Page 10 of Stalk the Dark
“Yes,” Ordell said. “But you’ll probably be spending a lot of time at the castle.”
The thought of being around that monster made my skin crawl, but he was my main job, the main reason I’d been sent here. “Yeah, been there already, didn’t get a tour, though, just a room in his dungeons.” I examined my arm, the one that had been bitten. My shirt was shredded, but the skin was unmarred. My shoulder felt fine too. “You gave me something on the road. It healed me?”
“No, just neutralized the toxin,” Ordell said. “They have a healer on staff here who patched you up. A half-blood fae by the name of Merry Kin.”
Half-blood fae rarely left the Evergreen, but I knew the Order kept associations with a few. I’d never heard of one being on staff, though. “I’d like to thank her.”
“She passed out,” Hemlock said. “Healing you took it out of her. I’m sure you’ll see her in the morning. But forget that. I want to know about your trip to the castle.”
“Not by choice, trust me. Got plucked out of the Silverwood by Ezekiel’s bat minion just before the wolves shredded me.” I sat up, wincing at the ache in my limbs, and filled them in on the last few hours, my encounter with Ezekiel, and what he did to Mary and Jeremy. “I promised to protect them, and I failed.” I gritted my teeth. “He could have fed and let them go,but he chose to kill them.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “He’s a sick monster.”
“But he let you live…” Hemlock said. “Even when you turned down his deal. That’s a good sign.”
He was looking at me as if I was some kind of puzzle to solve when it wasn’t that complicated. “He knew about the toxin. He can’t kill me, remember. Not directly, anyway.”
Hemlock didn’t look convinced, but I didn’t care what he thought.
“Howdidyou escape?” Ordell asked. “Make it all the way to the road?”
Yeah, I’d been thinking about this one, mulling it over, because I didn’t understand it. “Bat boy helped. No idea why.”
They exchanged glances but said nothing.
“I need food. I need to get my strength back up.” And figure out how to manipulate an ancient bloodthirsty vampire. I swung my legs off the bed, and Ordell backed up to give me room to stand. On my feet, I was at eye level with his pectorals. The guy had to be at least six-five, maybe six-six. The room was suddenly too crowded. I needed out.
I stepped around his frame and away from the pair of them.
“Do we make you nervous, Orina?” Hemlock edged closer, bringing the scent of leather and machine oil with him. I locked my knees, resisting the urge to back up. “We can’t have that. If you’re going tobe dealing with Ezekiel, then you need to have nerves of steel.”
I glared up at him. “Pretty sure surviving a dungeon encounter and escaping being shackled to a wall qualifies me on that front, but thanks for the insight.”
“Then why is your pulse racing? Doesn’t the Order teach you to moderate your emotions?”
He had a provocative mouth, the corners slightly lifted as if they wanted to smile but were forbidden from doing so. That mouth contradicted the chill in his frostbite blue eyes, and that discrepancy sent a shiver up my spine. “I moderate just fine, thank you. But I’m pretty sure my blood sugar is low, and I need food, so if you don’t mind, back the fuck up.” I needed him to move. To give me space. He was too close. The room was too fucking small.
“Hemlock,” Ordell said, his tone soft yet filled with warning. “Leave her be.”
Hemlock held my gaze, his frame acting like a cage swallowing my personal space. “Answer me.” He moved closer, and my vision tunneled.
“I don’t like confined spaces.” I hated the snap to my tone that told him I was affected. “Look…you two make this small room feel like a box.”
It was a new fear, one that had crept up on me the last few months. One I was determined to conquer just like all the others.
“Great, a claustrophobic,” Hemlock drawled. “Thank your stars he shackled you to a wall and didn’t just nail you into one of his guest coffins.”
There was something telling in that sentence, but my brain was too fried to compute.
“Hem…” Ordell said.
Hemlock stepped out of my personal space, the corners of his mouth lifting in a smug smile. “Don’t worry, we’re leaving. We have a patrol to complete.”
Patrol was the perfect chance to get a real lay of the land, but I needed to get my strength up first. “Let me grab a bite and I’ll come with you.”
“No!” they said in unison.
What the—? “Last I checked, I was in charge of the chapter house and the Order members.”
“Oh, you are.” Hemlock strode to the door, then looked back, his eyes gleaming over the edge of his upturned collar. “Butwe’renot members of the Order.” He walked out, leaving the door open in his wake.
