Josh had said keeper of the Draug. Which meant they were kept. Which meant I was okay. Somewhat. Maybe. Because obviously they escaped sometimes.
Curiosity, reason, and need overcame raw fear. Carden would be staked if I didn’t act.
My eyes swept the foreign landscape. I’d never been to this part of the island before. It was craggier, hillier, with thin paths winding between towering rock formations.
But Carden had taught me about hills and climbing. Had he somehow intuited that I would need those very skills?
Sending up a silent thank-you to my vampire, I chose one of the higher rock faces that also seemed to have a manageable enough incline that I wouldn’t need to do more than scramble up on my hands and knees. It would get me high enough to have a vantage over more land, but it wasn’t so steep that I’d have to actually rock climb up the thing.
Night was coming fast now, and I needed to hurry. What I was doing was dangerous, and it’d become exponentially more so once it was curfew time.
With the darkness came cold. The moon was full and bright, though, and I felt its oddly charged light on my skin. I was still in my gym uniform, and I had that weird feeling of being cold and sweaty at the same time. It was just as well—I’d probably have torn up the knees of my leggings anyway.
A half hour in, and my knees were scraped and my nails blackened from the grit that jammed beneath them as I inched my way up. I was certain that technically the rock formation would’ve only been classified as a hill, but the thing sure felt like a mountain to me.
Finally I reached the top and eased onto the plateau on my belly. I felt a tug at my hips and adjusted my clothing. I’d tied a thin strip of fabric into a makeshift holster for my throwing stars and kept it hidden under my shorts. It was thin enough and tied tightly enough that nobody could see. Clinging as it did to the side of my hip bones, the shuriken didn’t hurt me when I took a hit to my abdomen, and only cut a little when I fell on my side. Unfortunately, both were common occurrences.
It was a small price to pay. These days, it just felt stupid to go out unarmed. I thought of the homemade stakes Ronan kept hidden in his sleeves. I was sure I wasn’t the only Acari who kept hidden weaponry.
Scooting along on my stomach, I inched out as far as I dared to the opposite edge, scanning below for the keeper’s cottage. I opened my senses all around me. I’d been surprised from behind by a Draug before. It wouldn’t happen again.
“Come on.” I spoke under my breath, and it came out as smoke, disappearing at once into the blackness. “Where are you?”
The moon was bright way up here, but this rock that gave me such a great vantage point also managed to cast the valley in shadow. I blinked hard, peering into the darkness.
Nothing. I opened my ears to the distant snarls and groans. Caught their scent on the wind. I spun slowly on my belly to look down from the far ledge. And there I spotted him.
A figure in the darkness, moving amidst large structures. Were they cages? I squinted hard. The wind gusted, sending goose bumps shivering up my legs and arms, but it blew the clouds overhead, sending a finger of moonlight down, illuminating hands, reaching from between bars.
Draug hands, clawing in the darkness, moaning, pleading. They wanted blood.
I saw the figure more clearly now, too. It was a man, and something in his gait told me it was an older man. He had something long and thin in one hand—a stick maybe?—and a walking staff in the other. It was long and curved at the top, like a reaping hook. It gave me the creeps.
A hand swiped at him, and I heard his curse from my perch, an unintelligible, thickly accented bark. He swung that stick at the cage and there was an electrical zzzt sound, followed by an explosion of shrieks and snarls. Not a stick, then—he held a cattle prod.
It chilled me. But then I realized I was chilled because it was freezing. It was full dark, and now that I wasn’t moving, the air was bitter cold.
I needed to get the hell out of there. I could get away with skipping dinner, but I couldn’t get away with missing curfew. As it was, I’d have a real job explaining myself if I ran into any vampires on the way home.
I’d come back, though.
I didn’t think the Draug would be capable of the murders. They were like zombies down there, mindless undead stumbling around like pure id—thirsting for blood and herded like cattle.
