Page 4 of Blood Bought

“None of your business,” she snapped.

Jeeze. Touchy.

“I’m going to kill her.”

“Didn’t know you had a death wish, Ae.” He slammed on the gas to go faster, swerving onto a dirt road, if it could even be considered a road. I couldn’t do much at that point but hold on and pray I made it there in one piece or an asteroid happened to slam into the castle before we could get there.

It ended up being option one.

Malik brought that ancient death trap to a sudden, jerky halt at the edge of a forest, and I couldn’t stop myself from blurting, “I thought the Faint Wood was a myth meant to scare us away from coming to the castle?”

“Itisto keep you away, but nothing about it is a myth. Try and run through it alone and see how that fares for you.” His laugh echoed around us as we got out of the car, making me shiver and wish they’d have carried me the rest of the way.

Unfortunately, they walked whether or not I was following, and I was faced with a choice: hope I could get the car started again and that shitty thing could go faster than vampires, or follow them so I didn’t get irrevocably lost in the Faint Wood.

That time... I went with option two.

My legs moved on autopilot as I hurried to catch up to Malik, who might’ve been the sassier among them, but also the one who hadn’t threatened to murder me. I was at least a little grateful that he’d kept a human walking pace instead of zipping through the trees at a vampire’s normal speed, but really all that did was give me time to look around.

At first glance, it was a forest exactly like all the others I’d ever seen. A few trees here, some fallen branches and leaves there, a few insects — no, not insects. The woods were completely, utterly silent except for the pounding of our heartbeats and nothing else. Not the crunch under our feet or the wind in the trees. No animals, no bugs, no words.

Justtha-thump. Tha-thump. Tha-thump.

It was unnerving as hell.

Without thinking, I squeezed my eyes shut to block it all out, but the lack of sight only made the auditory void harsher. I carefully peeked one eye open and then the other, nearly tripping twice as I thought I caught glimpses of something out of the corner of my eye, but nothing concrete.

Just silence and a crushing weight on my shoulders that was getting worse by the second. I no longer wondered why he said I wouldn’t do well alone — there were no trails to follow or paths to trek, so without a guide, I’d have wandered aimlessly until that weight and thetha-thumpof my own heart pulled me down and never let me back up.

Faint Wood, indeed.

It took a full five minutes to feel normal once we were safely on the other side, and I felt like I’d slipped into a different realm somehow. While my little slice of Earth had been relatively reborn after the last huge war that wiped almost everything out, this place looked like it hadn’t been altered by anything in a millennium. The castle was grey and overgrown with moss and vines that climbed the towers and wrapped around the drawbridge, and the trees lining the grounds had to have been four hundred feet tall.

There were no cars, no lights, no signs of electricity or salvaged technology at all as we got closer, and suddenly I wondered why not. “You’re vampires,” I said aloud, knowing they’d hear me anyway. “Why live so...”

“More questions,” Aerin scolded. “Save them for someone who actually has an inclination to answer them.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” I mumbled as the adrenaline ceased being enough to make up for the cold of a northern winter. The fuckers could’ve at least let me grab my bigger jacket before I left, but I wasn’t sure the Obsidiansorthe Fauxs could feel cold, so I doubted they’d care.

Malik pushed me faster, over the bridge and through the giant double doors, barely giving me enough time to notice the portraits on the walls illuminated by torches or the winding, twisting halls I was sure I’d get lost in. My first impression definitely hadn’t been wrong — they’d apparently never heard of technology.

“We just don’t need it,” Aerin said with a quiet sigh, and I fought the urge to scream in annoyance at the way they kept reading my mind. “Our eyesight is better in the dark and television is stupid.”

Out loud or in my head, I didn’t have to ask what they did for fun if they didn’t watch television. No new shows or movies had been made in two hundred years, so they’d either watched all of them or found other ways to occupy themselves like hunting humans or warring with the surrounding clans. And with their ability to go anywhere, it wasn’t surprising to me that they weren’t here enough to need mindless entertainment.

“So misinformed,” Malik tsked. “I really thought the teachers in this territory had been given better information than that, but I see they’re still making us out to be one-dimensional. How utterly typical.”

I couldn’t bring myself to argue with him as we approached the vine-covered doors to the throne room, and I tested the restraints around my wrist right before being unceremoniously pushed inside.

“Got her, Alpha Brander,” Malik said with a bow. “Sorry it took so long.”

Not fucking bowing.I was more than a little surprised to see that he looked to be in his late 50’s — I knew there were tons of things about the ways vampires aged that I didn’t know, and it was enough of a struggle not to die a little under the intense power and harsh gazes of the three Veresian Alphas: Brander with his dark hair and empty eyes, Idris with his beard and his wife standing behind him like a powerful, take-no-shit statue, and Dregan, with his broad shoulders and violent smile. Discipline, Wealth, and Hunting, all finally personified for me.

“— youwillbow, girl.”

I only caught the tail end of Dregan’s command, but it was enough to have me unwillingly dropping to my knees and bending forward until my nose was practically on the floor.

“Better,” he growled.

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