This time, he knew, one had not missed.
Cradling Aria closer, he continued forward as the wood of an arrow shifted and bit into the center of his heart. Every step made it feel as if his bones would splinter to pieces. Weakness seeped through his muscles, but he couldn’t stop, not until Aria was safe.
Fresh anguish twisted in his heart, but this had nothing to do with the arrow shredding the organ and everything to do with Aria. He couldn’t die; he refused to die. She’d be alone if he died, and without him, she would also die or go mad. She was his light; he’d been born to love her. He would not be the cause of her destruction.
No matter what it took, he would stay alive, for her.
CHAPTER 3
Aria
Aria felt the hesitation in Braith’s step, yet he kept charging toward the woods with her secured within his arms. She knew he’d been hit, but he didn’t ease his grip on her so she could see how badly he’d been hurt.
Terror battered at her as the scent of his blood filled her nostrils, but she didn’t struggle to try to see his wounds. Fighting against his hold would only slow him down. Once they were somewhere safe, she would be able to ascertain the extent of the damage and give him blood to help him heal. She didn’t care if it took every last drop in her body.
A vampire stepped forward to stop them. Ashby crashed into the vamp’s side, flinging him out of the way and sending him hurtling into a tree with the crunch of bone.
“Braith!” she cried when his step faltered again. “Are you okay?”
He didn’t say a word but kept going through the opening in the vamps. He plunged into the woods and down an embankment. Aria bit back a cry when his foot caught on something and they plummeted forward. Braith grunted again, but remained enveloped around her to take the brunt of the trees and rocks they bounced off of and against. Fury and fear suffused her as the sharp tip of arrowheads pressed against her belly when they were pushed through his body. He was hurt, badly, and there was nothing she could do to help him right now.
His back crashed against a tree, spinning them around and sending them rolling down the hill head over heels. Her hands dug into his arms, clinging to him as the world flashed by in a blur that made her head spin. She prayed for their rapid descent to come to an end soon. If one of those arrows should drive through him the wrong way…
Finally, their plunge came to an abrupt halt with him on top of her. From beneath his arm, she could see the corner of the boulder they’d come to a stop against.
“Braith?” she whispered.
She knew every inch of his body, every detail of his chiseled abs and broad chest. Every hollow, every dip, every sound he made when she touched him, and never before had he been so still.
“Braith?”
Tears choked her throat as her hands pushed against his chest as his body remained unmoving over hers.
Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic.
The words became a mantra in her head; her eyes burned with tears and a scream lodged firmly in her throat.
Careful not to throw him onto his back and drive the arrows embedded within his flesh even deeper, Aria managed to squirm her way out from underneath his heavy weight. Settling her back against the boulder, her body shook as her gaze fell on Braith’s still form.
A choked sound escaped her. She was going to throw up. She was going to pass out. No, she was going to die. She nearly doubled into a ball, but despite the fact he remained so unmoving, and there was no way that arrow wasn’t embedded in his heart, she still felt the faint wave of a connection to him through their bloodlink.
My blood flows within him, his within me. I am him and he is me. I’ll know if the bloodlink breaks. It wasn’t broken yet, but if she didn’t do something to get him away from here, it would be soon.
Her gaze lifted to the hillside they had tumbled down. They’d plunged nearly two hundred feet down the rocky, steep terrain into a gulley. Near the top of the hill, she spotted the others from their group skidding down the snow-slickened hill as they tried to flee the group of white-cloaked vampires chasing them.
Arrows fired into the trees around her friends and family. Timber cried out when leaves and dirt gave way beneath him and he tumbled down the hill much like she and Braith had. He smashed into a tree halfway down, getting caught up on it instead of plunging all the way to the bottom of the gulch.
Aria glanced back and forth down the snowy gulch. Sheltered by the trees surrounding it, there was only a coating of snow to be found in this part of the forest. Her woods. She knew where they were, knew where to find shelter in order to keep Braith protected, and she had to get him there, now.
