Chapter 5

5

Ella

By the time we caught the bloody-minded sow, it was nearly midnight. Tarran insisted on walking me back to the manor, although we both knew that there was nothing either of us could do if one of the bloodsuckers came for us.

I was glad for the escort all the same.

Tarran knew me well enough not to press me about what had happened, and I was grateful. I was still processing the assault. I could almost feel the bastard's hands clawing at my ankles and neck and hear his half-crazed voice echoing in the back of my mind. People whispered that sometimes the immortals went mad with bloodlust and lost control of their thirst. Was that what had happened to him?

I shuddered. They were monsters. Maybe they were all like that.

Yet I couldn't imagine the dark rider ever giving in to anything close to the madness that had seemed to possess the bloodsucker—not like that. He had a will of iron. Every motion he'd made was precise and practiced. In a way, his cold perfection terrified me more than the brutality of my assailant had. What cruelty would a man with that kind of control be capable of?

I thanked the Fates that I was free of them all.

Tarran lingered once we reached the gate. I bid him goodnight, but he gently caught my hand as I turned to leave. "Are you sure you're going to be okay, El?"

I raised my eyebrows playfully. "And what if I'm not? What would you even do? What can any of us do?"

We were just livestock to them.

He tightened his fingers around mine. "I could sleep in the hayloft. That way, I'd be near if you needed me."

The way his gaze swept over me told me that protecting me wasn't the first thing on his mind. He was strong and handsome, and I couldn't deny he was attractive—but I wasn't the only girl he looked at in that way.

I pulled away with a shake of my head. "My stepmother would have you whipped in the town square if she had any inkling that you'd lingered here all night. You'd better get going in case she peeks out the window."

Tarran gave me a rueful grin. "Well, I guess you know where to find me, should you need me." With that, he turned and headed down the road.

My smile faded as I started toward the door. Every bone in my body ached, and all I wanted was my own soft bed. That would be heaven.

I pulled the handle of the back door, and it clunked dully. Locked .

What little spirit I had left drained from my soul, and I placed my forehead against the unyielding door. "You've got to be kidding me."

Perhaps all the talk of bloodsuckers had spooked my stepmother—or perhaps she'd noticed I was late and was intent on teaching me another lesson. Either way, I'd be getting an earful in the morning when she realized I wasn't in my bed.

I closed my eyes. The woman was doing her best to raise us strong, but damn, sometimes she could be a piece of work.

The front door and first floor windows were also locked, and trying to climb to the second floor seemed like a great way to break an ankle or bust my pumpkin open.

Pip squeaked from where he was hidden beneath my hair, and I gave him a little scratch. "Looks like we're camping in the hayloft. At least we won't have to listen to her snoring from down the hall."

He nuzzled against my fingers and chittered in support.

My stepmother's mares snorted as I trudged into the barn and climbed the ladder into the hayloft. Serves you right , they seemed to say.

I sighed as I flopped my aching bones down on a pile of golden hay. It prickled my skin and poked through my clothes, but the hayloft was warm, dark, and reasonably soft. Seeing as I'd nearly been murdered a few hours back, I was pretty damn content.

I rolled over to look at Pip in the dim light. "This isn't too bad, is it, little buddy?"

He nestled down beside me, making soft little grunts and squeaks as he vigorously dug about in the hay to form a sleeping nest.

I closed my eyes and collapsed in the embrace of a deep sleep, and with it, dark dreams.

I was alone in the woods. Everywhere I looked, the shadows seemed to bend and move. And then he was there, fangs glinting in the moonlight. Not the bloodsucker who'd chased me, but the dark rider with his raven hair and stormy eyes.

I ran as fast as I could, with him on my heels. It seemed like the forest had come alive and was trying to stop him, but he wouldn't be deterred. The stable appeared before me. I fumbled with the latch, but he was on me in an instant, pinning me against the wooden wall. His body pressed against mine, rigid with corded muscles and as immobile as iron. I pushed back, but it was like we were moving in waves, like I wasn't struggling at all, but rather melting into him, our bodies entwining and becoming one. His hands drifted down my sides, and I felt his lips brush along my neck. Ella .

I gasped as I sat up, my heart pounding and skin slick with sweat.

A razor of sunlight streamed through the wooden slats, and I raised my hand to shield my eyes. Dust motes danced in the still air, and mercifully, I was alone.

"No way." Pip was nowhere to be found as I scrambled up and hurried down the ladder. "I'm not having those kinds of dreams, not about them ."

Bloodsuckers.

But it hadn't really been about them, but him .

The barnyard was awake, though it wasn't as late as I'd feared—just after dawn. The windows were open, which meant my stepmother had risen early. I tried the back door of the house, and it swung wide.

