Chapter Three
Eighty-Three Years Later
They were surrounded on all sides.
Every one of them had known the risks when they’d led the vampires into the woods. Raven didn’t regret her decision. They needed the medicine for the sick at their settlement, and breaking into the hospital had been the only way to get it. Unfortunately, someone had seen them in the hospital and set off the alarms.
Now, she and her friends stood facing the merciless creatures of her nightmares. Raven, along with several volunteers, had led the vampires away so the rest of their team could make their escape with the medicine. Raven looked around at her team, her friends, and she knew what she had to do. It was the only option.
Staring into the woods, her woods, she drew strength from them. Surrounding them, were dozens of oak trees. She’d been the one to cause their rapid growth to cover the remnants of the city that had once stood in this place—most of it, anyway. The oak tree was her tree, so it had been easier to manipulate their growth. The process had taken her weeks and drained her completely. In some ways, it was ironic that oak trees had taken over most of a city once known as Oakland. Very few humans knew that. They didn’t learn history. Most of them didn’t even learn to read. Now people only learned survival, because survival was all that mattered.
Taking a fortifying breath, Raven moved forward—not easy to do with the vampires so close to them. There were probably ten of them surrounding her team of four.
“Who’s in charge?” Raven asked with as much authority as she could manage. Her voice shook ever so slightly, knowing what she was about to do was risky.
One of the vampires stepped forward with a mocking smirk on his face. The other vampires parted so he could stand directly in front of her. He looked young, but it was hard to tell their real age. His light brown hair was short and a little messy. He wasn’t very tall, maybe an inch or two under six feet, but compared to Raven’s slight build, he seemed to tower over her. His chest seemed somehow too broad and out of proportion with the rest of his frame. Pushing her long brown hair behind her ears, she met his brown eyes which were ringed with gold.
“I’m in charge, little human,” he announced, amusement lacing his voice. Raven was used to people underestimating her. She looked fragile, and she knew her authoritative manner seemed laughable to most when they first met her.
“I want you to let my friends go free,” she demanded.
Ignoring her request, he gave a gesture, and the vampires roughly held her and her team in place as they searched them. Raven cringed when she felt their hands on her. When all their weapons had been taken from them, the leader finally spoke to her again. “Should I free them so they can kill me?”
“I promise they’ll leave without trying to hurt any of you.”
He shrugged. “If I kill them, they won’t hurt us.”
One of the women on her team, Jenny, moaned pitifully. Raven felt for her. Jenny had seen her own father killed by vampires twenty years ago. Raven’s team was made up of the humans she called family. All had suffered some tragedy, and Raven had taken them in after it. Many of them looked older than her now, but in some ways, they were still her children.
Raven swallowed hard before speaking. “I’m willing to offer myself for their freedom.” She needed to explain herself, but fear made her hesitate. In the back of her mind, she was still replaying her mother’s horrific death at the hands of vampires. These didn’t seem in any hurry to tear them apart, giving her some measure of hope she’d survive. She was also thankful they didn’t smell like blood and death. The leader was standing so close she could smell his sweat, probably from running in a heavy jacket. It wasn’t a bad smell. As much as she hated to admit it, she wanted to lean forward and inhale deeply.
He laughed and leaned closer to her, placing two fingers on the pulse on her neck and smiling when it quickened. “But I already have you.”
“Don’t listen to her,” her friend, Danny, interrupted. “She’s just making crazy talk.” Danny was like a little brother to her, but since he’d started looking older than her, he’d decided he was her protector.
“My mother was a wood nymph,” she explained.
The leader snorted. “If that were true, we couldn’t have caught you once you made it into the forest.”
Thankfully, he believed in wood nymphs. It wasn’t a widely held belief. Had he doubted their existence, she’d have had no bargaining power at all.
“My friends are human,” she said softly. “I’ll do anything to protect them.”
“Then prove you’re a wood nymph,” he challenged, his fingers still on her neck.
When she looked around at the foliage to find something to help make her point, he shook his head.
“Not that way,” he told her in a seductive whisper. Bringing her wrist to his nose, he inhaled deeply and shuddered. “Wood nymph blood is supposed to be nearly addictive. Prove it with blood.”
When Raven tried pulling her hand away, he held it tightly. She was well and truly trapped, crowded in by vampires so she couldn’t move back. She’d known he might want her blood, but this meant facing one of her biggest fears.
“Will you let my friends go?” she asked nervously. It was hard keeping her fear in check this close to one of the creatures that had killed her mother. These vampires seemed calmer and saner, but she knew they could easily turn into mindless killers. It was their nature.
“If you are what you say you are, and I have your word you won’t disappear into the woods as soon as they leave, then I’ll let your friends go,” he assured her with a nonchalant shrug.
“Connor-,” one of the others started, but he silenced them with a hand in the air.
“I promise I won’t run,” she agreed, closing her eyes as if she could block out what was about to happen.
Connor brought her wrist to his mouth and licked her pulse, sending a shudder of desire through Raven’s body. Now, was not the time to be aroused and never by a vampire, she reminded herself.
His fangs sank into her wrist, and it hurt. She cried out a little from the pain, and then she felt the strange sensation of him sucking at her wrist. A low growl erupted from the back of his throat, reminding her he was a dangerous predator.
When his mouth moved away from her wrist, he stared into her eyes for a long moment. Without releasing her wrist, he turned to the other vampires. “Her friends are free to go with everything they have except the weapons.”
More than one vampire seemed like they wanted to argue, but they all held their tongues.
Raven watched as her friends left. They all looked like they wanted to stay, but she was in charge, and she was ordering them to leave her. As soon as she knew her friends were safe, Raven would make her own escape, since she didn’t feel the need to keep her word to a vampire.
When the collar closed around her neck, Raven’s eyes widened. Reaching up to remove it, she found the metal to be hard, yet strangely comfortable. It was also locked in place, which made her angry enough to forget her fear.
“I am not your dog!” she hissed.
The vampire finished attaching a matching arm band to his wrist before leaning in close to her. “You chose to trade your own freedom for theirs. You are whatever I say you are.”
Raven fought the urge to slap him. All she had to do was bite her tongue for a little while, and then she could make her escape.
Connor watched her struggle. “Have you heard of these collars?”
Raven shook her head. A sudden sense of dread washed over her. She could already tell she wasn’t going to like this at all.
“I know you have every intention of running as soon as you believe your friends are far enough away that we can’t catch them. You’re thinking there isn’t any reason to keep your word to me since I’m not even human. I’ll bet you even have a plan to delay us from leaving the woods so you can escape. It’s a smart plan, and it’s probably what I would do if I were you. I had a hard time not laughing when you
promised not to run.”
“Then why take the deal?” she demanded.
He let out a humorless laugh. “That’s a question, I’ll need to examine later. For now, just know you won’t be running anywhere.”
“Really?” she asked with her hands on her hips and one raised eyebrow.
He gave her a smile. “Damn, you are either really brave or really stupid. The collar is linked to my wristband. It can’t be removed by anyone but me. If you stray too far from me, you will experience pain like you’ve never experienced before. Even if you manage to overcome the pain and leave the perimeter I set, I can track you anywhere with this.”
Raven looked around. Most of the other vampires seemed to be doing their best to ignore the conversation. There were a few watching intently. One of the females was scowling at Connor like she might stab him.
Raven clenched her fists in an attempt to avoid smacking him. “So, how far can I move away from you?” she asked so she could get as much distance between them as physically possible. There had to be a way out of this.
“You might want to stay right by my side, just to be on the safe side.”
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