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“But you don’t have the tools or the right materials.”
A few days ago, the cart got stuck and made an alarming noise. After they pulled it free, Miles crawled under and declared it fit for travel. Just.
“We’ll have to stay overnight,” Luis said, answering Charlotte’s earlier prayer.
“I’m not going to refuse a hot bath and a proper bed. Are you comfortable with that?” Charlotte asked Miles. Since his relatively recent transformation, he avoided crowds. Not that Sweetwater was a bustling metropolis, but it was the largest town they encountered so far on their journey.
“It’s fine. It’s only one night, and I’d also like a hot bath,” Miles said, his tone implying that staying in town wasn’t fine but he would endure it. He wrinkled his nose. “What is that smell?”
“The town has no sanitation to speak of,” Charlotte said. She had successfully ignored the odor of mud and manure until Miles pointed it out.
He hopped onto the cart’s running board and leaned close to Charlotte, sniffing. “No. It’s that. What is that?”
“Oh. It’s the strangest thing,” Charlotte said, unexpectedly flustered. “A man insisted I take his coat and gloves. He didn’t even tell me his name.”
“Not a man,” Miles said. “Not entirely.”
“What do you mean?” A new chill settled over Charlotte.
Miles shook his head. “I can’t tell. This town stinks. It’s messing with my senses.”
He climbed onto the cart and settled next to her on the bench. Taking the reins in hand, he eased the horse into motion.
Charlotte slipped the coat over her shoulders. When Miles wasn’t looking, she pressed her nose to the fabric and breathed in deeply. All she could detect was the pleasant aroma of woodsmoke and citrus soap.
Chapter Four
Charlotte
The Aerie
The Black Gate
“Are you certain you want to go through with this?” Luis leaned forward in the saddle. “I won’t hold it against you if you’re having second thoughts.”
Charlotte shielded her face from the falling snow with her hand and looked up at the imposing fortress perched high on the mountain. The fog that rolled in when they reached Sweetwater Point had never left. They traveled for days through the freezing murk, barely able to see more than a few feet ahead. The mist clung to the ground, obscuring the direct path ahead. Above, the mist cleared enough to make out the entrance was a black gate set halfway up, embedded directly into the mountain face. Lights burned through the mist like a trick of some mischievous creature to capture the weary traveler.
How dramatic, she thought.
“I’m certain.”
“Well, we’ve a ways to go,” Luis said, as if she might change her mind.
Honestly, why did every man think he had the right to question her decision? Jase, her father, and now Luis. Surely they meant well, but it was exhausting. Solenne, the one person whose opinion Charlotte would listen to, said nothing. Not a word. She understood Charlotte’s motivation, a mix of needing to escape and the irresistible allure of a unique research opportunity.
If this Draven is in fact the original Draven…
The possibilities were enough to make her giddy.
Old vampires were rare with no reports of an elder monster in nearly a century. In theory, the mutation expressed itself as either a beast, vampire, or witch, each occurring with the same frequency. However, the parasitic nature of the mutation made a new vampire vulnerable.
In the early colonial histories that Charlotte read, the mutations caught the first settlers unaware. Three months on their new home planet and a strange energy flux changed them. Some of them. Now it was all very well understood and nearly classified into three categories: beasts, vampires, and witches. At the time, it was chaotic and violent. Uncontrolled beasts slaughtered entire families. Hungry vampires drained victim after victim. Witches were less defined, but they seemed to be useful in capturing and controlling the monsters.
Vampires required a community to survive. A beast could isolate during Nexus fluctuations at the equinox and solstice. A vampire had to feed its condition. They needed to always be in proximity to their prey, ideally a population large enough that the occasional dead body would go unnoticed. Their hunger left them exposed, and as a result, they were easily discovered and eliminated.
If this Draven was not the original, the journey was still worth it to talk with an elder vampire.
No, Charlotte Wodehouse would not change her mind.
