Page 68 of Vow of the Undead
A royal and a vampire. “King Drakkar did not throw you out, why?” I asked.
“He does not stoop to pay attention to me when there is a witch as powerful as you within his sights. When you arrived in Mara’s Keep, I was able to walk in your path unnoticed.”
Stasia lifted one arm and regarded her fingernails with mild disinterest. “So, Kayn can’t bite us, and he won’t drag us back to King Drakkar either, because he’ll just out himself. The executioners always find the source of violence.”
“Not when they’re vampires,” he said, snapping his attention to her.
“That’s a lie,” Stasia spat. “The executioners always find those who incite violence. They’re bound to do it, or else they’re…” her voice cracked.
When he turned to face her, he towered over her, his shadow blanketing her in darkness as one thin stream of moonlight broke through the canopy of leaves and branches. “What is with the two of you and your inability to listen? I said it once already. Not with vampires. Executioners don’t even have the strength to cut us down, much less the knowledge to track us.”
First came icy fear with the impact of what he’d said. Executioners, the masked men and women trained to cut us down and control us, couldn’t even touch these vampires. If they couldn’t, what hope did the rest of us have to survive?
Once the ice in my veins melted enough for my mind to work, a rush of thoughts crashed through my mind like packed snow tumbling down the mountainside. Vampires thought themselves untouchable, but they were not more powerful than the Gods.
If Odin could reach me, I could protect myself from the king and stop the exodus of witches to The Sea of Skalds.
It was what my mother would believe. The Gods answered our calls before, but they’d never called for us. Though why should they? The people had all but abandoned them,outlawed their names, forgotten that they kept the monsters of the Nine Realms from slipping into our world. If they were to call on anyone, it’d be the silent believers, those of us who hid our sacrifices in the dark of night.
Someone like me.
A liar who lived in secret.
I sucked in a breath and fixed my eyes on Kayn. His blond hair tumbled over the parts of his skull where it was cut close to the skin. “What do you know of my Gods?”
He released a sigh and I found myself wondering about the inner workings of Draugr, or vampires. Why did they have no beating heart but sucked air in their lungs? Were their insides decayed? Could something that’s never been alive even decay?
“Not enough,” he said, his jaw flexing. “There are three trials that they’ve extended to you. An offering not unlike the sacrifice of burning Henbane to destroy a shadow.” I flicked my eyes to him, and my heart skipped. How could he know what my mother and I offered the Gods all those years ago?
Unblinking now, his deep gaze seemed to swallow me. Though his eyes were a simple brown, the darkness of them reminded me of my own. Black water in the poisoned pools of the wasteland, a sight I’d never seen but heard detailed sagas with poetic description.
“How do you know of these trials?” I asked.
“Anastasia,” he said plainly. Instinctively, I glanced at Stasia.
She pointed to herself and then shook her head. “Don’t look at me. I’m just a pretty face.”
Mother? Without thinking, I reached out and laid my hand on his forearm. If he was near my mother recently, I wanted to be closer to him. It was only expected that I wanted to trust the creature who proved to have some connection with the person I cared for above anyone else. “You know my mother?”
“I can take you to her. She’s not in the wasteland, she’s been relocated to Mara.”
In Mara? My mother was right here, close enough to reach within a day’s travel. I didn’t know if I could allow myself to believe it.
My heart thumped, lifting weightlessly with every beat. “Is this a trick?” Even as I asked it, I knew the truth. Because the only way he knew about what we’d done to protect her from the shadow outside her window was if he’d spoken with her. My mother would never have uttered it to another soul, not unless she believed there was a purpose.
“It is not. But I am not giving you an option either. I will pursue this until the Gods can reach you.”
“So you threaten me,” I said. I was growing tired of men and monsters wielding their power with words. I wouldn’t bear another threat.
“I’m simply committed to helping you seal your connection to the Gods.”
“As a vampire? Won’t you lead us into the dark and drain our blood?”
When he opened his mouth, fangs, like King Drakkar’s, descended from the pink above his row of teeth. Except his were shortened and without sharp tips. “I have not fed on humans in a very long time.”
The sagas said Draugr drew strength from the life that flows within us. Otherwise, their strength came with age. Every Polar Nocturne that passed, their well of endurance and strength filled and filled faster if they spent a portion of the darkness in an unconscious state. I stared at his broken fangs for too long. I didn’t trust him, but without sharp teeth, he was safer than King Drakkar. “Anastasia asked you to come for me?”
The muscles in his throat strained as he swallowed thickly. “Yes.”
