Charlotte took it from him and quickly tore into it, not having eaten anything solid in days. “But how are you so calm?” She seethed. “From everything I’ve heard it shouldn’t be so
easy
when you’re so…new.” She couldn’t stop herself this time. She noticed that she talked to the strange boy as though he were Valek. Boldly, she stepped forward. “I mean, don’t you want to
do
anything? You know….” She shoved her wrist out toward him and waited for his eyes to immerse in shiny black.
“Charlotte!” Mr. Třínožka barked and she pulled back.
“Not really.” Nikolai shrugged apathetically.
“It just isn’t like that y-yet for him, Ch-charlotte,” Edwin stammered.
Valek always explained to her that it was a huge reason why she would never want to become what he was. The loss of control. The merciless killing. The bloodlust. But this person seemed to not be that far advanced in his transition. She was already suffering from the loss of control and the merciless killing, though the last part was mostly for Valek’s sake. She didn’t understand why Valek refused to turn her. It just wasn’t fair.
“Th-that’s why y-you’re out at d-dawn, isn’t it?” Edwin added.
Charlotte pressed her lips together.
Nikolai sighed. “I don’t know. To be truthful, I don’t really understand all the rules yet. When I finally opened my eyes I was in a place unlike anywhere I’ve ever seen. It was so strange.” He leaned his back against the trunk of the nearest tree as though he really was exhausted. “I didn’t know if I died and was in hell, or if somehow I was still living.” Absently, he stroked Ears’ wings, causing the intimidating hunting bird to coo softly. Charlotte didn’t trust him yet.
“So where’d you get the bird?” Charlotte folded her arms over her chest and lifted an eyebrow.
“I was being hunted. There was this…boy. He followed me, along with his pet.” He indicated the falcon. “He was strange…like you are.”
“I resemble that remark.” Mr. Třínožka chuckled.
“And he had these odd, pointed ears. He started throwing things at me—balls of fire. I couldn’t figure it out.” Nikolai’s eyes narrowed at the memory. “When he got too close…I killed him.” Nikolai unsheathed a pocket knife from his jeans. It was stained with a blue-black sort of blood. “The falcon adopted me, so I named him Ears—for his strange owner.”
“Ha!” Mr. Třínožka instantly burst with laughter loud enough to cause little flurries of snow to rain down from the lower tree branches. “You killed an
Elf!
Come ’ere, boyo!” The Spider grabbed Nikolai up off the ground in a giant embrace. “Any Elf-killer is a friend of ours. Ain’t that right, Charlotte?”
Charlotte’s mind flashed to the image of Valek clinging desperately to Aiden’s throat on her almost-wedding day. The horrified look of death in Aiden’s face—the dark, bluish liquid that had seeped from his throat…Valek’s skin had cracked and singed to smithereens, and she’d thought she’d never see either of them again. Could that Elf be
Aiden
? Had this mere half-
human
really dispatched Aiden?
“Charlotte?”
She pulled herself away from her reverie to find the three creatures staring at her. Nikolai, in particular, looked at her with the strangest curiosity, the intense frown distorting his features again. The way he looked at her with so many questions. It was as though he knew her.
“Are you all right, there, girly?”
“Yes. Of course.” She forced a smile and shrugged, a tad embarrassed.
Of course Nikolai looked at her that way. He was probably wondering what another mortal could possibly be doing with the likes of these odd two.
Sorry
, she thought in his specific direction. He didn’t respond. His eyes only slanted further at her. Maybe he was unable to read thoughts yet.
“Great! You can join our band of misfits, Nikolai! After all, we can’t just leave ya out here in this awful chill, can we?” the Phaser offered warmly. “You’ll catch your death…well…you’ll catch your life, I suppose.” He laughed louder at his horrid joke, pulling Nikolai up onto his back and then Charlotte. He tucked Edwin into his breast pocket this time.
“I hate riding up front,” Edwin mumbled.
“Fantastic. Wandering around alone was growing tedious,” Nikolai admitted. “I didn’t know what to do next.”
“So, you have no idea who your creator is?” Charlotte asked, already gripping tightly to Mr. Třínožka’s scarf. “What I mean is, the one who killed you and attempted to turn you?”
