Page 17 of Hunted
How the hell had I managed to get out of my locked room?I didn’t remember leaving my cage.I didn’t remember walking here.
The urge rose again.Not a thought.Not a command that might have been easy to identify as coming from outside me.Just...impulse,slick and invasive, and soft as a breath.
I clenched my jaw and pressed my hands into my pockets.Turned around.Five steps.Ten.
Break it,Acacia finally purred, using words this time.No one will know.I promise.Don’t you deserve a little freedom?Doesn’t it chafe, how they refuse to trust you and keep you caged like an animal under their paltry little protections?You value your freedom so much.And yet, you had more freedom when you lived inside my menagerie than they give you now.
I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to taste blood.Fifteen steps.
There.The door to my guest room.The physical latch and locking mechanism were intact, so I hadn’t broken out by force.Acacia had found some way around the magic.I ducked inside, yanked door shut, and leaned against it.
Breathe in.Breathe out.Despite this little blackout, I was still me.
Right?
I reached for the little silver charm Sanka had given me.It had been one of his first attempts to block Acacia.At first, it had dulled the bond, just for an hour or so, before Acacia apparently sensed it and found a way around it.
Apparently, shealsohad a strong sorcerer at her beck and call among her gaggle of hired magic users.I had seen him the night I was turned.Richard had reported his presence as well.And Sanka said he could sense magical interference at times.
The charm didn’t work anymore.It had burned out pretty fast.But I kept it on a loop of old shoelace, hidden under my shirt like a child’s talisman.A reminder that if something had worked once, even for a moment, it was possible we’d find another way to block her out.A lie I chose to believe in to keep myself sane.
I ran my thumb over the smooth silver of the charm.Nothing.No flicker of Sanka’s fiery magic.No relief.
I couldn’t resist on my own.She was too strong today.Again.It seemed like that was becoming the norm.My ability to momentarily defy her was getting weaker and weaker with each passing day.Each passing hour.
I sat down on the floor, knees up, arms crossed over them.Waited until the hum in my head dulled to a static ache.There.I was fine.Everything was fine.
I stood.Opened the door, and stepped back into the still empty hallway.Apparently, Sanka’s magic hadn’t sensed me breaking out of my room.I should go back inside and alert someone.
And yet...I couldn’t make myself do it.I couldn’t make myself go back into that suite and pretend that I wasn’t going stir crazy, that I didn’t long to just...move freely like a normal fucking human being.
Only, who was I kidding?I wasn’t ahuman being.Not anymore.I was a bloodsucking vampire flunky.Anger surged inside me.I should go back.Turn around.Behave.But...
I blinked and I found myself standing further down the hallway, in front of a thoroughly damaged ward.
It was a minor one, thankfully.Harmless.Decorative.The kind of charm built to trigger if someone approached the guest bathroom while it was occupied.It could probably flicker for an hour or more before someone noticed.No real harm done.
I crouched and carved a messy rune on the baseboard with a thumbnail.I had no idea how to perform magic.No clue what the symbol was.But I could tell that it was something twisted and wrong.Not something that was drawn by my own hand.Not by Josh.This was Acacia’s hand, planting some seed of chaos.
I stood and walked away.
