Chapter 10

He didn’t come back in.

Willow had heard the blood hunter approach before he just…stopped. And she hadn’t seen him since. The day fell into dusk and dusk turned to nightfall, and before she knew it, light crept into the sky, albeit hidden by dark clouds signaling an approaching storm. Honestly, Adam’s absence put her on edge. What was he planning? How did he intend to torture her next? If she had to swallow salt or garlic one more time…

The front door creaked opened noisily and hit the wall, making her jump as his lack of stealth signaled his approach. Her heart began racing anxiously as he rounded the corner, an expressionless mask settled on his face. What would it be this time? Ember weed? Bloodbane? Would he force her to swallow more elixir? Or perhaps he aimed to remove her heart and throw it into the fire.

To her surprise, he did none of those things. Instead, he led her into another room further into the cabin. Her eyes lit up in wonder as her gaze swept across the room. The faintest flicker of a fire glowed in the hearth, looking like it had been going all night and was now beginning to die.

Bookshelves filled with dozens upon dozens of books hugged the walls, some looking barely touched and others practically falling apart at the spine. A desk was tucked in the corner of the room, piled high with a half-dozen books and parchment, and a couple comfortable-looking chairs lie in front of the hearth—a perfect place to read within a well-decorated library.

He re-positioned the vodryx chain to circle one wrist instead of two before letting go, watching her warily. At first, she thought he forgot to secure the other end of the chain, but she found that wasn’t the case. Although her first instinct was to run, she held herself back due to sheer surprise and a hint of curiosity. She meandered about the room, glancing at book titles and feeling the spines with the tips of her fingers, all while watching him from the corner of her eye. He didn’t stop her. In fact, he didn’t move an inch while he regarded her with as much suspicion as she did him.

“Don’t even think about trying to escape,” he said, casually sliding a sword into the sheath on his back and tucking his plain dagger into his boot. He leaned in a way that gave her a good view of the blood gem hanging from his neck. “You won’t get far on foot. My horse is loyal to me only and won’t carry you. And did I mention I can track you if you try to run? You can’t remain hidden from a blood hunter.”

She slid into the chair at the desk, resting her head on her hand while combing her hair to the side in an alluring way, looking at him with a coy smile.

Thoughtfully drumming her fingers against the grainy wood of the desk, she didn’t try to hide the fact that she was watching him, studying his every movement. This near to him, her nose picked up his scent. He smelled…earthy. Like leaves on a rainy spring morning. Like the muddy earth after a light sprinkle. Like the under bark of a tree after it got stripped by hungry woodland animals.

She was so distracted that she almost missed the fact that he was clearly leaving. It brought a sense of relief followed by an immediate panic. She would still be without her strength. What if something stalked her like prey in his absence? She didn’t have the means to fight back.

“Where are you going?”

He locked a bolt into place in his crossbow before strapping it across his back. The weapon was enormous and would have dwarfed her, but he wore it well.

“Hunting.”

She perked up immediately. “Hunting for what, exactly?”

He scowled in her direction. “Not humans, if that’s what you’re asking. I’ll return soon. And like I said before, I will hunt you down if you try to leave.” As he left, he didn’t look back, and suddenly all was quiet except for the faint crackle of the dying flame in the hearth.

She frowned, looking at the other end of the vodryx chain dangling from her wrist. It was unsecured. Why would he do that? Was it a trick?

Adam was becoming more and more complicated by the minute, and she surprised herself by wanting to see where the path led her. Although she admitted the elixirs he had given her were torturous, there was something about Adam that drew her attention. Not just his good looks, but the mystery surrounding him. It was enthralling, and she never shied away from a mystery.

“I am an idiot,” she murmured. She should have taken this opportunity to run. But she didn’t. Her curiosity got the best of her, and she wanted to see what happened next. And if he was going to be absent for a little while…

The books on the desk before her piqued her interest, books he most likely read last.

Herbs and Medicine

A Guide to Hexes, Incantations, and Curses

Amongst Thieves

The Codes of Sedhyl

A Link Between Witches and Wolves

But the book that held her attention the most was one with no title. The cover was made of smooth brown leather. The pages were worn. She opened the book, and her interest was piqued more as she stared back at messy handwriting followed by surprisingly well-drawn pictures of creatures. That’s when she realized what this was—a field journal written by Adam himself.

It looked like he had included every creature imaginable from gremlins to mist wraiths to basilisks, a carefully drawn sketch depicted each one. She would never have guessed he had a secret talent for drawing.

She continued flipping through the journal, reading the inscriptions on each page. Weaknesses. Strengths. What time the creatures were most active. He included every possible detail imaginable.

