Page 95 of Vervain

“Why are we stopping?” Olivia asks, arriving with the bag Penumbra often carries. “We would have made it to Sancliff tonight.”

“Saya is still human,” Serun says, his shadows unfurling and pushing things aside so he can settle me on the counter. “Stay with her while I find somewhere safe for us all to sleep.”

I press my palms to the counter. Dust sparkles like diamonds in the slivers of moonlight seeping through the gaps in the roughly painted windows.

Olivia stands beside me and places the bag on the counter. I rummage through it until I locate a bottle of water, taking mouthfuls to moisten my dry mouth and sore throat.

The rest of the interior comes into focus after the throbbing pulse in my temples subsides. Two of the three aisles have shelves toppled over. Cans of food litter the ground, and a rat scampers out of a packet of old crisps. One of the refrigeration lights flickers, so there is still some electricity here, while most of the others have a stale, sour smell emanating from them.

“Are you okay?” Olivia asks, her brows pinching and a soft look on her face. “You look paler than normal.”

“Tired,” I say dismissively.

She leans against the counter. “It’s strange. Even though I have been a nightwalker for almost a year, I still know some of what it is to be human. Some things remain, like the idea of food and memories, but the tiredness, pain, and aches—those I can’t remember. The only time I am tired is when the sun rises, but it’s a different tired, I think. A pull towards a forced sleep.”

“How did you die?” I ask, setting the bottle of water on the counter and placing my hands in my lap. With my fingernail, I scrape around my cuticles, picking at the flesh. “That is, if you don’t mind me asking. You said you were scavenging and then…”

“Slayers,” she says in a flat tone. “I thought I was lucky when they found me in Coven. No one ever left because nightwalkers clustered around the beach. So, my street rats scavenged during the day and holed up in an apartment building at night ’cause nightwalkers can’t enter without an invitation first.

“One morning, I heard people talking. A group of slayers were asking anyone still alive if they wanted to join them. You know, with the lack of food and being too afraid to leave Coven. I said I would go for my crew and return with food.” Olivia laughs bitterly. “I was bait. Apparently, the slayers had heard Serun was passing through, so whoever joined them was tied up and used as fucking bait.”

My fingers tighten on the counter, and I lean forward, sweat from my hairline slipping down my forehead.

“But Lord Serun never came. I doubt he was even in the fucking city. Lots of other nightwalkers came, though, and the ten of us who joined were a fucking prepared meal. No idea where the slayers ended up. Probably fled.”

Olivia’s eyes narrow, and her jaw tightens, then she sighs.

“Three nightwalkers dragged me away to feed and left me for dead in an alleyway. After they were done, the nightwalker who became my master found me. Said I was a fighter and liked the way I screamed profanity. I should have known then he was a damn sadist, but I didn’t really have a choice.”

“And you killed him?”

She barks a laugh. “Eventually. I seduced him one night, telling him I enjoyed the pain. Before the sun rose, I tied him up and dragged him out of the building. When I woke next, I was at the Sunken City, and Lucifer was tending to my wounds.”

Olivia lifts her arm, pinches the sleeve of her shirt, and rolls it up to her elbow. My eyes widen at all the silver scars, bite marks and burns patterning her skin.

She pulls down her sleeve and wrinkles her nose. “Lucifer gave me another chance at life. At first, I told myself I would do anything to survive. But that night on the train, I was going to jump. The only thing that stopped me was hearing a whimper from my room. And then I saw you.” She smiles, her red eyes shimmering. “I owe you my life.”

My mind screams at me not to get too close. That having friends is a terrible idea. But I place my hand on Olivia’s shoulder and squeeze tight, feeling her torment and pain.

She had a terrible life too.

“You will never have to feel that way again as long as you are loyal to Serun and me,” I say, my hand falling away and resting back on my lap.

Olivia smiles. “I don’t know where Lord Serun found you, but I am glad he did.”

If only she fucking knew.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

EUPHORIA

Saya Claymore

Serun emerges through a door at the back of the shop and comes towards me. Before I can slide off the counter to meet him, he is there and lifting me into his embrace. The hold reminds me of when he carried me out of Hellsgate. “Bring the bags, Olivia. I found a secure place to rest away from the sun.”

He takes me into the other room, then into a storage room on the right. Boxes litter the floor, and cans rattle when mice flee in a panic. The door closes behind us, suffocating me with darkness until my eyes adjust.

There’s another door ahead, and Serun shoulders it open, revealing a small washroom with a toilet. “Secure the room while I tend to Saya’s wounds, Olivia.”