I glanced between the road and the dark forest. They knew these lands and I didn’t. I could easily lose my way and get lost in the wrong direction.
I’d have to rely on my speed and stealth. With a sharp inhale, I swung my leg over and jumped. My boots hit the ground and I dashed for the foggy road.
“Stop her!” A deep male voice bellowed.
I flew down the steep decline, pumping my arms and driving my legs. The sounds of feet and hooves pounded behind me.I focused on the curving path ahead until the mutant horses started to gain on me.
A sharp turn off the road led me into the black woods. I weaved between towering dark trees and dodged branches. I’d trained for this. I would get away, nothing else mattered at this moment.
Run, run, run.
“Bring her backalive!” Dravyn’s voice echoed around the forest.
A shadow passed before me. My boots slid over the forest debris and my palm grazed the ground as I stopped and abruptly turned left.
Shit.
They were herding me back toward the road.
I had to do something different, take them by surprise. I skidded to a halt, pulled my knife and whirled. I jammed my blade into the neck of the man already on top of me. I stabbed over and over until warm blood spilled across my face. He collapsed and another waited behind him.
He threw up a closed fist, slowing the others, and said one word, “Assassin.”
And I’d drop all eight of these vampire men or die trying. Several of them bared their sharp teeth, but they left their weapons on their person. They didn’t want to kill me, so they’d hold back. I’d bet on myself with a sword, but with only a knife the odds didn’t favor me.
The huffing breaths and shrieks of their mounts on the nearby road reverberated through the night. The circling vampires’ low growls reminded me of a pack of wolves closing in on prey. But I was not the cattle they were used to. I had claws and blades and speed.
Make a move. I went for the closest to my left, ducking under his fist and slicing open his inner thigh. He went down,clutching his wound. Spin,slice, I cut up the face of another. A hand gripped the back of my top, I whirled and slashed across the major arteries in the underside of the wrist. He reared back, clutching the wound.
An arm meant to circle my throat. I dropped my chin like Vander taught me and stabbed behind trying to hit anything. My knife stuck into meaty flesh. I jerked forward with all my strength, tossing him over my shoulder. My focus narrowed to my enemies and how I could use myself as a weapon.
The heavy weight of a man tackled me from the side, taking me to the ground. I managed to roll onto my back and hacked at the side of his neck, punching the blade in and out with a warrior scream. My voice sounded strange to my ears, like the cry of a vicious lynx. None of these strikes would end them for good, but maybe long enough to escape.
My pulse pounded, drowning out every other sound. I shoved his dead weight off me. A drifting shadow passed over me, then the solid form of a boot slammed into my gut and stole my breath away. I coughed and rolled. Vice-like hands closed around my wrists, another boot stamped onto my chest and held me down.
“How hard can it be to take down one woman with aknife?” Dravyn was the man who stood on my chest. I couldn’t take a deep enough breath. “Tie the bitch’s arms behind her and let’s go.”
“She’s a ducai assassin, my lord,” one of them grumbled. “And you said not to hurt her.”
“I said not tokillher.” He hissed, fangs bared. The metal toe of his boot smashed into my cheek and snapped my head to the side. “I didn’t say anything about not hurting her.”
White bursts speckled across my sight. The pain came next, flaring like a hot fire poker. Blood filled my mouth and leaked out of the side of my lips. My ears started to ring and theworld around me tilted, but I still swung my leg up, aiming for Dravyn’s groin. His hand flashed out and caught my ankle. “I wouldn’t do that again if I were you. If you play nice, I won’t hurt you again. If you keep acting like an animal, I’ll strip you of your clothes and put you in a cage like one.”
I sneered and tried to pull my arms free as the straps tightened around them. A heavy stone sunk in my gut. I wouldn’t get away this time.
My cheek throbbed and felt swollen. The vampires dragged me by the chain hooked to my collar. I went somewhere else in my mind as my boots scraped over the eerie road and fog swirled around my legs. I imagined myself back at The Nightcap, sitting on Vander’s lap with his strong, muscular arms protectively around me. He would come for me, but I was scared of what he would do to set me free. It was him they wanted.
It was strange how quickly life could change. One moment I was riding the high of my life, the next I was dropped into a dark ravine with no way out.
I didn’t focus on the details of the flickering torch-lit halls.
I blocked out the voices and faces around me, focusing only on the stone tiles in front of my feet as I memorized the turns—left, right, left, left, exit. Dravyn jerked back on the chain, the metal bit into my throat and I stilled. He held up a palm and we stopped before a set of high black doors with huge wolf heads carved on each side. The same wolves as the royal crest of the twins. Dravyn slid Vander’s viper dagger into my weapon belt and held my sword in his hand. Why would he give my weapon back?
Once the doors were pushed open, he shoved me in the back and I stumbled in. Before me was a vast chamber filled with vampires in fancy ball gowns and luxurious suits the likes I’d never had the privilege of being exposed to. String music drifted on the air. A group of them danced in unison, not a single stepmissed. Others gathered in small circles, conversing, with glass goblets of red liquid. My stomach soured knowing what it was.
The smell of something sweet and calming on the air, jasmine or lavender, was jarring.
A group of men with dark circles under their eyes and plain clothes waited behind a table. Each of them had a thin tube attached to the inside of their arm. I gulped, realizing they were human and those tubes were a tap.