She flipped the page, her awe replaced by a frown as she came to the section regarding vampires. Much of the information contained a line striking through the text, replaced by more text, or rather, an update of the page. But from what it looked like, he had more questions than answers. The page explained a vampire’s weaknesses, their strengths, and other tidbits of information. When it came to a section about infecting a human, “biting” and “scratching” were crossed out on the page. Had a vampire attacked him before? Who? When? And how?

A list of potions followed after the text, some of which she recognized and others she didn’t. The ones he’d administered to her were crossed off, leaving a half dozen more he hadn’t tried—and she was terrified of him forcing her to swallow the others too.

A loud, deep shriek sounded outside, making her nearly jump out of her skin. She paused to listen, but it was hushed. Strange… The shriek sounded…vampiristic. It wasn’t Adam, that much was obvious. And it wasn’t an animal. Had she imagined the shriek?

She rolled her shoulders, trying to shake off her uneasiness. Nothing was coming after her. For the most part, she was safe here. Or at least to a certain degree. For now. She turned her attention back to the journal and tried to ignore the anxiety rising within her.

The text continued with more random tidbit facts, more questions, and more crossed off text that included pictures throughout the pages. Fangs. Fingernails. Transformations. Of course, nothing she didn’t know already. What surprised her was that he had the information he did. Where was he getting it? And why did he seem particularly interested in vampires? Why vampires of all things?

Still, he was missing quite a bit of information. Is that why he captured her? Maybe he’s using her for his studies.

She turned to the next page, and her heart gave a start at what she saw. It was a sketch of herself, surprisingly detailed. Her expression looked…kittenish, her eyes coy as if he had wanted to capture the way she sometimes looked at him—teasingly of course. And he sketched her with a sliver of a smile, her long hair flowing over one shoulder.

Was this how he viewed her? Because she certainly couldn’t gather that much from the way he had been treating her. Which brought her back to this puzzle… Why was she unbound—for the most part? And why did he bring her to a more comfortable room? It was cloudy outside with a light drizzle of rain. No sunlight. She could escape. And she knew he knew that. What was his game?

Taking one final look at the detailed sketch of herself, she closed the journal and wandered further into cabin until she stood in front of a closed door, an intense burn stinging her nostrils. Sure enough, a barrier of salt lay on the ground in front of the door and she rolled her eyes. He had to be competent enough to know that although salt would stop her from entering, she couldn’t enter without permission. And it wasn’t as if he would ever invite her into his bedroom. It was more likely he’d gut himself with his own iron sword.

Still… She wanted to know what secrets he might be hiding from her…

She picked up A Link Between Witches and Wolves and threw it, watching it slide across the ground and scatter the salt on the floor. Although she would get burned if she had been touching the book, if she weren’t touching it, it would work—something blood hunters didn’t seem to take into account—evidently. That took care of one problem, now one more to get past.

She cleared her throat while staring intensely at the door, talking to it as if she could cajole it into opening. “Why, Adam, you’re letting me go inside? How sweet of you.”

Obviously, it didn’t work because when she touched the doorknob, a blinding pain seared her skin. She yelped and snatched her hand away, clutching it tightly to her chest. Why was this a problem? Vampires were strong, powerful, yet they couldn’t walk into a room, let alone a building, without permission. It was the most frustrating thing, especially if one didn’t want to hint toward their vampiristic secret.

“Fine,” she growled, stalking away from the door and exiting the cabin. “There are other ways to learn your secrets, blood hunter.”

To her relief, no traps snatched her like she suspected they might should she venture outside. She rounded the cabin, treading through dried, fallen leaves, and found a window that allowed her to peer inside his room. She had to stand on her tiptoes to get a good look, and to her disappointment, she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. A bed, a chair, a side table, a lantern, weapons… And more books. She didn’t see anything that might help her break the vodryx chain.

The same shriek filled the sky, this time closer than before. It was loud enough that she had to cover her ears, glancing every which way for the source of the sound and flinching as she turned her gaze to the skies. For a moment, she expected a griffin to swoop from above and scoop her into its massive claws, but no such creature appeared.

She channeled her senses, listening carefully to every falling leaf, to every rustling branch, to every spooked bird in the boughs, and she heard it again. A hiss. A shriek. A vampire shriek. And a cry of pain. A human cry. Her eyes widened in horror, and before she had a chance to think it through, her feet carried her toward the sound, the vodryx chain dragging on the ground in her haste. A vampire and a human. Did her father find her? Was he after Adam?

The noises led her to an underground cellar, the lock loose and the trapdoor wide open. The commotion came from below.

