Leaves kick up in my wake, hissing like a dozen snakes are on my heel. My imagination grows wilder and wilder by the second, spurring on my fears. The night is upon me. That thought repeats over and over through my mind with every step I take. I was hasty to leave without trying to find a map without preparing myself. I don’t even know what direction the nearest village is.
Then a break in the trees appears up ahead, and I could almost cry in relief. I am so close to getting out, but it’s too late. The demons will emerge from wherever it is they sleep during the day.
I force my legs to move faster and faster, but the brush thickens, trying to slow me down. Branches reach out, grabbing at my hair and clothes.
A flash of red glints through the dark to my right. I stumble when I look, but there’s nothing there. Then another flash of red straight ahead. Two dots.
Demons.
The harder I run, the more sets of eyes seem to awaken and appear.
The shadows thicken into shapes, and I stop short as a ghastly shape rears up before me. A thick billowing cloud of black smoke slowly takes form. Its skin is too dry and taut, cracking slightly where it moves. It shows off distorted bone and ribs that stick out too far. The limbs are too long to look right.
The demon steps closer. Its form looks painful with each quick, jerky movement. The joints bend and twist in sickening directions.
I dart to the side and run. The crunching of twigs comes from directly behind me. Something cold grips my ankle and pulls. I land hard on my belly, all the air is ripped from my lungs.
The claws around my leg dig into my boots, poking through the thick leather, and twist. I cry out as pain shoots up my leg, and I’m violently jerked toward it.
It drags me over the forest floor. I scramble to grab hold of anything to stop myself, digging my nails into the dirt.
I’m losing the battle.
More demons crawl out of the shadows, their jaws snap and crack as they come up behind the one dragging me. I swipe with the dagger, but it does no good. It lunges and grabs my leg again, giving it a swift jerk.
Something wraps around my wrist and pulls me up to my feet. At first, I think it is yet another demon, except they all vanish. Then an arm wraps around my waist.
I thought he couldn’t protect me. I breathe out and slump against my savior. “Thank you.”
“You are welcome, my dear Clara,” he purrs my name against my ear.
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. 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 that 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, tear families apart, and 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, 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 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.
“Alaric, please,” I say, but I’m not sure exactly what I’m begging for—a quick death, or mercy, or something else entirely. “If I owe a life debt, then take it.”
Alaric looks at me, and I can’t for the life of me begin to imagine what is going through his mind.
He closes the small distance between us, pressing his body against mine, one hand resting on my hip, his other by the side of my head, caging me in. Even now, with these slight touches, my heart pounds, not entirely out of fear.
He lowers his head so I can feel his warm breath on my ear. “Why are you so eager to die? Do you think so little of me because of what I am?”
I think of Mother, of her face, her features that are slowly fading from memory as time passes. I can hardly remember the sound of her voice anymore. “Vampires only know how to destroy. You are all dangerous.”
“So are humans, my dear Clara. Surely there is more to it than that.” He moves his hand from the tree to cup my face.
“A vampire killed my mother…” Shit… I don’t know why I admitted that out loud to him. “Kitty and I were left with only Father to take care of us.” I pull in a shaky breath, forcing myself to be brave and look him in the eye.
His arm around me is strong and unmovable like a solid steel beam. The way Alaric holds me feels like a lover’s embrace.
“It’s okay,” I say.
A thin red line encircles his irises as his fangs descend. Even now, he hesitates.
I turn my head to the side, close my eyes, and wait for the pinch of his bite as he pierces my skin, and kills me.