Page 15 of Vows Forged in Blood

I stop on the other side of the table and he cuts his eyes upward to meet mine across the wide expanse of marble. The gold is the color of warm honey today, a bit darker in the chemical lamps around the room.

“Come,” he says in a clipped tone, holding out his hand in a beckoning gesture. I make my way around the table and by the time I’m beside him, he already has an iron cup in his hand. I hold out my wrist and he quickly slices through my skin as if it’s parchment. I’m more prepared this time, but I still hiss in aquick breath as I feel my skin open, my blood beginning to flow. Though I haven’t done much else these last few days, I have been taking the pills to help increase my blood supply and recover more quickly, and the lightheaded feeling I’d experienced the last time isn’t nearly as bad now.

“I trust everything is to your liking,” he says a little rigidly as my blood drips into the cup. It’s like he doesn’t really want to speak with me, but can’t quite help it.Strange vampire.

“Y-yes.” He gives me one sharp nod and steps away, setting the cup on the table.

“That will be all.”

Effectively dismissed, I turn to find Elias entering the room, grinning his easy smile, the light glinting off of his fangs. Deep blue-gray eyes, tousled golden hair and matching beard, and a dimple on one cheek when he grins—I have no doubt he makes every woman swoon. Men too, I imagine. I think you’d be hard pressed to find any being with a pulse that isn’t charmed by one look at Elias.

“Ah, Lady Dahlia,” he says, bowing dramatically. My lips curl despite my mood. “How are you this lovely evening?”

“I’m well, thank you.” Is my voice…breathy?Gods.I feel my cheeks heat.

“You look it,” he says in a low, smooth voice, eyes skating down my body in a way that makes my stomach tighten and my pulse jump. Is he just a shameless flirt, like so many vampires are? Vampires on the whole are a veryphysicalspecies, to put it mildly. The blood houses are popular destinations for a reason—and not just for the vampires. I’ve heard rumors that sex with a vampire is unlike anything you can imagine, and being bitten is like seeing the gods. I clear my throat lightly, trying not to think about those particular things at the moment. Elias’ grin widens as if he can read my every thought. Perhaps I’ll find out for myself just what being with a vampire is like. As I drink Eliasin, I wonder…but no, I can’t very well do anything with him…can I?Technically,I’m free to do whatever I want with whomever I want...right?

“Elias,” Alaric snaps from the table, sounding irritable.

Perhaps Alaric’s lieutenants are off-limits to his Consort. I’ll have to ask Takara about the rules for these things once I’m feeling more up to it. Elias winks at me and then saunters to the table to join Alaric, unperturbed by the High General’s brisk tone. I get the feeling that nothing much fazes Elias Kovach.

I quickly make my way to the door, glancing over my shoulder to find Alaric’s intent stare on me, the gold in his eyes seeming to burn. With what, I’m not completely sure. Anger? Thirst? Something else? My heart hammers in my chest as something swift and hot rushes through my body at that look, all thoughts of Elias swept from my mind.

I swallow hard and quickly leave the room, closing the door behind me with a loud thud.

The next weekis much of the same. I feel myself slipping farther and farther down into the darkness, being pulled beneath the waves of despair. I have little energy, little appetite, little interest in much of anything. I lie in bed, but hardly sleep, everything too different, my room too big and too quiet without Enid here with me. Takara seems unsure what to do to help. She checks in on me every day, makes sure the chef, Reginald, is bringing meals regularly, even if I’m not eating them, and offers to help me bathe or to style my hair, but overall, the vampire has mostly left me to find a way to work through this on my own.

The next time I go to Alaric to offer blood, I know that he notes the dark circles under my eyes, the weight I’ve lost in thetwo weeks since we arrived, but he doesn’t say anything. He takes my blood and dismisses me with no exchange of words between us at all, but there’s something I can’t quite read radiating off of him in waves. Anger? Annoyance? I’m sure he’s just put out with having to deal with a sad, sulky human, but I honestly can’t quite make myself care. I’m to live with him and provide blood, and that’s all. I have no duty to be pleasant or happy while I do it.

