Scott threw his head back and laughed. “The wolves are animals,” he said after regaining control of himself. “Yes, centuries ago they were able to come to agreements regarding the terms of the treaty. But we all know that as the years passed, they’ve lost themselves to their animalistic sides. We saw it when they attacked the town and killed innocent vampires. We can’t bargain with animals. There’s only one way to deal with them—we have to slaughter them.”
“Didn’t you hear what the guards said?” Alexander asked. “We don’t have the numbers. We couldn’t slaughter them even if we wanted to.”
“So we’ll attack them before they can attack us,” Scott said. “We’ll catch them off guard.”
Stephenie cleared throat, and everyone in the room looked to her. “How do you suppose we’ll do that?” she asked. “If we don’t have the numbers, we don’t have the numbers. It doesn’t matter if they attack first or we attack first—if there’s a war, they’ll kill us.”
Scott rolled his eyes at her and turned toward the vampire guards. “You’re to tell no one what we know about the wolves and their camp.” From the way their faces all went slack, I could tell he was compelling them. “Understood?”
“Yes,” they said in unison.
“Good.” He gave them a wave of his hand. “Now leave us. We have important business to discuss.”
The guards emptied the room, leaving me alone with the princes and princess.
“Once we control Geneva, we’ll be able to beat the wolves,” Scott said smugly. “Unfortunately, it’s been some time since we’ve heard from our third brother.”
“He betrayed us.” Stephenie rolled her eyes. “I told you not to trust him from the start. He’s in love with that girl. Annika.” Disdain dripped from her voice when she said the Nephilim’s name.
“Shut up!” Scott slammed his fist onto the table again. “There’s no way our brother is in love with a filthy Nephilim. He barely knew the girl. Plus, his cell phone has a tracker in it, and I can confirm that it’s still at the Haven.”
“Perhaps Camelia can do a tracking spell?” Alexander suggested. “Just to be sure.”
“The Haven is protected with powerful magic,” I said. “A tracking spell can’t locate anyone within its boundaries.”
“Have you tried?” he asked.
“I have.” I held his gaze, since of course I’d tried to track the prince. “He’s untraceable.”
“Good.” Scott nodded. “It’s further proof that he’s in the Haven. We have no reason to think he would have betrayed us. Especially since he made a blood oath to me before leaving.”
“Perhaps.” Alexander scratched his jaw. “But we should have a backup plan in case he’s unable to get the ring.”
“We will get that ring,” Scott said. “In the meantime, we’ll try to be patient. Once our brother feels like he can securely call, he will.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Stephenie asked.
“Simple.” Scott smirked. “Then we’ll go to the Haven, find him, get the ring, and kill the girl ourselves.”
Jacen
Annika’s blood was the sweetest I’d ever tasted. After only a few sips, my full strength had returned. It was like the fight with the sea creature had never happened.
I wanted to continue to drink—to relish in the sweetness of her blood—but this was Annika. I cared about her. I’d never been in love before, but I suspected I was falling in love with her. I’d meant it when I’d told her that if I lost control of my bloodlust and drained her dry, I would take one of those discarded antlers and stake myself in the heart.
Annika was why I’d come to accept myself as a vampire.
She was my reason to live—and my reason to fight.
Pulling myself away from the sweet blood that flowed from her neck was easier than I ever could have imagined. The twin pinpricks from my fangs instantly healed—either as a reaction to my venom, or from her own healing abilities. Given how strong she’d been since coming into her Nephilim powers, I suspected the latter.
“That’s it?” She gulped, her eyes flashing with an array of emotions.
“Usually a vampire bite feels quite pleasant,” I mused, unable to help myself from smirking at the wild look in her eyes. “It’s an effect of the venom. Was it not that way for you?”
“No!” She spoke quickly, touching the part of her neck where my fangs had pierced her skin. “It was.” Her cheeks flushed, and I couldn’t help but be amused at how off-guard I’d caught her. “I just meant—is that all you need? I thought you’d need more…”
“I usually do need more.” I was quick and to the point, not wanting to embarrass her any more than necessary. “But your blood was more potent than human blood. Likely because you’re Nephilim.”
“It seemed like you were able to stop yourself easily,” she said. “Was that also because I’m Nephilim?”
“No.” My voice was husky as I gazed down upon her. “That was because you’re you.”
“Oh.” She lowered her eyes and twisted her hands together in her lap, although she quickly looked back up to me. “Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me,” I said. “You’re the one who offered me your blood. I’m the one who’s grateful to you.”
The energy between the two of us was so thick that I felt it crackle in the air. I was about to lean forward to kiss her again when I saw a movement from the corner of my eye.
I leapt in front of Annika and into fighting stance, ready to face whatever was lurking in the shadows.
A stag walked out onto the beach. It held a piece of bright pink fruit in its mouth, and its big brown eyes looked at us with complete innocence.
Annika began to laugh, and her laughter was contagious—I couldn’t help but chuckle as well. I felt slightly foolish for going on guard for what appeared to be a harmless stag. But after the sea creature, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Three more stags stepped up behind the first one, each with an identical piece of fruit in its mouth.
