Page 7

Why didn’t he try to bite me, then? There was nothing I could do to stop him.

That question, though, I kept to myself. I didn’t need to be giving the vampire any ideas.

“Would the salve help?”

He paused in his step, just slightly. So slightly that anyone watching less closely would have missed the moment of hesitation.

For once, I’d truly surprised him instead of the other way around.

“The salve… of course the salve would help. I’m healing like a cursed mortal at the mo ment.

But unless you know how to make more…” He stopped and turned to me, his lips thinned in annoyance. “You took some with you?”

He read the answer on my face.

“By the blood, why didn’t you say something?”

I hadn’t said anything because I’d planned to keep it for myself, either to use or barter with when I reached a nearby town. But seeing him suffer like that, knowing it was due to my slow speed that he had to face the sun, made me feel guilty. “Does it matter? The point is, I do.”

“You should have told me,” he snarled, his fangs catching the glint of the moonlight. “I can’t protect you if I’m weak.”

Did he really expect me to believe my safety was his biggest concern? Besides, I’d seen how he’d dealt with the guards—saw it every night when I closed my eyes. Even weakened, he was a monster.

“We’ll stop here,” he announced.

It was early, for our standards anyway. Dawn was nearly an hour off. “Shouldn’t we keep going? You’re the one who keeps mentioning how slow we’re traveling. They’ll have horses.”

“Don’t pretend like you aren’t exhausted.”

“I’d rather be tired than dead,” I snapped. “Let’s keep going.”

The vampire sat on a fallen tree trunk, stretching his legs. From this angle, he was below me, tilting his head up to meet my gaze. Yet it still felt like he was looking down on a lowly human.

“I’m not going any farther until you put that salve on my back. And since you’re so twitchy, it’ll probably take you until dawn to work up the courage to do so, even though it’s in your best interest.”

Twitchy ? Was that what he called having an extremely rational fear of creatures that could tear me limb from limb in a matter of seconds? I took the jar from my pocket and threw it right at his torso. He caught it instantly, not so much as flinching.

“Do it yourself.” Let him tend to his own wounds.

“Or,” he drawled, tossing the jar up and down as he considered me with those awful red eyes, “I could drink some of your blood and heal in an instant. Your choice.”

Since I’d rather turn myself over to the Crown than let the vampire feed on me, I chose the other option.

I despised the shaking in my arm as I took the ointment back.

The vampire turned wordlessly, point made.

I settled behind him on the log. It was almost like the night I’d met him.

Except this time, instead of obeying an order to deal with him while he was bound and powerless, I was choosing to heal him. And he was choosing to just… let me.

The copper cuffs I’d snagged sat heavy on my thigh.

My one possible defense if he attacked me, though I was probably deluding myself in thinking I’d get a chance to use them.

Maybe when he slept, if I needed to get away.

But again, I was here by choice. I thought I’d fallen far when I was sentenced to serve at Greymere.

Now, I was teamed up with the mortal enemy of all witchkind.

The antiseptic smell of the ointment tickled my nose as I opened the jar and dipped two fingers in. Once again, I started from the shoulder.

“Will we keep walking after I do this?” I was still anxious about the thought of the guards catching us. All it would take is one well-aimed arrow and I’d be dead. I didn’t have so much as a fortifying card, let alone any proper defensive ones.

“You can rest easy. If they find me, I’ll take care of them.”

Then more people would die because of me. Because I’d traded their lives for my freedom. An immoral choice, but it was impossible for me to pick anything other than survival.

But they’d be chasing the vampire. They’d probably assume he had killed me by now, right? While there was magic that could find guilty parties in the kingdom, it wouldn’t specifically seek me out if the vampire was the prize.

“If they’re hunting you, then I’m not any better off than on my own.” They had caught him before, but I didn’t point that out, too eager for any justification to split up. “We could split up. You’ll be faster without me.”

“So quick to be rid of me, human?” His voice was low, teasing. “And how do you suppose you’ll fare against the trolls? ”

“We haven’t seen any trolls,” I reminded him.

He chuckled, the large muscles on his back rippling with the movement.

“Because you’re with me, and even creatures as stupid as trolls know better than to mess with vampires.

Besides, you forget we have a deal. You’re going to help me in Apante.

Then you’ll be free to do as you wish. By blood, you could join that cult of a monastery.

Even the king wouldn’t come for you then. ”

Shock rippled through me and all I could do was stare.

Was my plan so obvious? The Monastery was one of the few sanctuaries for voids like myself.

Those with magic had all the power in the Witch Kingdom, but the Monastery would take in voids as disciples to serve in their ranks.

It was my only chance to live a life after deserting my post.

I frowned. How did the vampire know all this though?

The silence stretched between us as I smoothed the salve over his rough skin.

Seventh hell, they’d done a number on his back.

Yet he just sat there, letting me apply the healing ointment without so much as fidgeting.

I slid two fingers into the container again and targeted a particularly bad spot on his back.

By mistake, I misjudged the depth of a wound and hit what was an especially sensitive part.

Other prisoners had hit me, sometimes, for that kind of thing.

Those in pain liked to inflict it on others, even if they were helping them.

The vampire didn’t move at all. The only hint of pain was a barely audible hiss that could very well have been the leaves rustling .

Were vampires naturally so still? Or did he force himself to stay in one place because I was so “twitchy,” and he worried I’d run off if he moved too quickly?

I can’t protect you if I’m weak.

Laughable. As if anyone had ever been able to protect me. And yet, if I imagined anyone other than a vampire saying the words, I might have tucked them in my chest and held on to them, precious as gold coins.

“Thank you,” I eventually said. “For the rabbit.”

He waved it off. “Think of it no more.”

The rabbit was more than I’d eaten most weeks. I would think of it. As I slept, when the gnawing pain I’d almost grown numb to was gone. When I woke, and my first thought wasn’t of food.

Finally, his back was covered. The jar was two-thirds empty. Flecks of blood were interspersed in the ointment. Unlikely anyone but the most desperate would trade for it now. Then again, if I joined with the Monastery, I might not need to trade.

I moved back and stood from the log, adjusting the jar in my skirts as I scanned for which part of the ground I might like to sleep on tonight.

I braced to take a step, then paused. “My name is Sam.” I wasn’t sure why I offered him my name.

He’d likely never use it, continuing to call me human or mortal . “Samara.”

“Samara,” he repeated. “I’m known as Raphael.”

Raphael. A monster with a name .

“You’re quiet, for a human, Samara,” the vampire murmured after a long moment.

Talking seldom got me anything but trouble.

“And you’re sane, for a vampire, Raphael.”

He chuckled, the sound like storm clouds over the moon. “Only sometimes.”

We settled into our respective spaces, giving each other a wide berth. There wasn’t much to our sleeping ritual beyond claiming our spaces and shutting our eyes.

Maybe because we’d stopped earlier than usual, though, I lay there awake. The three moons would soon be chased away by the sun.

And instead of waking with the hunger on my mind, I woke with a name on my lips.