Chapter 39

To Adam’s surprise—and horror—the crusader camp was closer to Ichor Knell than he had anticipated. Judging from the number of tents, weapons, and fizzling fires, he could tell there were a lot of them. Hundreds. Maybe thousands. On Ichor Knell’s doorstep. Vampires may have the advantage because of their sheer strength in comparison to humans, but most vampires weren’t soldiers. They weren’t prepared for an attack like this. If Willow’s plan failed, he feared for the vampires.

He crept closer to the camp in the night, grimacing as his boots made far more noise than Willow’s soft steps. Her face held no trace of fear, only nervousness. He certainly couldn’t blame her. Dedric was practically her son. It was a miracle she possessed the courage to speak to him at all.

They stopped at the edge of a clearing, the flickering flames of a campfire breaking through the trees. Like he suspected, only a few guards patrolled while the rest of the camp slept.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked one last time. He couldn’t remove the brick in his stomach no matter how hard he tried. Going in there would be dangerous for her.

“Yes,” she whispered, her face inches from his. He couldn’t help himself as he cupped her cheek in his hand and nuzzled her nose before placing a soft kiss on her lips. He loved her dearly. The thought of anything happening to her terrified him.

“Be careful. Call for me if you need help.”

“I will.”

She kissed him again and then she was gone, sneaking off toward the enemy camp. He watched her intensely until he could no longer see her lithe form weaving through the tents. He was worried about her. If things went wrong… If she got caught, she would be in grave danger. Even he couldn’t fight an army on his own to save her. He would certainly try if it came down to it, but their success depended on her.

Unable to help himself, he reached inside his blood gem for the power to enhance his hearing, cupping the gem in his hand to hide the red light it emitted. The crackling fire sounded loud in his ears. The guards’ tense conversation was even louder. He heard the faint sound of Willow’s footsteps. And then…something else…

He strained his ears, increasing the strength of the blood gem to single out the noise. However, his heart jumped to his throat when he realized what it was. Footsteps. Quiet. A faint singing only a gem emitted. A blood hunter.

No…

Slowly, he reached for his silver sword, attempting to free it from its sheath as quietly as possible to avoid raising the alarm should someone hear the metallic scrape. However, he didn’t get it halfway out of the scabbard before a voice spoke behind him.

“Put it back.”

He swore under his breath and released the weapon, allowing it to slide back into the sheath. He turned to face Wyler, and panic immediately set in. It wasn’t just Wyler. Instead of one blood hunter, he faced an entire group of them. And he recognized nearly every face.

Wyler. Melvin. Rune. Jonas. Tobias. Samuel. Eric. Josef. Leon. Levin. Michael. Anders. And a couple more he didn’t recognize.

“Why?” he growled, standing straight while he glared at each one. They were never his friends, but he didn’t expect them to get caught up in all of this.

“The gold,” Wyler answered for them, greedily eying his blood gem. “The crusaders gave us an offer we couldn’t refuse.”

Despair smashed into him like a bull smashing into a fence. Not for himself. But for Willow. All along, this had been a trap. They had known they would come. She was in danger.

He took a step backward but found himself trapped against a tree with the other fourteen blood hunters blocking any chance at escape. Although he never wished to become a vampire, he suddenly wished he possessed the ability to communicate like vampires could, without humans able to hear. He opened his mouth to warn her, but Wyler pressed a sword against his throat, and he didn’t dare try.

“Your vampire wife will get her chance to talk to Dedric, don’t you worry. But after we’re done with you, she’s ours.”

He moved so quickly that even Wyler couldn’t stop him. He kicked Wyler’s sword out of his hands and tried to make for the camp, but he was met by a cloud of poisonous dust he couldn’t help but breathe in. Molten dust from a plant that only grew in dry, volcanic regions. He was immune. But that didn’t stop the dust from filling his lungs, clouding his mind, and making him drop onto his hands and knees, wheezing as his body tried to fight off the poison. It felt like someone was squeezing him and he couldn’t break free. He couldn’t breathe. He could hardly move.

He glanced up, his mind hazy and his eyesight unfocused. Someone pressed a sword to his throat and cut the cord of the blood gem right off his neck. And he couldn’t fight back.

