Page 35 of Veradel
The others. Shit. I’ve only known I’m a vampire for five minutes, and now I’ve got to think about how I’m going to face dozens of angry, ferocious werewolves who already think I’m a traitor once I step out this door. They’ve been thirsting for a Guardian’s blood for centuries, and now I’m fresh meat served to them on a shining platter to abate their hunger for justice. Even if I feel ten times stronger than I ever have before, I’m not stupid enough to think I could fight all of them by myself.
But Lucan rounds on Taika, practically vibrating with restraint. “The pack won’t touch her, because they’ll be unconscious before they can somuch as lift a finger in her direction. Our target is the Guardians, and she is not a Guardian.”
“But she is…”
“Not a Guardian,” Lucan repeats firmly. He turns back to me. “Do you have plans to kill the Third Guardian just to replace him? Take his throne and Choose an unwilling sacrifice every blood moon?”
“No!” I cry immediately. “What? No!”
“See?” Lucan jerks his head back to Taika. “Not a Guardian. Not our enemy. The pack will just have to get used to her smell.”
“My smell?” I exclaim, quickly dipping my head to sniff my armpit. “You think I stink?”
“Not exactly.” Lucan wrinkles his nose, but a smirk plays across his mouth. “You’re just… extra sweet now. Like strawberries and roses but condensed into a bottle and then sprayed up my nostrils.”
I cross my arms and huff at him, feeling that energy rise up my bones again, urging me to run, climb, tackle him, so much more. “You’re not exactly the most heavenly-smelling creature yourself.” I inhale dramatically. “I’m getting… dirt. Just like the taste of your blood. What do you do, roll in mud in your free time?”
He takes a step closer to me, the air snapping between us, and glances at the bob of my throat.
“Last I checked, you were the one on all fours on the forest floor like a dog.”
Every synapse in my brain seems to ignite and explode, and my fingers tremble with my own restraint. I enjoyed him being dominant in the past, but now my own urge to dominate fills me to the brim, and I can’tthinkstraight with him glowering down at me like that.
Taika clears his throat, and we glance at him.
“I’m prescribing you both a run. Right now. We’re never going to figure out a solution to the current problem until Saskia gets her newfound energy out of her system. So run far away from here, both of you, before the pack comes to investigate, and then come back when you’re ready to face them all.” He uses his cane to turn and peer through a sliver of a gap between the curtains, exposing an early dawn sky. “No one’s out, so if you go out my back door, I doubt anyone will see you. And I won’t tell them what has occurred until you’re here to tell them yourselves.”
I break eye contact with Lucan long enough to lay a hand on Taika’s shoulder, who stiffens for a moment before relaxing at my touch.
“Thank you,” I say earnestly. Because he’s right. I don’t know how to move forward until I test out the new limitations—or lack of limitations—of my new body. I need to face myself and whatever I have with Lucan before I can face the others.
But I do know one thing as I cock an eyebrow at Lucan, silently daring him to chase me again. Xantera doesn’t have time for me to run away forever.
So I’d better be fast.
I am. Wind whistles through my ears as I cut my own path through the forest behind Taika’s house, this time carried by my own two legs. My own strength.
But running side by side with Lucan, just like I’d daydreamed about on one of the balconies of the Blood Moon Palace, I’m astonished at just how fast I really am.
In his werewolf form, his leaps match three of my strides, but I’m still able to keep up. My muscles feel like cold marble, impenetrable. My lungs don’t get winded, nor do my joints scream.
For the first time in my life, I’m as strong and capable as the monsters I used to fear.
I turn my neck to look at Lucan, his dark, mottled hair slicked back in the wind, his amber eyes glinting at me in amusement.
My smile hurts my cheeks.
She looks happy, he thinks.
That’s when I run face-first into a boulder.
The world jostles as I slingshot across the forest floor, like rock bouncing off rock, and land on my back.
I blink up at the brightening sky until Lucan’s panicked human face materializes above me.
“Shit, Saskia. Are you all right?”
A laugh bubbles up into the air. “Yes,” I promise, shrugging him off. “Think something again.”
