The footsteps stopped, sounding to him like whomever they belonged to stood just outside the barn doors. Valek could hear Sarah’s pulse intensify. Quickly, he wrapped her up in one of his arms. “Be silent,” he whispered and clawed up one of the barn walls. In an instant, he found a shadowed corner between a thick rafter and the barn ceiling. Valek crouched there among the cobwebs with the Witch still tucked under his arm. Her gaze burned into the side of his face, but his focus remained on the front doors. “Hush,” he reminded her.
The doors swung open as one of the Trolls from the tavern incident the other night staggered in, clearly suffering from a recent intake of too much ale. He snorted, and spat into a pile of hay.
“Lovely, creatures, Trolls are,” Sarah muttered.
“Quiet.”
“Come on, Beta,” he grunted, shuffling forward through the mess. “Time fer supper.”
Valek couldn’t see the horse as he spoke to it. He wondered if she was still seemingly lifeless on the ground. A whimper answered that question, followed by what sounded like a hoof carelessly brushing through the dry grass. Valek watched the Troll approach the stable door.
“That’s it, girl. How are ya, this evenin’?” he offered soothingly. Another small whinny was followed by a clomp against the wood. Valek cringed, wanting to look away, though he couldn’t, as the Troll slowly stretched his hand out to pet the animal.
And then it happened. There was a cry of horror as Valek heard Beta thrash and howl. He could make out the dark edge of her nose as she lunged forward, the door crushing into splinters beneath all of her weight. She had the Troll in her jaws as he garbled and screamed, collapsing to his knees and clawing against the floorboards in an effort to escape. But it was no use. The ton-heavy animal proceeded to drag him backward into her stall.
Sarah shuddered against Valek at the tearing sounds of the Troll’s nails as he wailed. It was followed by the sick sound of unseen bones crunching, another horrified bellow, until there was nothing else than the distinctive gulping and slurping Valek recognized all too well.
He was just about to jump from the rafter beam, until another stable wall splintered under the impact of something, followed by a second gulping sound. The other horse was transitioned as well and was now sharing the Troll for dinner.
Valek glanced over at Sarah, whose watery eyes were fixated on the floor below.
“They are going to kill us,” she squeaked.
“Well, this was your plan. At any rate, they shouldn’t. I am their liege. I wonder if they’ll recognize obey me.”
“Valek, they’re animals.”
“I know. This should be interesting.” Valek swung down easily from the rafter, Sarah still in his arm. He set her carefully on her feet. She glowered at him.
The horses were finishing up their first hellish meal, when the first of them looked up and locked eyes with him. Valek could hear Sarah’s mental cringe when her gaze fell upon the mutilated body of the Troll in the hay. She hid her face in her hands as he took one commanding step toward Beta. You are in my command now, he thought toward the horse. You will do as I say and follow my order.
Beta slowly lowered her head, as did the male horse. Valek smiled, satisfied.
Sarah tugged hard on the sleeve of Valek’s jacket. “Excuse me. Please inform those of us less equipped what is going on.”
He shrugged. “Trust me.” Valek walked over to the demon horses, which had changed considerably in appearance. Beta’s coat now seemed infinitely more lustrous, taking on its own sort of midnight glow even in the shadowed barn. Her black hair looked as glossy as the Vltava at dusk. The male horse’s hair was now a striking white, though he used to be an odd sort of slate color. Valek decided to name him Jiri. Both of their large eyes seemed a bit more slanted and were the same as Valek’s illuminated, glacier blue.
Valek walked over to Beta. He had more of a connection with her for some reason. “Saddle up,” he said, beginning to lay down a blanket and pad before strapping one of the leather saddles to her back, fastening the bridle as well.
“Done this before?” Sarah quirked an eyebrow at him.
“Once for twice,” Valek pursed his lips and tried not to smile too broadly.
Sarah started the same way on Jiri, who made a threatening grunt when she came near. Hesitating, she glanced nervously at Valek. He simply nodded at her to proceed. She did so, with Charlotte’s satchel slung across her shoulder. “Cesky Krumlov is the next and only major city to the North,” she explained.
