5. Chapter 4

"Find out all you can about those people. They came here somehow, find their car and check their license plate. Have the cleaners check their wallets." Devon's words were the first that penetrated my consciousness. I blinked. We were still inside this metallic carriage or bird or whatever it was. My eyes widened at the sight of the gray ocean we were flying over.

"All set in motion, boss," one of his men responded.

I felt better, much better. My throat wasn't parched any longer, and there was no more dizziness. Actually, my limbs hummed, ready to go running or swimming. My body yearned for some exercise as if it had been asleep for hundreds of years.

The metallic bird banked, and now we were flying over deep forests, so green that I yearned to explore it.

Devon's nearness unsettled and calmed me simultaneously. Who was this stranger who seemed so familiar to me? Why did he rescue me? Twice?

Guilt gnawed a hole into my stomach; he couldn't possibly know what he had gotten himself into. Roger was a vampire… had been a vampire. Devon killed him. Devon, I remembered his demon form and swallowed, tasting… something tangy and thick. I ignored that. I could only deal with so much at a time.

I must have stirred, because Devon realized I was awake. "Blanche, you're awake. How are you feeling?"

Stormy eyes stared down at me. A crease on his forehead indicated deep concern. "Better, thank you. The sleep must have refreshed me."

The crease deepened as if he were going to say something but thought better of it. "What do you remember?"

"About?"

"Anything," he responded vaguely.

"I don't know." My head hurt just trying to think about it, so I didn't and asked instead, "Why did you help me? How do you know my name?"

I only caught the glint of hurt moving over his expression because I scrutinized him so hard. Otherwise, I was sure no one would have ever seen it.

"It's a long story, and I'm not sure you're ready for it yet," he said, and the kernel of truth behind it resonated with me.

"My father," I began, unsure of how to finish this sentence. "I think… I think he's a very dangerous man."

I searched his features for any trace of regret about helping me, but all I found was confidence and self-assurance. An arrogant line spread across his lips. "I assure you; I have handled powerful men before. Your father will regret coming after you."

The metallic bird rose higher as we reached an array of majestic mountains. "Almost there," he whispered.

Anticipation filled me. Where was he taking me?

"Nobody knows about this place, so nobody will ever find you here," he promised.

His words sent shivers down my spine. I should have been frightened. His statement had two meanings, after all. Strangely, .

"There." He pointed up a steep cliff.

It took me a moment to see it, but it took my breath away when I did. Shrouded in mist and highlighted by the dying moon's light, a castle slowly came into view. It almost appeared to be carved out of the mountain. How could that be possible , I wondered.

Once we came closer, I noticed that the castle had been build on a cliff overhang, leaving a narrow trail to its entrance, making it nearly impenetrable.

Something was familiar about it. But that couldn't be…

My musings were interrupted as the flying carriage lowered on one of the square towers.

"Do you want me to carry you?" Devon offered.

Strangely, I felt well-rested and a need to stretch my legs, so I declined his offer. I did take his hand to help me out of the mechanical bird. Just like before, fire rushed through my veins the moment our palms touched.

Outside, the wind whipped my hair this way and that. But this breeze was natural and didn't come from the contraption behind me. I lifted my head toward it, closing my eyes for a moment. Inhaling deeply, I took in the scent the forest carried toward me. A stronger, more pungent smell came off the beast that had carried us here, but I ignored that.

"Mister Deville, it's so good to see you again," a new voice called out.

"Maddox!" Devon greeted the man who approached us. "Blanche, this is my steward, Jason Maddox. Jason, this is Lady Blanche Montford."

A wave of dizziness and nausea overcame me when Devon introduced me. Lady Blanche Montford. The familiar words called up good and bad times, leaving my head spinning like everything that reminded me of my past seemed to do.

I plastered a smile on my face. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Master Maddox."

"Come, let me show you the castle. You will probably want a bath, some clothes, maybe rest?" Devon offered. The thought of food didn't entice me even though I figured I should have been starving by now.

"This is… amazing," I praised as I followed Devon to the edge of the battlements.

One side overlooked a steep drop down a sheer cliff with large pines and a river at the bottom. The other side offered a view of a courtyard I would have expected to find teeming with life. The utter absence of anything—people and horses—left me baffled, especially since the sun was about to rise.

Servants should have been bustling. But there was nothing.

Questioningly, I turned toward Devon, who gave me a proud smile. "What do you think?"

I bit down the questions burning on my tongue and smiled back at him. "It's magnificent."

I wasn't lying. It truly was. It was only the absence of servants and animals that unsettled me, so I gave it a voice. "Where is everyone?"

"This isn't a working castle any longer, Blanche," he answered carefully.

"Any more?" I latched on, realizing again, that I must have slept for a long time. I was about to ask how long exactly when one of the first rays of the sun broke through and landed on my arm. With a cry, I drew back and stared, confused, at my smoking flesh. It looked as if a fire had been lit on it and burned like it, too.

"Shit," Devon cursed, then he put me protectively under his arms and pulled me to the same door from which Maddox had emerged.

As soon as we reached the coolness of the tower, my arm stopped hurting, and the burned skin mended itself.

"Devon?" I cried.

"I'll explain later," he said through clenched teeth, directing me down the winding stairs. Torches hung in regular intervals along the spiraling walls but looked entirely different from the ones I was used to—again, a slight spell of dizziness overcame me as a memory of torches with licking flames and smoke seared through me—but no smoke swirled from these; no heat emanated. They flickered like fire, yet those were not real flames rising up and spinning.

When we reached the ground floor, he led me, keeping to the shadows, through a familiar courtyard toward the main building, and even before we entered it, I knew where we were. So many questions churned inside my head. It was dizzying—a state that was slowly becoming my new norm.

With sudden clarity, I saw myself as a child growing up in this very castle. I knew it deep inside my gut, yet the surroundings were entirely different. My castle had stood overseeing the ocean. Fields had stretched on the other side as far as the eye could see. Cottages had dotted the landscape, some by the edges of the fields. To the east had been a small town. What kind of magic had not only transported me here, but my home as well?