AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Vampires,” he rumbled. “They were here briefly yesterday but had left as far as I was aware. The carnival had disturbed them, and so they hadn’t wished to linger here.”
MaryAnne frowned against his neck and tipped her head back to peer up at him. “I don’t understand. If they were leaving, why would anyone kill them, much less make a point to dothatto them here in front of the carnival?”
He was just as confused. It didn’t make any sense. “I don’t know. It is unlikely that anyone would have caught them. Vampires are not easy to catchorkill. To overpower two vampires would have required incredible skill. Even so,” he growled. “I don’t understand why they were left to die there. It was as if they wanted to make sure that we all saw it.”
“It makes me terrified to set foot out there,” she admitted, her brow furrowing. “And it makes me feel guilty that I’m glad it was vampires and not them. How can I wish something so terrible on another being? I can’t help but to think, ‘Fuck, I’m glad it’s not them.”’
He rumbled soothing to his mate, cuddling her close. “Your reaction is a natural one. One that any parent would have for their younglings. Put it out of your mind. Whoever put the vampires there are clearly trying to send a message—one that might not have anything to do with your younglings.”
She nodded and bit her lip for a moment before tucking her face against his neck once more and huffing quietly to herself. “But what if it does, just in a way that’s a little harder to see? It’s strange, isn’t it? I was so sure that it was the carnival itself that was the source of all of this. And there is something wrong with it—you’ve noticed it yourself. But what if the evil is something following the carnival?”
Raskyuil frowned. “I don’t know. There is something strange,” he admitted, pitching his voice in a low whisper so that they might not be overheard as they made their way through the grounds. “Last night I felt as if there were something actively trying to keep us in here, holding everyone hostage by their fear and the safety that the carnival gave them. But such magic could be weaved by another outside the carnival rather than a threat within it.”
“And you said those vampires mentioned leaving because they didn’t like the place only to turn up dead the next day? That’s definitely enough to terrify anyone who might even consider leaving. What if everyone is being trapped here for another purpose?”
“Such as what?”
“I don’t know.” She shuddered against him. “All I know is that if there’s someone out there capable of brutally killing two vampires that way, it makes me worry for my kids more. It makes me worried for all of us.”
His mouth tightened in agreement, and he hastened his steps as their tent came into view. He just wanted to get his mate inside and back into bed where she would be warm. He knew she had to be tired since the morning sun was still making its way over the horizon. Between the cold air and shock, his mate needed him now.
She didn’t need to hear any of his unfounded concerns, such as why there were younglings caught within the fog like ghosts of the dead, why they wailed and screamed in the face of the vampires’ deaths, and how it all connected to the carnival and The Bend—for he was certain that it must. There would be time enough for speculation once he knew more. Once he had more information to offer her rather than a murky jumble of observations.
More than anything at that moment, what she needed was to rest and heal a little from what she witnessed. He held her tightly, possessively, wanting nothing more than to just hide her away until the threat could be dealt with. He didn’t want her out there at all where something dangerous was lurking and where there were males that he still didn’t enjoy being too close to her. It wasn’t that he truly believed that they would do anything now, but simply a stubborn troll’s instinct.
He bit back a mirthless laugh and shook his head. He was sounding as crazy as the other males he’d encountered, gods and fae alike, who were equally obsessed with their human mates. He never thought that he would join that distinguished club of territoriality, but now that he had his sweet and vulnerable mate, he understood all too well. It made him hold her closer and more covetously, his instinct roaring to protect her.
As he clutched her, however, he came to the quick realization that she wore nothing but a blanket that she’d wrapped around her. Beneath it, she was as naked as he was, and though his own nudity didn’t bother him, the idea that she had been out there without the smallest amount of protection made him growl in outrage. He was tempted to drop her on her foolishly bare feet and ask why she’d thought it prudent to rush out without clothes to protect her vulnerable body, but his ire ebbed as he noted that her body had softened against him and her breath on his neck evened out in sleep.