But the old man was a different story. I had questions, and he looked like someone who knew answers.
I scrambled back down the other side as quickly as I could, scree and small rocks scraping me as I half galloped, half skidded, slid, and crab-walked my way down. Panic was trying to set in, like a demon scratching at the back door of my brain. I’d taken too long. It was full dark now.
“What are you doing?” The voice came out of the shadows, as bitter cold as the night air.
Caught.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
A hand came at me from behind, snatching me. Fingers dug into my elbow, immobilizing my arm. But I swung into action with the other, struggling with the waistband of my shorts.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I cursed, clawing for the stars at my hip. I hadn’t thought this out well enough, not nearly at all, this stupid, stupid homemade shuriken belt that I’d thought had been so clever, and now I’d die because of it.
“Settle down,” the voice snarled.
Instinct clicked in, assessing the situation, scanning my training for options. Close proximity, restrained, no weapons—no choice but to head butt. I wrenched my body to face my attacker.
“Ronan,” I shrieked as recognition clicked. My heart had exploded, hammering in my chest, and I fought for breath. “God…God…Goddamn.” I yanked my arm free. “What the hell? What the…what the hell?” I repeated, getting my nerves back to normal. “You scared the crap out of me.”
“I scared you? I scared you?” He grabbed the arm back and pulled me into a jog. “We have to get out of here.”
“You’re hurting me,” I said, even though he wasn’t really. I yanked my arm back, but still did a quick shuffle to catch the rhythm of his pace. “What are you doing here?”
“I was looking for you. I don’t know why, though. You seem determined to get yourself killed.”
“You were looking for me?” We were jogging at a steady pace now, and I wished I could’ve seen his expression.
“When you didn’t show up for dinner, I became concerned.” He stopped, getting his bearings in the dark.
I pointed. “Campus is that way.”
“As I am well aware,” he said flatly. “But we can’t go that way. Too risky. We need to head to the water. That way I can make up an excuse if we get caught.”
He slowed to a walk, and I followed him, barely making out the winding path in the moonlight. His shoulders, his arms, every part of him seemed strung tight.
For a while, all I heard was the chuff of his breath and the scuffing of our footsteps along the gravel. When Ronan finally broke the silence, he sounded no less angry. “You haven’t answered me.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, knowing full well what he’d meant.
“Does this have to do with the vampire McCloud?”
“No,” I replied quickly. Too quickly.
He stopped short and spun to look at me. I almost ran into his chest, and I took a step back. His eyes were focused hard on me, and even in the darkness I could see his anger shimmering there. “Don’t trust anyone. Least of all a vampire.”
“Does that mean I shouldn’t trust you?”
“Annelise.” His tone had flipped from angry to tired, and the sound of it made something inside me feel very, very sad. “Sometimes you can be so foolish.” I opened my mouth to speak, but he put up a hand, stopping me. “I know you do these things because you are loyal. Your heart is true, and I admire it. But please. Don’t let it get you killed.”
I was truehearted? Suddenly my throat ached with emotion. I wanted to assure him that I wouldn’t get myself killed, but I cou
ldn’t bear the lie. Instead, I told him, “You could help me, you know.”
I sensed his hesitation as he began to walk again. “What are you up to?”
I answered his question with a question. “Why would the vampires want to kill one of their own?”
“Don’t see my honesty as an opportunity to take advantage.”
“I’m not taking advantage—everyone knows Carden is going to get staked.”
“Carden?”
I panicked at my slip and quickly asked, “When will it happen? Tonight?”
He shot me an annoyed look. “No. They’re planning a public trial.”
I tried to keep my sigh of relief quiet from Ronan. “Any excuse for a little pomp and circumstance.”
He gave me a lingering, sidelong look. “I caution you.”
Had he heard my relief? Was that what he cautioned me against, or was it just my snarky comment that’d bugged him?
“And there’ll be a public execution, I assume?”