The next day, Alaric leaves with a large group of soldiers. I watch them ride out of the camp and towards the Sisters from the hill where the cabin stands.

“Where are they going?” I ask without taking my eyes off of the procession. I feel as if an invisible string connects me to Alaric and with every step that Xanthus takes, the tauter the string becomes. I know it’s only because of the bonding during the Choosing, but it doesn’t make me feel any better. My body only knows that it longs to be near Alaric, that itshouldbe near him, and as he moves farther away from me, my veins sing with tension and unease. It radiates throughout my whole body like a soft tremor.

“Off to battle,” Takara says easily. My heart stutters and Takara suddenly seems to understand. “Ah, the binding. It will get easier as time goes on and the bond fades.” I only nod absently, still watching the cadre ride out. I wonder what they might be riding out to face, what kind of battle might be waiting for them. What would happen if Alaric…didn’t come back? Icy fingers of dread and fear whisper up my spine. It’s too much. I don’t like feeling this connection to him. I don’t like this utter terror coursing through my body at the thought of something happening to him. The quicker this bond fades, the better.

Takara studies me, her lips pressed into a hard line.

“A walk,” she says simply. I turn to her, finally yanking my gaze from the line of soldiers disappearing in the distance.

“A what? Oh,” I say, realization dawning, “No, I don’t feel?—”

“You are wasting away and going to a dark place,” Takara interrupts. “Part of my job as your Keeper is to keep you healthy, not just in body but in mind as well. I cannot let you wallow any longer. I know that you mourn the loss of your previous life, and you were allowed time for that, but now we must look forward. It is the only way.”

I inhale deeply as Takara’s words—words so similar to da’s—hit me. She’s right. She’s absolutely fucking right. This isn’t me; this isn’t how I should be acting. I’m stronger than this and I know it. I was allowed to feel the sting and pain of loss, but Takara’s right: I need to keep going. It’s time to accept the hand that fate has dealt me and make the most of this new path. Enid always says we need to look for the light in the dark things, to look for joy within the pain and the good within the bad. I know that’s what she’d be telling me to do if she were here beside me now. Probably smacking me with a shoe while she said it, too. A small smile tugs at my lips at the thought for the first time in what feels like an eternity. I let out a long, slow exhale.

I am Dahlia Clayburn. I am my father’s firebrand. It’s time I start acting like it.

I push my shoulders back and lift my chin.

“Yes, a walk sounds perfect.”

Takara smiles and inclines her head, seemingly glad to see me climbing back out of the darkness. So the two of us, accompanied by the six hulking vampires that are apparently my personal guard, make our way through the camp. Why I could possibly need a guard here within the camp is beyond me, but I don’t question it. This is something Alaric was adamant about, even hand-selecting the members himself, so I’m going to have to learn to live with them. Takara assures me that the full guard won’t usually accompany me within the camp, but today they’reall in tow since it was my first real outing and so that I can get to know them.

The camp is absolutely massive, far larger than I ever could have imagined. There must be thousands of vampires here, ready to defend the pass at a moment’s notice. The thought is staggering…and a little terrifying.

I can’t help glancing back over my shoulder every so often as we walk, unused to having a lethal, vampiric shadow on my heels. Though I know they would never hurt me—they are, in fact, charged with doing just the opposite—some long-imbedded instincts put me on edge with them at my back.

“That is the great meeting hall,” Takara says, pointing a slender hand towards a massive building on the southern side of the camp. A golden bracelet in the shape of a snake winds around her wrist and forearm, jade eyes staring up at me. A matching necklace loops around her delicate throat. I wonder if she has an affinity for the creatures or just liked the way the jewelry looked. “They gather there to receive orders and also for feasts and celebrations.” I wonder what a vampire army celebration might look like. Total debauchery, I would imagine.

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