Page 25 of Cruel Vampire King

“You don’t give us much time to recover,” Thessa muttered.

“None of us were hurt. What do we have to recover from?” Ysara snapped. She glared at Thessa, but just before she turned away, I thought I had caught something in her eyes. Guilt, maybe?

We left the body where it was, eager to make up for lost time. We took turned blazing the path, cutting through the bushes. When it was Thessa’s turn, she found us a deer path that let us move more quickly for a few miles. We set camp near a river. Ysara, Kael, and Greyson all stripped off their clothes and bathed.

“Care to join us, ladies?” Greyson asked, waist-deep in the water. It was a calm river, moving swiftly enough but not causing a lot of noise.

“I don’t want to be on porn sites, either,” Thessa said rather stiffly. “And can’t you be downriver? We need to fill our waterskins. Wish we had a pot. Then we could boil it up for safety.”

I dunked my waterskin into the water as Thessa muttered about parasites and germs. Dehydration was the greater danger. We’d emptied our waterskins early in the morning, and now was the only time we could refill them. I dipped my face into the water, sighing as it wet my parched throat. My scars felt especially tight, and the moisture helped relieve some of that discomfort.

If I was alone, I would shed my clothes and lay in the river, letting it cool off my body. Well… if I was alone and wasn’t being magically spied on, that was.

“You know, that manticore earlier made me realize just how few dangerous encounters we’ve had,” Thessa said, settingaside her waterskin to kill Ysara’s. “Even the other teams that attacked us. They weren’t really that good. It’s just odd, isn’t it?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but Greyson beat me to it. “I’ve noticed that, too. It’s almost as though someone is clearing our way for us.”

My mouth snapped shut. Clearing our way? Luken just might be doing that. I hadn’t seen him again since the night when he grabbed me, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t there. And where the vampire king was, there were certain to be other vampires as well. He could be clearing their way for them, so he could get me on the end of his fangs, where he wanted me to be.

The confusion that swept through me was familiar. What was his plan? What did he really want? Why put me through this if all he wanted was my blood in his mouth?

I shook my head, retreating from the river. We had nothing to cook, and the night promised to be warm enough we didn’t need a fire tonight.

“I’ll take night watch,” I volunteered.

Only Thessa acknowledged me. This was our normal routine. I’d sleep before night fell, so I could be up and watch the camp later in the night. I lay down, focusing on the discomfort of my scars. It was the only thing that could bolster enough rage to block out the questions about the vampire king.

Except one.

I wonder what he’d do if I stabbed him through the heart.

I smiled as I let myself drift off to sleep. Yes, that was a pleasant dream. Bodies pressed together, blood flowing…

***

“Where is my pack?” I demanded.

It was dawn. We were all getting up to start the day, but when I went to where I’d left my pack, it was gone. I turned, thumping my staff into the ground near my feet. I glared at the others.

Thessa rubbed her eyes. “What?”

“My pack is missing. Which one of you took it?” I demanded. I strode forward, though I wasn’t sure who I would suspect most. Maybe Thessa—because my first reaction was that she couldn’t have taken it. Which was why I had to consider her first. She did a good job of putting on that innocent air, but she was still here!

“My pack’s gone, too,” Kael said.

I turned. He was near a bush that he shoved this way and that, as though the pack had snuck off and was giggling in the leaves. Ysara, Greyson, and Thessa soon took up their own cries. All of our packs were missing. A feeling of dread settled in my stomach. Oh, no. Luken was watching. Whether in person or through the magical cameras, it didn’t matter. When we were talking about how it was suspiciously easy yesterday, he must have decided to make it more difficult.

So now we had no food. I touched my waist, relieved when my waterskin was still in place.

“Do you all have your water?” I asked.

Greyson did, still on his waist. Kael, Ysara, and Thessa had all let theirs in their packs. I’d seen nothing move in the moonlight while I was on watch last night, and neither did Greyson, on first watch, or Ysara on second watch. However, after a few minutes of searching, Thessa pointed out some strange footprints on the riverbank.

They looked like bird tracks, but with four toes instead of three. There was a slight webbed indention between these long digits. A little further down, I found the image of a perfect hand in the mud. The fingers were twice as long as a human’s, tipped with slight claws. As I studied the mark, a memory from a lifetime ago bubbled in my mind.

“Grindylows have moved into the pond,” Dad said grimly. “Little Peter Johnson was nearly snatched today.” He looked down at me and shook his head. “You stay in the house today, Elara. The water’s dangerous right now. Stay with your mom. And be good!”

I must have been six, maybe seven.

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