Vampire's Kiss (32 page)

We cut around the chapel to the bank of a shallow stream and, not even pausing, plowed forward, picking our way over rocks and fallen logs to the other side. Once safely into the woods, we slowed our pace a little, and ten thousand questions popped to my mind. “Some of these guys were priests?”

“Some were. Some weren’t.”

The notion blew me away. “Jeez…Some of these vamps were actual
holy
men?”

“Not holy men,” he said. “
Political
men. But aye, good men did live here once—they simply martyred themselves, preferring a one-way trip to their Lord over a life of what they considered immortal depravity.”

I wanted to ask Carden if
he’d
had a choice, but I was afraid to know the answer.

“The ones who survived,” he continued, “I suppose you could say they’re religious. It just happens to be
themselves
they believe in.”

I hiked up my skirt as we high-stepped over brush and shrubs, making our way to a clearing in the distance. The woods were shadowy, but there was lighter gray on the horizon—the coast. “How’d vampires even end up here in
the first place?”

“There was an attack once, claiming multiple monasteries. All those men, all that wealth, together in a cold and sunless climate—it was irresistible to vampires. A series of quick attacks, and entire settlements were destroyed. Men didn’t have a chance.…Norse, Vikings, Pagans, Christians, Scots—many on these isles in the far north were turned.”

“But humans still live here, too. I’ve seen their houses, on the Isle of Night.”

“Think about it, girl. What do vampires feed on?” He stared, waiting for it to hit me.

“Oh. Ick. They kept people alive so they’d have something…to eat?”

“Mm-hm.” He gave a rueful shrug. “We must survive. And to survive we must feed.”

We.
I couldn’t let myself get too comfortable with Carden McCloud. He was unusual, informal, irreverent, plus we were tied together by this bond I didn’t entirely understand. But he was still a vampire. And although something had happened during our kiss that’d blunted my urgency, I told myself I
would
escape.

We’d been walking for a while, and I’d lost sight of anything remotely resembling a trail. “Do you know where you’re going? Alcántara is waiting.”

“I know how to find Hugo,” he said, his voice flat.

But then he stopped suddenly, bristling. He grabbed my arm and put a finger to my lips to shush me.

At the feel of his touch once more on my mouth, I had the most preposterous thoughts…that his skin wasn’t as cold as Alcántara’s…and that maybe he’d kiss me again. I glared at him, my eyes demanding an explanation.

“They follow,” he whispered. “Make haste now. They may lose our scent closer to shore.”

We broke into a run, and glimpsing beyond him, I saw the charnel house come into view. We reached the head of the cliff and scrambled downhill toward the beach.

Alcántara stood in the distance, waiting before the mouth of the cave. His arms were crossed stiffly at his chest, and I told myself it was my imagination that he radiated fury.

“Be warned,” Carden said as he handed me down from the trail onto the strip of coastline. “He won’t be pleased. Remember what I’ve told you.”

What had I set in motion? I now had a secret from Alcántara. I’d disobeyed him, thrusting myself between two very different vampires. Events had taken on a life of their own, and I was being barreled along, no longer in control.

I looked around, frantic. What about my escape? But the mere thought of it had me tripping over my feet, my movements slowed and my head muddled.

Dread filled me, cold and heavy, because I knew—I could try to run, but as long as we shared a bond, I’d never be able to leave McCloud’s side.

We walked down the beach toward the cave, and as we closed the distance, it became clear: Alcántara was furious. I could see it in the way he held himself, unmoving, as though he were seething, barely containing his rage.

I’d disobeyed his orders, changed his plans. Had he really even wanted to save Carden in the first place? Had he truly planned on returning with me alive? Would Alcántara slaughter me for freeing him? Would he sense our bond?

I wanted to reach out and take McCloud’s hand, but I dared not. Maybe
we
could escape, together. These two vampires didn’t exactly strike me as old friends. “Should we turn around?” I tried to catch Carden’s eye, but his focus was only for Alcántara. “We could run.”

He paused for the barest second, and in that instant, my hope soared. But then he murmured a reply, his face a stoic mask. “The others pursue us from behind. We have no choice—we must go with Hugo.”

“But some of those other guys were monks once,” I whispered quickly, desperate now to convince him. The closer we got to Alcántara, the more distant my chances became. “How bad could they be?”

“We’re vampires,” Carden said under his breath. He met my eyes then, and his were bleak. “We’re all bad.”

A
lcántara’s features were carved from ice. His eyes narrowed on me, pausing, weighing my fate.

But then he turned his attention to Carden, greeting him with chilly courtesy. “What a delight to see you, McCloud. For a man held prisoner, you seem the picture of health. Have you fed?” His eyes flicked to me and back again, and it took every ounce of my concentration to remain composed.

Carden’s easy manner was one of the more impressive things I’d ever witnessed. “I killed a serving girl. They keep their feeders well nourished, and she more than sufficed.”

“I see our resourceful Acari Drew decided to free you herself.” Alcántara meandered toward me until he was right up in my face. He recoiled, his eyes snapping into a hard glare on me. “I smell him on you.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Carden beat me to it. “The girl was attacked.” He tugged my sleeve up to show
where
he’d
fed, lying calmly. “One of the brothers began to bite, but I stopped him. The girl was too weak—I had to carry her out.”

