Foretelling, page 10
There was little reason for him to recount what happened next. Katerina remembered the feeling all too well, the euphoric resurrection. She’d felt it the night Aidan saved her life in the Kreo jungle. A part of her had dreamed of it every night since.
“I’d never felt such a thing,” Dylan said softly. “It was like coming back to life.” A sudden blush colored his cheeks and he lowered his eyes. “And then...it became something more.”
...oh. Oh crap.
Katerina had never understood. Yes, the queen was a goddess in her own right. But she was also the most psychotic creature Katerina had ever seen. She’d never understood how Dylan could actually have sex with her. Even if she was beautiful. Even if he was young.
She hadn’t counted on the blood.
“I told the commander I’d forgotten, but I remember every second.” Dylan’s voice was little more than a murmur, sad and broken, as he pulled the memories from deep within. “It was a game to her—kind of like this. I was high...it was my first time.”
It was like a weighted stone had dropped on Katerina’s chest. He bowed his head then turned away, but she was completely motionless. Staring blankly at the far wall.
Finally, after a few long moments, she managed to speak. “She bit you?”
He nodded. “Near the end. I thought she was kissing me, then...” He trailed off, looking as lost as Katerina had ever seen. “I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. I begged her to stop—to let me go.” His face stilled as he remembered. “She kept going until she was finished.”
A wave of shame crashed over him.
“When she finally stopped...I was the one who wanted more.”
The story was over. Katerina could surmise the rest.
It was why he reacted so strongly to Aidan in the ballroom. He understood exactly what the two of them were feeling. The bloodlust, the lack of control. He knew exactly how far it could go.
“So that’s it,” he said suddenly. “Start to finish.”
She nodded slowly, unable to speak.
The longer the silence went on, the more desperate he was to break it. His pulse took off at a sprint and he raised his voice almost aggressively, staring into her eyes.
“Everything you wanted to know.”
Again, she nodded. He began to silently panic.
“I never asked for it. I would never have chosen it for myself.” His eyes flickered guiltily to the bed. “Today, I didn’t realize what was happening. You can’t blame me for...”
He trailed off with a deflating sigh.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
She looked up suddenly, and he dropped his gaze to the floor.
“I’m sorry for everything, Katerina. For not telling you sooner, for lying last night.”
There was a pause.
“Why didn’t you?” she asked tentatively. “We tell each other everything. You know every little thing about my life. Why didn’t you tell me this?”
A lengthy silence fell over the room. Then he finally lifted his eyes.
“I just wanted so badly to forget,” he said softly, his voice breaking with desperation. “To pretend like it never happened. Like it was just a bad dream. I thought that maybe telling you would bring it all to life again. Make it all real. And it is real.” He sucked in a shaky breath. “All over again.”
They sat silent for a few moments, neither moving. It was his turn to ask a question. One they’d been dancing around for a long time.
“Do you still feel that way about Aidan?” he asked quietly. She lifted her head and the two of them locked eyes. “I don’t feel that way about Jazper, but she’s psychotic. We’re connected through blood, nothing more. But...Aidan is a good man.”
When she didn’t speak, he pulled in a painful breath.
“I’m in no position to judge.” He forced himself to be calm, even though it looked like parts of him were breaking. “I would understand if you—”
She silenced him with a gentle kiss on his fingers. “Do you know what I thought back at the castle?” she asked softly as she entwined her fingers with his. “When those two cave trolls had us pinned up against the wall?”
He stared at her, not daring to move. Only a slight shake of his head gave her the encouragement to continue.
“I wished we’d gotten married.” She slid slowly across the floor, closing the distance between them. “I care about Aidan. We’ll always be connected through blood.” She spoke slowly, weighing every word. “But I’m not in love with him. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with him.” She kissed the back of Dylan’s hand, gazing up into his eyes, his mouth hanging slightly open. “I want to marry you,” she whispered fiercely.
It wasn’t how she’d expected the conversation to end. She was pretty sure it wasn’t what the queen had intended when she left them alone. But the two of them came together in the middle of the floor.
Not talking. Not kissing.
Just holding each other in a fierce embrace.
Katerina rested her head in the curve of his neck. If she looked hard enough, she could see the faint outline of a scar. A crescent moon, impossible to find unless you knew where to look.
Over time, it might fade completely.
Chapter 9
Instead of wallowing in self-pity, as the Carpathian queen had intended, instead of hurling doomsday accusations and contemplating the end, Katerina and Dylan kind of enjoyed themselves.
It was the first time they’d been alone in ages, and having been passive-aggressively granted some privacy they decided to take full advantage. More to the point, they decided to take a bath. And eat. Regain strength and think. Plan. Figure a way out of Carpathia.
Katerina thought she’d been hallucinating when she’d walked inside and spotted the tub but, sure enough, it was full to the brim with warm, scented water. The young couple stripped off their clothes and hopped inside—rinsing away the days of ocean salt and desert sand. They giggled and splashed and generally behaved like a couple of teenagers, until they simultaneously remembered they were still starving. At the same time, they spotted the table.