“Good. So, it should not be too difficult. With these beasts, we should be there in an hour.”
“Remain vigilant. You never know who might be trailing us.”
He nodded. “We’re off, then,” he murmured before mounting his chosen horse. Sarah quickly followed suit and they trotted out of the barn.
Chapter 26
Charlotte’s hand smacked down on the empty space beside her. The undisturbed comforter was cold, more like slate and less like satin, as she sat up and assessed the all-too-quiet room. Thick velvet drapes over the windows had been left open, letting in the soft starlight, creating silver pools on the dusty floor. She sat up in the cold bed, realizing just how void the room was. Eyeing very possible corner of the bedroom, she clutched the wool blanket under her chin, realizing she was completely alone. A chill must have crept in through a crack in the window, for she could see puffs of mist form in front of her nose with each nervous breath.
The damp towel was still tucked under her, which didn’t help much. Quickly, she ran to Valek’s wardrobe and tore through it for one of his old sweaters. She selected a gray one and tugged it over her head. She toed over to the large glassy pane. Peering outside, she found the pathway was just as empty as the bedroom. She listened hard, but didn’t hear a bit of stirring anywhere. There weren’t even any clanks and bangs coming from the kitchen. Where was everyone?
This night seemed blacker than usual, the darkness overwhelming. Even the trees were motionless with the lack of wind. It was almost…scary. She never used to view nighttime like this. It used to be easy for her. Day was the thing that had been unfamiliar and frightening.
Frowning, she turned on her heel to see a very tall shadow looming suddenly near the bed. Her heart leapt as a smile spread across her face. She squinted through the thick shadows as she stepped once toward it.
“Valek?” She cocked her head and hugged her arms around herself. Her heart lurched in her chest when the shadow clucked at her, its large head shaking fluidly back and forth as it finally took one step into the light, which glinted off his nose ring.
Charlotte stopped walking when she found Lusian’s slanted glacier eyes were the ones staring back at her. Immediately, in reaction to him being there, her scar at the left side of her neck began to throb. She pressed her hand against it. Charlotte’s throat felt drier than sand and she struggled to get her next thought out.
“Th-thirsty?” She choked.
Lusian’s grin flashed across his smug face again as he stepped steadily closer to her. She froze, eyeing him carefully, his body only inches before hers. The intensity of the way he looked at her forced her gaze to the floor.
A dark chuckle resonated from behind his clenched jaw. “Not really. Though you wish I were, don’t you?” He stopped only inches before her and ran a silver claw from the hollow at the center of her collarbone down her middle, withdrawing just before he reached a dangerous place. It made Charlotte shiver. Her cheeks began to burn.
She frowned. Something wasn’t right. “Where is Valek?”
Again, Lusian’s only reply was a smug grin and a deep chortle that was so low, Charlotte questioned if she actually heard it at all.
“Won’t you tell me?” She fought to say the words as sweetly as possible in spite of her tongue going dry –in spite of her addiction that grew steadily worse with each passing moment she looked the Vampire in the face. In spite of how afraid she was of him. She held her breath, struggling somehow to ove
rcome her mortal limitations and break through the walls into his mind. The scar smoldered under her hand. Where is Valek?
The Vampire reached to her and tucked a stray curl behind her left ear. Her stomach rolled, but not in the good way it did when Valek touched her. This was more a sick guilty feeling. Lusian disgusted her far beyond anything else. Yet her need still lingered behind the apprehension, behind the hatred, behind the contempt. She was drawn to him, as she was to all the rest of them, perhaps because that was the predatory effect they had on all human beings –to lure them in. His sapphire eyes flashed inches away from her face and she could tell he was listening to her mind.
“Valek’s gone,” Lusian said simply and widened his stance. He crossed his tattooed arms over his chest, and though it was only very slight, Charlotte noticed his eyes harden.
Charlotte frowned. “Is he…hunting?”
“No. He left with Sarah just minutes before you woke up.”
