Refugee (The Captive #3)(2)
She started as Braith suddenly grasped her upper arm, swallowing it within his massive hand. Immediately her skin heated to his touch, and though they were in this awful place a low sigh of pleasure escaped her. Her heart leapt in her chest, longing spread through her as her toes curled in her battered shoes.
“Keep your head down.” Braith seemed to have sensed her wish to look around.
Her shoulders slumped, her gaze focused on the dusty, pitted road. Beside her, she could feel William’s growing resentment at being ordered around and having to maintain a subservient demeanor. From the corner of her eye she could see more people moving to the side of the road. Well, at least some of them were people. The others, they were something else entirely and not at all who Braith and Ashby were looking for. These were the more lawless vampires, and therefore more unpredictable than those living within and around the palace, even though these vampires still lived under the king’s laws here.
She had seen far too many of these beaten and broken towns with their battered and starving occupants lately. Sometimes she feared that they would never find what Braith and Ashby sought, and that perhaps the legends and rumors of the surviving aristocrats were just that, legends and rumors. Though it felt like they’d walked forever, it had in fact only been two days since they had turned the horses loose at the edge of The Barren’s. Aria refused to bring the animals with them if there was no guarantee they could feed or water them, so after riding for two weeks, they had been forced to walk.
If she was honest with herself, two weeks wasn’t that much time, she had spent far more time away from home than this. It only seemed so awful because she was never given a moment alone with Braith, they were never allowed to be on their own as either William was standing protectively close, or Ashby was quick to intervene.
Aria understood her brother, it annoyed her, but she understood his determination to stubbornly try and protect her virtue. It was actually a little amusing coming from William, the man that had left broken hearts in every corner of the forest. However, Ashby’s interference was beginning to grate on her last nerve. It was most certainly annoying Braith as he’d completely lost his temper with Ashby when he had unapologetically followed them into the woods yesterday. It had only been Aria’s interference that had kept Braith from completely losing control.
He hadn’t even had a chance to feed from her since they’d left Ashby’s rambling tree house. Aria ached for the renewal of the bond, ached to establish that connection with Braith again. She hoped that once they arrived at their destination they would finally be rewarded with some time alone again, but until then she was well aware that her two guard dogs, as she now thought of them, were not going to be shaken.
Oh well, there were many things she wished were different right now. She missed her father; she’d barely had time to speak with him before they had been separated again. He had been uneasy and somewhat uncertain as to what was going on between her and Braith. Her father seemed to want to believe that she really did love Braith, and that Braith did in fact return that love. However, she worried that a part of him still believed that the bond they had forged was only due to her time spent as Braith’s blood slave.
She may be almost eighteen, but her father had still been wary of letting her go with Ashby and Braith, had absolutely refused to let it happen until Braith had finally relented and agreed to let William come along with them. Even then, her father was still hesitant to let them go. However, this mission was necessary to try and gain some much needed vampire support for a war against the king, and there was absolutely no way that Braith was going to leave without her.
The whole situation nearly turned into a debacle that had threatened to unravel the tentative plans they had formed to overthrow Braith’s father. Cooler heads had finally prevailed, mainly Jack’s and surprisingly, William’s. Her father had wanted Jack with them on this journey, he trusted Jack, but so did many of her father’s followers in the rebellion. If any of the people in the rebellion were going to believe that the vampires were willing to ally themselves with humans, then her father would require Jack’s help to convince them. Jack would also be essential to help convince the young vampire girl’s village, and other vampire villages, to possibly aid them in their quest.
Her brother Daniel, as their father’s second in command, had also been needed to help gather human forces. And Max, poor Max, well he hadn’t been able to get away from her fast enough. Tears clogged her eyes and throat. Max had sacrificed himself to try and save her when she had been taken as a blood slave, and now he hated her. So much, in fact, that Aria was terrified he would never forgive her. That he would despise her and everything she was, for the rest of her life.
She loved Max and this whole situation broke her heart. He had been her first crush, her first kiss, her best friend and confidante when she’d been so alone and broken by the revelation of Braith’s engagement to another vampire. Max had understood what she had endured as a blood slave, even if it was nowhere near as hideous as the torture and abuse he had suffered. And now he didn’t understand or even tolerate her existence at all. He saw her love for Braith as a betrayal, one that she didn’t think he’d ever forgive.
Braith’s sister, and Ashby’s bloodlink Melinda, had reluctantly agreed to return to the palace to be their inner eyes and ears. Aria had understood Melinda’s pain as she and Ashby embraced and touched and cried with each other. She knew how they felt; she couldn’t bear the thought of being apart from Braith for so long, even if it was for a good cause. Ashby had agreed to come with them knowing that if they succeeded in their goal, he and Melinda would never have to be separated again, or risk their lives in order to see one another. Ashby was almost as determined as Braith to overthrow the regime.