as I thought about what might be on the other side. Something awful?
More vampires?
The wolf wouldn't have led me here if it didn't think we-more like it-could take whatever was waiting behind the door. With a deep breath, I reached to clasp the knob and turned it.
The door swung open, revealing the outside world. Grass. God, I’d almost forgotten what grass looked like.
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph," I whispered reverently.
The wolf didn't appear to want to take in the beauty of the moment. It took off, bounding across the grass, and all I could do was follow.
Forlornly, I cast a look up at the moon.
If only we had escaped during the day. I might have seen the sun again.
I pushed that thought from my mind and cheered myself with another thought.
I would see the sun again.
Chapter 5
Nina
The rays of dawn were just beginning to reach into the sky when the wolf finally slowed from its gentle lope to a comfortable walking speed. It had taken us the rest of the night to reach our destination, but what a destination it was.
We were mere feet away from a freaking mansion.
"Er, I hope you know the people here, because this doesn't look like somewhere I'll fit in," I said, rubbing at my arms. The morning was cold, and though the run had effectively warmed me up, my skin was cold to the touch.
I couldn't stop looking up at the sky, at the grey light that was filling it. My heart yearned to stay outside just a little while longer, to see the sun rise and feel the warmth on my face.
The wolf didn't so much as look at me to indicate it had heard me, it just kept walking toward the mansion.
A man stood at the bottom of the steps that led up to the giant door, clothing in his hands.
He did not look happy to see me.
I grimaced and averted my eyes. I was used to getting looks like that—the guards had hated us blood mages, of course. But I had thought that wherever the wolf was taking me would be a friendly place.
I guess not.
"Hello," I said attempting to force a cheerful smile to my face. I still knew the basics of etiquette, though my interactions with other people had been limited to the guards that had abused me.
When you have an abuelita like mine and you remember how to be polite no matter what shit you've been through. That woman beat manners into me until they stuck like fleas on a dog.
The man cast one look at me—his nose screwed up like he smelled something bad—and then turned his attention to the wolf between us.
"Master," he said, inclining his head.
I arched an eyebrow. Master? Well, that was a surprise.
And then, as if there hadn't been enough surprises for the night, the wolf transformed in front of my eyes, taking the form of a man. He was naked, and I quickly averted my eyes. There had never been a need for modesty back in the dungeon, I never got to choose when to keep my shirt on, but there was that etiquette thing again. It wasn't polite to stare at a naked man.
At the sound of a throat clearing, I looked back at the man. He was tall, though not as tall as the vampire Prince—where had that thought come from?—and had pale white skin and cropped short black hair. Cold brown eyes stared back at me.
He nodded towards the door and walked up the stairs, clearly expecting me to follow. I shivered, suddenly uncertain if this had been a good idea after all. But what was the other option? Going back to the cells?
Hell no.
I would be eternally grateful to this man for rescuing me. If he wanted to lead me into a shack in the desert, I would follow. I could certainly muster up the courage to follow him into a mansion.
So, that's what I did. I followed him, and the man who'd given him his clothes followed behind me.
Once inside the doors, my eyes took a moment to adjust to the bright lights, and then I saw that we were in a great hall populated with several men and women. It was a fairly diverse group of people, and they were all chattering with one another, but as the werewolf passed by them they all fell silent.
I followed, not knowing what else to do with myself. I certainly didn't want to keep standing in the doorway—they were all staring at me. And they weren't friendly stares, either.
Some of them were actively scowling or sneering, while others simply eyed me with distrust. That was cool, I could deal with that, I told myself. No one had trusted me since I was six years old. I could certainly deal with a bunch of strangers eyeing me funny.
It would have been nice if he'd taken me to some sort of paradise where everything was sunshine and roses.
I smirked at the thought as it entered my mind. Yes, that would have been nice, but it was also woefully irrational. I had to keep my expectations rational.
I was grateful just to be out of the cells. Certainly, I was grateful to find myself in a place of such luxury. I had never been anywhere so beautiful. We walked past numerous paintings, and sculptures either stood on their own or topped tables that stood against the walls. Whoever this man was, he certainly had taste.
Or at least, I assumed it was all in good taste. I hadn't exactly had an education in art history.
Or an education at all. I cringed at the thought. All these people...they probably knew how to read, at the very least.
Was that why they were eyeballing me funny? Did they know that I was an ignorant idiot that couldn't count or read?
And then I noticed one man glaring at my throat. Reflexively, I reached up and touched my throat, my fingers automatically coming into contact with the iron collar there.