Alcántara pinned his gaze back on me. “Is that so?”

I nodded slowly.

“What else happened? Things must’ve been eventful indeed for you to stray so far from our plan.”

I was so freaked I might accidentally spill the beans about the bonding, I babbled my report. The Synod of Seven. A meeting in a private room. Brother Jacob. The dance. All the serving girls, and black aprons, and white aprons, and feeders in satin dresses.

I rambled, but he only stared blankly, and I heard myself rambling some more, desperate to ease the tension. “And I was pretty nervous after the Synod, and would you believe I even thought I saw
Lilac
?”

I waited for him to laugh, or crack a smile, or something. But if I’d thought his features were frosty before, they just about crackled now, cold and hard as a glacier.

“What did you say?” he demanded, slowly enunciating each word.

I flailed nervously. “I saw a girl, and for a second I thought it was Lilac. Remember, my old roommate who I beat in the Directorate Challenge? Funny, right?”

Alcántara turned from me, shutting me out. To him, I no longer existed. “Ready the boat,” he snapped to Carden. “I’ll return shortly.”

And then he disappeared. No
Good job
, no
Thank you
, no nothing. He didn’t even look my way, as if by pretending I wasn’t there, maybe he could just make me go away.

It knocked the wind from me. “What just happened?”

I felt Carden appear at my back. “Relax, lass.”

“Easy for you to say. You have fangs.” I paced the beach. “He knows.”

“About the bond? If he knew, you’d no longer be standing.”

What had I gotten myself into? “You said you’d explain it all. Does this whole bonding thing mean we’re, like, married now?”

“It means we’re…bonded. It’s a thing to be experienced, not explained.”

I glared.

“And,” he continued, “we are not married. Though we can always enjoy—”

“
No
, thank you.” I put my hand up to stop wherever that sentence had been going. I had enough on my mind without going
there
in my head.

To my total consternation, the guy winked at me. “As you wish.”

I rolled my eyes. “Look, we need to figure this out before he gets back.” Alcántara was scaring me, but could he be as bad as the vampires we’d just fled? He’d said
they
were the bad guys, and what sort of evil creatures killed a bunch of priests, anyway? Maybe he was just jealous I’d brought Carden. “Do you think his mood is some sort of a guy thing?”

“Don’t work yourself into a lather. Something about that girl you mentioned upset him.”

“Lilac? That’s preposterous. I killed her.”
Didn’t I?
But of course I did. “And I’m pretty sure it was because of his help that I was able to do it.”

“I was killed, too, once. And yet here I stand.”

I stared dumbly at that. I guess if you lived forever, you got pretty nonchalant about things like killing and death.

“Don’t hurt yourself thinking, little one.” He scruffed my hair and then wandered up the beach into the cave. When he came back out again, he was carrying the dinghy—by himself. He held it over his head effortlessly, as if toting no more than a giant basket.

I hopped to my feet. “Do you need help with that?”

“From a big, strong girl like yourself?” He smiled. “I can manage.”

I scowled. If he was trying to take my mind off things, he was succeeding. “I’m stronger than I look.”

“You’re but an infant, new to the world.” The gleam in his eyes told me he was trying to get a rise out of me.

Unfortunately, his taunts weren’t good enough to distract me. I followed him down to the shoreline and sat down, battling the feeling of defeat that kept threatening to swallow me. Shutting my eyes, I tipped my face up, desperate to feel the sun warm my skin. “Sure thing, old man,” I said, my mind a million miles away.

The skies had cleared a little bit, and watery light cut its way through the clouds. It should’ve been shining down on me as I made my escape, sailing into the horizon.

Carden had a boat. Check that. We were bonded—
we
had a boat.

Escape was still an option.

So why was I sitting on the sand? This McCloud certainly seemed as though he’d be game for anything. One thing was for sure—he wasn’t exactly champing at the bit to get back to the Isle of Night. In his cell, he’d wanted to
die
before being
rescued by Alcántara. Was our bond the reason he stayed with me now?

I realized then that it was more than just the bond that had me lingering by his side. Discovering other vampires—a global community of them—cast a different light on this new world of mine. Yet it hadn’t made things clearer. Rather, the true order of things was only now resolving into shape.

Were there others who desired escape badly enough to die for it? Would my friends, even the vampire Trainees, eventually long for such a thing? And that was precisely what kept me there, on that beach, my body already turned back toward the direction of
Eyja næturinnar
.

I needed to go back. I needed to see it through.

Headmaster told us once that the Watchers’ aim was to defend, to protect, and sometimes to kill. Did I need to return and one day live up to that motto, except in service to my friends?

I thought of them—the first and only allies I had in the world. Emma and Yasuo. Ronan, Amanda, Judge, even Josh…I feared they’d need my help dealing with some greater evil that had yet to reveal itself.

I heard the chuff of sand and shallow splashing as Carden dropped the boat at the edge of the water. I listened as he brushed off his hands, and then there was silence.

I opened my eyes to find him staring at me. His intensity brought the memory of our kiss, burning in the front of my mind. For him, it’d just been a by-product of feeding—not from any desire for
me
. I’d finally experienced my first kiss, and it was no more than someone else’s biological function.