Page 152 of The Poison Daughter
The Drained used to attack quickly and recklessly in the pursuit of the fastest path to blood. In recent years, one of the most notable changes in their behavior has been that they now tend to attack the strongest member of a party first.
The Breeder didn’t look at Stefan, who has a very powerful blessing from Polm, or either of his friends. It didn’t look at me. It looked right at Gaven.
It’s all but confirmation that the bodyguard is more than he appears. There’s no way the Carrenwells would send their youngest daughter here with someone they didn’t genuinely believe could protect her.
“Can you help?” I ask.
It would be convenient to let the thing kill him, but then we’d have to explain to the Carrenwells how he died and why we’re studying the Drained. Divine know how they would manipulate that information. Plus, now that Gaven has revealed that Harlow can glamour, I’m wondering what other secrets I could get out of him if I had the time to torture him.
“I need to get between her and that thing,” he whispers.
This could all be over in a second, but I’m not confident that Gaven could handle the drop.
“Go around the outside, to the ground floor door, but you have to wait until I open the door to come in. We can’t risk that thing getting out.”
I turn to Bryce. “If it somehow gets up here, you’re all that stands between it and the rest of the fort. Don’t let it get by you.”
He nods, tying his hair into a bun at the nape of his neck as Gaven brushes by him and climbs out the window.
I have no warning before the mayhem breaks out. All three men on the first floor sprint toward the door, but Harlow is closer. At first, I think she’s going to run, but when she reaches the door, she stops.
“Harlow, let Gaven in. Then run!” I yell.
She stands between Joe, Roland, and Stefan, but she doesn’t run. Determined to defy me, she lifts her hand from the bar on the door and turns to face them with her blade clenched in her fist. She stands between three Divine-blessed men and one evolved Drained and their only way out, and she’s ready to fight.
33
HARLOW
Ireally was going to run. I have at least one broken rib from the fall, and I need to wrap the cut on my arm. But if I open this door now, they will be right behind me and the Drained one will be right behind them and I shudder to think of what that thing might do if it’s let loose in the fort.
Putting all three men between me and that beast was intentional. Now I can see all of my adversaries at once, but unfortunately, I don’t have anywhere to run.
That Drained is unnerving. The aura void around it is the largest I’ve ever seen. That, combined with the fact that there’s blood dripping down my arm and it hasn’t so much as taken a step toward me, is a clear sign that there’s something very different about the beast. If it truly wants fertile women to breed, then I’m less likely to be killed immediately than these three men, and I will hold them here until that thing rips them apart.
Stefan smirks at my bloody arm and the small blade in my fist. “Move.”
The third idiot man, whose name I don’t know, has the good sense to turn toward the Drained.
“Roland!” Henry’s voice rings out.
But it’s too late. The Drained grabs Roland and bites into his throat before he even has the chance to scream.
Henry jumps from the catwalk, landing behind the beast in a low, graceful crouch. I faintly remember what he said when he told me about returning from death—how it gave him more animal instincts.
The Breeder drops Roland’s half-drained body and turns to face Henry. It cocks its head to the side and with a voice that sounds like a claw dragged along bone, it speaks.
“You don’t scare me, death-touched.”
Henry’s face betrays no shock, but his aura flares out wide. Clearly, he has also never heard a Drained one speak.
“I should scare you,” Henry says. “You’re standing between me and my wife.”
The Drained makes a low sound like a rasping laugh.“She doesn’t smell like yours.”
The impulse to run is so strong, but I am not letting these two assholes who tried to pass me off to a monster get away so easily.
I shouldn’t kill them. I shouldn’t hurt them at all. It will make me more of a villain than I already am in Mountain Haven. It will make it almost impossible for me to do what I need to do.
