Author: Erica Stevens
Category: Vampires
Go to read content：https://readnovelfree.com/p/1242_11
“No!” Max stormed forward. He thrust his finger into Gideon’s chest, startling the older vampire into taking a step back. “You don’t know what goes on in there, and you don’t know Aria. She wouldn’t tell them anything, she’d die before she ever put any of us in jeopardy!”
Gideon grasped hold of Max’s finger and thrust it away. “Don’t touch me!”
“Enough,” Braith barked as he stepped between them. “It’s my blood that has drawn them out, that has alerted the king to my presence within these woods. He suspects that we are here for a reason, but he has no way of knowing how many are with us. Send most of the humans to the caves; they can decide who amongst them remains outside. I want most of our troops to remain hidden. If any of the king’s men survive I do not want them to be able to report the extent of our force back to the king.”
“And if we lose some of our own?” Gideon wasn’t as much of a shadow as the soldiers creeping through the forest, but Braith couldn’t clearly make out his features.
“It’s a war Gideon, we will lose some of our own,” he snarled. “Get the humans into the caves. You can come back,” he added before William could protest.
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William nodded and rushed into the woods. “What about you Braith?”
“What about me?” he demanded of Ashby.
“Your vision…”
“Is fine.”
“Your vision?” Xavier shouldered his way through Jack and Ashby. “What about your vision?”
“Its fine,” Braith insisted.
Xavier seized hold of Braith’s arm when he went to turn away. “Is it tied to her?” Xavier demanded. Braith ripped his arm free of Xavier’s grasp. “I had assumed your eyes had finally healed over the years, but was it her blood that brought your vision back?”
“Xavier…”
“Answer me Braith!” Xavier’s voice was high; there was a tone to it that bordered not on consternation, but rather disbelief, maybe even enthusiasm.
“No, it wasn’t her blood.”
“Oh.”
Xavier seemed to deflate before him but there was something about the vampire’s reaction that piqued Braith’s curiosity. Something that made him decide to reveal more, and what difference did it honestly make anymore? Most everyone standing here already knew his vision was linked to Aria, the ones that perhaps didn’t were her family.
“It was because of her though.”
There was a shifting amongst the bodies and judging by the smell, it was Max that stepped forward. “What do you mean?” Xavier demanded.
“Her presence, just being there, was what brought it back. She was dirty and disheveled, but she was the most beautiful thing I’d seen in a hundred years as she stood there waiting to be auctioned off.”
David inhaled sharply, Xavier muttered something that sounded like a prayer, and Max took a step closer to him. “When Jack took her from the palace, I lost my vision again.”
“But you can still see now?” Xavier pressed. “As well as when she is around?”
Braith’s jaw clenched and unclenched. “No, I cannot. I only see shadows and blurs. It’s more than I could see before I encountered her, but far less than when she is with me.”
Xavier grasped hold of his arm, his fingers dug into Braith’s flesh. He could sense Xavier’s intense scrutiny as he tried to search past the glasses. He felt Xavier’s hand grab the frames but Braith jerked his arm free and knocked Xavier’s arm aside when he tried to tug the glasses off his face. Xavier was thrown slightly off balance but he caught himself and straightened to look at Braith again. “Don’t,” Braith growled.
“Both of you don’t,” Jack inserted. “In case you’ve forgotten we have company.”
Though Braith knew he should be concerned about the men in the woods, his attention remained focused on Xavier as he strained to bring the vampire into view. It was extremely frustrating not to be able to read the subtle nuances of Xavier’s face, not to be able to guess at what Xavier was getting at. He desperately needed to know what it was that Xavier suspected.
But Jack was right, they did have company and Braith was itching for a fight. He was itching for blood. He wanted to take his fury and frustration out on someone, and the king’s soldiers were a good start. He slipped soundlessly through the trees with the others, keeping an eye on the shifting shadows as he honed in on his prey. He thought he should be apprehensive about the thrill, the excitement and bloodlust that coursed through him, but he wasn’t. He’d do whatever it took, become whatever was necessary, to get her back. He didn’t care who he had to destroy in order to do it.
Crouching behind a tree, he closed his eyes against the distracting shadows. Drawing upon the senses he’d honed during his hundred years of blindness, he was able to get a clearer picture of what was going on around him than if he had been using his broken eyes. His ears alerted him to the approach of the men, his nose picked up their scent long before they reached the crest of the hill. He was as still as stone as he listened and waited for the soldiers to move closer.
Then, as the men rounded the top of the hill, and all he knew was the darkness that the world had become, he slipped from behind the tree and descended upon the men like an avenging demon. Something he feared he might actually become. He felt dark enough to be one, felt hollow and hate filled enough to have come straight from the depths of hell. Even before he grabbed hold of the first soldier, he knew there would be no survivors.
As he drove the first soldier into the ground, he realized that he hadn’t slipped into the darkness that a demon would possess. He’d slipped into the darkness that the king possessed. What was inside of him now was what he’d often seen reflected in the eyes of his father. The worst part, he realized as he destroyed first one vampire, and then another, was that he didn’t care. He welcomed it, embraced it, and relished in the death around him as it briefly calmed his tormented spirit.
Chapter 5
“Aria?”
Aria roused herself from the dirt floor. It was filthy in here, dirty in ways that even the caves weren’t dirty. Her nose wrinkled, she tried to block out the scents around her, but it was impossible. She had lived in some pretty hideous places, been cramped and filthy and foul more times than she could count, but the smells here were some of the worst she’d ever encountered. The air was ripe with mildew, the copper tang of blood, body odor, human excrement, and fear.