Blood Moon, page 6
part #1 of Lord of Shadows Series
"What the--" I heard Katya whisper, but I didn’t mind her.
"Wolves attacked you and your friends, killed the two dead. But you managed to escape. You’re cold and tired, but your legs still work. Run, run from the wolves and save yourself. Don’t stop until you reach your home."
The man’s eyes glaze over, the hazel brown replaced by a murky gray. He turned around and started running as fast as he could, the deaf scream still painted on his face.
"Shit. That was intense," I muttered and turned to Katya. "Do you think it worked? Will he get home?"
Katya remained silent and looked at me as if I was the only man in her life. Her eyes sparkled, and the smeared rogue on her lips, no, the black dribble of blood from her mouth was so appealing. I wanted to kiss her so badly as I took a step toward her.
She dropped the fur stole and unclasped the broach with one hand while holding the dagger with her other hand. I looked toward the blade and then at the dead man lying beside her in the snow. She cocked her head drawing my attention to her and slid the blue duster from her shoulders. It hung around her arms, exposing an untied tunic.
Katya put her hand on my cheek, drawing me toward her, our breaths intermingling. Her icy blue eyes stared at me, longingly. I leaned in to kiss her, wanting it, needing it. But no, her eyes were clouded over. Was I actually charming Katya? No, that couldn’t be. She was much stronger than me and older and better at this.
I pressed my tongue against the dark red line at the corner of her lips and licked it clean. She shuddered and pressed her lips against mine, and embraced me with her strong arms. Something in me snapped and I bit down on her neck, drawing her blood. She screamed and pushed me away.
I turned back to her and stared into the vacant eyes. The blur disappeared slowly, bringing much more blue to the forefront. She seemed confused as our eyes met. Katya looked around and at her loose tunic. I handed her the fur stole as she clasped her broach again.
"Did you just bite me? No, did you glamor me before that?" she snapped and snatched the stole from my hand, straightening herself out. The way she looked at me spoke volumes.
She wasn’t having any of it. Katya wasn’t believing that I could have charmed her. It was only logical. She was older and stronger, and I shouldn’t be able to do anything to her unless she felt something for me? She herself said that it was just a spec of a lie, as if nudging someone slightly into the right direction. But no, it couldn’t be. Why would she feel anything for me?
"I guess," I replied with a frown on my brow.
"And you went ahead to bite me? To k-kiss me?" She felt for the small wound that was closing up and for the missing blood that had dribbled down to her chin.
"You wanted it yourself, no?"
She narrowed her eyes, but looked away and rearranged her clothes quickly.
"Now that you’ve properly fed, we can be on our way I guess. You’re alright? You didn’t have too much blood for the first time, no?" she asked, steering the conversation in another direction and acted as nothing happened at all.
"Your song was pretty," I replied instead. And I meant it. She, however, wouldn’t talk about it.
"The dead drop is just ahead. Come on. There at the fork in the road, we’ll take a left and follow the river upwards."
Chapter Nine
The river’s cold caress sent chills down our spines. The strong wind and fog above the water made for a very cold blanket. All we had to rely on, was the river though. The sound, the strength and the cold. Our only guide on this cold, dark night.
The moon hid behind a thick layer of clouds but lit up the river and the whole plateau in a mild blue. More than once had I stopped to look at the beauty I’ve never laid my eyes on before. A river. Should seeing a river for the first time be such an adventure? In normal life, no, but for me-- everything was an adventure.
Katya walked ahead of me, silent as the dead of the night. I had tried talking to her more than once, but she wouldn’t budge. Sulking over the charming most likely. I cared though. I really did. For some strange reason, it pained me. The sheer beauty of her profile, the clothing and even the way she walked. It was-- ecstatic. Cold colors. They fitted, I guessed.
Katya jumped off a boulder ahead of me, disappearing from sight. I rushed ahead, thinking she might have hurt herself. How stupid of me. She was a Vampyre. Of course, she wouldn’t be in trouble.