The bath was abandoned.
They dressed quickly, arming themselves with whatever butter knives and other pointed implements they could find, before cheerfully filling themselves with water and honeyed fruit. They ate what they could, then stuffed their pockets with the rest—hoping to deliver it safely to the others. At that point, they remembered they were still teenagers and still very much alone.
The table was abandoned. They headed for the bed.
“Wait,” Dylan said quickly, tensing when he saw the giant stain of blood. “Not there.”
He steered them to a small recliner instead, laying Katerina back on the cushions before climbing on top of her with a mischievous grin.
“Much better...”
“Wait!”
This time, it was Katerina who stopped him. She pulled back suddenly, tilting his chin back and forth while she examined the corners of his mouth. It took him a second to realize what she was doing before he dropped his head with an exasperated sigh.
“There’s no blood, Kat. You checked for ages in the bath.”
“And I’m going to check again,” she insisted, grabbing him once more. “How would you like it if I accidentally drank some of Jazper’s blood?”
“...we’d have yet another thing in common.” His smile faded as the two of them locked eyes.
She glared at him.
“Too soon?”
“Yeah,” she said sharply. “A little too soon.”
With a begrudging grin, she pulled the two of them back together and they proceeded to indulge in a thoroughly adolescent make-out session. It was compartmentalization at its finest. It was opportunism at its finest. And it was highly enjoyable at the same time.
Strange as it might seem, Katerina was learning to live for these stolen moments. Since her eighteenth birthday, the predictable world she’d grown up with had spiraled out of control. If there was one thing she’d learned, it was to seize every opportunity and hold on with both hands.
Who knew the next time she’d get to kiss him? Who knew if there would be a next time?
The two of them were still going at it when the door swung open and the queen swept back into the room. She stared a split second then stopped cold, looking like she’d swallowed a blade.
Her pupils were fixed and dilated. Her voice was like shattering glass.
“I see you found a way to pass the time.”
They pushed slowly to their feet, keeping a constant grip on one another.
“We did.” Dylan lifted Katerina’s hand to his lips, kissing her knuckles. It was a deliberate hand and a deliberate finger. The same finger where he soon intended to place a ring. “I believe we should thank you.”
A clear act of defiance, but the queen was too experienced to take the bait. Nor, apparently, was she in the mood for her usual tricks or banter. It wasn’t often she found something she desired, and she wasn’t about to let him slip through her fingers a third time.
Instead of threatening, she simply told the truth.
“Let me paint you a picture...”
She sank onto the edge of the mattress, ignoring Katerina and focusing entirely on Dylan.
“The food will spoil; the water will become scarce. And the cells will keep refilling. There is no shortage of creatures at my disposal, and you and I both know that I have nothing but time.”
Katerina’s pulse quickened as her skin went suddenly cold.
“You’ll fight well—probably last longer than expected. But there are limits, Dylan. You and all your friends have already reached that limit once. It’s only a matter of time before it happens again. Before someone slips at the wrong moment, suffers a blow too terrible to heal. Before the sun comes up in the morning, but one of you isn’t able to open their eyes.” Jazper’s voice quieted with intensity as she fixated on his face. “You will die. She will die. Your friends will die. There is no end to this game. The game only stops when there’s no one left breathing. That’s where you stand right now.”
Such finality, yet she left it open with a question. A shred of hope to counterbalance the rest.
“But I will allow you to save three people.”
As quickly as she started, the queen abruptly finished her chilling speech. Reclining against the headboard in the silence that followed. Watching with a little smile as they stood there in shock, struggling to process the words. In the end, it was all Dylan could do to repeat them.
“You’ll allow me to save three people?”
She nodded graciously, then abruptly amended the offer.
“Well—one, really. I’m insisting upon Aidan. And I think you’d rather cut off your own leg than lose the fae. Which leaves you one.” His eyes flickered reflexively to Katerina, and she shook her head. “Not her. One of the others.” Her face brightened with a sudden smile. “Might I suggest the fae’s sister? Such a pretty thing, and you know her brother would be heartbroken if something was to happen to her. Yes, I think the fae and the vampire would be welcome additions.” She straightened up briskly, as if everything had already been decided. “You can save those three. Three lives that would otherwise have been lost.” Before he had a chance to speak she repeated it again, slowly. “I assure you, Dylan...they would have been lost.”
I can’t believe she’s doing this. Katerina stared in wonder, stunned by the sheer audacity. I can’t believe she actually thinks this is going to work.
But even as she thought the words, a tiny flicker of doubt started gnawing away in the pit of her stomach. They could have been killed so many times already—when the snake burst into the room, with the hell hound. Not to mention the fact that they were already half-dead from thirst. It wasn’t a stretch to imagine that some of them might lose their lives if things were to continue. And if things were to continue as long as the queen said they would, it wasn’t a stretch to imagine that none of them might make it out at all.
What if Dylan had a legitimate chance to change that? What if he had the ability to pull half the faces from the crowd? As callous as the queen’s offer was...Katerina didn’t think she was lying.