Braith outweighed her by more than a hundred pounds, but it didn’t matter. Even if she’d still been human, she would have found a way to pick him up and carry him away before their enemies could get to them.
Her gaze went back to the others making their way toward her. No matter how badly she wanted to make sure they were safe too, she couldn’t wait for them. It would mean certain death for Braith if she did. They would understand, and Daniel and William would know where she went. If they made it to the bottom of the canyon.
She couldn’t think of that. Her main focus now had to be Braith. He was vulnerable, and if he died, then everything they’d fought so hard to achieve would be ruined. He was her everything, but not only that, so many others counted on him as well. His many loyal followers would die without him, as she knew that woman wouldn’t permit any of them to live, and Aria refused to let that happen.
Grabbing hold of Braith’s wrist, she brought his arm around her shoulder. She ignored the wrenching pain in her chest from where the arrow had pierced her. She pulled him over her back and around her shoulders. A bloodlink made a vampire stronger. It had made it possible for Braith to see when he was around her, and for Hannah to walk in the sun after drinking from Jack. Now, she easily lifted Braith as she rose to her feet.
She ignored every protesting ache in her battered body as she turned to the right and ran down the gulch toward the cave a couple miles away. She hadn’t known she could run so fast, but fear drove her to speeds she’d never attained before.
Despite the fact her wounds were healing and she no longer felt blood seeping down her chest or side, her legs quaked from exhaustion and blood loss by the time she stopped a mile away from the cave.
Carefully, she laid Braith on his side to avoid the arrows and brushed her fingers over his pale face. The sight of all those arrows in his back caused her to wince, but she couldn’t pull them out yet. They would only bleed more if she did, and right now they had too much blood trailing them here.
He’d lost the brown cloak he’d been wearing during the battle, so she didn’t have to try to remove it from him now. Taking hold of one of the numerous holes in his shirt, she tore it further. Her hands trembled as she worked to carefully pull the material away from his battered body and set the shirt on the ground.
His flesh was mottled and red from where the arrows had punctured him over and over again. He’d always had flawless skin, smooth to the touch, so strong and warm beneath her hands. Now it was chilled beneath her fingers and there was a weakness in him she’d never seen before. The cold of his body wasn’t from the snow beneath him and the winter air flowing over him, but from the life steadily seeping away from him.
She would crave death without him. She knew what the loss of a bloodlink had done to his father, Atticus. She would never allow herself to become that kind of a monster.
She’d informed William she might have to be destroyed. Now, the possibility loomed over her like a guillotine preparing to fall. She could almost feel the sharp steel edge kissing the back of her neck.
However, like Atticus, she wouldn’t die or allow herself to be destroyed before exacting her revenge against Braith’s killer. She would not rest until she knew the woman who destroyed her husband was dead. That woman was far stronger than she was, but Aria would find a way to watch her scr
eaming in agony before she allowed death to claim her.
Braith had taken those arrows to keep her alive. It should have been her lying there now, not him. She brushed a strand of black hair off his forehead. His face was lax, making him appear more vulnerable than she’d ever seen him, and right now, he was vulnerable. Like him, she would risk everything to keep him protected.
Aria hastily removed her bow, quiver, and cloak before taking her bloody shirt off. The cold air cut through the thin undershirt she wore as she lifted Braith’s shirt from the ground.
“Keep working,” she muttered to herself. “Keep going.”
Bunching up the ruined clothes, she rose to her feet and ran up the side of the embankment on the other side of the gulch. She dipped the clothes onto the ground every couple of feet, leaving blood stains on the snow as she went. Halfway up the hillside, she fell to her hands and knees. She dug through a patch of snow to uncover the leaves and earth beyond. Tearing away the dirt, she created a small hole and stuffed the shirts inside before burying them.