Something else flashed in his eyes, but quickly dissipated. “I don’t know. It was too dark. The memory is too hazy.”
Mr. Třínožka’s massive body rocked as he moved over rocks and knolls. Awkwardly, Nikolai wrapped his arms around Charlotte’s middle. Surprised at his bold action, she stiffened against his touch. Noticing this, he instantly released her.
“I-I’m sorry,” he stuttered nervously.
“No.” She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. That was my fault. Just an initial reaction.” She smiled politely and faced forward again. “No, you need to hold on, or else this guy will throw you off at full speed. Trust me.”
Mr. Třínožka chortled his response. She thought she heard Edwin harrumph. Again, though a tad more cautious this time, Nikolai wove his arms around her middle to secure himself there. She tried very forcefully to guard her thoughts, just in case, as she felt his breath stir against her hair. The muscles in her throat tightened. Her stomach turned upside-down.
“So, is that what I am, now?” he murmured to her. “A
Vampire
?”
The tiny hairs on the back of her neck prickled. Her skin tightened into goose bumps and she hoped he wouldn’t notice. She cleared her throat. “Well, not if you don’t want to be. It seems the choice is yours,” she whispered back.
“Look!” she heard Edwin cry.
An odd abode appeared through the trees just ahead of them, the smokestack billowing up into the sky. The house stood, rickety and unkempt, on sets of huge chicken legs. Charlotte’s eyes grew wide at the sight of it as she cocked her head. What the heck kind of a place was that?
“Eew,” she heard Nikolai say from behind her. Ears cried just above them. Charlotte looked to see that the trees in the forest were enchanted—strange eyes were carved into the bark, blinking back at her. These woods seemed heavier than the ones in her Occult. Somehow, they were more malevolent.
How far had Mr. Třínožka’s tunnel stretched and where had they ended up?
“Mr. Třínožka, where are you taking us?” she called.
“I just followed the smell of tea and crumpets. It’s a friendly smell. I
know
my tea and crumpets, lass.”
From below, in Třínožka’s breast pocket, Edwin gasped at something in the distance. Her gaze snapped up to spot him.
This
time she knew it was him. It had to be. Stepping through a thicket of trees into the large clearing, his tall form eclipsed the light filtering in, freezing Charlotte dead. Her heart leaped into her throat. Nikolai went rigid behind her as well. Tears pricked in her eyes, the anger and every ounce of bitterness returning. She did not expect that reaction. That was not how she’d reacted earlier, when she thought Nikolai had been him.
“Stop, please,” she said quietly to the Spider. She saw Valek’s silhouette freeze from where he stood up the path. Though still unable to see the details of his face, she knew he was looking right at her. A lump swelled up in her throat again, but for a completely different reason this time.
Mr. Třínožka plucked her from his back, silently setting her firmly on the ground. She wound her fingers into tight knots at her sides, the tears streaming down her face in those moments of utter stillness. They felt so warm on her skin in spite of the fresh winter air she hadn’t smelled in days. She could only stand there, studying his silhouette against the…light. Apparently, Valek had been keeping up with his own addiction to the daytime. She wondered how many Fae he’d slaughtered. The dust particles filtered in the golden stream of sun around him. Her knees were locked, refusing to push her forward. If this were another mirage, she would be heartbroken.
He began advancing toward her again, slowly at first, beginning in a staggered, broken walk before breaking into a human-paced run. She couldn’t move—could barely breathe. She could only stand there and let the tears burn into her face. But it
was
Valek this time. She recognized the insurmountable guilt that weighed down each of his movements. The fluid,
almost
human movements.
He finally reached her, his body striking her as lightning would. His arms enveloped her, crushed her—swallowed her into him. She couldn’t have dreamed this in a million years. Her mind wasn’t capable of making up so much fantastic detail. The familiar, musky scent of his hair. The honey smell of his breath. The cold feeling of his skin and the electricity that lived in his fantastic, inhuman eyes. He was really there before her again. He set her feet back into the snow, though continued to cradle her face with both of his hands. His gaze bore into hers so sadly.
“Lottie, I am so sorry. I should have never left.” He crushed her lips to his, which caused her jaw to instantly go slack as she sighed, feeling his fangs slide along the edge of her bottom lip. Her heart raced as her blood did, her joints liquefying to gelatin.
