Page 50 of To Love a Vampire
His calm voice trails after me, stopping me dead in my tracks. My back tenses, the muscles there strung tight as I wait for Declan to explain. I can’t look at him. I’ll kill him if his words aren’t meticulously careful.
“She went back to the Red Hills.”
Twenty-Two
Crimson Eyes
Asher
It takes everyone in the room to tear my furious hands away from his throat. He lies pathetically gasping on the floor, his chair knocked over to the ground as I struggle to push Gabriel, Raske, Kaino and Luca off of me.
“Why? Why did you take her there? Why did you take her to them? You knew they would captivate her!”
Sharp and angry questions flow through me one after the other but I already know the answers. Declan wants acceptance. He wants it as much as I want solitude. The vampires of the Red Hills accepted him. They told me so themselves. He was their pet.
And now Fallon is, too.
I thought they hadn’t done it. I thought they had let her go, for whatever reason. That wasn’t it at all, though. They just couldn’t get through to her while she lived within the protected, spell shielded walls of the Wandering community.
A tremor shudders through my body as I think about what they might be doing to her.
I clench the hilt of the Crimson Sword at my waist, my hands shaking against the cool metal as I stalk from the room. With a leaping start I rush in the direction of the Red Hills without a backward glance.
It takes less than an hour for my anxious but relentless steps to carry me to the base of the Red Hills. The cursed, blood stained air filters through my lungs. I begin the hike up the mountains, my hurried steps faltering against the damp crevices. Gabriel joins me moments later, breathing hard from the run here. A minimal amount of stress is relieved just from his presence.
Until Declan climbs up a minute later.
I scatter down to his level, bringing rocks and debris with me as I land in front of him, my sword raised. My boots echo off the rocky terrane as I stomp toward the hybrid.
He holds his hands up quickly. “I want to help. I want to help her, I swear,” Declan sputters.
Gabriel holds me back lightly, waiting to hear the traitorous hybrid’s reply.
“I didn’t know what they wanted with her. They said they wouldn’t hurt her, that they needed a human to release them from the curse. The race that damned them would have to be the one to release them.”
My lungs burn as I take deep breaths to force down the aggression that’s rising in me.
“They won't hurt her. Just let me talk to them. They trust me,” he adds as I just stare wildly at him.
This lowlife hybrid just ruined her life. I thought I would be the one to do that but she did. With the help of her friend.
I turn from him, sheathing the sword, knowing I shouldn’t waste any more time. Gabriel lowers his arm from me and starts climbing. I raise one hand, prepared to begin the climb, as well, until I think better of it. Declan takes three steps forward before I clench my fist and slam him hard in the face. A pleasant and fulfilling cracking sound meets my ears. I release a long, pent-up sigh as a burst of dark blood flows from his nose and down his chin.
He clutches his broken nose that’s unfortunately already healing.
Damn hybrid healing!
He stares at me, not with anger but understanding like he knows he deserved that and more. I release another long breath that shakes my chest, just wanting to be able to breathe again. I won’t breathe with ease until she’s in my arms again.
I turn from him, not feeling threatened in the slightest with my back to the hybrid. The three of us trail up the mountain side in silence.
When we’re close to Pike’s Peak my feet begin to falter.What if they took her? What if we’re too late? What if she’s dead?
I swallow hard and pull the Crimson Sword from my belt, holding it tightly in my hand as I walk cautiously toward the vampire’s lair.
I’m prepared to fight them. I’m prepared to die. I’m not prepared for the sight that greets me.
Blood coats the already dusty red mountains. My heart thrashes, trying to release the fear and anxiety building within me. I don’t want to see what’s around the bend, where the vampires reside, starving and wasting away for the last several decades—just dying for fresh blood.