She ran back and forth over the area, kicking snow up to cover her digging. When she was done, she turned and walked backwards down the hill, giving the appearance of someone going up the hill, but no one coming back down. It might not distract their pursuers for long, but it would buy her some time to navigate the traps within the cave safely. If she knew her brothers, they would realize what she’d done and not go to the caves the same way she planned to go.
A sense of urgency drove her as she raced back to Braith’s side. The bloodlink between us is still there…
However, she could feel a wavering within the bond connecting them. “Don’t leave me,” she whispered to him.
She threw her cloak back around her shoulders and pinned it in place with the silver horsehead brooch her father had left for her before he died. She would have put the cloak around Braith to try to warm him, but it would never fit his large frame. Kneeling at Braith’s side, she ran her fingers over his cherished face before lifting him onto her shoulders once more. She didn’t look back as she raced through the snow to the entrance of the cave.
The musty scent of the cave filled her nostrils when she plunged into its gloomy depths. She carefully placed Braith on the rocky ground twenty feet within before returning to the entrance. She searched the gulch and the trees lining the sides of it for any hint of danger. Everything remained calm for as far as she could see, and she scented nothing out of the ordinary on the breeze shaking the trees.
Satisfied they were still alone, she stripped her cloak off once more and raced out into the open. She ran half a mile back; it was as far as she dared to go without chancing being spotted. Lowering her cloak into the snow, she walked backwards and wiped away her footprints leading to the cave.
There was nothing she could do to completely mask their scent, but with the buried clothes, she hoped to leave their enemies confused enough about their location that she would have a better chance of leading them away from the cave system later.
If their enemies did find the cave and decided to investigate, there was a good chance they would be driven back, killed, or at least maimed by Daniel’s booby traps. It had been nearly a year and a half since they’d had to use the caves to hide from vampires, but she didn’t doubt her brother’s designs had held up during that time.
Returning to the entrance of the cave, she fled back to where she’d left Braith and knelt by his side before lifting him onto her shoulders once more. Her legs, back, and chest protested the movement, but she’d carry him a thousand more miles if she had to.
CHAPTER 4
William
“This way,” William said and fled down the center of the gulch after his sister’s footprints. On her own, Aria barely would have left a mark behind in the snow, but Braith’s weight on her shoulders had made her normally agile step far more pronounced.
He kept hold of Tempest’s hand as he ran through the snow in pursuit of Aria. Her hand warmed his as he slid his fingers across the delicate bones in the back of it. Tempest was strong, nimble, and smart, but he’d felt the power of the vampire woman claiming to be the rightful queen and experienced her cruelty when he’d allowed himself to be captured in Badwin.
He shuddered at the possibility of anything happening to Tempest. She was his; she’d made him forget the wrath that had festered inside him after he’d lost his mortality and become a vampire, one of the creatures he’d spent most of his life hating.
But with Tempest, his life as a vampire had finally made sense. He would have endured the agony and uncertainty of his death as a human and transition into a vampire a thousand times over again to have her in his life. Now he may lose it all if they didn’t get away from their trackers soon.
He glanced over his shoulder as the vampires in white chased them down the hill. At least the hill was too steep for their followers to get a good shot off with their bows, but it didn’t mean some of them weren’t still trying. The others in their scouting party were close behind him, laboring to keep up. He had no idea how Xavier was still on his feet, as blood covered him from head to toe.
William couldn’t fully process what had happened, and how quickly it had all unfolded. They had to regroup, plan, and get away from their attackers.
Braith looked dead. William winced as the image of the arrows protruding from Braith’s back went through his mind once more. Many of those arrows were clustered around his heart. If Braith had been lost, then that meant Aria would be too…
Don’t think it. Just keep moving.
The whistle of a fresh wave of arrows being released filled the air before someone else grunted in pain. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Xavier tear an arrow from his thigh and toss it aside.
