Blood Prophecy

CHAPTER 2



Solange


I landed on a spiraling stone stairway. I was in some kind of a castle, with dust in the air and dried flowers and hay under my bare feet. I wore a burgundy, medieval-style dress, the kind Madame Veronique favored, with a jeweled belt. She’d been turned in 1162, so my brothers and I studied the twelfth century thoroughly enough that I knew the window in front of me was actually a murder hole, through which archers shot arrows at advancing knights. Sunlight pierced through it, landing on the back of my hand. I snatched it away, as if it were an arrow being sent back at the castle.

It didn’t burn.

Or make me feel weak.

I lifted my fingertips to my teeth. I still had the triple set of fangs but no desire to sink them into the nearest living thing. I wasn’t thirsty for blood; and lately I was always thirsty. I wanted to enjoy it, but I knew I couldn’t stay here. Mom would say get to high ground, or at the very least, don’t let yourself get cornered. I was definitely cornered in the stairwell, but if I went up to the roof, I’d be just as confined.

I hurried down the steps, listening carefully for the sounds of the castle’s inhabitants. I could hear the clang of a blacksmith’s hammer from somewhere outside and the whinny of a horse, but nothing closer. The walls were whitewashed and painted with a rose in the center of each stone. Tapestries hung in the rooms that opened up out of arched doorways. I smelled smoke and roasting meat, and dried lavender under my feet.

I made it to the great hall without being discovered. I peered around one of the tapestries and saw wooden tables and benches, a fire in the center of the room, smoke rising to the rafters and staying there. Women bustled back and forth, wearing dresses similar to mine. A young boy brought in an armful of firewood. I slipped away, into the sunny courtyard.

This made no sense. I should be in the Blood Moon encampment. I felt insubstantial, as if the precious sunlight were glittering right through me. Was I invisible? Insane? Was this time travel? Or another vision like the one Kala had given me? It didn’t feel the same but it was definitely some kind of magic.

It didn’t matter.

I needed to get back home. I needed to make sure my family was safe and that Lucy wasn’t bleeding to death in the woods. And that Kieran didn’t hate me, before he left for Scotland and I never saw him again.

I remembered the taste of his blood in my mouth. I’d bitten him long before that girl’s voice started to merge with my own. I couldn’t blame that on her, not entirely. She’d been there, in the background, but I’d been the one to bite him. Hadn’t I? And he still hadn’t turned me over to the hunters. He’d called Lucy instead of the Helios-Ra. He deserved an explanation. An apology. Everyone did.

When had I stopped being the girl with dried clay on her pants and a pathological need for solitude?

Guilt and worry would crush me if I let it. Right now, it didn’t matter why or who or what. It only mattered that I get myself back home to fix the mess I’d made.

I skirted the edge of the courtyard, staying in the shadows of the rosebushes and lilac trees. I passed stables and a dovecote. There was an orchard in the distance, and a gray stone wall beyond that. I stepped on the dirt path, uneven with ruts from carts and horseshoes, toward two round towers. I ducked between them, waiting for a guard to shout out my presence. Instead, there was only the wind and a stray chicken pecking for seeds. The sun was warm and pleasant on my face. It had only been a few months since my blood-change, but I still missed the daylight.

A longer path went downhill to a lower bailey and past a huge field full of armored men practicing with swords and lances and maces. Grizzled, scarred men fought with broadswords. A cluster of younger boys, around my age, loosed arrows at a haystack painted with red and white circles. Men on horseback charged at a heavy sack on a stick, and if they didn’t hit it just right, it swung back around to knock them off their saddles.

A shaft of sunlight fell on me, making my dress look like fire and my skin glow like pearls. The shadows around me darkened, as if my glowing skin were leeching the light from everything around me. I was a lantern on the longest, darkest moonless night.

Every knight stopped abruptly and turned to stare at me. And they didn’t look happy.

Guess I wasn’t invisible after all.

Crap.

I didn’t hesitate, didn’t wait to see if they were just curious, instead of outright malicious. I tore down the path toward the last two towers in the wall and the forest beyond it.

I already knew I wasn’t going to be fast enough.

The wind snarled in my hair as I pushed myself on. The pounding of hoofbeats behind me got closer and closer. Stones dug into the soles of my feet, cutting through my skin. I was running fast, but not vampire-fast. An arrow sliced past me, slamming into the ground. Daggers were sharp steel rain, just close enough to pin my hem to the ground. I tripped and tore free.

Hot horse breath echoed in my ears as a destrier caught up to me on my other side. The horse was massive, muscles bunching, sweat stinging the air, and clumps of dirt hitting my ankles. Light flashed off the length of a sword. No one spoke, which made it all that much more awful. They didn’t shout or laugh, only ran me to ground like a rabbit.

When I risked a glance over my shoulder, I actually stumbled to a stop, shock freezing my muscles so suddenly pain lanced through me.

It wasn’t just angry knights chasing me.

It was also a dragon.

I’d never seen anything like it. It was the dark, deep indigo blue of a summer evening, with curled silver talons and leathery wings that shimmered like the northern lights. Its scales gleamed like oil, like dark rainbows. When it opened its mouth, I saw teeth the size of my arm. I couldn’t help but remember the old woman in the cottage whispering the prophecy about the next Drake daughter.

Dragon by dragon defeated.

Flames hissed between giant teeth. Leaves caught fire and shriveled into ashes; grass burned around my toes. I covered my head and continued running. The knights stayed together, dispersing only when the flames got too close to them. The two knights at the end of the line turned to lift their lances at the dragon. Their horses struggled to bolt. No training in the world could make them ignore the giant-ass fire lizard in the sky.

Suddenly, being queen of the damned vampires seemed like a pretty great alternative.

The guard in the gatehouse was too busy taking cover to stop me. There was nothing between me and the forest except for a bridge over the moat ahead.

And the dead bodies.

The moat was full of bloated corpses, with bite marks all over them and bloodstains on their clothes. Blood floated in perfect ribbons in the water. I tried not to stare as I dashed down the bridge, which shook and trembled under the weight of the horses and knights still following me. The dragon followed us all, with no preference for whom he cooked to death with his breath.

Sweat clung to the back of my neck. One of the ribbons on my dress smoldered and I had to yank it off. The tip of a sword tore through my sleeve, piercing my skin. The dragon’s breath was like thunder overhead, and its shadow swallowed the light when it passed over me. I smelled burned hair and scorched earth. One of the knights fell screaming into the moat, the tunic under his armor on fire.

Flames ate through the grass. I kept my eyes on the forest. I needed to find trees that were too thick to let horses pass, where the leaves would conceal me from the dragon. The flap of leathery wings created whirlwinds of dirt and pine needles. My long skirt twisted around my knees. I stumbled, heat searing my back.

And then I was finally in the woods, running over the uncomfortable ground, heedless of my bare and bloody feet. It was cool and green, like the forest at home. The dragon blew more fire, scorching through the top branches. Birds fled, squawking. Fiery leaves fell over me, burning like paper. The knights stopped at the edge of the field, suddenly losing all interest. They turned as one and stalked back to the castle, as if they’d forgotten all about me. I found a sturdy tree and clambered up into the branches to get a better view. The knights had turned away even before the dragon lost sight of me and concentrated his fiery breath on them.

I clearly wasn’t a threat here in the dark green woods.

Which meant the castle was worth protecting.

Or at least something within it was worth protecting.

It wasn’t much to go on, but it was more than I’d known before. You know, when I was actually inside the castle, where the knowledge would have done me some good.

And then, dragons and dragon knights weren’t the only thing to worry about.