Valek stopped the kiss, slowly moved away to look at her. There he stood, in all of his magnificence, before her. An angel of both death and mercy. He had returned to her, and now she was going to give him hell.
She struck him across the face with the open palm of her hand. Apparently, he had not listened to
that
plan within her mind, for he looked down at her, absolutely befuddled. She suspected it probably felt as though he had been pelted with a sheet of paper, however. “How could you do that to me?” she growled through gritted teeth.
Valek pulled away from her, a deeper sadness instantly filling his expression. “Lottie, again, I am sorry. It was such a mistake. I believed I was doing the right thing—”
“Do you what know I’ve been through without you this past week? How could you just leave me alone in a world I don’t understand? Just like—”
“Please, don’t say it.”
“My parents.” Charlotte silenced herself and dropped her gaze from his. He moved in, grasping the sides of her face again.
“Charlotte, you have to know, I would never just
leave
you. I had every intention of returning. I would never leave you alone if I knew you would be in any sort of danger. By now, you must know that.”
“Really?” Her tears stung at the bridge of her nose. “And what if something happened? What if you found yourself in some sort of trouble? Or what if—” She dropped her words and wrapped her arms around herself, stepping back from him.
“Lottie?” He moved a hair closer, lifting his hand to her chin, but she instantly shoved it away.
“Please, don’t touch me,” she murmured.
Valek fell silent. She didn’t miss what he was doing when she felt that slight, however familiar, pulling headache at her temples. Any other human would not have noticed the sensation at all, but she recognized instantly that he was tapping into her mind.
“And please get out of my head,” she warned with a glare up at him.
“Charlotte,” he began, affirmation filling his eyes. He had already heard the thing she wanted to hide. He paused for a minute, studying her face. “Lottie, did…someone…hurt you?”
There was a dangerous energy in the way he said those words. Charlotte bit her lip, tears rolling over her lower eyelid. She turned away from him to look back at the Spider, Edwin, and her newest friend, who continued to watch her in wonder. Immediately, Valek grabbed her shoulders and whirled her around, pulling her close to him again. She felt his cool, soft cheek rest atop her head. They fell silent as he held her for a long moment, listening to her mind anyway.
“I’ll kill him,” Valek whispered, his voice cracking.
Chapter Twenty
Night at the End of the Tunnel
Valek’s words weighed a ton. Dangerous. She knew there were probably so many other profanities he wanted to say, but only those three words came out. Not a threat. Not a warning. A promise. The sound of it was dark and deep, like an angered lion’s rumble. Finally, he pulled away from her again, glancing up to acknowledge Mr. Třínožka and Edwin. “Thank you for bringing her to me. I wasn’t sure the trail the Witch left would work.”
“Not at all, Valek.” Mr. Třínožka’s massive mustache bristled. “We were happy to get her out of there. I only followed the smell of Earl Grey. That’s the easiest way to get me to come a callin’!”
“And we were happy to escape as w-well,” Edwin concluded.
Something bubbled inside Charlotte’s gut when Valek said that—as though she were his property. She grimaced to herself, the blame and bitterness still rolling within her.
“What’s up?” Nikolai jumped off the Spider’s back and rather humanly landed on his knees in snowy ground. Valek, who had apparently not noticed him previously, appraised the new guy. Charlotte noticed again that Valek’s expression seemed somewhat surprised.
“I apologize. I suppose I was a bit distracted to have noticed you there, uh—”
“The name’s Nikolai.”
This time Nikolai didn’t offer his hand. There was something angry and territorial about his stance as he studied Valek’s features. Charlotte’s gaze flicked back and forth between the two. Ears cawed from a tree branch above them, the sound reverberating off the surrounding forest.
Valek looked expectantly at Charlotte, who did the very same back to him. She was hoping he might have had more of an insight into this stranger’s mind, but Valek only shrugged. Apparently, he heard nothing of much interest.
“We found him after escaping the house.” Charlotte’s cheeks scorched again with the memory. “Quite literally. We happened to bump into him, actually.”
Valek took a curious step toward the boy. “You are new to our…society?”
“For the most part,” Nikolai said blankly, his stance still wide.