The trail of Aria and Braith’s blood in the snow suddenly disappeared, but Aria’s footprints continued. On the hillside opposite of the one they’d fled down, he spotted beads of blood amid the snow and his sister’s footprints going halfway up the hill.
“Which way?” Jack asked hoarsely from beside him.
“Aria didn’t continue to the top of the hill here, but she’s trying to throw them off her trail. I’d be willing to bet the footprints continuing through the gulch ahead of us stop at some point too. She wouldn’t have led them straight to the cave. We have to find where her tracks end, then go up the hill there.”
He glanced at Daniel to find his older brother’s blue eyes on him. Sweat plastered Daniel’s wheat blond hair to his flushed face. Bruises shadowed his eyes and jaw; blood seeped from his nose and bite marks marred his neck. He was beaten and battered, but his gaze was filled with steely resolve.
“You’re right. We can’t continue on this way to the cave once her tracks stop. We’ll go up the hill then,” Daniel said.
William’s heart sank at Daniel’s words. Daniel was faster than most humans. Their entire family had always been faster than normal, thanks to what was most likely partial vampire DNA from a distant ancestor. However, as humans, they weren’t fast enough to evade a pack of vampires for much longer. Daniel knew it too, knew going up the hill could spell his death, but he was much like their father with his unfailing devotion to doing what must be done and protecting those he loved. Their father was gone though, and William would not lose his brother too.
“Standing here isn’t helping,” Ashby said impatiently. “The king and queen must be protected above all else, no matter what.”
William inhaled deeply, a habit he still hadn’t managed to break from the days when he’d been a human. Gripping Tempest’s hand tighter, he fled further down the gulch. When he found where Aria’s tracks ended in the snow, he turned to face the steep hillside. Thick trees covered the embankment, allowing only a little snow to have slipped through during the last storm.
The ground would be loose beneath their feet, but at least it wouldn’t be slippery, and the trees would help shelter them from any arrows unleashed on them. Hopefully the top of the hill would be as thick with trees so
they could hide their tracks and lose themselves in the forest.
Tempest’s almond-shaped, doe brown eyes were apprehensive when she tilted her head back to look at him. Her silvery blonde hair tumbled about her shoulders. The press of her full lips had caused them to thin out, and her pretty face radiated strain, but she remained stoic as she watched him.
“We’ve been in worse than this before,” he said and drew her forward to kiss her forehead.
“Yes,” she agreed.
Releasing her, he stepped back and gestured toward the hill. He kept Tempest in front of him to shelter her as he nudged her up the hillside. “Don’t look back.”
Her feet slipped in the leaves and loose dirt, but she kept her gaze focused ahead as she climbed before him.
“We’ll carry you once we get to the top,” William said over his shoulder to Daniel.
“I’m not riding anyone’s back,” Timber grumbled as he struggled up the hillside.
“I don’t think anything short of a horse could carry you,” Ashby replied. Placing his hand on the small of Timber’s back, he propelled the man faster up the side of the hill.
William had to agree. Timber was by far the largest man he’d ever seen at nearly seven feet, if not seven. His broad back and thighs the size of tree trunks made him the biggest target. Despite his massive size, he moved with relative ease up the hill, though his permanently crooked nose whistled with every ragged inhalation he made. His shaggy brown hair fell forward over his shoulders to nearly trail in the snow as he remained low to the ground.
They made it to the top of the hill as the twang of more arrows being released filled the air. Diving forward, William enclosed his arm around Tempest’s waist and shoved her to the ground. He rolled toward a white pine. The needles pricked his back when he came up against it, but no arrows pierced his flesh.
Rolling over, he discovered Ashby and Melinda rising to their feet beside him. Usually immaculate, Ashby had leaves and pine needles sticking to his face and dark blond hair. His green eyes were flashing with red when they met William’s. Melinda’s knee-length, golden blonde hair was a tangled mess as she pushed it back from her forehead. Her normally dove-gray eyes were the color of rubies.