Dinner With a Vampire (The Dark Heroine #1)(91)
Author: Abigail Gibbs

He removed his hands from his face slowly, dragging them across his hollow cheeks rather dramatically. ‘Okay, but if I do, will you pretend to look interested?’

I put on my best interested face, at which he chuckled dryly. ‘Stick with the bored expression. Okay, it’s an adult doe – that’s female by the way,’ he added.

‘I know that. How do you know it’s an adult?’

He pointed to the track again, imprinted into the soft soil and pine needles. ‘The size of the track. It’s too large to be a yearling and it’s definitely a female because of the tracks here.’

I took a step forward, peering at the tiny impression of a hoof through the gloom that was fast descending as dusk approached. ‘Baby deer?’

He nodded. ‘They’re quite fresh too. I can smell the herd. Not far now.’ His voice descended to barely more than a whisper. ‘Girly, I’m not going to kill because you asked me too, but the others will, okay? So don’t freak.’ His voice became even lower. ‘And if you’re really considering turning, you will have to accept that at some point, you will have to kill your prey. It’s more merciful in some cases, okay?’ he justified before I could open my mouth to protest that that would not happen.

Without waiting for a reply, he edged forward; I stumbled. Every time I stepped on a twig he would cringe, waving his hand for me to be quiet.

‘Shut up!’ he hissed as I froze behind him.

‘I didn’t say anything!’ I protested, the force of the statement losing its power due to the fact I only mouthed it.

‘You were thinking, it’s distracting!’

I double-checked my mental barriers and made an outraged face, which he dismissed, pointing towards a small patch of grass about five metres away. A herd of maybe nine or ten deer were feeding, totally oblivious to our presence. Opposite, Cain, Alex, Declan, Lyla and Fabian were closing in, and, to my amusement, Felix and Charlie had taken to the trees.

I started as a voice sounded beside my ear. ‘We’re going to spring on them. I’ll catch the doe and show you how we feed. Come forward when you’re ready.’

With that he was gone. In an instant, eight figures had sprung from the shadows, sending panic rippling among the deer; they turned to flee, only to be blocked by one of the vampires. In perhaps a second or two half of them were lying on the floor, necks broken and blood pouring from the freshly punctured wounds.

It was worse than I had imagined. I had seen the cloaked figure feed in my dreams, but there was no way a dream could prepare me for the smell: metallic, like copper; like the butcher’s shop I was taken to as a girl of five. It was that butcher’s shop, and a school trip to a sheep farm, which had turned me vegetarian. And I’m choosing this life?

Slumping against a tree I took a few deep breaths, knowing that the quicker I got this over with, the less the doe would have to suffer. Hesitantly, I began to edge forward to where she lay struggling, legs flailing, making a sort of shrieking sound in sheer terror. Its fawn bleated back from the edge of the clearing, where it had been left alone by the vampires. Kaspar held her with one hand on her flank, his other stroking her neck in slow circles until gradually, she calmed.

‘They’re quite tame,’ he murmured without looking up. ‘When you treat them kindly.’

He removed his hand from her back to pat the ground and I dropped to my knees beside him, not looking up for fear of seeing the others feeding. He asked me to carry on stroking her and I mimicked his tender touch, feeling the slow rise and fall of her ribs below me, though I could feel a very prominent, strong, rapid heartbeat.

‘Watch her legs, she might kick,’ he warned, beginning to lower his mouth. With one swift bite he had created two puncture wounds. Unable to tear my gaze away I watched, wide-eyed, as he drank from a live deer who lay content beneath him. After a minute or so he drew away.

‘That’s enough; I don’t want to weaken her.’ Even as his mouth left her neck the skin stitched itself together at an incredible rate. He stepped away, not a drop spilled.

‘How come you’re not that neat when you bite me?’ I asked with a small, awed smile. The doe scrambled to her feet, shaken but alive, and scampered off in search of her fawn.

‘I enjoy making a mess with you. And I told you it was possible to feed—’

‘Kaspar!’ His eyes snapped up immediately. The night had descended quickly: whereas moments before I could see the others, now they were just outlines and tracings between the trees.

Alex appeared beside Kaspar, his eyes as white and pale as a ghost. His stuttered on his words, and for the first time since I had entered Varnley, I heard fear in a vampire’s voice.

‘Sage.’

Cain grabbed me, blood still on his hands and guided me behind him and Kaspar, who took two cautious steps forward. Alex stumbled to the right and the other five gathered around, forming a loose but clearly defensive circle, Kaspar at its head.

The trees above us creaked and swayed, groaning and filling the silent forest with the sound of protesting giants, basking beneath the moonlight. The wind, missing for the entire day whipped up, swirling into a gale that started to rage through the tiny clearing. The air was freezing, yet warmth began to creep up from my toes as a spark travelled up my leg and through my veins; it gushed in my blood and paused at my heart, beating at twice the normal rate, stopping then starting as the ember disappeared, only to be replaced with another, and another, and another …

‘H-how can they be here?’ Kaspar stammered, the confusion and terror in his voice far from hidden. ‘Their borders are closed!’

I tensed my muscles. The sensation was becoming unpleasant, painful even, as it worked its way between the layers of my skin, like some sort of fictional scarab beetle designed to disgust and my mind, usually so closely guarded, felt as though every wall had come crashing down; every lock was being turned by key after key …

‘What actually are the Sage?’ I cried, tripping over my own feet to try and get away. ‘What can they do?’

The very roots of the trees sounded as though they were being torn from the ground when the noise and the warmth and the wind abruptly ceased.

‘Rather a lot, Miss Violet Lee,’ a voice said.

FIFTY-FOUR

Violet

A Canadian voice. A voice I knew.

‘Fallon?’ Kaspar choked, utter disbelief in his voice, tinged with relief. ‘And Lady Sage,’ he added quickly, as though it was an afterthought.