He cuddled her closer, secretly pleased that, despite being a big, possessive, territorial male, she’d felt safe enough to fall asleep in his arms. It made him feel cherished in an odd way. Important in a way that he hadn’t felt even as captain of the guard for the lucumo. Her trust showed a greater value in him than he could put into words.
So he clung to her, taking comfort in the fact that she was safe now in his arms as he ducked into his tent and laid her gently on the bed. He took care not to disturb her as he shifted her around with their blanket wrapped snugly around her, giving him just enough room to crawl into bed beside her and pull the spare blanket over them both as he curled his big body around her. Beneath the blanket, his tail slid around her waist, and he settled against the bed, breathing in his mate’s scent.
His eyes blinked heavily as he stared toward the tent flap. A faint light shifted there and a hint of fog crept in. For a moment he swore he saw two younglings, holding hands and standing side by side, their shadow eyes staring, and their mouths opened wide as if shouting before sleep claimed him.
ChapterThirty
The day was grim and even grayer than normal, the sound of rain filling the tent as Raskyuil awakened. He groaned and wrapped his body more firmly around his warm little mate, his tail tucking in against her belly and chest.
He would need to go out and fetch their morning meal soon, but a few more minutes with his mate hurt nothing. He doubted that anyone, much less the nymphs tending to the first meal, had gotten an early start after what had happened. Not even a nymph could recover quickly from such a sight, and he knew that nearly everyone had retreated somberly back to their tents after the vampires had been brought down and tended to.
The weather seemed to match the mood of everyone within the carnival. He fully expected everyone to hunker down in their tents as they waited out the rain and worked to cope with what they saw, though he did not envy whoever was sent out in the poor weather.
For his part, he decided that he was looking forward to being cloistered with his mate for a little while. As much as he understood her urgency in finding her younglings, having a day to bond was welcome, especially when trolls tended to sequester themselves in their dens for several days after taking a mate. Even if his female was looking at their mating in a very pragmatic way with Ha’shena considered, he was secretly looking forward to it.
Despite being a male who had never anticipated mating, suddenly bonding with his mate was a need that he felt deeply and insistently. He didn’t even relish the thought of going out to the galley tent and leaving her to fetch food. Unfortunately, this was not a troll den well-stocked for a new mating and the oncoming winter. The fact that it sat uncomfortably with him that he did not have these things to offer his mate was something he did his best to ignore.
At least there would be no haunted fog to contend with. The spectral younglings that he saw moving within it unnerved him more than he liked to admit. It was no natural fog that acted in such a way, but then many things about The Bend seemed to defy the usual behavior of nature.
Not even the darker parts of the Eternal Forest where he was reared felt as haunted to him as The Bend. The fog hid things that it ought not, and he could hear the fairy hounds lurking beyond the far edges of the carnival grounds when they should have long moved on. Even the new growth among the trees seemed to be twisting in unnatural ways that he found disturbing. He did not point any of these things out to his mate, not wishing to make her more afraid than she already was.
Rising up on one arm, he peered down at MaryAnne, a tender smile curling the corners of his lips. She appeared frightfully fragile in her sleep as if she could easily break at any moment if he so much as brushed his fingertip against her too hard. He knew logically that it wasn’t true, and he had seen the formidability of his mate in action, but he couldn’t ignore how vulnerable and delicate she was physically compared to him. Nor how easily he could accidentally hurt her if he weren’t careful. He couldn’t unleash his full desire upon her, that was for certain. Not when rutting her like he wanted could possibly damage her soft little body.
He loved that difference between them, however. Stroking a hand along her belly, he growled softly in pleasure at the way his fingers subtly indented her soft, human skin.
MaryAnne stirred, her eyes blinking open as she turned into his touch. His hand stilled as she yawned and rubbed at one eye. “How long did I sleep?”
“Not long,” he assured her. “Maybe an hour or two. It is still early. You can go back to sleep if you want. I doubt the kitchen is even open.” He left the reason unsaid between them.
