Charlotte jumped when the slightest noise cracked from deep within the forest. She searched for any sign of motion in all of the dewy white and shades of blue and evergreen for whatever dangerous thing was coming for her. Her gaze flashed quickly in the direction of Valek’s hiding place again as a tinge of envy surged through her. How convenient it must be to be able to see a predator from kilometers away. To be able to sense danger—something her mere, human self was incapable of doing. All she was good at for now was being the bait, she thought bitterly. She could have sworn she heard a small chuckle resonating from the trees, probably a reaction to her last thought. She stuck her tongue out at the general area and faced front, squeezing her fingers into fists at her sides.
Relax
, the velvet voice offered, quelling her again.
The shallow gash in her forearm continued to sting, cut open carefully as not to damage any of the main arteries that ran shallow under the ivory bed of her skin. Valek had done it swiftly with one of his claws just a few moments earlier. The laceration wasn’t very painful, though, more arousing to her, as the frosty wind bit at it again.
Charlotte watched as ruby droplets fell, staining the purity of the white beneath her. The raised crescent scar at the side of her neck throbbed dully with the sight of it. Blood seemed to flow from her a bit more freely these days.
Something broke abruptly in the thicket of trees, the sound bouncing off the rocky face of the dead waterfall. Her pulse hammered in her ears, making the search for her impending attacker increasingly difficult.
Thwack!
Her heart fluttering, her focus snapped to the direction of the next sound that cracked the surface of the silence. Air caught in her throat and she fell completely motionless, transfixed on the giant, broken branch that plummeted to the clearing from the forest canopy. Clenching her jaw tighter, she stopped breathing altogether. Something, whatever it was, smelled her.
I hate this! I hate this! I hate this!
Charlotte clenched her eyelids shut, not wanting to look up. Her fists wound in tighter knots. Her heart hammered so violently it almost hurt. Surely, she should have been used to being hunted by now. After all this time, living among the monsters, nothing should scare her anymore. That was what she told herself, anyway. It was disappointing, however, that she was only human and, in fact, was still frightened by these things. She struggled to ease her shivering.
Do not be afraid, Lottie
, the honey voice reminded her again. She heard a grin behind his words this time.
You should know by now that nothing overpowers me
.
His dark chuckle resonated around her head like a swarm of hummingbirds. It was warm and entrapping like the heat of a summer day. It made focusing very difficult. But her fear was unwavering. Even in spite of his soothing promises, her heart continued to rattle.
Okay, I’ll just hitch you up over a fire pit and tell you not to worry, because I can easily extinguish the flames if you start to combust
, she shot the thought at him.
I’d like to see you try
. His tone was amused now.
No matter
, he spoke again, cocky this time.
Your fear is appetizing for them, nonetheless. The beast is excited—I can hear it in his mind. So, be afraid, if you so choose. It only lures him here faster
.
Something moved in the corner of her eye, instantly catching her attention. It was only her red scarf that whirled in the cool winter breeze. She’d hung it there out of habit, always used to tying ribbons to the branches to find her way home. She hardly needed to do that any longer, now that Valek could go out during the daytime with her.
Another huge sound crunched within the trees, and she knew Valek was right. A squeak escaped her lips. The thing sounded too large to be just any wandering forest animal. Too big even to be a bear. As if to validate that thought, a new, growl double-toned by a devilish chorus of minatory hisses vibrated from one area of the clearing to the other. Several branches shuddered with the volume of the sound, shaking the blankets of snow off the tops of the evergreens. Her heart leapt into her throat, choking her, as she glanced nervously toward Valek’s hiding place again. She tried to control the fear in her mind, knowing the intensity of it was distracting to him regardless of how confident he seemed. She moved the tension down into her fists, curling them tighter.
I’m safe, I’m safe, I’m safe
, she chanted in her head.
