Page 19 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 1

He shot me a look. “I’ve been alive for a very long time. I’ve learned to never underestimate little old ladies, even if they’re human.” Then he paused. “Is she human?”

I grinned. “Honestly? I have absolutely no idea. Come on. We’ve got ingredients to gather.”

It was hard to spot where the Garden District ended, and the forest began. The borders tended to change around, depending on what the fae were in the mood for on any given day. Luckily, the map Mrs. Pumpernickel gave us was enchanted to stay up-to-date, although that meant it tended to overheat if it was left in bright sunlight. The storm clouds had been swept away, leaving the day sunny and pleasantly breezy. The forest smelled of damp moss and fresh rain.

“It’s this way, I think,” I said, pointing at a narrow path.

Gabriel shook his head. “No, that’s the north path. Look, here.” He adjusted the angle of the map, his fingers brushing briefly against mine. His skin was cool, but not as cold as I’d imagined vampires would be. I hoped the flush I could feel rising into my cheeks would just look like embarrassment about nearly getting lost.

“Okay, full disclosure?” I said. “I’m excellent at finding my way as long as I’m in a city. Just, you know, not out in the wilderness.”

“We’re still within sight of the park,” Gabriel pointed out dryly. “There’s a snack bar barely a hundred yards away.”

“Well, it’s the wilderness compared to downtown,” I said primly.

Gabriel’s mouth twitched. “Perhaps I should be the one with the map.”

“Only while we’re in the wilderness,” I told him. Behind me, an ice cream truck drove by. Gabriel’s mouth twitched again, and I felt a jolt of surprise when I realized it was a tiny smile. “Absolute wilderness,” I repeated with a small smile of my own.

We set off into the woods. Gabriel’s body language had changed slightly, becoming more graceful. His movements were more fluid, his already quiet footsteps completely silent. He moved more like the ancient, powerful vampires I caught glimpses of sometimes.

“You move differently out here,” I said.

His shoulders stiffened, then relaxed.

“Ah,” he said. If I didn’t know better I would’ve thought he sounded embarrassed. “Sorry.” His next step landed loudly on a branch, and he started moving more rigidly again.

“What are you sorry for, exactly?” Years of investigative instinct told me there was something just beneath the surface here, and if I asked the right question…

“I tend to, ah, limit certain behaviors when I’m around non-vampires,” he said. “It puts them a little more at ease. People tend not to like being constantly aware that they’re conversing with an immortal apex predator.”

“So you hide?”

“Not hide. I merely… adjust.”

“Why bother?”

Gabriel sighed. “Most vampires are insular to the point of being isolationist. With many people I meet, I’m the first vampire they’ve actually had a conversation with. If I can make a few small changes and help them be more at ease, I’d say it’s worth it, wouldn’t you?”

I considered him for a moment. “Yeah. Yeah, I would. I guess I just didn’t expect?—”

“Didn’t expect a vampire prince to recognize that not every situation calls for prowling around in a cape and waxing poetic about the children of the night?” Gabriel said.

“I didn’t expect you to be worried about community outreach,” I said.

“Nobody does,” he replied. “Ah, wonderful. Our first stop.”

There was a small clearing off the side of the path with a massive tree in the middle. The base of the trunk was wide enough that it would have taken six people to wrap their arms around the entirety of it, and it split into twisting branches a few yards up. The tree was covered with small green balls that looked like a bad artist had tried to draw limes from memory.

“We’re going to need the hulls,” I said, crouching down to pick up some of the ones that had fallen at the base of the tree. Unlike the ones still in the branches, they were mottled with dark spots.

“What are you doing?” Gabriel asked.

I looked up at him, brow furrowed. “Is that a trick question?”

“Fallen husks are less potent,” he said. “Give me a moment.” He got a running start, then leaped up toward one of the twisting boughs, grabbing onto it and pulling himself up. He scaled the tree with inhuman speed and began to pick walnuts, lifting up the bottom of his sweater to use as a makeshift basket. I tried not to stare at the trail of dark hair that disappeared into the waistband of his pants.

Gabriel dropped down from the tree with the grace of a cat. “Is this enough?” he asked, showing me what he’d gathered.

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