Chapter Forty-Four

RAUL

As soon as Mother drags Phillip away I scale the cliff and emerge Outside.

I wish I could say I couldn’t believe she would hold her own son hostage, but I know her better than that. The six hundred years of her rule have been defined by such pockets of insanity. She’s almost cost us the entire safety of The Haven with her capricious nature multiple times, particularly in the early years. Most recently, I thought she’d settled down, but it looks like I was wrong.

I would have gone after Phillip the moment she took him away if I had even the slightest chance of succeeding. But Morgan is the strongest vampire in the coven, and her strength is magnified by the magic she wields. Couple that with her silent, icy rage for having lost Eleira, along with my own sapped strength, and I wouldn’t have stood a chance. She’d have destroyed us both, or worse, severed our souls and bound them into her perverse paintings.

So the only thing I could do was what she demanded of me. Like a coward, I had to leave my youngest brother.

“But I won’t fail you, Phillip,” I promise through gritted teeth. “Or you, Eleira.”

I reach the end of the tunnel and come out amongst the trees. There’s a breeze in the air that blows away from the secret entrance. I inhale deep, searching for Eleira’s all-consuming scent.

And feel nothing.

I grunt in frustration. After all I’ve gone through, my body does not feel like my own. The fire, the fight with the guards, feeding the human woman my own blood then racing away at one fraction of my strength and taking on The Convicted, and then feeding on their horrible blood.

The only reason I’m standing is because of Phillip’s infusion of his own blood. Even so, my system hasn’t had time to clear the tainted blood. So everything I do now, everything I can do, is at one-tenth of my usual capacities, one-tenth, or worse.

I don’t have time to rest, however. The land around The Haven is teeming with carnivorous creatures. Wild cougars and wolves and black bears stalk the woods.

That was one of my Mother’s very first spells, cast at the foundation of The Haven. It lured all animal predators to us. Before she learned the secrets of the wards, our humans were penned inside by the knowledge that should they try to escape, they’d find merciless, hungry, rogue predators on the other side. Animals who would tear them limb from limb without a second’s pause.

Over the centuries, the pull this land has on those types of creatures has only increased. So the forest is more dangerous than ever before.

That means Eleira has half an hour or less before she is scented as prey and attacked by one of the wild beasts.

I run forward, urging my body to heal faster. I need all the abilities I possess. But I feel blind as a bat in daylight. My senses are nowhere near as sharp as they should be. I cannot smell Eleira. I cannot hear her. I cannot feel her presence.

Then realization hits. I’ve been a vampire so long that I forgot — I have a voice.

So I cup my hands around my mouth and scream her name. “Eleira! Eleira! Eleira, where are you?”

I dash through the trees like a madman. My lurching movements are no better than a drunk’s. The sky is starting to lighten overhead. Soon it’ll be day, and I’ll have to go underground to hide from the sun.

“Eleira!”

And then, the winds shift, and I catch the smell of blood. Hot blood, viscous blood, blood from something that was recently alive. Not Eleira’s, but…

I run that way, breaking through overgrown branches, and stumble into a small, rocky clearing.

I go still.

The ruined body of a monstrous wolf lies among the rocks. Its silver fur is matted with red. There are slash marks on its back and neck and underbelly. Its front legs have been horribly broken.

But it’s still breathing. It’s alive.

“What is this?” I breathe.

I rush to it. The animal’s pulse is weak. My brow creases with disquietude.

“Who would do this to you?” I say.

Then I catch the faintest whiff of somebody else’s blood.

I recognize it immediately. It’s my brother’s.

James was here.

I give a savage roar. Only James would delight in torture like this. I hate that the animal has suffered for so long. Quickly, I grip the wolf’s head and give one final, sharp twist to put it out of its misery.

But why was James here? Why was he back? Why and how? His diplomatic mission should have taken weeks —

An awful understanding washes over me. If James was here, and Eleira was Outside, alone and unprotected…

He would have gotten to her.

The weight of my failure crashes into me. Of course, I can’t sense Eleira. She’s no longer here.

Rage boils up inside. James can’t have taken her to The Haven, or I would have run into them. Then where?

I don’t know. But as I rise, a new determination grips me. One that washes away the anguish and the fear.

I vow, then and there, that I will find Eleira. I will go to the ends of the world to get her back. Because my brother has taken something from me that isn’t his. Because no matter who bit her first, the girl is mine.

I feel the possessiveness in the deepest part of my soul. I haven’t felt it since Liana, never thought I would feel it again. But with Eleira gone, and worse, with Eleira threatened…

Well, that part of me has awakened again.