Page 81 of Veradel
Let me go first,I tell Saskia and the pack, lowering my mental block so that all of our minds are connected.As soon as it’s all clear, we run again. But I just want to check.
Thankfully, none of them argue, even Saskia. I place a single, large paw out into the cavern, then another, until I’m treading silently into the very center, splashing through the puddles. All that flickering light illuminates me, and the air in the catacombs seems to fall utterly, deathly silent.
I think we’re good to—Merrickstarts.
Just as a blur of marble white rushes at me from one of the tunnels at my back.
Iscream Lucan’s name as the Seventh Guardian grabs him by one of his monstrous forearms, tearing at his flesh, and lunges at his neck with her fangs.
But Lucan’s already moving. Twisting. Thrashing. Throwing himself to the ground and rolling on top of her. I can tell that he’s taken our earlier training to heart, because as soon as he pops back up to his feet, the Seventh Guardian has lost her hold on him.
“Monster,” she spits. “How did you get in?”
Lucan can’t respond, of course, not in his werewolf form, but something protective and possessive overtakes me at the way her eyes gleam hungrily in his direction, so enraptured by his presence that she hasn’t even noticed the rest of us still hiding in the shadows over here.
No, thank you. This male ismineto hunt and bite and taste. Nobody else’s.
So I answer in Lucan’s stead.
“That’s for you to die never knowing,Guardian.”
The Seventh Guardian twirls around at my voice, practically spitting with fury when she lays those crimson eyes on me as I step out of the shadows, into the light. If I were still a human, I might drop to my knees in surrender right here and now, but I’m not something she can suck dry anymore. And she knows it.
“You. You treacherous, Chosenbitch,” she hisses at me. “Arad told us you’d turned into a vampire, but we all laughed at him. Told him it was impossible.” She begins to prowl in a circle around me, and I spin in place to keep her in my sight. “Now I’ll have to apologize to him… after I torture you like I tortured your friend.”
Fear punches me in the gut at her words, nearly halting my spin. “What friend?”
“Oh, what’s his name? I lose track when there’s thousands of you. Oh, right!” The Seventh Guardian snaps her fingers with a mock laugh before narrowing her eyes in a glare. “Diggory.”
I can hardly remember to breathe as that name rings through me. “Diggory’s alive?”
She can’t keep the twisted smile off her face long enough to keep me guessing.
“Where?” I manage to whisper through my shock, but she only revels silently in it, smirking at my obvious distress.
“I have to admit, he’s a stubborn one. Wouldn’t give up your name even though we already knew you had spoken to him. Tell me…”
She cocks her head, still prowling in circles around me, and I just barely manage to make eye contact with Lucan behind her. He’s holding back, trying to give me time to collect information while she’s in a talkative mood, but I can sense the vibration of his restraint in our shared blood.
The Seventh Guardian, however, remains oblivious. “Where’s the rest of the necklace he gave you?” she asks, crimson eyes flicking down to my chest, where the gold chain hangs. “I don’t know how you managed to hide it for so long, but Arad put all the pieces together after you jumped. Every step you’ve made since you were Chosen, we have on camera.”
I scoff. “The Third Guardian didn’t put any pieces together. He didn’t want to believe a Chosen One could keep any secrets, have any opinions, become anything powerful, until it was staring him right in the face. And even then, he underestimated me. Just like you are. So I’m going to giveyou a choice right now, even though you didn’t give your citizens one: leave this city and never look back… or die.”
The vampire throws back her head and laughs at the catacombs’ ceiling.
“You think you can kill me,Saskia? You don’t even know how. And I’m not underestimating you. You are just as spineless as the Thirteenth Guardian was. Soft for humans. Afraid to take what you can.” She crouches, as if preparing to pounce. “And you will be just as easy to turn into a corpssssssse.”
Her last word catches on the blood that spurts out of her mouth, splattering my front.
With a thud, she drops to her knees at my feet. Behind her, Lucan—back in his human form—pulls his ax out of her back with a disgusted wrinkle of his nose.
“How dumb can you get?” he mutters as the rest of her falls forward, her forehead cracking against the stone floor. “Turns her back on me for a solid five minutes while insulting and threatening the love of my life? Did she forget I was here?”
“I don’t know, but that was the coolest fucking thing I’ve ever seen.”
It’s Soren, hurrying forward in his human form with Merrick and Vivian, while the rest of the pack members stick to their werewolf shapes. All of them circle the Seventh Guardian’s body, though, sniffing at the sweet, dark liquid that spreads in a blossoming circle around her.
“I don’t think that’s her own blood,” Vivian says, plugging her nose.