There was an odd sort of finite feeling to the way Lusian said this. She could tell he was being truthful. What was he talking about? She pressed her lips together as she struggled to tear through her own mind. The recollection of the night before hit her abruptly. How Valek had betrayed her, led her to the cathedral garden and—
“He…h-he is not to return?” she asked as she felt herself begin to fracture in pieces. Images from the night before flashed in half-second increments like flash bulbs bursting in her mind. He left. Panic lit up her nerve endings and the room tilted. She needed to sit down. She nearly choked on her shock. The salty water gathering in her eyes stung the bridge of her nose. She wound her fingers into tight fists as she fought the nausea away.
Lusian shrugged and turned from her, his gaze shifting about the room. “Don’t know.”
“He didn’t tell you?”
“Nope. His thoughts were heavily guarded too, so I suppose it wasn’t something he wanted any of us to find out.” He turned his glare back on her. “I guess that includes you as well.”
“No,” she said mostly to herself. “No, he promised he would come back.”
“And I am certain he will keep his promise,” Lusian said with a sugary feigned kindness.
It was becoming harder to breathe. How could he just leave? How could he leave without her? Something glinted in the silver moonlight in the corner of her eye. She shifted her gaze to the headboard, where she saw a mess of metal chains and manacles that had been fixed there with large, silvery bolts. They were the same binds from the gurney in Valek’s office. The same ones he’d used to lock up that mortal woman for his bizarre experiment. It looked like they had been torn from their original place to be fastened there to the bed. Her heart plunged from her throat to her bowels as she looked back at Lusian’s disgusting grin again. Something instinctive told her she needed to run.
Charlotte raced out of the bedroom, her bare footsteps thumping down the long upstairs hallway. She plummeted down the staircase and into the study where she found all of the familiar, bloodless faces that had become like fixtures in the house. Every familiar set of blue eyes, every extreme jaw line and set of claws and shiny incisors. All of them –except for one.
Dusana, Jorge, and Sasha, and the twins gazed back at her from different areas of the room, though she didn’t lock eyes long enough with any of them to register what kind of emotion was playing on their faces. The world started to spin with the heavy feeling of Valek’s absence. She tore through her memory. The image of him and Sarah hurrying through the town square the night before. The image of Valek’s burning eyes as he watched her grapple with the pain a few nights earlier. As he watched Lusian….
She spun to face the entry where Lusian stood, his massive form blockading it. “You know something! He told you where he was going! I know he did!” she hollered. “Tell me!”
Lusian rolled his eyes. “No, stupid girl.”
The rest of them remained silent.
Charlotte’s gaze dashed about the room, searching for him again in a frenzied panic as though he might somehow magically appear. He didn’t. Valek had to be coming back, she thought. He would never abandon her. Not in a million years. Not with these predators. Never.
She shoved past Lusian and ran around the stairs, through the kitchen, and into Valek’s white sterile office. Empty. Valek’s papers were a mess around his desk. Charlotte shuddered when she thought about what was left over in the freezer. The woman.
She looked to the office door, but a makeshift barricade had barred it. Various chunks of metal that looked to have been dismantled from other parts of the house were mangled and bolted there by inhuman hands. Charlotte gripped the twisted metal with all her might, trying to make it budge. She needed to get outside –to escape –to go after Valek.
“Mr. Třínožka!” she pounded on the small window set into the east wall. She was in so much trouble. “Mr. Třínožka! Edwin! Can you hear me?” Something was more than wrong.
Charlotte flew backward and raced again to the front of the house, tearing open the front door and bolting off the porch and down the walkway to the outside until a very large hand grasped her at the back of her sweater
“Let me go!” She screamed and thrashed.
“There is no use trying to chase him, Charlotte.” Lusian sighed, like he had already become bored with her. “Besides, I’m going to need you here with me.”
“You’ve done something! I know you have! He would never just leave me here with the likes of you!” Charlotte screamed and lunged for him, pounding on his chest. “You’ve done something to him!”
All of the sudden, the ground disappeared from beneath her feet and she found herself kicking around in mid-air. Lusian was holding her up under her arms as she swung at him, though he easily evaded every punch.