“One would assume.” Sensing my question before I had a chance to voice it, he added, “Don’t ask me why, Annelise. The Directorate has motivations that are beyond my understanding.”
“The Directorate,” I repeated. Only recently had I heard the term. It made me think of some sort of star chamber and a bunch of cloaked vampires sitting at a round table, passing judgment. Not unlike what I’d seen on the other island, actually.
Ronan probably heard my question forming, because he upped his pace as the backside of the Acari dorm came into view.
I didn’t have much time left, so I spoke quickly to get out one or two of the million questions that were pinging around my brain. “Does that mean not every vampire is in the Directorate? Are they the ones in charge of the island? What are they up to?” By the time he edged around the side of the building, I was jogging to keep up.
We arrived at the front stairs, and Ronan turned, his expression unreadable. He didn’t answer me, though. He only told me in a tired voice, “Go to sleep, Ann.”
I’d been going on guts and stupidity, and as the heavy dorm door shut behind me, the reality of what I’d done and how I was back safely hit me. As the adrenaline left my body, a weird jiggly feeling creeped up my legs, weakening them beneath me. I held on to the banister as though I were scaling Everest instead of the stairway back to my dorm.
I found that I was eager to see Mei-Ling, to talk to someone and actually have a normal conversation. I wondered if Emma snagged me a dinner roll like I’d asked her to. I was starving.
Between the hunger, the adrenaline, and all my many, many questions, my hands were trembling by the time I managed to unlock my door and get back into my room. My vision had tunneled into two tiny black points.
Mei would be there, waiting for me—I could almost feel her presence in the room. She’d be a friendly face. A voice of reason. I’d confide in her, and we’d figure out how to proceed. Maybe she’d play her flute, and it’d relax my mind, opening it to calm plans and bright ideas.
I shut the door, leaning my head against the doorjamb, feeling so very, very relieved. “You would not believe the day I had.”
“Tell me, querida.”
I shrieked. I actually shrieked, and let me tell you, I wasn’t proud of it. But hearing Alcántara’s voice was like hearing the chiming of my own personal death knell.
A vampire. The vampire.
In our room. My room.
Not good.
Distantly, I wondered what he’d done with Mei.
I made myself look calm. Made myself look like what Alcántara might’ve been expecting, which was a scared, startled girl instead of what I realized just then I really was in my heart of hearts: fearless and focused.
I had new knowledge. I had choices to make. I would no longer be suppressed and controlled. I’d be Annelise Drew, in-control, empowered girl.
And in-control girl had to get her act together. I put a hand to my chest, faking a girlish swoon. “You surprised me.”
I summoned strength from deep within. I felt how some of that courage sprang from the wellspring that was Carden’s life force flowing through my veins. Was it merely a chemical thing, the vampire’s blood giving me a false sense of bravado? Or did this strength spring from the sense that I was no longer in this alone?
I didn’t have time to consider or decide.
Instead, I thought of what the suppressed, fearful girl might say and told him, “I’m not allowed to have boys in my room.”
I hoped the naive words made me appear less guilty. Hoped that they would make it seem like I just saw him as a guy, not a vampire. That maybe it would erode the teensiest bit of his power.
“You know very well that I may come and go as I please. You, however. It is perilously close to curfew, and you have been out. Where have you been? You missed dinner.”
“I…I was working out. I thought I’d go for a run.”
“You look pale.” He stepped closer. “Strained. Perhaps you need to drink.”
Oh God, was he going to try to feed me? From his own body? Instead of fear, it was revulsion that swamped me. My stomach clenched and turned, and it took everything I had not to gag at the thought.
I lied. “I drank earlier. At the dining hall.”
“But you were not at the dining hall.” He had a half smile on his face, challenging me with the false innocence of his statement.
I lied again. “I swung by super quickly. I wasn’t hungry for food, so I didn’t stay.”
