Page 41 of The Curse of Eternity
Even if it was his life, his decision, it was a damn stupid one. Frustration became evident behind his dark eyes, and he opened his mouth like he was going to say something, when Ezra suddenly cleared his throat.
“There’s always the rings.”
I glared askance at Ezra. “What rings?”
Drake scoffed. “The risks far outweigh the possible rewards,” he said, but Ezra only shook his head.
“If you went alone, perhaps. The girl on the other hand…” Ezra made a ‘voilà’ gesture, and the disbelief behind Drake’s eyes shifted into speculation.
“What the hell are you two talking about?” I stared from one to the other, growing more irate at being left out of the loop.
“In my time,” Drake began, still watching Ezra but clearly answering me, “there was a rumor. Every immortal was marked in their creation so theirvoievod,Dracula, could maintain complete control over his soldiers. However, to prevent himself from befalling the same weakness, Dracula commissioned a ring which, when worn, would shield the wearer from any scrying. Necromantic, or otherwise.”
“They’re enchanted to keep the wearer hidden from our prying eyes,” Ezra summed up, exhaling a breath like he was bored. “But it was never only a rumor. I happen to know they are very real, and exactly where they are.”
“Where?” I anticipated the worst at the sight of Ezra’s obnoxious smirk.
“Dracula’s chambers, of course.”
“Which have remained unopened since the first vampire was defeated over two centuries ago,” Drake explained, but a certain amount of hope had transformed his expression from grim to inquisitive.
“It’s been said that the only magick capable of reopening them is Dracula’s own blood.” Ezra glanced at me.
Drake’s eyes narrowed. “You believe—”
“I would bet quite a bit on it.”
“Areeitherof you going to explain what the hell you’re talking about before the Earth does another rotation around the sun?” I huffed, and they both faced me.
“You do it.” Ezra nodded at Drake, and I bit the inside of my cheek. “I must be returning to my employers.”
I opened my mouth, torn between whether I should demand more information or thank the sorcerer for helping us, but then the door beside us swung inward. Cold air rushed into the cramped storage room, and I clung closer to Drake despite him matching the temperature outside. A bluish glow from the moonlight over the grass caught my attention, almost bringing a tear to my eye. We were finally leaving this hellhole.
I looked back, but Ezra was nowhere to be seen. The tunnel we’d walked down was swathed in darkness once more, as desolate and choking in dust as before we’d come through. My focus swung forward when Drake hurried up the shallow stairs to the expansive lawn.
“Will he be okay?” I whispered, unable to keep my gaze off the manor behind us while Drake carried me closer to the treeline.
Before Drake could reply, the quiet night was cut through with a strangled cry. The sound morphed into a howl, raising the hairs along my tanned arms when it sounded like it was outside with us. A growl reverberated on the painfully chill breeze, and Drake picked up his pace until the spiny foliage on the surrounding pines blurred.
Between my thundering heartbeats, I heard Drake mutter, “Time to go, love.”
− 14 −
Rise and Retreat
Drake’s footfalls across the frozen-solid ground were barely audible over the achingly loud noise of my breathing. So I held my breath, my gaze scanning the woods around us. We were already moving faster than I could easily run, but I had to be weighing him down, holding him back. Still, I clutched tight to him while he avoided piles of soggy fallen leaves and leaped over tree trunks knocked down by weather or decay.
Not needing to breathe, Drake moved quiet as a mouse—which made the growls growing closer sound that much louder. Through the dense pines and sparse oak trees, shapes moved almost as fast as a vampire. Except the glimpses I caught of their furred bodies were anything but human. Spittle gleamed along a jowl, reflecting the moonlight above, but then the long-snouted being faded to nothing when Drake swiftly changed course.
Pulse hammering, I tried to be our eyes and ears while Drake focused on our escape through the woods. Apparently, I’d failed at that, too. His head whipped toward our left, braking his steps so suddenly that the momentum made my insides feel like they tried to keep going while he held me close to his blood-stained clothes.
My eyes widened to take in the shape that launched itself across our path, right where we’d have walked straight into its assault. Too-human eyes reflected the moonlight above, like a nocturnal animal, as the lycanthrope clawed its way to a halt several feet to our right. An oily sheen covered its straggly coat, the texture somewhere between human hair and animal fur.
Even the creature’s nails seemed wrong, thin and broken but elongated. Long hind legs let the lycan start toward us with a powerful leap. Before I could think to scream, Drake stepped aside. His fingers pressed into my ribs and outer thigh while I clutched his neck and hoped the lycan wouldn’t catch the skirt of my awful dress.
It missed us by inches, but our pause in the small clearing had allowed the others to catch up. Just how many of these things were being kept inside that manor? When Drake tried to turn, my gaze shot over his shoulder, and I screamed, “Look out!”
Another one flanked us, and the beast’s jaws opened wide as it leaped off the trunk of a fallen tree—aiming for Drake’s face.