“Don’t do this!” he wheezed. When he tried to stand, his mind spun sickeningly, and he fell to the ground.

“Why not, Degore?” Wyler asked as he placed a heavy boot on top of his chest, his voice seeming far away. “This is what it means to be a blood hunter. Or have you forgotten?”

****

Willow had always felt anxious at the thought of speaking to Dedric again, his last words to her having echoed in her mind for years and years. Next time I see you, I will kill you.

She never wanted to force him to have to make that choice, which was why she had kept her distance. Distance that always hurt to keep. She loved Dedric like a son, despite her disappointment in him. Although she never regretted her decision to raise him, she regretted her decision to raise him among the humans, hiding her vampire descent from him and allowing his hatred of vampires to fester inside of him to the point of breaking.

If anything, she should have turned him. But she could never bring herself to bite him because of the heavy guilt that weighed on her shoulders. She’d felt sure that if he ever learned the truth, it would cause more harm than good. And she had been correct.

Dedric’s scent was familiar to her, creating a sense of nostalgia—of times when he had been curled up in her arms as a child, when he had ventured through the forest with her, when he had smiled and laughed with her before he learned of her dark secret—and it was everywhere, making it difficult to track him. But once she found where the scent was most potent, she followed the trail, and it led to a large brown tent. She heard movement inside. Someone was awake. And she knew exactly who that someone was.

Taking a deep breath, she entered the tent.

Dedric’s back faced her, but she knew it was him. His black hair looked much shorter than she remembered, his guarded stance the same as always, and he still had the same musky trapper scent. That much hadn’t changed.

“I wondered when you would show up,” Dedric said icily, finally turning toward her with a drink in his hand. He wasn’t the merciful boy she remembered. He was a broken and revengeful man. His mouth twisted into a smirk. “Hello, Mother.”

“I never asked you to call me that,” she whispered, an ache filling her heart. What happened to her sweet boy?

A flood of memories filled her mind. Of nights she read to him beside the fire with him in her lap. Of walks through the woods as Dedric collected wildflowers to fill a vase. And she remembered the flash of blood the night she killed his parents when he was only a babe. She felt despicable. She never deserved his sweet smile. His endearing embraces. This was her fault. Dedric could have had a happy life if she hadn’t meddled. If she hadn’t killed his parents. She was to blame.

“You didn’t?” he asked, taking another swig of his strong drink. The odor burned her nose from this distance. “Not when you killed my parents? Pretended you could replace them?”

“I’m sorry, Dedric,” she said, an involuntary whine escaping her throat. “I can’t tell you how awful I feel for what happened. I can’t change it. I know. But don’t deliver your vengeance on my people. They don’t deserve your wrath. Your fight is with me. Withdraw your troops. We can settle this in a calm matter.”

“The time for calm has passed,” he said, slamming his glass on the table. “I made a promise to you all those years ago. Do you remember?”

She did remember. Very well.

“Dedric, please. You are better than this. I know you are.”

“Don’t speak to me about morals!” he thundered. “Making the vampires go extinct will save a lot of human lives. No one must suffer as I had. As I do. And with a couple dozen blood hunters on my side…”

Her face paled. “What?”

He gave her another triumphant grin. “I gave them an offer they couldn’t refuse. Gold. A blood gem. And the vampire princess.”

Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe.

Continuing, he said, “I knew you would come. You always enjoyed meddling in my life. It was only a matter of time before you came. And that blood hunter seemed awfully fond of you.” He took another swig of his strong drink.

If she hadn’t been bracing herself against the table, her legs might have collapsed. “This was a trap.”

“Yes, Dear Mother,” he replied with a biting glint in his eyes. “It wasn’t easy to get the blood hunters on my side, but when I promised them something monumental, they couldn’t refuse. It was only a matter of separating you two.”

She gasped. Adam!

She turned but was met by a couple sharp iron swords pointed right at her, preventing her escape. The soldiers looked frightened, hands trembling, but they didn’t lower their weapons. How had she not heard them approach?

Keeping her eye on the swords, she cautiously retreated several steps to keep Dedric in her field of vision too. His eyes were bloodshot. Too many drinks would do that to a person.

“I beg you,” she whispered, knowing what was coming. He would force her to choose. Him or Adam. How could he do this to her? “I beg you. Let me go. Please, Dedric.”