I jumped off without thinking, following her, and landed with catlike grace. I startled myself, still not used to my new feats. And there I saw Katya, bending over a bush. Though I know that my eyes shouldn’t linger too long on her body, they did. Far too long. Her shapely figure was accented no matter what she did. Stand still, walk or just bend over.
I sighed and approached her.
"What’s that?" I asked as my eyes landed on a metal box. "The dead drop?"
Katya didn’t acknowledge me in the slightest for a long moment before she sighed.
"Help me with this box. It can’t be lifted unless both of us touch it at the same time."
I leaned down and put my hand on the metal. It felt smooth beneath the touch and started glowing with a white, chalky glow before the lock snapped open. A symbol appeared on the lid, depicting a crude dragon.
Katya put her hand inside and pulled out a letter, sealed with a red, wax dragon stamp. She broke it with both of her thumbs and unfolded the letter, reading it. Her joyful expression first turned neutral, then into a frown, and in the end into a scowl.
Without even looking at me, she shoved the letter in my hand and turned toward the river, arms crossed over her chest. I unfurled the parchment and suddenly, words appeared scribbled across the paper. The text looked black, but was sticky and had a smell. I sniffed at it, catching the iron scent of blood. My pupils dilated for a mere second.
"Is this-- our blood?" I asked dizzily.
"How do you think blood pacts are signed? Idiot--"
"So if anyone else was to look at the parchment, they wouldn’t see anything?" I asked again.
She remained silent once more, tapping her foot against the cold, iced earth. My eyes moved to the first line, wondering how strong such a spell might be, and how costly.
To my oldest, and my youngest.
Congratulations on surviving the night, and doing the bare minimum to repay my faith in you. Well done. Keep it up like that, and you just might earn yourself the favor of appearing in my presence once more.
What I need you two to do for me, to restore at least a part of my favor bestowed upon the two of you, is eliminating Boris the Bloodletter. He has been a threat for far too long, and a thorn in my side. I don’t care how you do it. Scaring him away, or draining him of blood. I leave it up to you, as long as he stops competing with me, and harassing my caravans. It’s becoming costly, and having someone of my standing do it personally, would be a disgrace in itself.
The two of you can keep whatever you find in his coffers, I don’t care about that. Or, you can use whatever wealth you two amass to start paying off your debt to me. You only have forever.
Much kisses, T
P.S: If you break or lose the sword, I will personally feed you your own dick. And many other things you wouldn’t like to happen.
As I read it, the letter dissolved in my hands, the dust trailing off in the wind. I looked at the sword, then at Katarina.
"What’s with this sword?" I asked, trying to get the conversation going. Instead, she made a disgusted face and snorted.
"Upon my awakening, I have never been gifted,except for the debt I cleared by taking care of Dvorak. This was the first time my queen gifted me with something luxurious. The fur stole sure fits nice around my body."
I sighed and turned toward the river. The water was almost at a standstill, showing off my reflection as I bent down to check. The reflection was almost perfect, calm on the surface, frantic underneath.
My skin was pale and looked rough. The beard still trimmed, and stood out in contrast, as black as my hair. My cheeks were colorless too, or barely so at least. Maybe the tinge of red was from dinner? Just maybe, that was the key to fitting in with the human population. I could have looked much worse anyway, like a corpse.
"Ahem," Katya coughed, drawing my attention. "Are you looking for Boris in the water? If no, you better start thinking about how to find the man, or whatever he was, and how to beat him. If she would bother tasking someone with killing him, he must be a real pain."
I rolled my eyes at her but kept staring at the water anyway. Laughter drew my eyes toward the opposite bank, spotting a young, naked woman. No, she wasn’t naked. Was that a fog encircling her? She had long blonde braided hair, with spring flowers and green vines stuck within. She sat under a weeping willow, playing with flowers. As she spotted me, her green glowing eyes shocked me. Was she a sort of Vampyre as well?
"Get up. We need to go," Katya said as she stepped away from the water.
