Page 19 of A Dream Shrouded in Fury
The echo of his question coiled through my veins like an intimate stroke as a return of our earlier desire danced between us.I thought of the way he’d moved inside me, how it had felt to slide down his hard length, the way he’d filled a void I hadn’t known existed.For those few moments, all my broken pieces had fit together, and I didn’t want to lose that.
But what was the alternative?To stay with him?Be his partner while he explored the world searching for some new purpose?Find places to escape the sun during the day, hiding what I was from every person we met?I knew that some vampires attempted that life, but by all accounts, they didn’t live long.
Besides, I couldn’t run away from my family.I’d need to go home to say goodbye, and I doubted they would let me leave.
Unless Jael returned with me.
The idea struck me with all its poor judgement and impossibilities, yet I couldn’t let it go.He had no home to return to, and his enemies—ourenemies—were hunting him.If he came with me, if I vouched for him, maybe… maybe Thorn would allow us to be together.
“You…” I started, then cleared my throat.“Would you want to stay with me?In the nest?”
His grip on me tightened, then relaxed.“You don’t think your fury leader would kill me on sight?As you should have?”
I dropped my gaze to his chest, not wanting him to read the mishmash of guilt and regret and pain that I was sure showed in every facet of my expression.The weight of it all pressed on my heart.“She might want to,” I conceded, “but I wouldn’t let her.”
He chuckled, the sound looser now after a few days alone with me.“You’d stand between one lone fae and an entire fury?”
I raised my chin and met his eye.“I would.”For you.I left that part unsaid, but by the way he stared back at me, incredulity giving way to something else, something raw and breathtaking, he heard it anyway.
“Kalia me,” he whispered, and brushed his nose against mine.“Lutrena bredtha me.All right.It can’t be any more dangerous than eating your food.”
A laugh escaped me around my terror.Were we really doing this?
Gently, Jael bowed his forehead against mine, and I closed my eyes as his voice rumbled against me.“I always thought my dream for a fresh start would be watching Leonine burn.But what if Jael the Rebel died in that ambush with the rest of them?What if I have the chance to finally become someone I want to be?”
Jael
XIII
With my decision made, we didn’t dawdle long in the cave.I tidied the bed, made sure anything blood-touched was added to the fire, and strapped my dagger belt around my hips.Kalla had cared for them while I lay unconscious, and they were in perfect condition.I wished I’d been able to warn her to be careful, but the fact that she was still breathing was proof she hadn’t nicked herself while handling them.
Kalla puttered around, putting away the clean dishes, folding the extra bandages and tucking them into a basket in the corner.She waited until I was outside before blowing out the last candle, not wanting to douse me in darkness, and my heart twinged at her kindness.It prickled, like a limb that had fallen asleep slowly waking up, and to my surprise, I wasn’t inclined to crush the feeling.
A foolish decision, maybe.It was likely I was about to walk into more pain, more suffering, but I believed Kalla when she said she would speak up for me.
I’d also been serious when I’d told her I had nowhere else to go.If she hadn’t invited me to stay with her, I would have been as untethered as a leaf blowing in the wind.Chances were I would have walked directly into whatever fae stalked these woods.
Because theywereout there.The coincidence of them approaching at the same time my magic had awakened had been a taunt of fate.A reminder of who I was.A question of who I wanted to be.
But my future didn’t lie with the fae, so it was better to take the risk of joining the vampires.In the worst-case scenario, Kalla’s fury leader killed me—but what would it matter?As a fae rebel, an enemy of my king, I was as good as dead most places anyway.
“I’ll have to blindfold you,” Kalla said when she came outside.
My heart stuttered.“You what?”
She grimaced, her gaze filled with apology.“We’re approaching my nest, our greatest secret.Thorn will be upset enough at your presence, but if she knows I allowed you to see where we are…”
They’d kill me immediately.I understood.
So I stood still and bent my head to give Kalla better access to bind my eyes with a torn strip of white cloth.Before the weight of the blindfold could send my panic spiralling, she slipped her hand into mine, and the contact settled my fear.I wasn’t alone.
I followed her without hesitation as we crossed through the trees.We kept a straight path, mostly through forest, but the smell of sulphur told me we were close to the dragons.Hours later, the air changed, and I guessed we’d stepped into another cave entrance.This one was slightly wider than the entrance to what had been our haven for the past few days, and as soon as we passed through it, I detected a shift in energy.A sense of life up ahead.That sense grew more prominent the farther we walked.It transformed into the hum of multiple voices engaged in conversation, the warmth of many bodies close together, and the smell of blood and sex and mediocre food.
“Stay close,” Kalla murmured as she pulled my blindfold free.“Whatever happens next, stay with me.”
We stood at the entrance of a wide cavern.Colourful swaths of cloth were draped from the ceiling, and vampires abounded throughout what appeared to be a sort of market.So many of them.More than I would have imagined in one place.Obviously this fury had flourished in the dragon’s territory.
Kalla squeezed my fingers, then released me, and when we strode forward, the chaos of the crowd fell still.All eyes slid our way, and the vampires nearest us stepped aside, clearing the path to a collection of chairs set up along the far wall.