Without a second thought, she jumped into the semi-darkness, her eyes adjusting easily before widening in shock when she found a caged vampire reaching through what she recognized as metal bars entirely made of vodryx, its superhuman strength grasping Adam’s throat and squeezing tight. Even worse, there was blood everywhere. It looked to be splattered on the walls, pooling at the ground near Adam’s feet. The vampire wasn’t her father. It was feral.

She strode forward, releasing a high-pitched screech. Immediately, the vampire dropped Adam and cowered further back into its cell, recoiling against her intense stare. It didn’t take long for the vampire to lower his gaze and stay put in his corner of the cell. When she was confident the vampire wouldn’t attack again, she rushed to Adam’s side to help him to his feet—she didn’t know why. After all, he had tortured her and probably planned to continue to torture her until she was dead.

“I had the situation under control,” he said, pushing her hands away, his pride having obviously been hurt.

“Did you? And getting choked to death was all part of the plan? And what about all this blood? Yours?”

“Hare.”

She shook her head in bewilderment. “I don’t understand what’s going on here. Why do you have a feral vampire locked in your cellar?”

His eyebrows scrunched together as he looked at her, confusion in his eyes. “What do you mean…feral?”

An involuntary sigh escaped her, and she had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. For all the information he had stockpiled about vampires, he sure didn’t know much at all. “Yes, feral. How long has he gone without blood?”

“I gave him some barely. He…didn’t take it well, as you can clearly see.”

She stooped low and put the tip of her finger in the pooled blood on the floor, tasting it on the tip of her tongue. It was the blood of a hare. Fresh too. Now it suddenly made sense why Adam said he was going hunting. How long, exactly, had this vampire been here?

“When did his mental state begin deteriorating?”

Running a hand through his hair, he shrugged uncertainly. “He had been fine ten years ago.”

“Ten?” she gasped. “And you’ve been giving him animal blood all this time?”

Vampires could survive off of animal blood, but not for long before their mental state began deteriorating, and from the looks of it, the feral vampire had recently taken a turn for the worse. His fangs were bared, his eyes were red, and he looked to be on the verge of losing control.

He didn’t answer, but from his expression, it was clear he realized he had done something wrong, something he hadn’t understood. He closed his eyes and sighed, leaning against the wall as if he suddenly needed additional support.

She continued, “Vampires can live indefinitely without food. But their mental state is another story altogether. Withhold human blood long enough, and they’ll go mad with hunger. If you hadn’t kept him locked in here, he might have already attacked a village, and he wouldn’t have stopped there.”

“But I’ve been giving him animal blood—”

“Which would have delayed the effects, maybe for a few years.”

She couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the poor vampire. The longest she had ever gone without human blood had been a few months, and she lost control. But years? She couldn’t fathom the deep, intense pain of hunger he must be feeling.

Stepping toward the bars, she smiled softly and tried to coax the feral vampire toward her, gesturing with a friendly hand. “Come here. Let me see you.”

The vampire hissed and shrunk further into the shadows, incapable of speech at this level of bloodthirst. Her heart ached for the poor thing, and she found she desired to earn this vampire’s trust—something that seemed out of Adam’s reach at this point.

“Come on,” she coaxed again, stretching out a hand.

The vampire’s eyes flicked from her hand to Adam, and back to her hand, an uncertain look on his face. Still, he didn’t move. He looked…nervous. And most definitely starving. It was any wonder he hadn’t broken free of these bars yet, vodryx or not. Hungry vampires managed to find their deepest reserves of strength when they were famished.

“He doesn’t like you much,” she commented to Adam over her shoulder. “Move over there.” She nodded with her head in the direction of the trapdoor.

“Doesn’t like me much?” he scoffed resentfully. “All of this is for him. He begged me to not let him succumb to this…disease.”

She didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. “Just do it.” He begrudgingly moved to where she requested, and she turned her attention back to the feral vampire, holding her hand toward him again and giving him a genuine smile. “Will you come? I’d like to see you.”

Slowly, the vampire moved away from the shadows, one skittish foot in front of the other. When he came into the full light, she stifled a gasp. The vampire had dark brown hair—messy dark brown hair—his gaze was intense despite his eyes being blood-red due to hunger, and the set of his jaw looked eerily familiar.

It was as if she was looking back into the eyes of a younger Adam. And that alone made her feel incredibly uncomfortable. What had happened? Why was he locked away like some sort of animal? And worse, why did Adam hunt vampires if one of his relatives actually was one? Assuming her deductions were correct.

Pushing away her discomfort, she continued to reach out to him and smiled in relief when he approached and slid his hand into hers before grasping her wrist. It was how vampires greeted one another. How he had known that baffled her. There was no way a vampire taught him this, especially with Adam hovering and keeping him prisoner.

