Page 61 of Slaying the Vampire Conqueror

I just walked. I was still very afraid. But I felt a little less so now, following him.

Distantly, someone was calling me, but I couldn’t make out the words.

Just look straight ahead,the boy said to the little girl.Alright? Just look straight ahead and don’t look anywhere else unless I tell you.

Alright, I thought.I can do that.

I kept walking. I kept looking straight ahead.

Suddenly, the girl stopped short. She turned around and stared right at me. Her eyes were bright blue. Striking, actually, surrounded by her dark hair and all the blood and dirt on her face.

The boy stopped too, glancing at the girl, confused.

Then he turned around.

I let out a horrible choking sound—a scream that didn’t have enough air.

Suddenly the boy was not a boy. Suddenly he was an adult, still lanky, still skinny, still with the same blue eyes and messy hair.

His throat was open, his abdomen torn apart, revealing glimpses of pulsing gore.

His eyes widened.

Vivi,he choked. His voice was warped, drowning with blood. He reached out. Stumbled toward me.

I couldn’t move. Fear paralyzed me. I couldn’t look away. Couldn’t look anywhere but straight ahead, just like he had told me.

Vivi!he begged again, coming closer.

I tried to move, but threads tangled around my ankles—so many threads, past and present and future, intertwined and tightening and?—

He grabbed me?—

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Icouldn’t breathe. My lungs frantically tried to pull in air and failed. I was drowning in blood. I was dying. I was?—

“Sylina.”

The voice was a blade, cutting through my panic.

Someone was holding onto my shoulders, gripping me tight. I wasn’t falling.

I wasn’t falling.

I couldn’t see. The threads were chaotic, my grip on them slippery. Pulling the world into focus seemed impossible.

“Drink,” the voice commanded, shoving a canteen into my bloody hands. “Now.”

Atrius.

The name was the first tangible thing that came to me.

I did as he told me, taking a gulp of water. I immediately choked on it, then had to thrust the canteen back to him as I flung myself to my hands and knees and retched into the sand as he held my hair back.

When I was done, he pulled me upright again.

“More,” he said, pushing the canteen back into my grasp.

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