A Tangle of Hearts (A Shade of Vampire #44)(36)

It took us a while to digest this little piece of precious information. Draven and I seemed to be thinking the same thing.

“This could be extremely useful in our fight against Azazel,” he concluded, and I nodded my agreement.

“Why haven’t you shared this with anyone else?” Bijarki asked.

“There isn’t anyone else to share it with. Most of the incubi have pledged their allegiance to Azazel. We’re not foolish enough to hand over such tricks to traitors,” she retorted.

The sound of muffled footsteps approaching from the right startled me, and I stopped walking. Anjani, Jovi, and Bijarki stopped as well, turning their heads in that direction. Leaves rustled, and branches crackled as something came closer through the dark jungle.

“Speaking of which.” Anjani aimed her crossbow at the creature as it jumped out from the shrubs lining the road. The poisoned arrow shot out with a whistle and hit the shape-shifter right in the throat. It fell back with a squeal, then started wailing and squirming as the nightshade mixture entered its bloodstream.

I watched in awe as the creature suffered tremendous pain before it finally surrendered to death, its limbs twitching. It was half obscured by the greenery, so I could only see its legs and most of its chest and arms, translucent skin stretched out over raw muscles and sharp bones. More hissing came from where the shape-shifter had jumped at us. We watched in silence as the moving shadows stilled between the trees, then vanished deeper into the jungle.

“See? I told you, even if they do come, they don’t stand a chance,” Anjani quipped. “It’s why we’ve been thriving up north for generations.”

Draven’s nostrils flared as he sniffed the air and nudged me forward. We resumed our walk and left the dead shape-shifter there on the side of the road. I left my tension behind as well. Anjani’s poisoned arrows made me rethink our chances of surviving the trip. We were in good hands.

“I’m impressed,” Draven remarked, and Anjani lifted the crossbow in the air as a sign of appreciation. Judging by the way she leaned into Jovi, she still had some pain in her shoulder and leg.

“And from what I can tell, that’s not an easy feat to accomplish,” I added quietly with a smile.

He turned his head toward me and sniffed again. I knew what he was doing and felt my heart tighten in my chest. His knowledge of my natural scent made me feel naked in front of him, despite his blindness and the presence of clothes on my body.

There was no better way to distract myself from what I was feeling than to resume my inquisitive mission.

“I’ve made it to Elissa’s last entry in her journal,” I said.

He kept quiet as we walked, his senses heightened and busy analyzing our surroundings. But I knew the impact of my question. I could see it in the tension drawn on his jaw.

“Can you tell me what happened afterward?” I kept my voice as soft and gentle as possible, in order to try and get him to open up more.

He slowed his pace enough to put a couple of yards more between us and the rest of the group and let out a heavy sigh.

“There was another page in that journal, but I tore it out,” Draven said, prompting my surprise.

“What? Why did you do that?”

“I’ve read that journal countless times before you came along, and each time I smiled and cried and cursed remembering her and our time together. But nothing was as devastating as that last entry, so I tore it out. I couldn’t stand the sight of it.”

I waited for him to gather his thoughts and tell me more.

I placed my palm over his on my shoulder instinctively taking comfort in the feel of his skin against mine.

“Elissa wrote her last words to me before she went away. She had a vision of the present, seen through the eyes of an Oracle captured by Azazel. He’d used her to reach out to Elissa, and he was talking directly to her while looking at the Oracle trapped in a glass bubble. He told Elissa that he’d ambushed my father near the eastern citadel,” Draven continued.

My breath hitched, as I was beginning to see where the story was going. My hand pressed gently over his.

“Azazel told her through the Oracle that unless she came to him of her own accord, he would kill my father and send back his head,” his voice lost its vigor. “So, she left. She loved my father too much to let him die, especially after all that he had done for her. I was safe in the mansion under the protective shield, she’d said. At least I’d have my father back if she surrendered herself.”

A soft southern breeze enveloped us from behind as we walked. The afternoon air was getting stuffy, settling in shades of purple and orange above us. I welcomed the breeze but didn’t let go of Draven’s hand.

“I never saw her again. My father returned a few days later, but he didn’t know anything about what Elissa had described in her vision. That was when I learned how to make the fire that looks into other places,” he said. “My father took me to the same room where I took you the other night and looked for Elissa. We weren’t prepared for what we saw.”

He took a deep breath, and his lips tightened.

“What did you see?” I asked. The whole world seemed to disappear around us as I waited to find out what had happened to Elissa. She’d been my beacon of hope ever since I’d first laid eyes on her journal. Her soft demeanor and genuine love toward Almus and Draven had even made me look at the Druid differently—less like an arrogant know-it-all and more like the child left on his own in complete isolation for too long.