Chapter Thirty-Three
THE FOREST WAS FAMILIAR SOMEHOW. An owl hooted in the distance, and the faint ticking of a clock echoed in the darkness that surrounded me. I glanced around the forest, sure that I was missing something. I was certain I had been here before. My heart began to race; this place made me uneasy, and I didn't want to be here. A breeze blew past, and I caught a whiff of spices, herbs, and… honey. My heart filled with joy, and I was sure I could almost lift off the ground from the power that coursed through me. I shook my head and tried to connect all my thoughts. Why would that scent make me feel this way?
I walked down an overgrown path, wondering where it would lead. I kept trying to place the tantalizing scent that lingered in the air around me. A man stepped onto the path, and I stopped to contemplate pulling on the thread of power I felt nestled inside of me. His gaze met mine, and my heart fluttered wildly when his gold-rimmed eyes penetrated the darkness that surrounded us. I knew those eyes. I raised a hand to him, but he just scowled at me.
Brooding vampire. I touched a hand to my temple and wondered where the thought had come from.
Another man stepped onto the path a bit further down, and I squinted to see if I could make out his features. The longer I stared, the hazier the air around the man became, and the scent that hung in the air thickened, coating my tongue. I started walking toward the men, and both turned away from me to walk farther down the path. I moved quickly and soon caught up with the first man. He immediately reached out and took my hand. It seemed so natural that I didn’t question it.
I tried to call to the man on the path in front of us, but nothing came out of my mouth. I started to run, and the vampire holding my hand ran with me. No matter how quickly we ran, though, the man in front of us never got closer. We ran around a bend and came to an abrupt halt at the edge of a large pool of water. The full moon reflected in its inky surface, and the man we had been trying to catch stood on the other side of the pool, his face half-hidden by shadows and the aura that surrounded him.
The vampire clasped my hand as I walked to the very edge of the pool’s surface. The man across from me mirrored my movements. I reached out my hand to him even though I knew the chasm was way too wide for our hands to meet. He held his out, too, and I felt a gap in my heart, knowing I was not able to touch him.
I took a step into the water, and the vampire came with me. The man also took a step in. I smiled and wondered how deep the pool of water was. When we had all taken a couple more steps, I realized we would all be in over our heads by the time we reached one another. I looked back at the vampire holding my hand and wondered how far we would be able to go or even if the waters were safe. We were all standing in the water up to our waists, and I didn’t know what to do next. There was just too much space between us.
The man I felt a connection to stepped forward, and the water sloshed up to his chest. I tried to cry out, but no sound escaped my lips. Panic started building in my chest; this was all wrong. I yanked on the vampire’s hand, but this time he didn’t budge. I jerked my hand harder, but I couldn’t free it from his grasp. I tried to dive forward when the man took a step that brought him into deep water sloshing up to his neck.
I screamed a wordless scream, but the vampire held me by the waist, keeping me from helping my mystery man. When the man lunged forward again and was swallowed up by the icy black waters, I felt a part of my heart plummet with him. I kicked, hit, and tried to get away, but the vampire held me tightly in his arms. When my body was too tired to fight and my heart was filled with nothing but loss, the vampire embraced me gently like a lover and then dragged me under the murky depths of the water. As I sank to the bottom of the pool, a single shimmer of silver snagged my dimming vision. I reached out and grasped the hilt of a dagger. Mine, I thought.