He stood close. My legs were trembling more than ever, my body reeling from the earlier adrenaline dump that’d been followed by relief, followed by this new adrenaline dump. I leaned back against the doorjamb to prevent myself from accidentally swaying into him.
I thought of Carden, shackled in an underground chamber. I thought of the stake that would pierce his body if I lost my cool now.
Alcántara ran a fingertip down my cheek. “You didn’t use to lie to me, cariño.”
“I’m not lying.” Lie, lie, lie.
He paced a semicircle around me, scanning his eyes up and down my body. He inhaled deeply, and my guess was, he was sniffing for Carden.
I decided an innocent girl would ask, “Is there something wrong?”
He made a throaty, considering sound—“Mmm”—then came to stand before me once more. He wore a peculiar expression. Carden had been very careful with me in the dungeons. If Alcántara thought he’d smell another vampire on me, he’d be mistaken.
And if I’d thought that meant I was in the clear, then I was mistaken.
Because that was when he touched me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
In an instant, Alcántara was standing close, and he stepped closer still, tracing his hand along my neck, down my arm.
I repeated my question, my voice gone weak. “Is everything okay?”
“That is just it,” he told me in a husky, intimate sort of voice. “I fear it is not all okay. And like a remiss guardian, I wonder where it is I’ve gone wrong.”
He might not have smelled Carden on me, but I could tell he still suspected something—big-time. I thought fast. “On the contrary.” I made myself give him a big, brave, beaming grin. “You’re an excellent guardian. I’ve learned so much.”
He barked out a laugh, and I had a moment of thinking I’d saved the day, until he said, “Perhaps I’ve trained you too well?” He pinched my chin between his fingertips, tilting my face up to his.
That smile stayed pasted on my face even as I felt the blood drain from my head. “What do you mean?”
He wasn’t giving me an inch of space. “You have been busy, little Acarita. What is it you’ve learned?”
He was in my face, and I could barely think because of it. “I’ve learned lots of things on the island,” I replied in a falsely bright, pretend-innocent tone.
“Don’t play with me, girl.” His coal black eyes were cold and sharp on me.
The air grew thin around me, and my head became hollow
, like I needed oxygen.
Those eyes. He was pulling me in with those eyes. His hand went back to my arm, stroking down; then it swept to my waist. I swallowed hard. He’d touched me before, but never like this. His thumb moved in small circles along my stomach. I couldn’t look away.
His voice went hard. “I asked, what do you know?”
Keep it together; keep it together, I chanted in my head, forcing myself not to fall into that gaze. And then another chant came to me, and it was what braced me.
I am roots in the earth. I am water that flows. I am grounded. I am Watcher.
I inhaled again, only this time it was long and slow. A deep breath that brushed the cobwebs from my mind.
“You evade the answer.” He raised his other hand and pinched my ear hard between his fingertips.
I fought the urge to flinch away. “I—”
“Do not try me.” His thumbnail slid down and sliced the tender flesh of my earlobe.
Pain as sharp and thin as a razor seared me, followed by the hot ooze of my own blood down my neck. I barely felt it, though. I’d had a revelation. I’d learned a thing or two on this island, and I could turn it against the vampire who’d brought me here. Oh, the irony.
I could fight his mind, which meant I could fight him.
Could I use these skills to help myself and the people I cared about? Could I use them for what was right instead of unquestioningly helping every vampire who came across my path?
Roots in the earth. Grounded. He wanted Carden dead. I was Carden’s alibi, but I could never confess to it without getting us both killed. Because vampire or no, Carden and Alcántara clearly played on different teams.
“My apologies, Master Alcántara,” I said in my sincerest tone. He stared at me a moment. I felt that cold hollowness pressing at my mind again, but this time I knew how to hold it at bay. I recalled my climb, focusing on the smallest part of it, a snapshot image of my hand in front of my face, gripping the rocks. “I’ve been out practicing my new climbing skills, and if I’ve learned anything, it’s that I need to increase my arm strength.”
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