Page 26 of The Curse of Eternity
Truthfully, I didn’t know a damn thing about Drake. Only that something about him affected me, making me question my beliefs. It was enough of a gut instinct to make me lie to my family, ignore my legacy, and let him go. As old and capable as he was, I knew in the pit of my stomach that my family and I could’ve taken him down.
Since that first night, a strange part of me didn’t want to. It was exhilarating, meeting someone who didn’t know me from before. Who couldn’t judge me based on my history. Someone who was already in-the-know, that I didn’t have to lie to about who I was and what was important to me.
If I was being honest with myself, I hadn’t been trying that hard to kill him since I first fought him in the warehouse. Every time I ran into him, it felt like I was going through the motions, doing what my family would’ve expected of me. Which was crazy, because I’d always known what he was…but he never acted like the monster I kept accusing him of being—at least, not with me. My hands tightened on the steering wheel.Damn it, Maria, pull it together.
Directly ahead down Rio Bravo Boulevard was a set of train tracks, and my insides swooped. This was it. It had to be. Past the desolate tracks, I turned right on Rossmoor Road only to take an immediate left onto Poco Loco Drive—poetic, really. Dead ahead, my phone displayed the big red bubble showing my destination.
The Rio Bravo riverside picnic area was shrouded in pitch-black darkness around the glow of my headlights. Curious, I slowed into an open parking space and cut the engine. Wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans, I took a deep breath.
True, I didn’t have to do this, but he’dsavedmy life. More than once, it felt like. So I exhaled, stuffed my wallet into theglovebox out of habit—hesitating a brief second before tossing the keychain in after it—and climbed out onto the gravel.
The hunting etiquette drilled into me since childhood repeated in my head,never take anything into unknown territory that we weren’t willing to lose.Misplacing my lucky keychain had been a wake-up call. So I fished the car keys out of my pocket, and subtly left them on the top of my tire, easily concealed by my side fender in the shadows.
All that laid between me and the greenery ahead was my machete at my hip, and the wind raking through the branches. My pulse thundered as I swallowed, and honed my senses while taking in the surroundings.
Quiet landscape surrounded me as I passed the picnic benches and trudged over dry foliage. The whoosh of rushing water echoed from the Rio Grande nearby, seemingly in time with my heartbeat. Clouds overhead moved in to cover the moon, and my eyes widened to see through the dim. A lone figure stood not far off, leaned against a tree, and I froze. Every muscle I’d tensed suddenly eased when the clouds shifted, brightening the space long enough to glimpse a trail of smoke rising high.
My fingers relaxed on my machete’s handle, and I took another step across the grass toward Drake. The crunch of my boots over the packed earth caught his attention immediately. His gaze met mine, and despite my hammering heart, I didn’t stop walking. In a blur, his cigarette was gone, and he moved closer.
When he appeared directly in front of me, I staggered to a stop, wholly unprepared for the fresh emotion crossing his face up close.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded, and though his words stung, there was something more to his expression. A fear that he’d never shown in my presence, before now. “You mustleave. Maria—” Drake reached for my arm, but I stepped back so he couldn’t usher me anywhere.
“Your faeryfriendfound me,” I retorted. Obviously, my ‘help’ was unwanted. “He nearly ruined everything! My family was in eyeshot, if they’d bothered to look.” Something about what I said made Drake halt, his hostility crumbling into confusion. “The faery told me that I needed to come hereimmediately. And that you were in danger—because of me.”
Every excuse I’d made for leaving my friends was because I felt responsible for whatever was happening to Drake. Now that I was here, the whole thing seemed like bullshit. Until Drake’s pale lips pressed together, concealing whatever thoughts hardened his gaze.
“Aiden had no right—”
“Is it true?” I asked, needling for a purpose that would keep me from storming away. From abandoning whatever I thought I was starting to feel for Drake. His dark eyes searched the distance, glancing over my head and around us. I waited, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from repeating myself.
His eyes closed in a long blink, his jaw tensing, and when his gaze recaptured mine, my heart cracked at the vulnerable uncertainty behind his dark irises. Like I’d broken through his defenses as easily as he was able to pull down mine.
“There are higher powers at play, and I have been summoned.”
“Summoned?” I balked. “By who?”
“TheJudecator Imperial. Please, there are so many semantics, and there is not the time to discuss—”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I stammered, at a loss, but I didn’t flinch when Drake placed his hands on the sides of my arms. His grip somehow steadied me, reassuring.
“I have broken a crucial covenant by executing another immortal without due process.” His stare was so intense, I couldn’t even hope that he was joking.
“Vampires…have laws? But—After Helsing killed Dracula, his whole operation fell apart!” It was what I’d been raised to believe, but by Drake’s pained expression, it wasn’t the truth. Which meant that everything I knew was about to change.
“That is what they wished for you to think, and it worked. My kind has managed to remain enshrouded in myth, evading persecution by humanity whose modern inventions havefarsurpassed any attempt immortals might make to subjugate them.”
“Who is ‘they?’”
“Officially, we refer to them as theDomnitori.” Drake’s accent thickened on the word from his native tongue, and goosebumps erupted over my exposed flesh. My hands trembled, and I forced the tremors to stop, swallowing hard and taking shallow, deliberate breaths.
“How could we have never known… Wait, how did you even get caught?”
“There was another vampire nearby, most likely hunting alongside the one we killed. That is why I left so suddenly—except I was too slow to catch them. The summons came for me shortly after.” He shook his head, almost distracted. Like he was trying to focus on three things at once. “Maria, I beg of you, now isnotthe time. I will be entombed for my crime at best, turned to ash at worst, but they must never know the reason. Your entire family will be endangered—”
“You’re being summoned…because ofme. Because you took out that vampire to save me.” Guilt was a shadow compared to the warmth blooming in my chest, taking root deep in my abdomen. “Why? Why would you risk that?”
Drake licked his lips, an oddly ordinary human gesture that stole my attention. Deliberation crossed his handsome features in the darkness, and my heart pounded.
