Page 33 of Cruel Vampire King

Unwillingly, I looked up to his face. Tears rolled down his cheeks. For all his hulking figure and heavy, boarish jaw, he looked small and vulnerable. Hurting as much as I was. He wasn’t a warrior. Like Thessa, he’d been forced into the Trials. Bitterly, I wondered how many of the people watching us were taking bets on what I was about to do. How hard was Lukenlaughing? Was he pleased with my torment or was he angry that his mercenaries hadn’t killed me?

“No,” I whispered. “No, I can’t accept that. There has to be another way. Those fucking vampires have caused enough pain… he has caused me enough pain.” I searched the forest, not even certain what I was looking for until my gaze fell on some flowering bushes nearby. “We need yarrow. I’ll build a fire and… and find a way to boil water. I’ll clean her wounds. We need yarrow and willow and… honey, if you can find it.”

My voice rasped with every word.

Ysara crept forward, eyeing me warily the way you would a wild animal. “It would be better to—”

“I’m not giving up. I’ll do anything. Do you understand me?” I threw my head back and screamed at the sky. “I hate you but I’ll doanything!”

“Fuck’s sake,” Kael yelped, pulling back from me. “You challenging the gods now?”

I laughed as tears burned my eyes. No. I wasn’t going to cry. I’d cried my last tear four years ago. Crying did nothing. Action. I had to keep busy. If they weren’t going to help me, I’d just do it myself. I’d survived on my own already. Nobody cared about me. I was alone in this, and that was fine. I could at least rely on myself.

I dunked my shirt in the spring and began frantically scrubbing the dirt off it. Then I left it in place and darted around the clearing and gathered the dry branches and tinder I needed to start a fire. Soon, the first flames started to lick against the brown grasses. I blew on it, urging the flames higher. I didn’t look up until a splash caught my attention.

Kael had finished scrubbing out my shirt and laid it on a rock to dry out. I gave him a tentative smile but he didn’t return it. His eyes were shadowed, as though he wasn’t sure we were doing the right thing.

“She’ll have to be kept warm,” he said as he removed his own shirt. “I’ll go look for that yarrow.”

“Honey will be more useful,” I interjected quickly.

He frowned at me.

“Honey has natural antibiotic properties. Greyson mostly stopped the bleeding already, and that’s what yarrow is good for,” I explained.

Greyson and Ysara, in the meantime, had ransacked the elf bodies.

“I’ll take these fuckers away so we don’t draw in predators,” Ysara said.

Greyson hefted one of the elf spears. “I’m going to go hunting. Who’s got the map?”

Kael nodded at Thessa.

Greyson grunted. “Good, then. Let’s leave it here.”

He turned, then paused as his gaze sought me out. I ignored him as I continued to build the fire. I didn’t want to look at any of them. Ysara started to drag the bodies out. Kael helped with the first one, but didn’t come back for the second. Greyson, after staring at me for too long, left, too. I tore my shirt into strips and hung them close to the fire before putting rocks in among the coals.

I kept one aside and used it to clean Thessa’s injury. It had stopped bleeding, thank the gods. Her face was still ashen, as pale as a corpse. She was still breathing, though.

Next, I found a fallen cedar and hacked through the bark until I could feel a thick section off it. It was curved, not very deep, but would work well enough. I brought this back and rinsed it thoroughly, then filled the hollow with water and put the fire-rocks into the water, and placed new rocks in the fire.

By this time, the strips of cloth were dry so I dressed Thessa’s injury.

“You shouldn’t put river rocks into the fire. They have a higher chance to explode,” Thessa murmured, not opening her eyes.

My heart skipped a beat. I smoothed her hair from her face. “Hey. Are you waking up?”

Thessa cracked one eye open and gave me a feeble smile. “Wish I wasn’t.”

“You’re going to be okay. I promise, you’re going to be okay. Greyson healed you and—”

“Elara.” She reached out with a shaky hand and grabbed my sleeve.

My words died in my throat as I gazed at her solemn brown eyes. And it was then that I realized I was more innocent than I’d let myself realize. I talked myself into believing that being a virgin was the only pure thing left at me. But it wasn’t true. There was a part of my heart that was still innocent and kind. I hadn’t even known it existed until now.

“I don’t want you to die,” I whispered. A single tear ran down my cheek. I would never have been able to kill her in the colosseum.

I needed to protect her. I needed to look out for her, defend her. It wasn’t fair! I didn’t want to care about her. I wanted to be able to focus on a single-minded mission. But thisstupid heart of mine had other ideas. My lips trembled, and I bit them hard.Please, Luken. Please don’t do this to me. I will be yours. I will let you possess me if you’ll just…

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