Page 28 of The Curse of Eternity
Our opponent went down, his white face neutral and unmoved while Drake grasped his neck in a blur. Then it all stopped. Between one of my heavy breaths and another, Drakecollapsed to the ground—his eyes glazed over and unseeing, like a corpse.
“No!” I shouted, panicking when I found that my machete wasn’t within arm’s reach. My whole body trembled while soft footfalls neared, and my back stiffened. The sorcerer strode to where his lackey was struggling to pick himself up off the ground, but didn’t offer an ounce of help. Instead, Ezra went to where my machete laid, near hidden in the unruly high grass.
Chilled sweat ran down the side of my cheek when he approached, forcing me to stare up into his smug face from where I knelt on the ground. Gloved hands held my machete, and his pitying stare was almost mocking.
“I’m intrigued,” he admitted, relaxed as anything while I shivered from spent adrenaline.
“You’re human,” I spat, hoping I was wrong. When Ezra only raised his eyebrows, violent rage filled me with acid. “You’re a traitor to your own people. Working forthem? What the hell is wrong with you!”
“Obviously, you know what Ignatius Drake is, and you fought side by side,” he pointed out, and my jaw snapped shut. “Perhaps we are not so different, you and I.” A smirk played at the corner of his mouth.
“I amnothinglike you,” I hissed, resolute. Ezra’s lips twitched, downturned for the briefest moment. His composure returned as he turned his back on me, walking tall toward the road where he came from.
“Restrain her, we’re taking her with us.”
Before I could scream for help, or try to run, pain sliced through my whole being. It was so instantaneous, and foul, leaving my mouth sizzling with electricity that prevented me from screeching through the agony. Every muscle went slack. My bones vibrated like they were trying to jump out of my skin.
When cold hands lifted me from the ground, and the vampire carried me away, his limp sent flashes of renewed torture from my fingers to my temples and down to my toes. White hot, invisible nails seemed to be gouging me from every direction. Through the insanity of the psychic pain, sporadic moments of clarity repeated one thought.
I was in deep shit.
− 10 −
A Meaningless Identity
Shifting metallic thuds jostled me awake. At first, I couldn’t place where or even who I was. Excruciating body aches set in.That’s right, I passed out at some point after my brain was fried with head-splitting agony.Something smelled awful. When I pried my heavy eyelashes apart, the slick sensation of sweat covering me from head to toe settled over me like a film.
Great, the bad smell wasme.
Arms trembling, I flexed my numb fingers, strung up high over my head. I didn’t have to look to know that the pinching clamp around my wrists were shackles. My mouth tasted like sawdust when I tried to swallow, but couldn’t manage it.
In the dim space, road noise pierced through the cold hard walls.Was I inside some kind of a vehicle?My vision slowly adapted to the surrounding darkness, but I startled when Drake spoke before I could even recognize his silhouette across from me.
“I am terribly sorry,” he whispered, and despite the exhaustion vibrating through every word, I’d have recognized his accent anywhere. “Never did I wish for you to become involved. For any harm to come to you.”
Caught way off guard by his quiet sincerity, I blinked several times through the sweat rolling down my brow, and licked my dry lips. It didn’t help that my tongue felt like sandpaper, so I cleared my sore throat instead.
“What’s going on?” I rasped, and then my sweat chilled like droplets of ice. “Those vampires. They took us, right? I—” Panic threatened to drag me under, but I needed to pull it together. This wasn’t the time to break. “What’s going to happen to us?”
“We will be executed,” Drake answered, and my heart dropped while my brain whirred.
Ever since I started hunting, I knew my life could end at a moment’s notice. A razor’s edge my ancestors had walked along for generations. Too many had slipped off,and now I would become one of the fallen. Then Drake’s brief explanation before we were ambushed surged to the forefront of my mind. Apparently, Van Helsing hadn’t succeeded as much as we’d thought.
“By the Domnitori?” I suppressed a shiver while my freezing bare arms shook against my restraints. Through the darkness, Drake’s gaze held mine as he shook his head. Despite not knowing anything about the vampire overlords, that felt like a relief. A stuttered breath passed my lips, and I closed my eyes. “Then where are we going?”
“To New York,” he answered, and my eyes flew open. “It is where the Cneaz resides year-round. Our journey north will only grow colder. I am sorry.” His attention flickered to the exposed flesh at my throat, and I could have sworn he swallowed as a chill traced my spine.
“So I’m going to die.” I exhaled a rough, hysterical laugh. “And nobody back home will even know what happened to me.” For all my daring acceptance of the risks, the hunting lifestyle, I had hoped whatever end I met would be quick. Not dragged out for months in a hospital room like Mom’s fate… At least she hadhad the chance to say goodbye. “Looks like I failed as badly as Helsing did.”
“What do you mean?” Drake asked, curiosity lacing his tone. I started to shrug, but the shackles restricted the gesture.
“He was supposed to end Dracula’s reign of terror, and he didn’t, not really. Vampires are still out there, they continue to hurt people, and here I am.” I savored the burn of cold air in my lungs. It meant I was still breathing. “Being carted off by a bunch of bastard vamps who answer to some high-up aristocratic parasite.” My jaw clenched, and it was an effort to continue. “Everything my family and I have sacrificed has been for nothing. We didn’t even know this kind of threat still walked the Earth.”
“If it is any consolation, your ancestordidalter history for the better,” Drake pressed, and despite our reckless kiss in the park, I couldn’t understand why he seemed so intent on reassuring me of anything. “When I was young, I witnessed the acts of Vlad Dracula the Fourth—”
“What?” I squeaked, equally torn between being horrified, and awed. “You… You were alive back then?”
“I was one of the last of his chosen children.”
