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Blood had pooled in my belly button. In the crease of my waist. It was oozing down my sides. I was dripping with it. If it didn’t call the Draug, it’d be sure to call something.
“Shit,” I said, looking left and right. Nothing. No one. I was stuck. “Shit. ”
The blood cooled instantly. The evening was getting colder. The sun had already dipped below the hills. It was twilight. Soon full dark.
Draug craved the fear of others. They looked like demons, but they’d once been scared boys who’d not survived the transition to Vampire. Despite what Rob thought, I believed I’d have the mental strength to be brave. To stave off that fear.
Draug might’ve craved fear, but they survived on blood. And although I was able to moderate my fear, the pumping of my own blood was something I had no control over.
Draug were thirstiest as the sun set. They’d be too thirsty not to attack me.
It wasn’t yet full dark when they came.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
I smelled him before I saw him. A Draug, coming.
I tugged my arms, testing my bonds, but that only brought a fresh gush of blood from my belly wound. “Oh shit,” I whispered, holding myself very, very still. “Here we go. ”
The stench grew. I heard shuffles and snarls now. More than one Draug—a lot more. Craning my neck, I saw them, cresting the hill, ambling toward me, senseless and hungry, looking like something from a zombie movie.
My mind skittered to manic places. Wishful thoughts—how I might be saved, how I might have some undiscovered power to heal my wound—plummeted to grim musings. How best to get myself killed quickly, put out of my misery.
I heard rustling, apart from the Draug. It was the sound of someone elbowing their way through the mob.
Would it be Carden? For an instant, I half dreamed it might be.
But then an artificial sound cut to me. A bzzt, followed by a pungent smell like ozone. Like electricity.
Electricity. I’d heard that sound before. Relief washed through me, listening as the Draug keeper zapped his way through. A mass of them had already gathered around me, staring and drooling like I was the turkey on their Thanksgiving table.
Tom’s wizened face popped into my line of sight. Our eyes met, and he didn’t smile, not precisely. But there was a tiny quirk at the corner of his mouth that said he wasn’t entirely unhappy to see me.
“Excellent timing,” I said, sounding more blasé than I felt.
“What trouble you in now, girl?”
“No trouble”—I shrugged, and the gesture sent a fresh trickle of blood down my side—“just hanging out. Thought I’d pay you a visit. ”
Finally, he smiled, baring teeth badly in need of a dentist. He shook his head, tsking. “You’re aye reddin the fire, aren’t ye?”
“Huh?”
“Stirring trouble. ” He tugged the rope at my shoulders, and I bit my lips against the flash of pain. Fresh blood oozed from my belly, and one of the Draug snarled. Tom took the cattle prod from the belt at his waist and zapped it. “Back,” he shouted, then muttered, “Damn beasts. ” He met my eye. “Shall I help you, then?”
“Um…yes please?”
Sucking at his teeth, he studied the ropes. A few of the Draug jostled him from behind, but Tom cursed under his breath, quickly zapping them back. “I thought they was acting funny. They got all riled, of a sudden. I thought I’d take a look. See what’s what. Didn’t expect to see you again—though don’t know why I should be surprised. ” He considered me for a minute, looking very perplexed. “Wee troublemaker, you are. ”
I gave him a toothy, pleading smile. “Do you think you could cut me loose now? Please?”
“Aye, I’m at it. I’m at it. ” He pulled a knife from his sock and began to saw the rope at my shoulder. “What are you doing out this way anyhow? Girl like you? I told you to stay away from these creatures. You’re a braw thing, and they won’t bother you, one-on-one like. But you’re a wee thing, too. And I don’t care how brave you are; you’re nothing to a pack of thirsty Draug. ”
As though on cue, one peered over his shoulder. It was clear he was newly transitioned, his skin less rotted, the hair on his head still full. His eyes flicked to and fro, as though he might remember something if he only tried hard enough.
Oh God. I gasped as a nightmarish thought struck me. Soon that’d be Yasuo.
Moving faster than his age would suggest, Tom reached for his prod and zapped the thing under its chin. He shot me a look. “Keep still. ”