Ah, suddenly everything clicked into place.
They knew what the collar meant. They may not be vampires, but they didn't trust blood mages any more than vampires did, I was sure. It made sense, you don't exactly trust someone who can take control of your body and treat you like a puppet, even if that person happens to be wearing a collar that stops them from doing any of that.
Not that I would ever do such a thing to a random person. I knew better than that. It wouldn't fall into the rules of politeness that my abuelita had taught me.
At last, we reached the end of the parade past all the wary glances, all the distrustful people, and the wolf-man led me into another room.
Dining room. It took me a moment, but my mind supplied the word at last. There was a giant table that could easily fit thirty people in the long room, with elegant chairs lining the sides, and a lone chair at the far end.
"Take a seat," he said, gesturing towards the table.
Those were the first words he’d said to me. I wanted to make a comment on that—it was in my nature to joke around when I was nervous—but I thought better of it. This was a strange place and a strange man, and he might not appreciate my sense of humor.
The last thing I wanted to do was displease him. He might send me back to the vampire cages, and then what would become of me?
I shuddered.
No, I couldn't ever go back there. I would rather die than live in a cage again.
I took a seat, doing as I was told. I stared up at him, waiting for him to say something else, to break the silence that stretched out between us. Even though I wanted to, I couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't come off as a quip.
Don't piss him off, Nina. He saved you.
Why had he saved me, though? I hoped he'd tell me that soon enough. And why had he stopped me from saving the other mages? Surely they deserved a life of freedom just as much as I did. There was nothing special about me compared to the other blood mages. I was a dime a dozen.
"Are you hungry?" He started walking towards another door, and panic leapt through me.
Was he going to leave me here? I desperately wanted him to stay near me. Like a baby bird, I had imprinted on him, and I knew I wouldn't feel safe in this mansion if he left me alone.
"Starving," I said, keeping my voice as soft as was possible. I was afraid to raise my voice.
He looked back at me and quirked an eyebrow, but said nothing. Instead he walked to the door and knocked on it. A man appeared a moment later.
"Yes, Master?"
"Please bring a plate of food for our guest," he said.
"Yes, Master." The man shot a nasty look my way the moment the werewolf turned his head, and then went back through the door from whence he came.
Ah, joy of all joys. The man preparing my food hated me and I hadn't even said two words to him. How had I managed that?
And then it sunk in that I was going to have food. Real food, hopefully, and not the gruel that they fed us back in the cages. My stomach growled loudly, and I looked down at the table in front of me, embarrassed.
The werewolf walked over and took a seat beside me.
I don't know if he was going to say something, because a moment after he sat down the man appeared through the door with a plate in hand. Steak, potatoes, and green beans were heaped on the plate.
My mouth watered. Meat? Oh my God, I was going to get to eat meat?
"That's for me?" I asked, my voice squeaking a bit.
The werewolf cast a look at me that might have been amused, but it was hard to tell. The man didn't have a lot in the way of emotional tells.
The man—chef? Butler? I don't know—carried the plate over to me and set it down, producing a steak knife and fork and setting them down beside the plate. I didn't look up at him, but I could feel the resentment exuding from him.
I didn't know why it was that all the people here seemed to hate me so much, aside from the blood mage thing. It was probably just that. Because I was pretty sure I was the first blood mage they had seen, unless they knew some mages that hadn't ever been captured. Somehow, I doubted that from the way they'd responded to me. I knew for a fact that no other mage had been rescued from the dungeons—I'd been down there for twelve years. I would have heard about it.
So, I was a new breed of freak for them. But you would think that living with a werewolf, they would be used to abnormalities.
Shoving all those thoughts from my head, I attacked the food with fervor, forgetting the rules of politeness. I just wanted the food in my belly as quickly as I could get it.
"Careful," the werewolf said. "You don't want to eat too much or too quickly, it will turn your stomach. There will be plenty more food. This is not your last meal."
I swallowed a lump of meat that I hadn't chewed properly, too busy trying to get it down to my stomach as quickly as possible, and forced myself to slow down. He was right, of course. I hadn't eaten real food since I was a small child. My stomach was probably going to take weeks before it acclimated to real food.
I frowned down at the food, already missing it even though I hadn't finished it yet.
"What am I doing here?" I asked as I cut into the steak.
"Yes, let's get down to business. My name is Conall. And as you may have surmised, I am a werewolf. So are all of my people."
