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He shrugged. “We agreed not to mention it again.”

I didn’t like how he said it, but I had to admit that he was right. We did agree to put it behind us. It was obviously just me dwelling on it, and I hated that I just revealed that right now.

“You didn’t poison Luke,” he added with a grave look on his face.

I realized only now that I hadn’t seen him laughing. Come to think of it, I might have only seen him smile once or twice. Maybe not even that much. But never laughing. Curiosity gripped me and I wondered what he looked like caught up in a fit of laughter he couldn’t prevent. Did it make him even more handsome? Probably.

“I didn’t,” I acknowledged. “But I felt like it is karma.”

“Karma?” he frowned.

“Yeah, you know, the universe’s way of evening things out?” I tried to explain in my own words, but I feared I didn’t do a very good job of it.

“Wouldn’t that make him the one who did something wrong?” he mused.

“Yeah, but…” I started, but he was right. The universe wouldn’t do something bad to him to even out for something I did. It didn’t make any sense. “That’s true, but that still doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“You are the only one responsible for how you feel,” he told me wisely, words I appreciated more than he could ever know. “You can’t be responsible for how other’s feel either.”

I nodded. This was the sort of wisdom I needed right now, and I didn’t even know it. I needed to keep repeating that to myself over and over again. Just as I turned to him, wanting to thank him for those words, when a sudden rustling of the bushes made us both turn around at the same time, with our hearts beating inside our throats.

Chapter Twelve

Adrian

I could smell something was off even before the two figures emerged from the bushes, their eyes gleaming with otherworldly hunger.

Vampires.

I immediately sheltered Lilith with my body, sure that I would be able to take them both. She pressed her hands onto my back. For her, just like for me, the garden had instantly turned into a battleground of survival. I allowed my instinct to kick in, spreading my arms around us, in an effort to create some distance between us and the vampires.

One vampire rushed to the side and lunged at Lilith, his fangs bared. The other one was ready to attack me. They had a clever strategy, to strike us from two sides. Lilith seemed to be driven by a sudden surge of adrenaline which shot from her very eyes andmanaged to evade her attacker’s initial strike, which allowed me to turn to him and strike him with my fist. He fell down to the ground, but I knew I didn’t strike him hard enough to stay down.

This gave me enough time to focus on the vampire who targeted me. I ducked and dodged, searching for a way to turn the tables on him, as I had the two of us to defend. A broken piece of a garden statue caught my eye, and I pointed at it. Lilith understood immediately. She rushed for it, while I kept the vampire on his feet occupied. A moment later, she returned, handing me the makeshift stake.

I knew if we were to protect ourselves, we had to kill them this time. Last time, at the cemetery, we left them alive. We showed weakness. But not now.

Focused and determined, I lunged forward, aiming a precise strike at the vampire’s heart. He didn’t even know what hit him, as the makeshift stake found its mark, piercing through the creature’s chest. A moment of anguish flashed across the vampire’s face, before he crumbled to ash, dissolving into the wind. There was nothing left of him, not even a single trace. It was as if he had never existed.

The second vampire was coming round, and before I could do anything, Lilith rushed over to him and kicked him in the stomach, rendering him powerless.

“Now, Adrian,” she told me, pointing at him.

I jumped onto the vampire, who was lying on his stomach, turning him onto his back, slamming the stake into his heart. There was that same pain in his eyes, that same knowledge that death had finally caught up with him. A few moments later, that was all. I felt as if it lasted for hours, our fight, but in reality, we were lucky to have been able to beat them so quickly.

That could only mean one thing, that these were not warrior vampires. These were like those two at the cemetery, just wanderers who dared to tread onto forbidden grounds, in hopes of finding some careless wanderers. Unfortunately for them, they stumbled onto us.

Still breathing heavily, we stood amidst the aftermath of the brief, but intense battle. I looked around, there was not a single trace of the struggle that took place here. The night was tranquil once again, as if nothing had happened. Nature didn’t care about any of us. All she cared about was prolongation of life in general. For her, the individual was not of much relevance.

At first, heavy silence settled between us. I was watching Lilith with the corner of my eye. She was blinking heavily, somehow looking incredulous at what had just happened. Finally, she was the first one to break the silence.

“What are they doing so close to the castle?” she wondered, her voice down to a whisper, as she was still looking around, half-expecting more vampires to jump out of the bushes.

“These are not Constantine’s army,” I pointed out. “They’re just some lone wanderers, hoping for scraps.”

“In the king’s garden?” she almost gasped loudly.

I shrugged. “Hunger is a helluva thing. It makes you do things you usually wouldn’t do and go places where you usually wouldn’t go.”