"No, wait. I want to check that young woman out. Just look at her eyes. Shouldn’t we--"
"No," Katya replied, as she grabbed me by the chin and forced to look away. She pulled me up cupped my chin, aligning our eyes on each other. They were to die for. Those blue eyes.
"I-I-- Who is that woman? I mean, I’ve never left the palisade. I have no idea what kind of creatures or monster lurk about in the dark. Is she one of them?"
Katya scowled as if I was asking the dumbest questions.
"Never mind her. What are we going to do about Boris?"
"I-- don’t know. I mean, I don’t even know who or what he is. The only thing I’ve ever found out about him, was on accident. I overheard the guards speak about his ambush on the count a while back. He’d somehow figured out what route the count would take and ambushed him with his bandits. The soldiers managed to fend them off, but not before Boris injured the count in his leg, and badly at that."
"I already know that much. Hmm," she said, her eyes locked on the road ahead. "He did tell me that story. He’d taken the northern gate to the village and greeted everyone, then the right fork on the road where we went left. He’d go past the lake, to the plains just before the mountains, where the poorest farmers and vassals lived, then turned and followed the river back to the village and collected his taxes personally. He joked that he started to do this because the first man he hired as a tax collector was sent back with a pound of flesh missing, and the second went mad and flung himself from the clock tower."
"Yeah," I replied half absently. "Old Casimir. You know, he wasn’t a bad man. All he did was try to do a job that no one else liked, or wanted to do. He’d mentioned a widow that used to wear red and white quite often, how beautiful her smile was. She would always offer him something to eat and drink."
I trailed off, thinking about the man.
"Was he a friend of yours?" Katya asked after a long, drawn-out moment of silence.
"Well, yes and no. We were on friendly terms, but no one wanted anything to do with me. Anyway, the soldiers liked to joke if he’d found a bride, but old Casimir would grow quiet and still, then shake his head and drink the rest of the night. He barely ever slept during those nights. I even heard him sob once. Poor man."
"Right. It is a tragedy to lead such a life and then die in such a way. But that’s life, no? Anyway, we need to get moving. Hit the road and come up with a plan. The same tactic might not work another time. Besides, who knows if those were Boris’ men anyway?"
"Wait, what? You’re afraid? Did you look at them? I can take a score of them without a sweat!" I boasted.
"Ugh, don’t get too high on power, pup. You might be immortal, but given enough damage, you could die. And don’t forget daylight."
I couldn’t do anything but agree with her. I was a pup, high on my first feeding frenzy and kill. Just what did I know about the outside world? Or was she afraid I might charm her again, given enough blood?
I drew the sword and stared at it. From what little knowledge about metals I possessed, it looked like Damascus with strands of a brighter, shimmering grey mixed inside. Wait, was that silver? Actual honest to god silver? Drawn to it, I trace my thumb over the blade, to test it for sharpness. Katja snatched my wrist away with a shout.
"Are you dumb or what? Don’t do that, idiot, you might hurt yourself badly!"
"Wait, you mean I can’t touch silver?" I asked incredulously and sheathed my sword. "Why would she give me such a thing then, and the silver coins? It doesn’t make sense!" I snapped back, angry at the constant games.
"Ask the queen when you see her, now how about we hit the road already? There’s an inn further up ahead toward the plains where we can rest. Also, the land might belong to the count, but Boris rules the area. They might have an aversion toward-- outsiders. Especially to those with a bounty on their heads."
I was at a loss for words. The thing she just said, seemed out of this world.
"Why would I have a bounty on my head? And what’s more, why hadn’t you told me yet if you knew?"
"Why wouldn’t you? And why would I?" she replied dryly.
"Point taken. But--"
"Shh!" she snapped, putting her hand on my mouth and dragging me into the bushes off the road. "Now hold me. Hurry! Bring us into the shadows!"
"Huh? Why would--"
And that’s when I heard them as well. Horses. I put my arms around her, pressing Katya into me much harder than needed and closed my eyes. The darkness embraced us like one of its own, like a blanket of midnight death, just in time as the riders on horseback appeared from up the road.
