Dinner With a Vampire (The Dark Heroine #1)(99)
Author: Abigail Gibbs

Kaspar took a few steps back and surged forward, completely unfazed. With one leap, he stood at the top of the boulder, staring smugly down, his eyes almost daring the others to try and do the same.

With a chuckle Alex followed, jumping four times his height and joining Kaspar at the top. Before long, the others were doing the same. Looking doubtful, however, Cain opted to climb and gestured for me to join him.

Dubious, I approached. I wasn’t usually afraid of heights or falling; I was afraid of making a fool of myself. Unbuttoning my coat, I let it fall to the ground beside the bags. It would only get in the way. I knew I must look a state and that I would probably freeze in just a T-shirt and jeans, but the coat was too bulky to climb in.

I slotted my foot into a crevice. Cain smiled encouragingly and began to hoist himself up, pointing out the best handholds as he did. When he reached the crest, he offered his hand, which I took gratefully. With one easy tug, he pulled me over the edge and onto my feet.

The view was incredible. The sun rose in the distance to the east, a ball of fire floating just above the beginnings of the North Sea and the end of the Thames estuary. The water was not blue but black; the sky was completely cloudless, hovering over a strip of orange thrown out as far as the eye could see by the sun. A little closer, the Thames River snaked inland, marshes at its fringes which eventually gave way to pines which sloped uphill until they suddenly broke into bare and baron oaks, which in turn gave way to a blur of lighter green and white – the main grounds of the Varns’ mansion, far below us. Over the tops of the trees I could just make out a few of the pale towers.

‘Beautiful isn’t it?’ A voice said behind me.

I didn’t need to turn to know it was Kaspar, stood unnaturally close … so close I dared not move for fear of touching him. ‘Something is wrong, isn’t it, Kaspar?’ I muttered, not taking my eyes off the glow the sun cast over the water.

I felt his coldness withdraw a little. ‘No.’

‘Don’t lie,’ I chuckled flatly. ‘You’re crap at it.’

There was a pause. Then I felt an icy chill on my back once more as he bent down to my ear. ‘You’ve heard my father talk of responsibility.’ It wasn’t a question – we both knew I had. ‘And you know that my responsibility lies with the Kingdom.’ I swallowed. ‘I don’t want to rule that Kingdom alone, Violet.’

My heart skipped a beat and I cursed it, afraid he would hear the effect he had on that particular organ.

‘I want someone alongside me who knows when I’m lying, who will stand up to me and who knows me at my very worst. But what I want and my duty do not always coincide and—’

I turned me head sharply to the right. ‘What is your very worst?’

‘You know what my worst is, Girly. You’ve seen it.’

‘No,’ I breathed.

He couldn’t be. He just couldn’t.

‘I had known someone was tapping into my mind for a while and when Fabian told me about your dreams, it all slotted into place,’ he continued. His voice was a drone. It did not sound as though he were reasoning with something extraordinary. ‘It can’t be a coincidence considering you contain my blood; it’s unusual but not unheard of for dhampirs to be able to enter another’s mind.’

His explanation fell on death ears. I couldn’t even bring myself to correct him on when the dreams started – before I became a dhampir.

This man … this man I have learned to trust and have feelings for; the one I am prepared to give up humanity for is not the same brute that prowls the forest as a rogue. That monster was not the Prince of the Kingdom; the heir to the throne. But even as those thoughts crossed my mind, I could see the greying body of the girl he had killed at the fair, not so different from the girl in the catacombs.

‘No,’ I repeated.

‘You don’t want to believe me, do you, Girly?’

I shook my head and took a step back.

His eyes fluttered down. ‘I wish you would accept me as a vampire and let go of this illusion that I’m something I’m not.’

I took another step back. ‘Don’t play mind games with me, Kaspar.’ Don’t play games with my heart.

‘I’m not.’

That was all I heard as the ground fell from beneath my feet and I screamed; screamed as a hand caught mine, mottled and scarred, a pair of amber eyes briefly fixing on mine before I was tumbling through the air, pulling Autumn Rose with me.

But the ground did not hurtle towards us; neither did I land awkwardly. Instead, I came to a gentle rest on my back amongst the damp heath, not even winded. Autumn was already on her feet, completely unharmed. Gingerly, I propped myself up on my elbows and felt a pain shoot down my wrist, as though somebody had run a knife down my inner wrist. Supporting myself with the other arm, I forced myself to look.

A jagged gash running from my hand to my elbow had opened up, coated in grit, stinging as though someone had poured vinegar over the length of my arm.

I scrabbled to my feet just as Autumn grabbed my unharmed elbow and steered me away at such a pace my feet caught on the uneven tufts of grass, and I would have toppled if she had not been supporting me, seemingly unaware that I was almost dragging her to the ground. She shouted something over her shoulder to Fallon in her language and rounding the rock, I stole a glance back.

The vampires seemed unaffected. They were grouped beside the edge of the forest, not even looking our way. So what’s the urgency? Tugging me along, she didn’t say a word until we came to a halt near the pile of coats.

‘Put pressure on your inner elbow,’ she said, indicating to my arm. I did so and she began running a finger down the length of the cut, making it sting even more.

Muttering something under her breath, a pool of water appeared in her cupped hand, which she poured over my arm. I winced as the cold water trickled through the wound and looked away, clenching and unclenching my hand in an attempt to combat the stinging.

‘Was that you, back there? That stopped us from falling?’ I asked, trying to ignore the pins and needles sensation passing through my fingers.

‘Yes,’ she said, as a particularly painful stab shot through my arm.

I mumbled a thank you through clenched teeth, silently wondering how she could have acted so quickly – she must have been standing nearby. Did she hear what Kaspar said?

It bothered me, somehow, that she might know me and Kaspar were – well, I wasn’t even sure what we were – and I definitely wasn’t sure what we were if he was the cloaked figure. But how could he be? He was standing in the same room as a cloaked figure before we left for London. But doubt was entering my mind. Why would he claim to be the figure if he wasn’t? After all, the figure in the entrance hall could have been anyone.