A Call of Vampires (A Shade of Vampire #51)(72)

One of the nurses glanced at Darius, who stood behind Jax, by the doorway. Caspian had joined him. I hadn’t even seen him coming, and, judging by the surprised look on Harper’s face, neither had she.

“Probably at some point tomorrow, provided she wakes up,” the nurse by the girl’s bedside said.

Hansa came in, accompanied by Heron, Blaze, Fiona, Avril, and Caia. They were all quiet, taking the whole scene in, one individual at a time.

“You’re hurt,” another nurse said, noticing Harper holding her side, blood dripping through her fingers.

“I’m fine.” Harper shook her head, glaring at Caspian and Darius.

Of the two Lords present, Caspian was the furious one. Darius, on the other hand, looked worried, his gaze fixed on the Iman girl.

“Shut up and let the nurse look after you,” Hansa barked.

Harper nodded, unzipping the top of her combat gear as the nurse came to her with a bowl of water and cloths. She set both aside on a stool, then helped Harper free her arms, revealing her black sports bra and the rest of her bare torso, including the cut across her right ribs. It looked painful and deep.

The nurse frowned, then proceeded to clean her wound.

“One of the creatures did that?” Darius sighed.

“Yeah, so where were you when this was happening? I wasn’t quite happy with your earlier response,” Harper shot back, visibly annoyed.

Caspian scoffed, his darkened jade glare settled on her ribs. “He was being smart and keeping his distance, unlike you all,” he muttered. “You needed to be heroes for an Iman girl. Look what it got you.”

Harper opened her mouth, but Hansa beat her to it.

“It’s what we do!” the succubus growled. “We help people! We don’t cower in our safe spaces up a mountain, while hundreds die because of… of whatever those things were! That’s our job—that’s our mission! We know what we’re getting ourselves into!”

“Do you?” Caspian shot back, raising a mocking eyebrow.

“We know more now than we did four hours ago,” Harper replied, her voice low.

“We most certainly do,” Jax added. “We now know the caliber of the threat present in the Valley of Screams, and we also know that there’s at least one Exiled Mara on this mountain who knows more about them than you all pretend.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Caspian frowned.

“There was someone there with us,” Harper replied. “I couldn’t see his face, but he moved fast. A little too rude for my taste, but he helped us. He knew where to hit the beasts effectively. The eyes. That little morsel of information saved our lives, because we were outnumbered in there. Hell, even with five of us against one, the odds would’ve still been in the invisible entity’s favor.”

“How do you know he was from here, then?” Caspian’s eyes narrowed to two jade slits.

“We saw him ride out toward the mountain. He has an indigo horse, which might help us narrow down his identity, since Darius said there aren’t many of those here,” Harper said, then hissed as the nurse applied healing paste on her cut.

A moment passed in awkward silence as we all looked at each other.

“But Harper asked a good question earlier,” Jax said, staring at Darius. “Why did you run ahead? We didn’t even see you once we found ourselves surrounded by deadly entities.”

“I must apologize,” Darius replied, staring at his feet. “I was overwhelmed. My instinct was to run, given the danger we were in and the speed with which I’d lost sixteen of my people. I wanted to go back, but I lacked the courage. We have never faced something like this before. Never…”

“I am sorry for your losses,” Hansa said slowly. “What matters now is that we’ve seen the enemy, sort of, and we understand that the threat is real.”

“We can reconvene in the morning and discuss the next steps.” Darius nodded, unable to make eye contact with any of us anymore. “We should let the wounded sleep and recover.”

He didn’t wait for a reply. He left the room, and I caught a glimpse of him through one of the windows as he got on his horse and trotted up the mountain alley. Caspian, however, didn’t budge or say anything for another minute, his eyes fixed on Harper’s.





Harper





(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)





Caspian made no effort to hide his displeasure, but there was something else burning in those jade eyes of his, something that made me too self-conscious and vulnerable. The nurse finished applying the bandages, and I pulled my sleeves back on, wincing from the pain in my shoulder.

I looked up, and he was still glaring. I lost my patience.

“Why do you keep looking at me as if you’d like to see me burning on a stake?” I asked, prompting everyone in the room to look at him.

“I’m not looking at you in any particular manner, Miss Hellswan,” Caspian replied, suddenly turning into a block of ice. “You should, however, mind your tone when you address the Five Lords of Azure Heights. You’re an agent on foreign soil right now, and you should be respectful of our society and our limits. While you’re okay barging into the Valley of Screams like a mindless hero and getting yourself and your friends killed, the rest of us have a much stronger conservation instinct. You are in no position to hold that against any of us, particularly our nobility.”