Vengeance (The Captive #6)(35)
“Some days it really was, but we always knew we’d grow up to fight against the oppression we lived under.”
“You never had a choice on that?”
“If we did it was a choice we were never going to take. None of us would have walked away from the fight.”
Without realizing it, she lifted her fingers and began to bite at her nails as she stared across the cave. He’d come to realize she often didn’t know she was doing it. “I never considered leaving our village.” Pulling her hand away from her mouth, she scowled at her fingers before putting her hand into her lap and clasping it there. “I never really wanted to either. Many of the children in the home grew up and took off. There was nothing keeping them there, but it was the only home I’d ever known, and Pallas is the closest friend I’ve ever had.”
“She didn’t want to leave either?”
“No, she felt like I did, and we both doubted there was much out there for two orphans with no money and no real power to speak of.”
“I can understand that.”
“I’ve also never been overly adventurous.”
“Until you decided to climb a mountain and walk through a blizzard.”
She gave a little laugh. “Yeah, until then.”
The shuffle of Achilles hooves drew his attention to the horse. He walked away from her and toward the mouth of the cave to care for him.
CHAPTER 13
The next day, William kept the hood close against his face as he trudged through the knee-high snow. Drifts of it were everywhere on the open plain, he’d already had the misfortune of stepping into one that had caused the snow to rise to his chest. The driving flakes stung when they hit his chilled skin; the wind howled as relentlessly as wolves on the scent of prey. Beside him, Tempest walked onward without complaint, her head bowed against the storm and her hair tucked beneath her hood.
Resting her hand on his arm, she drew his attention away from the snow as she pointed up a craggy hill. The pointed edges of some boulders poked out from the top of a mound of snow. He studied the set of rocks before walking with her up the hill. Behind the boulders, burrowed into the side of a rock wall they discovered a little den. The scent of fox wafted up to him before he knelt in the snow to dig through it.
He dug almost four feet down before uncovering the animals, hidden within the shelter of the rocks. The first one squirmed and bit at him when he pulled it free. The idea of frightening the animal bothered him more than intimidating the human in the tavern had.
As a human, he’d hunted animals in order to survive, and he did so now as a vampire. The only difference was he didn’t always have to kill them in order to feed now. He’d feel less guilty about striking down a human than an animal if they were standing in his way. He didn’t know what that said about him anymore, and he didn’t want to think about it.
He handed the animal over to Tempest before reaching in and pulling the second fox free. His hands ran over the velvety fur in an attempt to soothe the animal in some small way. Sinking his fangs into the creature’s neck, he welcomed the rush of warm blood filling his mouth. He greedily drank it down, easing the hunger churning in his gut. The fox’s fur tickled the inside of his mouth, its musky scent filled his nostrils, but he ignored them both as he welcomed the potent wave of life filling his body. Across from him, Tempest’s eyes closed while she consumed the blood of the other fox.
William pulled the animal away from him, gave his coat a pat and placed him back in the den. The animal’s eyes hung half closed, its heart had slowed, but it would survive the blood loss. He didn’t tell Tempest what to do, didn’t try to take the other animal from her, she would do what she had to, but she still pulled the animal away before she impaired it too much. His eyes latched onto her mouth when her tongue slid out to lick the blood from her lips before she placed the animal into the hole.
William pushed the snow back into place, took hold of her hand and rose to his feet. Her hand was small within his and delicate. Her smooth flesh was so different than the callouses and scars covering his hands. He couldn’t stop his fingers from sliding over the bones in the back of her hand. Her head came up to his, her mouth pursed questioningly.
He jerked his head to indicate heading back the way they’d come and forced himself to release her hand. The bow bounced against his back as he made his way down the hill. The snow kicked up around him as patches of it skidded out beneath him on the rocks underneath. They were almost to the bottom of the hill when he detected a different sound over the incessant wind.
Spinning, he grabbed hold of Tempest’s arm just as something emerged from the blinding white of the day. The figure flashed in and out between the downdrafts and gusts kicking the snow up around them. William jerked the bow from his back as the snow cleared enough to reveal the pale, bald creature rushing toward them.
Tempest let out a startled cry; William pushed her back as he nocked an arrow against the bow and took aim at what he barely recognized as a man anymore. Lifting the arrow, he took into account the wind, but knew there was no way to predict when a strong gust might surge across the land. He had to wait until the man got closer before he could take the chance of shooting.
The man was only five feet away when William let the arrow fly. The wind drowned out the twang of the bowstring and the whistle of the arrow as it flew through the air into the creature’s chest. It squealed as it flipped backwards into the snow. Its hands clawed at the arrow protruding from its chest. Its feet kicked and beat against the snow-covered ground. Striding forward, William pulled a stake free from the loop inside his cloak before arriving at the creature’s side. It didn’t matter though; the arrow had flown straight into the vampire’s heart.