Bursting through the gathering of pines, snow spewing out on the air about its wings as they thrashed nastily over its nightmarish body, a Fae met her frenzied gaze at the edge of the clearing. It was coming straight for her, its jagged teeth bared, chomping down over the emptiness as it raced. The vision of its scabby skin stretched over a face with hardly any features, was enough to make anyone want to scream. But when she saw its massive ears, she reminded herself to stay as silent as possible, with the exception of her thrumming heartbeat, of course.
Charlotte’s legs froze into lead bricks underneath her body, and so it seemed there was no chance at running, either. All of these weak human impulses. Sometimes, she made herself sick. Why couldn’t she be strong like Valek and the others?
The monster smelled her dripping mortality there in the clearing and raced in a flash toward her. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she reminded herself once again that she was safe. Charlotte was hardly aware that she began to scream as she lifted her arms to shield herself in defense. But the sound of something hard slamming into the oncoming Fae made her look up again.
Valek wrestled with the beast, pressing its claws to the forest floor as he took it down, trying to get a clear shot at the artery in the creature’s neck. The fairy continued to howl in monstrous choruses that reminded Charlotte of what the gates of Hell might sound like. She never wanted to find out if she was right or not.
She flinched away as one of the Fae’s large wing-spikes drove itself deep into Valek’s shoulder blade. He arched backward, howling in pain, but Charlotte could have sworn she saw a small smile play at the corners of his lips. He loved the struggle of hunting things that met his power more evenly than a mere human did. She knew how it excited him.
The fairy continued to thrash, screeching in frenzy as Valek finally overpowered it. Charlotte watched as he found his opportunity and plunged into the beast’s throat. Ink-like blood spilled out around his mouth, seeping into the snow. Valek clung to the creature, the sick, sticky slurping sound continuing as the Fae’s thrashing slowed and slowed until there was one eventual, last nudge. The thing stilled beneath him, and she knew it was finally dead.
Valek sat up, running the back of his hand across his dripping chin to wipe away whatever was left over. Charlotte watched as the blacks of his eyes shrank back to the center until they became the eternally illuminated blue again.
Valek looked at her, grinning, his teeth already licked clean of the blotchy stains. Despite the immense blood spatter across his vest, Valek looked like a gentleman that day, with his long hair restrained by a satiny, black ribbon, his shoes shined and slacks finely pressed. He had always taken good care of his personal grooming, but no one could ever beat Sarah’s housekeeping abilities. Charlotte barely wore a wrinkle anymore, which never used to be the case. The Witch made quite a difference since she’d been living with them in their large home at the end of the town square of the southernmost Bohemian Occult City.
“Does that…taste good to you?” Charlotte grimaced as she watched Valek lap up some leftovers from the heel of his hand. She couldn’t imagine how it could.
Valek laughed once and looked down at the gray skin of the fairy corpse beneath him, making a face. “Do rotten eggs taste good to you?”
“No.”
“But you would eat them if there was something you needed desperately as a result from doing so?” He straightened up, his tone dropping a few octaves to seriousness. He turned his face up to the faded, winter daylight.
The way he looked at the sun was like nothing Charlotte had ever seen before—not even matching the way he looked at her. His admiration for it went far beyond anything she believed she could ever experience as a human, and she wondered what the intensity of those feelings must be like. As she gazed up at him, she could only just imagine.
“I suppose,” she murmured. Quietly, Charlotte padded through the snow, up to her tall, drawn Vampire, careful not to nudge the stinking fairy corpse as she toed over it.
Chuckling, Valek laced his fingers between hers and crushed his lips to her forehead, an action that easily painted a smile on her face.
She could understand how special something might have seemed when you thought it had been taken away from you forever. It would be something you would never take for granted again. She smiled to herself, happy that Valek could at least temporarily restore one thing about his human life that he missed so much.
“I don’t understand. The Fae are from the light?” Charlotte continued to pry. She lifted her eyebrow. “That’s not what I would have guessed. It seems to be such a dark sort of creature.” She wrinkled her nose at the carcass. Her memory flashed to a night when she was very young and a Fairy had come into Valek’s practice with a raging headache. Valek had been completely unaware of the benefits of Fae blood at that time.
