Page 3 of Ashvale: The Vampire's Thrall

My own breathing was loud and I pressed my hands against my ears harder, the sensations washing over me in a confusing jumble that made me want to scream. But then another sound reached me. An odd gurgling, like bubbles in a can fizzing and popping and then whooshing like a great breath of air that was exhaled in one go—

I opened my eyes, finding the lake ahead instantly. There. Barely visible in the water. I didn’t have time to question how I could see her, or that the drumming I’d heard seemed to be coming from her direction and was growing rapidly fainter. I just moved.

The water was cold as I dove, cooling my feverish skin that had begun to turn a light pink under the harsh sun. The water smelled like the air, fresh and clean, and like dirt. But overlaying it all was the girl whose fingertips reached desperately for the surface, finding nothing to cling to and curling limply back down.

I swam across the lake faster than I would have believed possible, but it’s said that adrenaline can make the human body capable of so many things. I reached her in seconds, mere breaths, and when my head pushed beneath the surface, her eyes were already fluttering closed.

Her fingers were too thin in my hand, her pale arms too fragile in my grip. Her blonde hair floated around her, catching the light until the sunshine made it look silver. Green eyes snapped open and then rolled as I pushed us up towards the surface, snapping the reeds that had tried to entangle us as easily as swiping away a cobweb.

The air seemed cooler and the world was noisier than ever compared to the relative quiet beneath the water, but the girl was still in my arms.

The stranger stood on the bank closest to us, watching impassively with his arms crossed as I dragged her out and shot him a glare. “Thanks so much for your help.”

He said nothing, which was becoming pretty standard for him, and I scowled harder in response before thumping the girl’s back once, twice, and breathing a sigh of relief when she expelled a fuck-ton of water. The drumming started up again and the sun warmed our bones and the insects screamed at me until I wanted to dive back under. To slip away and never resurface. Maybe I would have, if not for the graze on her knee. Or the scrape on her arm. Worst of all was probably the slice on her neck where one of the reeds had wrapped around her, keeping her in what would have been a watery grave. Then all I could see was red, and my jaw felt like it would shatter, and my hands turned to claws on her shoulders, her green eyes flicking open and her mouth rounding in terror as I sank my teeth deeply into her neck.

“Leonora, no!”

The words were muffled, unimportant. Heat cascaded into me like it could wash away my aggravation, my worries, and I let it, moaning deeply as the world seemed to pause before I realised the overwhelming noise had simply hushed. My throat moved as I took the warmth in and my tongue laved the skin as I pulled back, smiling at the girl who’d made the world quiet again.

But something was wrong. Her skin, already pale, was practically translucent and the blue of her veins stood out sharply. Her chest didn’t rise.

I stumbled back and felt a warm hand grasp my shoulder. The stranger. His eyes flicked once to the girl before he sighed.

“It’s okay. I’ll take care of it.”

Take care of it? What did that mean? What was there to take care of? The stranger moved away from me and slid his arms beneath a girl, easing her up from the ground like she weighed nothing but the muscles in his forearms tensed as he cradled her and waded back into the water.

I was too shocked to speak, to ask what he was doing, until, abruptly, he let the girl go and I slipped forward a step in the slick mud we’d stirred up.

“What are you doing?” I pushed forwards, the water slapping at my calves as I splashed into the lake in loud stomps that rattled my teeth. “No, no. I-I just pulled her out. Didn’t I? Didn’t I pull her out? What are you doing?”

“Taking care of your mess,” he snapped and his eyes seemed colder than ever as he grabbed me around the shoulders and pushed me back onto the bank.

“What did you do?What did you do to me!” My hands started to shake and I tugged restlessly at the ends of my hair as I watched the water ripple, a few bubbles escaping towards the surface as the girl sank once more. “I need to get her out. I’ve got to get her—”

“She’s gone. Leave her be.” His hand thunked down on my shoulder and I screamed with rage, slamming my hands backward and into his chest.

“What do you mean she’s gone? I saved her! She was drowning and I saved her. I—”

“You killed her,” he said, raising his arms as he got to his feet slowly. A muscle in his jaw ticked as he brushed grass off his front and pushed his hair back out of his eyes. “You ripped out her throat.”

“No, no…”

“Yes. You sank in your fangs and drank her dry.”

“No.”

“Leonora—“

“That is not my name.”

“How would you know?” he shot back and I moaned, digging my palms into my eyes.

No, he had to be wrong. I hadn’t killed that girl. I’d saved her. I’d saved her.

“You killed her,” he said and then shrugged. “It’s okay, everyone has their first.”

I screamed, rage bursting through me as I picked him up by his throat, raising him into the air and squeezing so hard his delicate face turned pink before I slammed him back down as the grass greyed beneath my feet. “What did you do to me?What did you do?I don’t want to be a monster.I don’t want to be like you!”

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