“And what happens to me?” Dylan asked quietly.
His girlfriend shot him a quick look, but waited for the queen’s reply.
“You?” Jazper pushed to her feet, looking delighted that he’d asked the question. “You will stay here with me. Not as a prisoner, but as a guest.”
Katerina flinched. She had seen the way the Carpathians treated their ‘guests’. It was an experience she would never forget. The same sentiment must have shown in Dylan’s eyes because the queen stepped closer, stroking a cold hand along the length of his cheek.
“As my guest, Dylan.” Her voice dropped to a purr, a quiet seduction, as she ran her pointed nails through the waves of his hair. “Forget about the horde. It will be just the two of us. Together.”
He tensed involuntarily and her lips curved up with a grin.
“Come on. It wasn’t all bad.” She circled behind him, whispering in his ear. “I happen to know that you enjoyed it. So what do you say?” Her eyes lit up. “It’ll be just like old times...”
“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU just did that.”
Katerina stumbled along at an unforgiving pace, tripping occasionally before being yanked upright by the hands of her captors. Dylan was at her side, struggling against captors of his own.
“I wasn’t thinking.”
The Carpathian guards holding them simultaneously tightened their grip, relentlessly pressing forward as they were led across the courtyard and into the wasteland beyond. A tiny trail of blood was left in the dirt behind them. But for once, the blood wasn’t their own.
“I just...” she trailed off in wonder, “...cannot believe you just did that.”
“Can you stop saying it?” He grimaced as one of the soldiers dug the tip of a knife between his shoulder blades. “We’re in enough trouble as it is.”
“Right.” She nodded swiftly, determined to hold her tongue. They hurried on in silence, spurred ever faster by the Carpathians, but after a few minutes she shot him a sideways glance. “...I just can’t believe that you did that.”
“SILENCE!”
The commander pushed forward, sending the rest of the guards flying as he took hold of Dylan himself. The ranger bowed his head, but Katerina could have sworn he was grinning. He looked like he might be sick, but he was grinning. And breathing easy for the first time.
“Sorry,” he apologized, forcing himself to look serious. “Didn’t hear you the first time.”
The commander grabbed him by the back of the neck, baring his teeth in such a way that Katerina was half-convinced he might be a vampire as well. “Do you hear me now?”
“Loud and clear.”
“You wouldn’t like me to repeat it?”
“...I think you should follow your heart.”
With an exasperated growl the commander threw him to the ground, landing a sharp kick in the ribs, before yanking him back to his feet. “Follow my heart,” he muttered, picking up the pace as they made their way over the baked earth. “Get you back where you belong.”
Katerina scrambled after them, a waif-like queen in a crowd of tall men, doing her best to keep up with their impossible strides.
After a few more minutes, she glanced at Dylan again. “...I can’t believe you did that either.”
WITH ABSOLUTELY NO warning, Katerina and Dylan were cast down into the pit. One second, they were marching across an endless expanse of flat earth. The next, they were falling into open air.
They landed in a tangle, neither managing to break the other’s fall, and by the time they squinted up towards the surface the Carpathian guard was already leaving. The commander lingered just long enough to spit into the hole before vanishing with the others into the haze of desert sun.
“Seven hells, it’s hot down here.” Dylan pushed quickly to his feet, helping Katerina up out of the burning sand. “Like a bloody oven.”
“High time you noticed.”
They turned around at the same time, grinning ear to ear as their four remaining friends ventured slowly out of the shadows. They had clustered against the far wall, fighting territorially over the coveted sliver of shade. However, despite the absurd temperature, they were grinning as well. Relieved beyond words that the couple had been returned to them safe and sound.
“You’re back.” Cassiel strode forward with a tired smile, embracing Dylan before pulling back in surprise. “You’re...healed.” His dark eyes flickered to Katerina. “...how did that go?”
Dylan blanked, but Katerina was couldn’t resist a grin. Despite everything, she felt... giddy?
“He...” She didn’t even know how to say it—could hardly put words to thought. “The thing is, and I can’t believe I’m saying this... he head-butted the queen.”
A stunned silence followed this remark.
“Then he tried to impale her with a butter knife,” Katerina added, bursting with pride.
Another silence. This went on even longer than the first. Katerina looked from person to person, but each one had gone completely blank.
Then Cassiel started up a round of slow applause. “And they will sing tales of your bravery for years to come...”
Tanya snorted involuntarily, and even Kailas let out a burst of rare laughter before turning to the wall. Dylan was the only one who failed to see the humor.
“Shut up! At least I tried something.”
“A perfect playground imitation,” Cassiel replied. “I commend you.”
His sister picked it up without missing a beat.
“Tell me,” she continued in that dreamy, fairytale voice, “after the tupperware and infantile posturing, did you have time to steal her crayons? Or was naptime already over?”
Katerina stared between them in surprise, but Dylan seemed to have been expecting it. He gave each one a sarcastic smile before emptying his pockets slowly onto the floor.