I managed not to drop my jaw at that. A mansion full of werewolves? No, that couldn't be possible. He had to be pulling my leg on that one.
"Yes, it's true," he said, sounding tired of the topic already. "I recognize that to you, it must seem impossible that we exist. We simply did a better job of blending into the background than the blood mages did, for our own survival. But I am tired of simply surviving, and that is why I have formed this coalition. We hunt the vampires. It is my goal to eradicate the species entirely. You will be trained to hunt vampires as well."
"Why me?"
"Why not you? It will be useful to have a blood mage in our ranks."
"Right, I get that," I said, slowly. Even though I didn't really get why he was choosing now to get a blood mage. I mean, we were allegedly very powerful creatures. There wasn't a whole lot that a vampire could do to fight back when we got involved with things short of just killing us—which was why they hunted us in large packs. A blood mage on their own could probably take on three vampires at once, but if you surround one with enough vampires, there's just nothing to be done about it.
We were best at ranged attacks, like all mages I assume. And it would certainly help any army to have a blood mage amongst them.
"But why me?"
He just looked at me, clearly bored with my questioning. Sheesh, the guy was cold. But that was okay, really. I was willing to do anything he asked—he freed me. I owed this man my life. And he wanted me to take out the vampires that had made my life a living hell? Yeah, I could sign up for that.
Maybe one day he would give me an answer to that question—why—but I wasn't going to press him for it right now.
I was just grateful for my new lease on life.
Chapter 6
Grayson
A hand on my shoulder jerked me out of the restorative sleep in which I had been so deeply embraced. My eyes snapped open and I glared up at the person who had dared to disturb me, and saw Alex's eyes looking back at me. I softened.
The man was one of my best friends, certainly one of my most loyal men, and if he had awakened me, then it must have been for something important.
"What is it, Alex?"
He looked troubled, and I sat up, a sense of urgency filling me.
"Out with it, man, what's going on?" I swung my legs out from under the blankets and stood, already moving to the wardrobe to extract my clothes.
"Your father wants you in the war room, Prince. He wouldn't say why," he said.
My eyes narrowed as I turned to look at him. He never called me 'Prince' for anything other than a joke, unless it was serious business. He might not know why I had been called to the war room, but he must have picked up the tone of the situation and knew that it was nothing good.
I jerked my head in a quick nod and dressed quickly. Whatever the danger was, we would be able to handle it, I knew that. There had been nothing we as a royal family hadn't been able to handle since the blood mages had been subdued.
Nothing could stand in our way.
I made my way from the room as quickly as possible, hurrying to the war room.
When I entered, my father and five generals were already inside. Annoyance prickled my mind—my father should have called for me first, rather than the generals. I didn't know why he would do something like that, it was entirely outside his normal behavio
r.
"Hello, gentleman," I said, striding into the room with a self-assured smile. If there was one thing I had learned from my father, it was that you never allowed anyone to see you sweat.
"Grayson, good of you to join us," my father said. He indicated the seat to his right and I took it without another word.
"We have a situation," one of the generals said. "I am sorry to have to bring this to your majesties at such an hour, but I believed it was urgent that you learn of this as soon as possible so that you could formulate a plan."
What he meant was—“I had no fucking clue what to do and I dearly hoped that you would be able to fix this shit for me.” General Lucius was a bit of a waste of space, as far as I was concerned. I didn't think the man deserved the title, but it wasn't up to me. It was up to my father.
Though I did not long for the days when the crown would be on my head—I was not that sort of Prince—that man would be the first to go. I would replace him with someone more competent. Someone that could do their job without constant oversight.
"By all means, General, proceed," my father said.
With a clenched jaw, I waited to find out what it was that was so important we had to be awoken so soon after dawn. Everyone should have gone to bed to wait out the day, to wait for the sweet release of nightfall.
"A blood mage has escaped." The words were blunt, but I understood that there was no way to sugarcoat them.
It took a moment for the words to really register in my mind. A blood mage was on the loose in the city. How had that happened?
"That's impossible," I said, speaking before I could fully think it through. This was bad form for me, I knew better than to behave in such a fashion, but I couldn't stop myself.
My father cut me a sharp look, and I felt the force of the unspoken reprimand. I was a direct representative of his. My behavior cast him in a negative light. I bowed my head to indicate that I understood what I had done was wrong.
Everything in the vampire world is about politics. We can't get anything done without having to weigh all the consequences and benefits equally, and some see that as a good thing, but more often than not it leaves me feeling like we should have acted sooner.
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