Page 17 of Cruel Vampire King (Honeyblood Vampires #1)

When I returned to the camp, Ysara gave me a startled look, her nostrils flaring. The smell of the hot springs still clung to my skin. I was glad for it. The minerals and sulfur would be enough to hide the scent of anything else still on me. I ignored her look and curled up on a soft piece of ground near Thessa. I slept fitfully, dreaming of Luken’s hands on me intermingled with the night my family died.

Was Marissa telling the truth?

Was Luken?

In the morning, I was utterly exhausted, worse than I’d been in years. I felt as though the old wounds had been ripped open, and I was bleeding grief afresh. Ysara, Kael, and Greyson must have sensed something off, but they didn’t say anything. Ysara didn’t tell them about my foray into the forest, and none of them asked about the now-faded smell of hot springs on me.

They did, however, leave me with Thessa as they went to hunt. We had no food, and our starving bellies were causing us all issues.

Thessa’s fever had broken, and the wound across her chest didn’t look as bad as it had yesterday. The na?ve part of me thought maybe Luken had done something after all. A vampire could have crept into camp last night and fed her a few drops of healing blood. Vampires and their ability to heal others worked in a way I didn’t quite understand. Some sources said that they had to bite you to heal you, but Luken had healed my injuries from the kelpie with his blood.

The conflicting reports on turning into a vampire were just as confusing.

When Thessa opened her eyes, blinking and yawning, I put those thoughts from my head. I had no desire to become a vampire, so it was inconsequential.

“Elara.” Thessa smiled when she saw me. “Where are the others?”

“Getting food.” I hesitated a moment, but if I wasn’t in a position to save her, I could at least get information. Right? “You’re wearing my sister’s necklace.”

Thessa’s hand moved to the pendant, hidden beneath her shirt. Her smile slipped away.

“How did you get it?” I demanded, leaning forward. “Was it given to you? Did you steal it from the temples?”

“No. No, I didn’t steal it.” She pulled the leather strap over her head and held the delicate pendant in her palm. “I was selected to be a tribute to the gods. We were brought to the temples together and shared a room. She gave me the necklace because she’s my best friend.”

All the air seemed to disappear around me. My hands clenched into fists as I struggled with a well of emotion that crashed through me. Through the last four years, I hadn’t allowed myself to think of anything else, except that Darcie was taken as a tribute. But there was always a part of me that wondered if it was lies, if she had been sold off or murdered.

But she was there.

“How are you not sacrificed?” I blurted. “You’re nineteen.”

“Seventeen,” Thessa answered softly. “They just said I was nineteen to put me into the Trials. It’s my punishment for running away from the temples. I didn’t want to be a tribute. They said my blood would be spilled in honor of the gods one way or another.”

Who was ‘they’? The vampires? The priests? A shiver ran down my spine. I couldn’t focus on that when I had such a limited time. My lungs seemed unable to pull in enough air and I realized my eyes were wet.

“Is she happy?” I blurted, leaning closer. My lips trembled as I fought to keep my voice level. “Are you treated well in the temple? Does she know you’re here? What is life like for the tributes?”

Thessa winced at my barrage of questions. Her eyes widened as she looked around, as though expecting the shadows to consolidate into assassins that would slit both our throats. She shuddered and then moaned, her eyes shutting. Her face pinched with pain. I collected some willow bark tea to let her drink. She took a few sips from my cupped hands, then sighed.

It had been too long since I saw Darcie. I didn’t even know who she was anymore.

“We are treated well in the temple,” Thessa murmured. “We’re given good food, dressed in fine clothes, taught in music and arts. The priestesses are all very kind and understanding. We work, but we’re treated like noble daughters rather than servants. It is a good life. I’m a weaver. I make beautiful cloth that’s given to the Gods and worn by the royal vampire courts. Remember the broadcast from King Luken on that first day of the Trials? He was wearing some of my silk. I recognized it as my work. Darcie hand-embroidered the sash he wore.”

I soaked in this information, tears welling in my eyes. So it was a good life. Short, but good. My shoulders slumped in relief.

“They say that you’re guarded well,” I probed, wanting to know more.

Thessa nodded. “Where us girls live, only women are allowed in. And even then, they are strictly vetted. When we needed to see the Gods, we were brought to the courtyards where we were kept together, not allowed to wander.”

“You saw the Gods?” I demanded.

“They claimed they were, anyway,” Thessa said doubtfully.

I lifted one eyebrow. “You don’t think they were?”

Thessa pinched her lips together a moment before she whispered, “If I believed everything I was told there, I wouldn’t have run away. I kept my doubts to myself; I don’t know if anyone else felt the same way I did,” she added a little too loudly.

Was she talking about Darcie? Was she worried that if she said too much, it would put Darcie in danger? I wanted to ask her more, but I had to be mindful, too. Darcie was still in the temples, and if the priesthood suspected she was a non-believer, she might be punished worse than Thessa was.

“Never mind about that.” I tried to make my voice soothing. “What about Darcie? Do you see anything of the outside world in the temples? Will she know that we’re in the Trials?”

She slipped the necklace back over her head, and her gaze took a far-off look. “We never saw the Blood Trials at the temples. So I suppose at least there’s that. They won’t be seeing us…”

She trailed off, and her shoulders slumped. I shifted my position so I was sitting cross-legged as I studied her. Was this why Luken told me he couldn’t pull Thessa out of the Trials? He wasn’t the one who decided she’d be a part of them. The Gods themselves did.

But if he didn’t have the power to save a tribute who escaped, did it also mean he didn’t have the power to get Darcie out of temples?

The memory of the look on his face after I’d told him not to drink from me came back. At the moment, I’d been so focused on figuring out what I was feeling, reeling from the shock of my orgasm and trying desperately to assert some self-control that I hadn’t paid much attention. Was it right now to think his expression was pinched in worry, as though the weight of the world sat on his shoulders?

“Why did you escape?” I asked, my own gaze distant. Thessa’s face was a blur in my peripherals.

“There was too much that didn’t add up. They talked about prophecies, but if I asked questions, I was punished. I tried to swallow my doubts, but instead they swallowed me. Especially when I overheard the sisters there was a certain prophecy about King Luken, that he was going to…” she hesitated and shook her head. “I don’t believe it anyway.”

I tried not to let my curiosity get the best of me. What did she hear about Luken? I focused on what was important. “Did they tell you how the tributes were sacrificed?”

“They said it was painlessly. But I don’t believe it. I don’t want to be a sacrifice. I want to choose my own path.” Thessa sighed again. “I want to experience life with someone I love.”

I focused on her again and reached for her hand. “Of course you do. I think that’s all any of us really want. Someone we can be safe with as we go through life.”

Thessa looked around again. Her cold fingers curled into mine as she took a deep breath. “There’s more, Elara. Darcie told me about you. About how the king came for you, and you told him no, and that the night you decided to go to him anyway, your family was attacked.”

My scars tightened painfully at her words.

“We heard rumors… that the Gods demanded the tribute system, as well as the Blood Trials, as a way to sow hostility toward the king. Some of the sisters said, they couldn’t interfere directly without losing too many of their own, so they decided to weaken him in other ways. By creating rifts and making people hate him. If the people love him, he’ll be too strong,” she said all of it in a rush, so low and fast I could hardly hear it.

My blood rushed in my ears. It was all too similar to what Luken had told me last night. Enemies to his throne, that he didn’t have the power to fight the Blood Trials the way he wanted. Could it all be true after all?

And if that was true, did Marissa tell me the truth, too? Was Luken innocent of the crime I’d spent four years hating him for?