My skin iced the moment I stepped inside. My stepmother was waiting, still as a statue in the corner of the kitchen. I swallowed, and she stepped close, plucking a strand of hay from my dress. "Where were you?" she asked, her voice as cold and sharp as a knife, and dripping with just as much threat.

"You locked me out. I had to sleep in the hayloft."

"You were out late gallivanting with that farm boy, weren't you? I swear, if you let him touch you or take you down in the hay?—"

"Fates, nothing happened between us!" I said as I pushed around her. "I had to catch his damn pig, then I came home and slept alone . You know when I'm lying. I'm not."

She studied my face, and at last, a fraction of the tension slipped from her shoulders. "You girls are going to be the death of me."

"We're the only reason this place is still running and that there's food on the table," I said sharply, my patience thinning.

Her lips tensed. "Which is why we should have sold it an age ago?—"

"No." I said forcefully. "This is our home."

She hadn't wanted to keep it after Father disappeared, but Belle and I had fought for every inch. The manor had been his pride and joy, and it was all we had left of him.

Her brow furrowed, and lines pulled down the corners of her mouth. She was about to say something when a knock sounded at the door.

Who could it be this early?

My stepmother shooed me out the back. "I have business to attend to today, and so do you. Finish the chores and wait outside until my visitors are gone. Then you and I are going to have a reckoning to make sure yesterday never happens again."

The chickens were already protesting their confinement, so I quickly splashed a little water from the well on my face and headed around the corner of the house.

My path brought me near the sitting room window, and my stepmother's hushed voice stopped me cold in my tracks. "Have you found her?"

My heart skipped a beat, and I ducked down beneath the window with my thoughts racing. If the visitors had come with news about Belle, then why had my stepmother sent me away? Was she afraid something bad had happened?

"The latest word is that she's been confined to the castle, but we don't know why," a man said in a hushed tone. I thought it was the village butcher speaking, but I wasn't certain.

"Could she have been caught?"

"We don't know," a woman said—the village seamstress. She was almost as hard as my stepmother and equally feared among the town's girls. "Without Belle, we don't have anyone running information in and out. We were lucky to learn this much."

My mind reeled. Belle had been running information in and out of the castle? But why? I knew she visited to sell her herbs and sometimes to guide the lords, but she'd never told me anything about the place other than to stay far away.

I leaned against the wall as my stomach tumbled. She and my stepmother had been keeping secrets.

"This is why we need more people," my stepmother said.

"More people, more chances of someone getting caught," the butcher muttered. "Those bloodsuckers know ways to make people speak, and if Belle?—"

"She'd never betray the resistance," my stepmother snapped.

Everything I thought I knew about my stepmother and my sister came crashing down in a thousand glistening shards, like the world was made of glass and had been hit by a sledgehammer.

The resistance?

It was little more than a rumor, a hushed murmur in the tavern, whispers exchanged in the back alleys of town.

According to the histories, our people had revolted against the immortals three centuries ago, led by a coven of powerful mages. Yet despite their magic, the Uprising had failed. The bloodsuckers crushed the human army, executed the mages, and purged all magic from the land. They'd ruled the Bloodvale ever since, and no one had dared challenge them.

Except, perhaps, the resistance.

When we were girls, Belle and I had imagined that Father had been part of it and that he'd disappeared on a secret mission. We'd dreamed up heroic stories and adventures that he'd undertaken to fight the immortals—stories that made not knowing the truth a little less painful. Something to give us hope in this forsaken place.

But suddenly, the resistance wasn't a child's tale anymore. It was real, and my stepmother and sister were a part of it. They were living a life I'd only dreamed of in secret.

Had my father been a part of it, too?

"What are our options?" my stepmother asked, yanking me out of my astonishment.

"With the ball coming up, the castle is hiring a handful of new live-in servants," the seamstress said, her voice pinched. "That's why we came so quickly. This is our chance to get someone else inside."

"We already have someone inside," my stepmother said. "We need someone who can come and go."

"This is the best shot," the butcher countered. "We'll have to risk using ravens to communicate. The royal masquerade is almost here."

"Then who do we send? It will be extremely dangerous, and I'm not sure there's anyone I trust?—"

The words slipped off me like rain. I wasn't even listening anymore. I was running to the back door and up the steps. I didn't care about danger or secrets or immortals. All I cared about was finding Belle.

I burst into the sitting room, breathing hard. "Send me."

The two visitors bolted upright, and the blood drained from my stepmother's face. Her lips curled back. "What are you doing here, treacherous girl?"

She tried to drive me back into the kitchen, but I slipped around her like she was a charging sow and took up a position in the far corner. "I heard everything. I want in. I want to find my sister."