“There,” she whispered, gently returning the grasp and holding his gaze. “This isn’t a disease—it’s a gift despite what he thinks.” She motioned to Adam, who scowled in return. “You are stronger than your hunger, and it’s not fair to tell yourself otherwise.”

The young vampire’s eyes flickered from red to dark brown but flickered back to red and stayed that color. His hunger was too great to gain the kind of control he needed to overcome it, and she couldn’t blame him. Thirty-five years ago, she was overcome by her hunger, and she regretted what happened that day. She would never forget what she did.

Despite his hunger, he looked much calmer now. But he needed blood. Human blood. As soon as possible.

The feral vampire let go of her arm and retreated back into the shadows. She turned to confront Adam with disbelief in her eyes. “You captured me to experiment—”

“Not here!” he hissed, casting a sideways glance toward the caged vampire. “Can we talk inside? Please?”

She paused with uncertainty, biting her lip and glancing at the feral vampire. She was torn between finding a way for herself to escape imprisonment and the curiosity that surfaced due to this new discovery. Her curiosity won, and she could have cursed her stupidity as she took one step toward the blood hunter and then another until she followed him up the rickety ladder and into the open air. Her father always said her curiosity would get her killed one day. Unfortunately, she hadn’t believed him until now. Still…she wasn’t dead yet.

“Now will you tell me?” she demanded indignantly, crossing her arms as she stood on the opposite side of the library from him. She certainly didn’t trust him, not by a long shot. If she didn’t have to be close to him, she wouldn’t. Especially not while he was wearing innumerable iron weapons.

He sighed, pacing back and forth across the room as if forgetting they were enemies. She didn’t want to be nearby when he suddenly remembered.

“Twelve years ago, my small village got attacked by a coven of vampires. I was sixteen, my brother was thirteen. I was the only survivor, and my brother was a…casualty. The vampire in the cellar? That’s Zachariah.”

She could not believe what she was hearing. His brother was a vampire? And he was a blood hunter? The situation was far too ironic to be credible.

Continuing to pace, he added, “Over the next two years, he was able to control the hunger, but when he snuck off to feed…I couldn’t allow him to kill any more innocents. He begged me to lock him away and find a way to help him, and he’s been in the cellar for the last ten years. It’s why I became a blood hunter—to find a way to cure him while avenging the man he could have become. Zachariah always wanted to be a soldier. But it’s too dangerous now.”

“Let me get this straight,” she said slowly, watching him with keen eyes in case he should lunge with the knife he tucked into his boot earlier. “You’re avenging the life Zachariah could have led, yet you confine him to the dark cellar, preventing him from having any life at all? What kind of monster are you?”

His expression turned dark as he fingered the pommel of his iron sword, the blood gem beneath his shirt glowing a faint red. “It takes a monster to kill a monster. It would do you well to remember that.”

The two of them had a stare-off, neither backing down. Although he’d shown her vulnerability, it didn’t excuse what he had done here. Despite Zachariah being his brother, the feral vampire was now one of her kind, and she felt responsible toward helping him recover. However, Adam stood in her way of doing that. She needed to eliminate him.

“Don’t test me,” she growled. “There’s a lot more to vampires you don’t know.”

“I know enough.”

He began walking toward her, and she retreated backward, her hand searching for anything she could find to fight back with. The only thing her hand brushed against was a book. She grabbed it and swung it at him with all her might. However, he quickly deflected it, the book flying across the floor in a heap of worn pages. He grabbed hold of the chain that bound her and dragged her fighting and kicking to the fireplace before securing her to a chair as if she weighed nothing and her efforts were futile. She felt helpless and weak without her full strength!

“I would tell you to stay put, but I know you’re not going anywhere.” He turned away but paused, his gaze traveling to the books on his desk that had clearly been tampered with. “Did you read this?” he asked defensively, holding the field journal and looking accusingly at her with a raised eyebrow.

She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. “No, of course not. Why would I want to snoop into your things? It could be a trap for all I know.” Yet, color entered her cheeks as she remembered the detailed drawing of her that lay inside. The drawing had made her look beautiful. Was that really how he viewed her?

He still regarded her with suspicion but didn’t say anything more before he tucked the journal into his pocket and strode toward his bedroom but halted when he found the salt scattered across the floor. He raised an eyebrow at her, but still, she shrugged. He gave her an irritated look but otherwise said nothing as he opened the door to his room and disappeared behind it, leaving the rest of the cabin quiet.

She needed to learn how to escape these chains and fast.