He threw his glass to the ground, shattering it at his feet. “Did my parents beg for their lives? Did you show them mercy? I made a promise to you, and I fully intend to keep it.” He withdrew an iron dagger from his belt and charged at her. She instinctively dodged, giving his table a mighty kick that sent it hurtling toward the unsuspecting guards.

She didn’t want to attack, and she tried to duck out of the tent to avoid it. However, it was clear he had trained for this day. He grasped her neck with a strong arm in her attempt to escape, throwing her to the ground and pinning her while holding a dagger above his head, rage in his expression. She struggled to push him off, but for one horrifying moment, she realized she couldn’t get back up. She couldn’t push him off of her.

He wore vodryx armor.

“Don’t, Dedric!” she cried, still struggling against him. “I’m sorry! I was very wrong in what I did. Killing your parents. It was wrong! And I have suffered for my actions for years. Please. You are like a son to me. Don’t break my heart like this. Don’t.”

His expression iced over with pure malice. “It’s too late for apologies. The damage has already been done, and I can never forgive you.”

He readied himself to stab his dagger downward, and she realized she had no choice.

Doing the only thing she was able, she took a deep breath and emitted a screech so loud and mighty that it would deafen him. He cried out, dropping his dagger, and stumbled off of her. It gave her an opening. A small opening. Tears trailed down her cheeks as she ripped his breastplate off, exposing his chest.

“I’m sorry, Dedric,” she sobbed, and before he could fight back or scramble to his feet, she smashed her hand against his chest with all her might. His bones broke beneath her fingers and crushed his heart. His eyes widened, and then he became still.

She sank to her knees, her heart shattering at what she had done. She had killed Dedric. The little boy she had raised into a young man.

The realization of what she had done kicked in at full force and she choked out a sob, tears blinding her as she trailed the back of her fingers along his still cheek. She had loved him like a son.

She wrapped an arm around herself as if that could keep the pieces of her heart from crumbling away. It didn’t help. Although she hadn’t seen him since he was a young man, the motherly love she had felt still waxed strong. And now she had killed him.

But he had forced her hand. To choose between him and her people. And Adam.

“Adam!”

She burst from the tent, much to the surprise of a dozen guards. She ran. She ran with all her might. And she didn’t stop. She dodged between tents. She ducked under swinging swords and kept her pace. Until she saw him. Surrounded by blood hunters. Lying on the ground. Wyler holding a sword to his throat.

“No!” she screeched, ramming into Wyler and throwing him off Adam. She raked her fingers across another blood hunter’s chest, dropping him to the ground. But she didn’t care to kill them. She only wanted to get Adam to safety.

In the blood hunters’ distraction, she managed to help him to his feet and dragged him away from the threat. His eyes looked unfocused. She didn’t know what was wrong with him. But he wasn’t dead. However, she didn’t get far before something slammed into her back and dropped her to her knees. An arrow.

Warm blood soaked her clothing, and Adam struggled to get to his knees. His hand grasped the hilt of his sword. She couldn’t let him fight this one. He wouldn’t make it. But she could.

“Willow…” he muttered, his eyes still dazed.

“Don’t worry,” she whispered, unable to stop her flow of tears. “This won’t kill me.”

A vodryx rope clamped around her throat, and the blood hunters attempted to pull her back. There was no time left.

Her gaze drifted to the raging river several feet away. With all her strength, she pushed him into the water, and it swept him away. Although the river was dangerous on its own, it couldn’t be worse than the danger the blood hunters posed to his life.

Another vodryx chain circled her wrist, one around her waist. And then the blood hunters jumped on her. She screeched in pain as one of them tore the arrow from her back, though she could feel her regenerating abilities soften the pain as she began to heal. It wasn’t iron.

The blood hunters pulled her to her feet by the chains. They didn’t kill her. But she was terrified.

Wyler grinned as he fastened Adam’s blood gem around his neck. “One blood gem and one vampire princess, as Dunmere promised. Let’s get going, men. We have work to do.”

They dragged her forward, and she couldn’t stop herself from craning her neck to look over her shoulder, a whimper in the back of her throat. Adam was gone. She couldn’t see him. And she hoped more than ever that he would be safe. If he drowned because of her, she would never forgive herself.