“They must have known we were hungry.” Annika brightened. “The fruit smells amazing.”
“You’re hungry?” Guilt crushed my chest—I must have been so focused on my own thirst that I’d forgotten to think about her. It hadn’t felt like long ago that we’d eaten sandwiches on the boat while watching the Northern Lights, but I really had no idea how long we’d been passed out on the beach.
“Ever since coming into my Nephilim powers, I’ve needed to eat more than I did when I was human,” she said with a shrug. “Luckily for us, we have a welcome party.”
She took a deep breath, smiling at the scent of the fruit, and skipped toward the stags. The fruit wasn’t tempting at all to me—vampire tastes tended to veer toward meat, and Annika’s blood had given me all the nutrients I’d needed.
But while I was happy there was food on the island, I hurried behind her and took her wrist in mine, forcing her to stop.
“What?” She glanced back at me, irritation crossing her face. “They’re harmless.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But since we know nothing of this island, we can’t be sure. What does your angel instinct tell you?”
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, looking like she was deep in focus. “Nothing,” she said, opening them again. “I can’t get a read on it. Which must mean we’re not doing anything dangerous, right?”
I shrugged, since I knew far less about angel instinct than she did. The Nephilim had been tricky—they’d kept the most important details about their race from all other supernaturals. Not much about them could be found in the books in the library of the Vale. When their race had gone extinct, most of the knowledge about them had died as well.
“I wish we still had our own food,” I said, since I trusted the supplies that the mages had given us more than I trusted an unknown fruit brought to us by stags on a magical island.
“Well, we don’t.” Annika shook herself out of my grip and rushed toward the nearest stag. “A
nd I’m hungry.”
The animal dropped the fruit it was holding into her hand, and before I could say another word, she took a giant bite.
Jacen
Annika swallowed the fruit and blinked a few times, confusion passing over her eyes.
“We need to go back to the Haven,” she said suddenly. “It isn’t safe here.”
Still holding onto the fruit, she raced along the beach. I was quick on her tail, but she was faster than me. Her speed didn’t surprise me—the fact that Nephilim could outrun every other supernatural was one of the few details I’d read about them in the texts at the Vale.
But up until now, I’d never thought she would be running away from me.
She turned a corner around the beach, and up ahead was a small version of an old Viking boat. She leaped inside, and then she turned around, smiling when she found me standing next to the boat.
“I was hoping you’d follow.” She continued to beam down at me, her eyes watery and glazed over. “Are you coming?”
I wanted to tell her that no, of course I wasn’t going to leave the island—and that she shouldn’t be leaving, either. But it was more than apparent what had happened. That fruit was making her want to leave the island. It reminded me of the Lotus fruit from the Odyssey, except it had the opposite affect. Instead of making you want to stay on the island forever—like the Lotus fruit did in the Odyssey—it made you want to leave.
I needed to get that fruit out of her system.
“Of course I am.” I jumped up onto the boat to join her, and then I kissed her gently upon the lips. I made sure not to deepen the kiss, not wanting to risk ingesting any of the fruit.
She sank into my embrace, relaxing from my touch.
Before she had a chance to react, I pinned her down, bit my wrist with my fangs, and pressed the open vein to her mouth. She tried to fight me, but while Nephilim were faster than vampires, vampires were generally stronger—and I was certainly stronger than Annika.
She had no choice but to let my blood flow down her throat—my blood that was poisonous to supernaturals.
She started to cough, so I lifted my wrist and jumped off of her, not wanting to hurt her. She hurried to the side of the boat and expelled the contents of her stomach into the sea.
I turned away, wanting to give her privacy. In the meantime, I picked up the fruit she’d brought on board and chucked it overboard as well.
“Thanks,” she croaked once she was finished being sick. “That fruit… it did something to me.” She brought her hand to her forehead, shaking her head. “I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“It must have been some sort of security measure to drive people away from the island,” I said. “Luckily for both of us, vampires aren’t tempted by fruit.”
“Then it’s a good thing I asked you to join me on this mission, isn’t it?”
“It is.” I nodded, since if I wasn’t here, I suspected she would be rowing away on the boat by now. “But for the rest of the time while we’re on this island, I think we should make a pact.”
“What kind of pact?” she asked.
“A pact that we won’t eat or drink anything from here,” I said. “Luckily, the fruit didn’t physically harm you, but we have no idea what else waits for us. We need to be as careful as possible.”
“Deal.” She hopped out of the boat, landing softly on the sand. “But I’m hungry, so the sooner we get to the Tree, get the Grail, and get out of here, the sooner we’ll be able to eat again. Let’s go.”
I jumped out of the boat to join her on the sand, and together, we headed toward the Tree in the center of the island.
Annika
The island was small, so it didn’t take long until we were nearing the Tree. Luckily, no more animals popped out of nowhere, tempting us with food that would mess with our minds.
Under the glowing green leaves of the Tree, it felt like we were in a magical forest. I couldn’t help but look up in awe as we walked. A bird flew overhead—a giant eagle—but luckily, it didn’t swoop down to bother us. If anything, its watchful eyes made me feel like it was looking out for us to ensure we were safely on our way. The stag horns were still everywhere—we had to be careful while walking not to trip on them—but we saw no more signs of the actual stags.
