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A scream pierced the air, and it sounded just like it had in my vision.

I turned to see the same young man I thought I had saved. The very knife I had thrown to stop the assassin was now plunged into his abdomen.

“Ruichan!”Yexue cried, panic flaring in his eyes for the first time.

“Go,” I choked. “I can protect myself.”

Yexue thrust the hilt of his knife at me and lunged into the battle. He was as fast as I remembered, moving with the grace of a dancer, leaping through the air, leaving a path of crimson behind him like he had a year ago in the mountains. Faster and stronger than any mortal had the right to be.

He said his magic was a curse, yet all I felt was envy.

How I wished to be burdened with his curse, his power, and the control he had over his magic.

Soon, dead men lay cradled by puddles of blood, their throats slit. War was cruel and swords had no eyes. From their uniforms, it seemed the attackers were not of Rong.

By the time Yexue had snapped the neck of the last assassin, his men were crying around the dying boy I had tried to save. Even from a distance, he looked too young to be called a man.

“I know you said you wanted to join your brother as a vampire, but this isn’t the way, Ruichan,” I heard Yexue say as he knelt beside the dying boy, who spluttered a sound that was more blood than laugh.

The men moved to give Yexue better access to him, and as they parted, I saw the huge wound in his stomach, blood pouring fast, slipping through the fingers of frantic hands that were trying to apply pressure and keep everything inside.

Yexue scooped a handful of blood from the dying boy and poured it into his mouth. Then he bit open his hand, to give the boy his blood, moments before he went limp.

“Take care of him,” Yexue said before he returned to the carriage. Some of the men followed him, but two stayed behind with the lifeless body of the boy.

There were tears in Yexue’s eyes when he returned to the carriage. I could smell the blood that covered his hands. I gasped when I saw the crimson of his eyes, the same shade as my phoenix’s mark, as the blood that poured from every man he had just killed. Yexue quickly pressed his lids closed and turned away from me when he sat back down, tucking his body against the other side of the carriage, as if trying to hide himself from me.

We sat in silence as the carriage began to move again.

I peeked out the window to see Yexue’s men digging.

“Did you not heal him?”

Tears were trickling down his cheek. “I did healhim.”

“Then why are they burying him?”

“Military secrets.”

“This is how you make vampires,” I murmured, an observation, not a question. Those red-eyed demons weren’t demons from hell. They were people, just like that boy….

“If I say yes, will you report it back to your prince and use it against me?”

I picked up the forgotten peace treaty from the floor of the carriage. “I will make sure Siwang signs this. You don’t want to watch more innocent lives end, and neither do I.”

“Good,” Yexue whispered. “Let your prince know that if he doesn’t surrender while he still has the chance, I might have to become the monster he wants the world to think I am.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat, this morning’s dream still fresh in my mind. “I believe you.”

50

Yexue and I went our separate ways just as dawn peeked over the horizon. I traded the carriage for a fast horse and three of Yexue’s guards, on which he insisted. I didn’t want to argue. They would follow me only until I reached Rong’s camp, at least. If Yexue required that they follow any further, then they might bring more trouble than protection.

We raced down trampled roads marred by blood. Crimson slush showered the hems of my robes with each thunderous thump of the stallions’ hooves. In the days since I had been taken, Yexue’s army had once again pushed Rong farther north.

Night after night, they slaughtered our people with harrowing attacks that rarely left anyone alive,Siwang had told me.

I clung tight to the reins and resisted the urge to touch the treaty strapped to my back. I would not let my nightmares come true. If Siwang didn’t sign the treaty now, I feared Yexue would change his mind and decide he was not satisfied with these morsels of Rong, not when he could haveallof it.