“They are. They are light because they are most active during the day, and because their loyalty rests with the light….” Valek trailed off. He was still distracted. “It’s a long lesson I’ll tell you about one day.” Quickly glancing over his shoulder, he seemed eager to take leave of the clearing.
Charlotte knew why. Being outside of their house always raised suspicion and fear. Aiden, or whoever he’d become now, could be lurking behind any corner.
“Aren’t you afraid someone might find this here?” She forced herself to look away from the scabby face frozen forever in a terrifying howl. Its claws were gnarled around its slanted head and she fantasized about what might happen if a human were to stumble across such a thing.
Valek finally dropped his gaze from the afternoon sky, transferring all of the light his eyes had seemingly soaked up down at her. He was beyond beautiful. She had pictured this vision about a thousand times over her years growing up. It was absolutely criminal to conceal something this unearthly in the darkness, where no one could appreciate it.
“The body will decompose too quickly before anyone else stumbles across this clearing again.”
His large, cool hand closed delicately around hers, pulling her away from the corpse already seeming to melt into the frost, its flesh quickly peeling in on itself. Charlotte had never seen anything like it—like watching the decomposing process of a dead animal, sped up. A few small beetles were already crawling around the skull. But that was the thing about magic. Right down to the core of its biology, Law One was always in practice:
never reveal the existence of magic to the mortal world
.
Valek laced his long, bloodless fingers through her warm ones again as they treaded together back down the path covered over by a light dusting of fresh winter. It sparkled in the late afternoon light like finely sanded diamonds. The only other prints left in it were their previous ones, when they’d traveled across the Occult borders earlier that day. Looking up at him again, Charlotte noticed a sudden smirk play across Valek’s sculpted features. She was just about to question it, when he abruptly shoved her up against the trunk of a tall, thin evergreen. His sweet scent enveloped her as he pressed himself against her body, hands moving to the narrow of her waist. She gazed up at him, unable to blink.
“I love when you look at me like that,” Valek chuckled. His claw grazed over her cheek, making the hairs rise on the back of her neck. He pressed his cool lips to the pulse throbbing at the base of her throat and whispered against her skin. “Like you’re afraid of what I’ll do next.” He kissed her lightly before burying his face in her neat curls, his mouth gently pressed against her scar.
Charlotte wound her fingers around the material of his overcoat in anticipation. But Valek merely kissed her skin once before pulling away and helping her back onto the path.
“Come,” he offered. “We should be heading home. It’s on the verge of dusk. And we do know what evil things like to lurk in the night.” Valek winked at her and flashed another large grin.
Charlotte snorted. “I used to be one of those things too, you know.”
Valek’s lips pressed into a thin line as he proceeded to lead her away. Charlotte only frowned, though, knowing the grievances he had with himself about the awful things he used to make her do. The fact of the matter was she was a murderer, just as he was. Even though she didn’t possess his fangs, power, and agelessness, they were both the same amount of monster. The only difference was she didn’t regret her actions as much as Valek did. She perceived her victims as sacrifices to keep the love of her life alive. They did not die in vain. She didn’t identify with her mortality at all.
Charlotte’s world, in that moment, seemed as peaceful as it could possibly ever be in spite of being out on a Vampire’s hunting errand. It didn’t matter what they were doing, as long as they were together, with no Elven guards close behind. Vladislov was dead. Aiden was still only missing, though without any order and followers, rebuilding the Regime single-handedly would be a difficult task for him. There was no longer any fear or consequence now that Valek and the rest of their adopted coven of rogues and misfits had toppled the Regime throne.
Smiling, Charlotte recognized how amazing it was to know Valek stayed steadfast beside her as they walked. No apprehension. No doubt. No fear. Like he’d promised her, they were finally together the way she wanted to be. The feeling of his smooth hand, folded around hers, brought her to smile again. She could see her breath forming in mists just in front of her nose, her fingers burying themselves in the thick wool of her sweater, her other hand wrapped firmly around his as they went.