We crested a small hill, and finally saw the trunk of the Tree. It was huge—as wide as a house—with thick branches going all the way up to the top. At least I assumed they went up to the top—the top was so high up that I couldn’t see it.
Jacen and I both stopped in our tracks, staring at the Tree.
Neither of us had a chance to speak before a growl echoed through the air. It was so loud that I swore the leaves on the Tree vibrated from the force of it.
I instinctively reached for my sword. “What was that?” I looked around, ready for anything.
“I don’t know,” Jacen said. “But it sounded like it came from the other side of the Tree.”
“Then I guess we’ll be heading around to investigate.” I held my sword at the ready and made my way around the Tree. Jacen stayed by my side.
We rounded the corner to find a red dragon.
I stumbled back, overcome by shock. The creature was smaller than I’d imagined dragons to be—about the size of a car—and it stood on its legs, its wings flapping behind it. But it didn’t try to attack. Not because it didn’t want to—its feral eyes showed that it did—but because its feet were chained to the Tree, keeping it in place.
On the trunk behind it was the outline of a large door.
The creature snarled at us, showing its pointy teeth. Luckily, fire didn’t come out of its mouth, so we were safe for now.
“A dragon.” I needed to voice what I was seeing out loud to make sure I wasn’t going crazy—or to make sure I wasn’t still under the influence of that strange fruit.
“Not a dragon,” Jacen said. “A wyvern.”
“A what?” I asked.
“A wyvern,” he repeated. “They’re smaller than dragons, and they have two legs. Dragons have four. Plus, dragons breathe fire. Wyverns don’t. They do, however, have a taste for supernatural flesh.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“I told you I did a lot of reading in the Vale.” He shrugged. “The non-fiction section in the palace library was full of useful information. I had a feeling it would come in handy at some point or another.”
“So to get to the door, we need to kill this wyvern before it turns us into its next meal,” I said.
“Looks like it,” Jacen agreed.
I tried to push away defeat at the knowledge that all the weapons the mages had supplied us with were now buried somewhere in the icy sea. With all those weapons, we would have stood a much better chance at getting past this wyvern.
“Maybe there’s another way in,” I said, although I couldn’t help but doubt it.
“Maybe,” he said. “Let’s walk around the perimeter and check.”
We did that, but just as I’d suspected, the door behind the wyvern was the only way in.
“At least I saved this sword.” I raised the sword that I’d saved from the boat at the last minute. “We just need one good swing. Any chance you read up on the best way to kill a wyvern?”
He studied the wyvern for a few seconds. “There’s a sensitive spot on the back of its neck.” He placed a finger on a similar place on the back of my own neck, sending electricity through me at his touch. “Jam a weapon straight through it and into its brain, and it’ll be dead.”
“All right.” I stepped away from him and readied my sword. “Let’s get this over with.”
Then I ran toward the wyvern. I couldn’t let myself overthink this—I just had to trust my angel instinct and do it.
The wyvern hovered in the air, thrusting its wing out at me and shoving me backward.
The wing hit me like a brick wall.
I landed with my back to the ground, the wind knocked out of me. But I held tightly onto my sword, no
t willing to lose it as easily as I had in the fight against the sea creature.
Jacen was suddenly standing in front of me, guarding me from another attack. I sucked in a deep breath and stood up as he reached down to grab two discarded antlers, throwing them straight into the wyvern’s eyes.
The creature shrieked loudly enough to rattle the ground beneath my feet. It swatted at the antlers with its wings, pushing them out of its eyes.
Its eyes were hollowed out, gory messes. Blood dripped down its cheeks from the empty sockets. It bucked its head and shrieked again, clearly in pain.
Jacen and I backed away, clearing the area where the chains allowed the wyvern to reach.
I grabbed two more antlers and threw them toward the creature as hard and fast as I could.
They clanked against its skin, bouncing off and falling to the ground.
“A wyvern’s skin is impenetrable,” Jacen said. “Its only sensitive spots are its eyes and the place I mentioned on the back of its neck.”
“At least it’s blind now,” I said. “So it won’t be able to see an attack.”
With that, I ran for it again, preparing to jump in the air and jam my sword through the back of its neck. Fear pulsed through me as I got closer, but I pushed it away. I was almost there. I could do this. I wouldn’t be here if I couldn’t.
It raised its wing, blocking me and swatting me onto the ground.
I landed hard on the pointy end of one of the antlers. I gasped in pain and looked down to find blood dripping from the gash on my leg. But I fought through the pain and jumped back onto my feet, running out of the wyvern’s reach before it could go in for a second attack.
The wyvern sniffed the air and shrieked. It ran toward me until the chain around its ankle drew tight, holding it in place.
It only stopped shrieking once the wound on my leg had healed completely.
“Did you see that?” I asked Jacen, jumping in excitement at my newfound discovery.
The Vampire Wish: The Complete Series (Dark World) Page 60
