Page 54 of The Vampire Debt

I tense.Not Oliver.I twist in my savior’s arms and face him and the cruel sneer marring his handsome face.

“What are you doing all the way out here?” Alaric’s casual words are betrayed by the threat in his voice.

I swallow, unable to think of so much as a single word in response.

He lifts one dark brow. “Do you not understand the creatures that lurk in the forest, or are you really that foolish?”

“Let me go,” I demand, but it’s nothing more than a breathy whisper.

“You are my ward.” His hold tightens around me. “You are my responsibility, and you won’t be getting far with that twisted ankle of yours.”

I shove away from him and he lets go without resistance. I stumble back several steps before bumping into a tree and using it to regain my balance. Each time I put weight on my left foot sharp pains shoot up my leg.

“I’m leaving,” I say. “I won’t let you stop me.”

He laughs and the sound, deep and rich, makes my stomach tighten. “You wouldn’t make it halfway back to that dilapidated hovel before something or someone killed you… or worse.”

“I don’t care, it’s better than…” my voice cracks. “You are a vampire,” I say quietly. Those few, simple words are enough, but it’s not everything. There is much more between us than just that. There has been more than that single fact for some time now.

His face changes into the neutral mask I have come to recognize as his armor.

“Yes, my dear Clara, I am.” Though the words agree, he says them with such anger… and hurt—then it’s gone and I’m not sure if I’ve imagined it. “But by running away, you have broken both bargains you have made with me.”

“I know,” I say. My fingers dig into the trunk at my back as though my life depends on it.

“What you did that day in the forest—” He takes a step closer. “What you are trying to do—” Another step. “—it is punishable by death. You are aware of this?”

I nod.

He now stands only inches away from me.

“Do you know why we have the claiming?” he asks changing the subject.

I’m not sure where he’s going with this so I shake my head.

“To keep the humans in line. To keep you from rebelling and starting a war you cannot hope to win. A war that would only end with your enslavement.”

A war that would start if humans fought back, if we openly killed the monsters that take us, that rip our lives to shreds, as if we don’t matter.

“Pretty words to hide monstrous deeds,” I say. “You treat us as food, you tear families apart, and you prey on us until everyone fears you. We are not a resource to use and throw away—and I’m not your prisoner!”

He looks at me for a long moment, his expression even, unflinching from my outburst. “I never said you were, but you killed a vampire, my dear Clara, and now we both must suffer the consequences of your actions.”

I want to disagree with him, to point out every time he has made that claim… but has he?

Alaric reaches out, his fingers brushing against the base of my neck as he glides a lock of hair off my shoulder.

“I did not force this fate upon you,” he says softly, his eyes staying locked on the pulse in my neck as if mesmerized as he speaks. “Your father was the one who offered your sister up like chattel and you who offered yourself in her place. When I came to your home, I had no such designs to curate such a situation. I merely accepted your offer.”

“I didn’t have much of a choice,” I say.

“There is always a choice.” He gives me a sad look filled with pity, but there’s a coldness in it. “It is lucky I found you before anyone else did.”

I scoff. “You and I have very different ideas on what constitutes as luck.”

“Believe me when I tell you this,” he says, leaning closer still. “Your fate at the hands of another vampire would have been a long, painful, and drawn out death.”

I swallow hard as he pulls back to look me in the eye.