Page 63 of Ashvale: The Vampire's Thrall
Once Adrian was out of sight, I crept onwards, heading out across the grass and into the trees that stood dark against the sky.
The pulse that drew me to Hayes told me he was in the centre somewhere and I felt it guide me as I moved, the wind brisk against my unaffected skin and the smell of damp earth worrying instead of soothing me—it smelled like a graveyard.
A strange sound reached me and I paused, curious. According to the bond, it wasn't Hayes. Somebody else was out here tonight too.
I followed the sound and emerged at the edge of the woods where the clearing break stood. The clouds parted and I could see a little better, my body freezing up as I tried to take it all in.
The sound I'd heard was sobs. The figure up ahead was shaking as they cried and the rhythmic sounds of dirt hitting flesh made my stomach turn as I took one step forward.
I'd made no noise, but whatever they were hopped up on clearly boosted their hearing and gods knew what else. This person might have taken on an undead vampire and lived. Had obliterated them.
I took another step forward and their body stiffened, halting their digging.
There was something familiar about the silhouette—which made sense, I’d probably walked by them at Ashvale. Their head was bowed and as they raised it, a small cry escaped my mouth.
"I’m sorry, Leonora. I never wanted this. She made me take it—I wanted to be strong. I didn’t know it would make me into this. Make mehurtpeople.”
“Rowan," I choked out, clutching my hands to the bottom of my throat as I tried to understand what I was seeing. "What are you doing? What's happened?"
"I killed them," he said, sniffing and looking out into the distance with a boyish wonder that I used as a distraction to move closer. "Once you start taking it, you can't stop. I tried, I tried, but it just doesn't work. It makes you do it."
His hands ran through his hair, leaving it sticking up at odd angles and flecked with dirt. Blood smeared his mouth and the sight of it made me shudder, my dream fresh in my mind.
I took another step closer. "Why don’t you come back to the castle with me? We can figure this out.”
“Don’t,” he roared and I froze. “Don’t come any closer. I don’t want to do this again. I don’t want to hurt anyone else.”
I raised my hands in supplication. “Okay, okay. What if I go back and bring help?”
“No. No. You can’t leave. You’ll tell. You won’t have a choice. Can’t let you leave, can’t let you stay,” he said, his words coming quicker and quicker until they were slurred together. “I’m sorry,” he breathed. “I think I have to kill you again.”
Again.No.
“What did you say?”
It was like Rowan wasn’t even present, the drugs completely overriding his system. “I hated it. You were so nice… I liked your orange jumper but then you fell and it was red.”
Red. Bleeding into the sky. I tried to breathe and couldn’t, my limbs shaking. “Rowan—”
“It was just chance. The pub was small and you were… beautiful. I didn’t know who you were—whatyou were,” he babbled and I wasn’t sure I could hear any more of this. “And then there you were. Whole.”
You’re a vampire. That’s what he’d said to me the moment he’d seen me for the first time. I’d thought it was weird but harmless, but now I understood. He’d come back to Ashvale, to Hayes, and his victim had followed him there. Haunting him. He’d known who I was and what had happened to me all along.
“Did you make the drugs?” I said, trying to keep a leash on my temper, trying to breathe.
“No, no, no,” he said, becoming incoherent again as he looked out at the trees, jumping when he looked back and saw me again. “This is your fault.”
“What?” I swallowed my shock and tried to bottle my anger, feeling Hayes’ presence growing nearer, but it was hard. Every time I looked at him I saw him in the library, smiling at me, or the way he’d seemed concerned when I’d spoken about needing to know who I was, what had done this to me. He hadlied. Over and over.
My fangs ached and I shook my head, gritting my teeth. "Who gave you the drugs?"
Rowan looked baffled, his eyebrows drawing together as he squinted at me. "You did, Elowen."
Shock and satisfaction were a strange mix inside me. I knew I'd been onto something with her but this?
"You did this to me," Rowan continued, his voice turning into a low snarl as the hunger gripped him again and I swore as I realised he'd slipped into a drug-fueled delusion. Was this how he’d looked on the night I’d died? "Why did you make me a monster?"
"I didn't," I said, trying desperately to hold on to my self-control for the sake of the friendship we’d had and he roared, charging at me.
