Page 106 of A Dawn Of Blood

But just as they prepare to obey and the four of us to defend ourselves, this priest comes between us. “Why don’t we all calm down?” he suggests.

The way the vampires look at him makes it clear to me he’s of a high rank. The leader seems to take a moment to think. Then he laughs and motions at the stalls. “Yeah, there’s free meat being handed out. Let’s go.”

It’s a huge sigh of relief that I breathe as I watch them disappear into the crowd.

*

“Thank you,” I turn to tell the priest. I bow my head in a show of respect. “We’ll be on our way now.”

My stomach drops when I see him shake his head at me. “You’re coming with me,” he says.

I hear Nuala let out a low, dragged-out groan.

I smile, choosing to buy time while I figure out how to get out of this. “Where are you taking us?”

He raises his eyebrows at me. “You’ve been near the infected. You need to be blessed, as quickly as possible.”

I turn to exchange a smile with Nuala, Dryden and Raven. It’s straight to the shadow torch he’ll take us.

“Lead the way,” I say as I turn back to him.

“How lucky are you?” my wolf states with a snarky smile.

Suppressing a chuckle, I just keep following the priest through the crowd. Once we get to our destination and while I’m receiving the ‘blessing,’ Dryden will get what we came here for and we’ll be on our way back, having successfully completed the mission.

We climb the enormous stairs and get onto the cathedral square. The actual service not having started yet, we wait for the crowd around the shadow torch to part for us. Even this goes without any hiccup whatsoever.

The priest leads us straight to the pedestal, the golden torch spewing the black flame of Baldur’s shadows now only an arm-length away from me.

My heart skips a beat.

The priest touches the flame then turns to touch my forehead, muttering, “In the name of the Gods and the Mother and the Holy Blood.”

“Fidelis sanguini,” I say in reply.

But that makes the priest pull his hand away and frown at me, making my breath catch in anticipation.

“You don’t know how to properly receive a blessing?” he demands, his frown only growing deeper. He glances at the rest of the team as well. “What church do you all belong to?”

*

Church? Fuck. My mind goes blank for a moment before instinct takes over. I sway in place and let my body slump to the floor, pretending to lose consciousness.

“Bloody,” the priest starts and breaks off as soon as he realizes he almost cursed out loud. I feel his hand on my upper arm, his knee gently pushing into my thigh. “Are you alright, child?” he asks.

“She’s fine,” I hear Raven say, “she just needs some air.”

But the priest is slapping me back into consciousness. When I open my eyes, I see him turning to another priest that has materialized in the meantime. “Otto, quick,” the first priest urges, “we need to get her to the infirmary.”

I rush to push myself into a seated position. “No,” I mutter, “there’s no need for that, it’s just very crowded here and I haven’t eaten anything all day.”

The priest quirks an eyebrow at me. “As I’ve already said, you’ve been near the infected. I’m not letting you go anywhere.”

I open my mouth to protest some more, but it’s then that I spot Dryden taking advantage of the commotion. He’s inconspicuously backing up towards the shadow torch with a hand in the pocket in which he’s keeping the box meant to contain the stolen piece of shadow.

“Alright,” I turn to tell the priest, “I’ll go.”

The priest gives me a content nod and holds a hand out. I take it and let him help me to my feet. I’ll figure out a way to escape, but for now, going to the infirmary with the priests might just be the distraction Dryden and the team need to safely leave with the box.

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