A Turn of Tides (A Shade of Vampire #13)(34)

Like I’d been the distraction Kiev had needed to take his mind off Sofia.

Chapter 19: Micah

Sitting still had never been something I was good at.

I’d lost track of how much time I’d spent on the boat, waiting and hoping for someone to come and navigate it away, but now all I knew was that I’d had enough.

Since the silence and boredom of the yacht was slowly driving me insane, anything seemed better than this—even risking my life.

I managed to gather just enough patience to wait until night fell beyond the boundary of the island before I adopted my wolf form.

Leaping from the deck, I landed on the frozen jetty.

I threw myself into the nearest cluster of bushes.

Straining all my senses, I tried to detect if anyone was within two miles of me.

Unable to, I began running through the forest, sticking to the undergrowth and trying to make as few rustling noises as possible.

I hurried toward the castle perched among the mountain peaks that loomed in the distance.

On reaching the borders of the forest, I stopped.

Once again, I utilized my sharp senses to evaluate the risk of moving closer to the castle.

There were certainly a number of vampires and witches moving about within the castle, but I couldn’t detect anyone outside of it at this late hour.

However, I had to be careful not to be seen.

My dark coat stuck out like a sore thumb amidst this white snow.

For that reason, I couldn’t take to the stairs.

Instead, I left the shelter of the trees and bounded right toward the steep rocky slope leading up to the right half of the building.

As I began to climb, I didn’t really have a plan.

I just wanted to try to get some understanding of when the next batch of inhabitants would be leaving in one of the vessels.

If I knew, there might be some way I could latch on to the vessel until it passed outside the boundary and then quietly slide off into the sea… Granted, I didn’t know what I’d do once stranded in the sea, but even that was a more hopeful situation than the one I was currently in.

Fortunately, my body as a wolf was uniquely equipped for this terrain and the cold didn’t bother me.

I was agile, even on the most treacherous of ledges, and it wasn’t long before I reached the base of the castle.

I pulled myself up onto the narrow pathway that ran around the circumference of the building.

I paused and looked around, straining my ears once again to hear snippets of conversations going on within the castle that might lead to a clue about when someone would next be departing from this place.

There were dozens of conversations going on at once and they were all overlapping each other, so it was hard to focus on one.

As the night drew on, I hoped that people would turn in to bed and there would be fewer conversations, thus making it easier for me to concentrate.

I jumped down onto the rocks beneath the base of the castle and curled up in a nook beneath an overhanging rock, monitoring the conversations from this safer, less visible spot.

As it turned out, I was right in my assumption that people would start going to sleep.

What felt like a few hours passed and finally, I was left with only four conversations to decipher.

One sounded like it was coming from the ground level—some argument about the amount of human blood someone was trying to consume—while the other three were drifting down from the floors above.

As the argument on the ground floor faded away, I soon realized that the conversation on the floor most distant from me, perhaps even the top floor of the castle, was the most interesting.

“How could we have run out?” It was the angry voice of Rhys.

“I told Lilith we’d be ready to leave for The Shade!” A chill crept down my spine at mention of the island.

“I’m sorry,” a quieter female voice replied.

“Your palms were damaged much worse than I thought, and I underestimated our supply of mer-fin.” “What about the other two islands? Stellan’s, and our own back through the gate? There are kitchens full of ingredients there, Goddamn it.” “I already checked in both places.

We’ve run out.

I’ll need to make another trip to The Cove to retrieve some more.” Glass smashed.

“And how long will that take?” he seethed.

“You know that’s a question I can’t accurately answer.

But while I’m gone, keep drinking as much were-blood as you can down.

I’ll instruct Arielle to bring you a goblet five times a day.

It will help to build your strength until I can brew up my potion again… I’ll leave through the gate now.

And, Rhys, I promise I’ll be back as soon as possible.” Rhys grunted angrily as the conversation came to an end.

My mind was still fixed on The Shade.

What did they plan to do exactly? Were they finally going to attempt a full-blown invasion? At least, for now, it seemed that some time had been bought for the island.

But how much?

Chapter 20: Annora

I had to admit, I thought that the night Caleb finally sank his fangs into me might have been my last.

The hunger in his eyes was both terrifying and exhilarating.

He drank deep.

So deep my head began to feel faint.

But even as my vision became fuzzy, I didn’t struggle.