“You’ve done something! Why would they just leave?”
“I’ve done nothing!” he yelled into her face.
Her arms and legs went limp and she was quiet. Silent tears streamed down her face and dripped off the angles of her jaw. She just glared up at him as he continued to hold her there as though she were some stray animal.
“Lusian, drop her!” Dusana ordered from the threshold of the door. “I’m not going to let you do this.”
Lusian snorted, one corner of his mouth twisting up in the most crooked of smiles. “Yeah, yeah.”
Charlotte could see the cogs turning in his head as he studied her for a minute.
Before Charlotte could blink, Lusian swept her body up so that he was holding her in both of his arms. “There now,” he crooned at her. “You’re my little doll now.”
“Lusian!” Dusana hollered again, but he was already racing up the stairway, though it was nothing but a dizzying brown blur to Charlotte.
In an inhuman second, Lusian made it through Valek’s bedroom door. He tossed Charlotte from his arms, though she landed perfectly on the bed, bouncing against the mattress. She looked in the direction of the guttural, gnashing sound of two Vampires fighting. Her pulse pounded as Lusian struggled to lock Valek’s doors, Dusana fighting him tooth and nail.
“I won’t let you do this to her! We made a promise to Valek!” Her claws dug into the wood as her fangs chomped only inches away from his face, animalistic growls emanating from both of them. Of course, Charlotte thought, Abelim. Valek and Sarah had gone to the Dark City to save her.
Lusian grabbed at Dusana’s edgy, black hair. “Why are you trying to be the good guy all of the sudden? Your thirst is worse than mine.” Charlotte couldn’t see Lusian’s face, but Dusana’s eyes were fierce and black. With a swipe of her claws, she managed to slash a giant wound across Lucian’s perfect cheek. Three distinct lines dripped with fresh blood.
Finally, Lusian shoved his foot so hard into Dusana’s center, her body flew backward down the hallway before slamming with a sickening crunch into the wall near the stairs. Bits of ceiling and wood splinters sprayed down around her and he succeeded in shutting the doors and locking them.
“Women
,” he grumbled sarcastically.
A bitter mix of bile and fear rose up in the back Charlotte’s throat. Valek really was gone. He would never have left her alone and in this sort of danger. Her heart hammered in her ears and she tried her hardest to fight the tears back, not wanting her vulnerability to show through. Her fists balled up in the material of Valek’s sweater as she scowled at him. He neared the bed, the look in his thirsty eyes suggesting he was about to do something horrific to her –more horrific than just feeding. She had to fight –to get away so she could run. She had to find Valek, wherever he was.
Lusian swiftly leaned one knee up on the bed and grabbed a fistful of Charlotte’s hair, yanking her downward to the mattress. A sharp cry tore from her as she shut her eyes. The low growl rumbled in the back of his throat.
“What’s the matter Lottie, love?” She could hear the grin behind his words, double-toned with thirst and savage lust. “Finally afraid, are you? Finally afraid of the monsters? Took you long enough.”
Lusian began to fasten her wrists tightly in the manacles and then her ankles, locking her flat to the bed. There was no escaping. He tucked the small ring of keys into his jeans pocket and chortled again.
Charlotte could only glare at him, hoping her look alone would cause the nightmare before her to finally drop dead. She choked on the pain of both her scar and the shame she was experiencing, though she refused to cry anymore. She would not show him her weakness. She would overcome this. Whatever his plans were for her, she would grow beyond it.
“What?” He cocked his head to the side, feigning concern. “Do you honestly think I would ever hurt you, my Lottie?”
Charlotte closed her eyes, seething. “Do not call me that.” She wondered if the others, aside from Dusana, were in on Lusian’s hostile little takeover. They weren’t rushing to aide her. Now that Sarah and Francis and Valek were all gone, no one was left to save her but herself. She would suffer, but she would get out of this alive. After everything she had already fought through, dealing with this wanna-be gangster was going to be a walk through the park, she told herself. There was no other choice. Strength was the only option. She inhaled.
Of Blood and Magic Page 32
