Page 41 of Vampire Runner

A wave of unease reaches me through the bond and I look down at her, worry weighing down my chest. Cassandra rolls her lips, torn, before speaking.

“Johnathan wouldn’t let me see them,” she admits at last. “He said they were sleeping and didn’t want to disturb them. But he was different. I got the impression he was lying, but I didn’t want to push too hard.” Cassandra looks between me and Ambrose. She’s practically shaking in my embrace. “I’m worried about them, if I’m honest. I remember, in too vivid of detail, what witch hunters have done to my people and those they consider witch lovers.”

I’m speaking before realizing it. “It won’t come to that. I’ll kill every single one of them before letting them touch you.”

Rhys and Ezra give a quiet hear-hear in agreement, but Cassandra shakes her head. “You don’t understand, my love. These people... they can’t be stopped, not if they’re true devotees.”

Ambrose interjects then. “What do you mean?”

Cassandra meets his hard stare head-on. “I’m shocked you aren’t familiar with them, given your age. Though I guess witch hunters must all be the same to you.” She holds up a hand, her eyes crinkling in apology. “I don’t mean to cause offense. It’s just... these are the people I was raised being warned about. They’re a witch’s boogeyman so to speak. You know of demons and those who make deals with them? There are these hunters who do the same, except instead of demons, they seek out those people called angels. During the witch trials years ago, we believed that there was a large conflict in the celestial realms. It overflowed to our realm, and both sides used humanity.”

“As above, so below,” Ezra mutters quietly, shaking his head.

Cassandra gives him a solemn look. “Just so.”

“It sounds familiar,” Kasar says, looking at Ambrose. “We’ve had a few run-ins with groups with supposed holy patrons. These are whom you’re talking about?”

“Most likely,” Cassandra answers after a moment of consideration. “I can’t exactly say. They’re dangerous, though. More dangerous than any group of humans with pitchforks and torches.”

Ambrose looks out of the window, his eyes going distant as he ponders the situation.

“We should leave,” I say, pulling everyone’s attention to me. I don’t cower under my sire’s hard stare. Not when it comes to protecting my mate. “We don’t need to stay here. Why risk a bigger confrontation?” Someone snorts, probably Lan, but I don’t stop. “We’ve already accomplished what we came here for. If the town is already turning against us, we aren’t as well liked as we thought.”

“And run like rats, scurrying to safety in the dark?” Malachi says with disgust. He cuts his hand sharply through the air. “That has never been our way and you know it.”

“When you have a mate to protect, you stop giving a shit what you did in the past,” I snap back. Irritation and the primal need to protect Cassandra skitters under my skin.

Malachi rolls his eyes and I take a step forward, lip curling up in a snarl.

“Stand down.” Ambrose’s command is quiet, no more than a breeze through the trees, but filled with enough power to freeze Malachi and me in place. The smallest tug has me stepping back beside an irritated Cassandra.

“I don’t want to be run from my home, Ashe.” Her words are more confident than the emotions I sense through our bond. “Besides, there are things I can do to stop them.”

Ambrose straightens off the desk, his entire focus on my wife. “How so?”

Cassandra spares a short look up at me, and I immediately know I’ll hate anything she says. She doesn’t look away from Ambrose while she answers.

“If they are, in fact, working with a patron, as they call it, then it depends on the power of the patron. If they’ve only been given minor blessings, then I don’t think we need to worry about a direct confrontation with them.”

Kasar is the one who speaks next. “And if they’ve more than minor blessings?”

I can hear my wife’s hard swallow. “Then there is very little even the most powerful being in our realm can do.”

“In this realm,” Ambrose repeats, but his question is clear.

Cassandra nods. “The best way to fight a being from a different realm is to seek the help of one from the same realm.”

“You’re talking about deals with a demon?” Josephine’s voice is quiet with fear. “No, darling. That is too dangerous.”

Nausea sours my stomach as Cassandra’s fear threatens to overwhelm me through our mating bond. I’ve seen humans who’ve made bargains with demons, even ones who believed they’d figured out a way to outsmart a demon’s abilities to twist words. Every time, the demon wins. The mortal gets what they wished for, but every single one I’ve witnessed has regretted the deal in the end.

I cannot let my wife make the same mistake.

A deep beating rhythm is faint at first but grows steadily louder. Drums. Only Cassandra doesn’t hear them approaching. She can’t send out her senses to count the shocking number of heartbeats marching towards the house.

She does notice, however, the way each of us straighten and bristle.

We’re too used to what the sound means. It means we won’t be able to avoid a battle, not with a mob already coming for us.

---