Page 66 of Vow of the Undead
Instead of falling victim to it, I listened to the panic, feeling the erratic nerves and noticing the changes in my body. My mother said self awareness was its own kind of magic, separate from the gods and witches. It was innate in every person, plain or powerful, as long as we listened.
I let the energy course through me, building to shove back against him. With all my might, I wrenched one hand free, but not for long. He was faster, far stronger, almost as if he was toying with me by releasing my arm. I kicked at his shin with the toe of my boot, which elicited a satisfying grunt from him.
Taking advantage of his reaction, I threw my shoulder against the center of his chest to knock him off balance so I could twist my other arm and be free of him. But he was as solid as a shield, unmoving.
If this were practice with Ragna, I’d locate her weak spot, below the block. I dropped low, my wrist still in his grasp and used my free hand to rip the tree pendant from my pocket. He yanked me to my feet again where he could snatch my other wrist, but I was prepared.
The soft spot of his palm found the sharp tip of the treependant. His entire body reacted, throwing not only his arm back when the silver tree cut into his flesh, but all of him—and me.
With his hold still on me, he twisted and threw me to the ground.
His body dropped on top of mine, his hip pressed into my side, his leg pinning me to the earth. Because his movements were so quick, I didn’t see his arm shoot up and pin my wrist into the slippery wet leaves.
He forced my arm above my head to keep the Y as far away from him as possible.
I wriggled and wanted to spit at him but my mouth was dry, my energy cut short. He’d overpowered me, his solid body pressing against mine.
His eyes flashed a blood red and my stomach dropped.
“You’re the one who dragged me into the shadows,” I said. It slipped out—an observation, something I’d already known.
His lip twitched and his mouth parted for desperate ragged breaths. Something formed from beneath his top lip, creating two bumps at the corners of his mouth. As if in a trance, I watched the solid shapes drop below his lip, gleaming with saliva but much shorter than King Drakkar’s fangs and with blunt tips.
It was then I noticed only one of us pulsed with the rhythmic thump of a heartbeat.
“You’re all Draugr,” I said. “Vampires.”
“Yes.”
Purified silver. It is the most potent weapon against those cut off from the Gods.I’d once believed my mother was calling me a weapon, but it was the Y Tree itself. If only I could move my arm and embed it into his.
The vampire stared down at me, his eyes returning to a normal deep brown but rimmed with gold, full of hunger and desire. To take me? Heat simmered between us, the thrill ofthe fight, the pressure of our bodies imprinting on one another.
To kill me?
His eyes shifted from desperate to focused, and no longer staring at me. He wrenched his attention from me and sucked in a tight breath.
Why the unliving even breathed, I didn’t know. I only knew what the poetic sagas said of them, spoken in flowering tongues and with the breath of a believer’s whisper.
Breathing slower now and without any flecks of red in his eyes, he looked back at me. His throat bobbed with a swallow as he took me in.
“I prefer Kayn,” he said. I searched his face, brow furrowed. He didn’t hurt me, other than the pinching of his heavy hip pressed into mine. “You called me Draugr,” he explained. “I prefer my name, Kayn.”
“And I prefer not to be pinned to the ground by a stranger.”
His eyes flashed and then trailed down my face and neck all the way to where our hips connected. “It wouldn’t be necessary if you’d let me speak with you.”
I opened my mouth but nothing came out because he was right. I couldn’t argue that I'd only run from him, and then fought when I no longer could escape. He was just another shadow, threatening to claim me for unknown reasons. History told me I couldn’t allow him to get within reach of me.
“I am not a threat,” he said as if I would take his word so easily. I turned my head to break our gaze so he would know I didn’t buy into him. He had to earn my trust after stalking me. “It seems you’ve already discovered this for yourself, but you cannot marry King Drakkar. At all costs, you must not.”
Breath froze in my throat. I slid my gaze back to him. “On that, we agree.”
“He wants what you can give him.”
“And what is that?” I asked, irritation staining my voicebecause as much as I wanted to hear the answer, I hated that he knew what I didn’t.
“Your help.”
