Page 40 of Vampire Blood

And now I knew why.

“Who is their leader?” I demanded to know.

Damien didn’t respond immediately. I saw him weigh the cost of giving up more, and I could almost feel the calculationsrunning through his mind. But finally, he shrugged, a smug smile on his face. “You’re too young, too inexperienced to know him, to fight him.”

I wasn’t about to let him win this. Not now. Not after everything that had happened.

I turned to Callum, who had been standing in silence beside me, taking in everything. “We need to go there,” I said, my mind already working through the steps. “Now.”

Callum gave me a look that was half concern, half disbelief. “You sure about this? After all this? Going straight into their hands…”

“I don’t have a choice,” I said, the determination hardening my resolve.

I didn’t have time to explain. I was already walking away, moving toward the exit of the cell, my heart pounding. Every instinct in me screamed that this was the right choice, even if it meant stepping into a trap.

Chapter Thirteen

Annika

I couldn’t tell if it was a dream or not. It had to be.

The forest stretched endlessly around me, shadows twisting and curling like living things. The moon hung low, its pale light barely piercing the thick canopy overhead. Each step I took seemed to echo, the sound swallowed by the hush of the night. My bare feet pressed into the damp earth, but I felt no cold, no pain. Only the steady pull drawing me deeper into the darkness.

I should’ve been afraid. The trees loomed, their branches clawing at the sky, and the air pressed heavy against my skin. But there was no fear. Only her.

She stood ahead, just beyond the reach of the moonlight.

The witch.

My ancestor.

The woman whose blood bound Aurelius and now ran through my veins.

She was cloaked in white, hair long and loose, falling in waves like shadows around her face. Her eyes glowed faintly, golden and piercing, and they never left mine. She didn’t speak, but I felt her call, a whisper in my bones that beckoned me closer.

“Why are you showing yourself to me?” I asked, though my voice was barely a breath.

She didn’t answer. Instead, she lifted a hand and gestured for me to follow.

The forest thickened as I moved toward her, the trees closing in until there was barely room to breathe. My pulsequickened, but still, I wasn’t afraid. Her presence was a balm against the unease, an anchor in the dark. I trusted her, even as the night pressed closer.

“You’re leading me somewhere,” I said, stepping over gnarled roots and tangled branches. “But why? What do you want from me?”

She stopped then, her feet barely seeming to touch the earth, and her eyes fixed on me with something that felt like sadness, or maybe regret.

“You already know,” she said, her voice echoing like the wind through the leaves.

I froze. It wasn’t just her voice. It was my own. Soft and distant, as if the words were coming from deep within me.

“Tell me,” I pleaded.

But she only reached out, her fingers grazing mine, and suddenly the forest was gone.

I stood at the edge of an ancient stone altar, the air thick with the scent of blood and earth. Chains wrapped around the carved stone, stained dark, and in the center lay a figure… shadowed, bound, but pulsing with something alive. Something wrong.

Aurelius.

“No,” I whispered, backing away. “This can’t happen.”

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