Shit, how could I have missed them? And there I thought my hearing was top notch. I sighed mentally and let the darkness swallow us up fully. Six horses, with six riders. Two dead bodies in tow dragged behind the horses. It was all so clear to me, like ripples in the water.
The riders passed us one by one, not even noticing our presence. Then, one of them turned their head towards us. I couldn’t see if it was a man or a woman, as part of their face was covered. But what I could see, was a grin and two glowing red eyes-- no, they weren't grinning. They were baring their teeth, letting me know I was all but invisible.
A cold sweat trickled down my spine, heart thumping loud in my chest. This wasn’t a regular human, they were something much more than me. In the one second, as they passed by, they grinned, bared their teeth, smiled, and winked at me as they passed.
My arms were firmly bound around Katya’s body, pressing so hard against her, that she must have thought I wanted to hurt her.
"G-Get off-- me, you brute!" she hissed, pushing my arms apart. "I didn’t know you liked to touch my body so much. Next time, you can ask like a normal person!"
"Hey, Katya. One of them saw me and winked," I uttered, my eyes glowing in the darkness of the shadows. "They could have probably killed us," I whisper.
"Are you sure?" she asked angrily. "Don’t fool around with things like this! Were their eyes red?"
I nodded my head, grinning like mad.
"They grinned, then smiled and then winked at me. I couldn’t even see if it was a man or a woman. I want to fight them."
Katya closed her eyes and cursed under her breath.
"I doubt those were Boris’ people. If they were, he’s been reinforced, but if they weren’t, let’s just say were in for a shitstorm."
"Then who are they?" I asked curiously.
"Someone very annoyed we got to their dinner before they could."
Chapter Ten
A strange combination of fear and excitement crept up my very soul. The red eyes. And the wicked grin. They were pure evil, and I couldn’t shake them. The eyes, yes, I needed to see those evil eyes again.
Katya’s presence was the only thing that brought me out of that strange state. Her words, her look, and touch. Still, it was there, at the back of my mind as we made way along the river, staying clear of the road. She didn’t want to run into those six again, at least not until we knew who they were, and what they were capable of.
"You really need to let it go. Things far worse than Vampyres roam this world. Trust me, I’ve seen some of it."
"And that’s supposed to make me feel any better, how?"
Katya shrugged and let go of my arm. She swirled around ahead of me, her arms stretched out, and face looking up at the moon.
"Life is what you make of it! And it is up to the two of us, to serve our queen. If we manage to carry out this mission, there’s a small chance she could set us free. Work for it. And hard at that."
Lost in thoughts, we roamed the woods, going ever north. At a certain point, the cold stopped bothering me. My body had most likely acclimated to being dead, or something in between.
The clearing up ahead lifted my spirits. A large, wooden cabin was surrounded by lit torches and a massive bonfire. A group of people sat around the fire, singing songs to a balalaika.
My heart started beating faster at seeing civilization once more, or what passed for it in these parts. I hurried forward past Katya, but she grabbed my wrist and pulled me back, a stern look on her face.
"You may be a newborn Vampyre, but you’ve been alive for longer than a few days. What if those men belong to Boris? Or the clergy? We’ll walk up to the inn from the roadside and move straight toward the door."
There was no space for negotiation in her voice. She ordered me what, and how to do it. So I did just that and paced straight toward the road. Between us and the inn were about two hundred feet, so we had a while to go unseen. But it wouldn’t do just to appear out of anywhere. No, I made noise, announcing our arrival. Katya hissed and elbowed me, and added a stomp on my foot, but I didn’t care.
The music died out for a brief instant but resumed only seconds later. The sad music was gut-wrenching, and reminded me of Vera and Andrej. Were the two even alive? If so, where and how? Would I ever see them again?
"Come on, the sun will be up very soon. We got half an hour at best," Katja whispered, spurring me on. I didn’t protest, instead, let my heart do the talking.
