Page 33 of Dhampira

I swung my gaze back to the forest in time to see Alon disappear among the trees. Around me, the courtiers bared their fangs and hissed.

Rasimir gave a delighted-sounding laugh, then barked over his shoulder. “Lord Seldare, get us started!”

A courtier farther down the line of horses put a horn to his lips and blew. The mournful blast sounded again. As one, the courtiers spurred their horses into a gallop.

I can’t do this. I couldn’t hunt Alon for sport. He wasn’t an animal. He had thoughts and dreams. I’d conversed with him. I couldn’t—

“Go!” Vander shouted, slapping my horse’s rump. The mare lurched forward, and we were off, racing across the clearing. The horses’ hooves and my own heartbeat thundered in my ears. The wind tore at my hair. Lorcan and Vander flanked me, their bodies low over their horses’ necks. Ahead, courtiers plunged into the trees.

Too fast. I was going too fast to enter safely. I tugged on the mare’s reins, but she continued her breakneck pace. The tree line sped toward me, the trunks blurring. I cringed…held my breath…

My stomach dropped out from under me as the mare leaped a fallen tree trunk and sailed into the forest. She landed without slowing, and my teeth clicked together as I clung to the reins. The impact jogged my memory of racing through Sausberg’s streets on Maddox. Apparently, Vander trained all of his horses to ignore their riders and run like a crowd of angry nobles was chasing them.

Shouts and whoops of laughter rang through the trees. Branches cracked as horses crashed over the ground. My mare continued her bruising pace, her steps light and agile. Occasionally she jumped an obstacle, and I whimpered as my body went weightless. Sweat trickled down my back. Trees whipped past in a brown-and-green blur. Vander kept pace with me, his russet waves plastered to his head by the wind. There was no sign of Lorcan.

The trees thinned, and sunlight fell to the forest floor in thick shafts. The air sparkled like spun sugar. With every breath, the sweet scent of Nocta filled my lungs.

Gripping my reins, I scanned ahead for Alon. Maybe he’d outrun the courtiers. Maybe he knew a hiding place in the forest. Or maybe the courtiers would simply feed from him and then let him go.

Ahead, white flashed among the green.

“There!” someone shouted. More shouts rang out. Horses flew past me. Courtiers appeared from all sides, their eyes glowing like they were lit from within. A woman laughed as she streaked forward. Gripping her horse’s reins in one hand, she pulled an arrow from the quiver on her back.

Alon burst from behind a tree, his white shirt like a flag. His feet kicked up dirt as he ran faster. But it didn’t matter. The woman drew her bow and fired.

The arrow slammed into Alon’s back.

I cried out as he went down. More arrows thunked into the ground beside him, the feathers quivering. A second arrow caught him behind the knee. Alon screamed hoarsely, then clawed at the ground like he meant to get up. A third arrow whistled and struck him in the buttock. Alon went limp.

“Stop!” I screamed, yanking hard on my reins. My horse reared, and I slid backward in the saddle. Just as I squeezed my eyes shut and prepared to fall, the mare slammed down her front legs. Vander appeared out of nowhere, his big hand snatching my reins from me before I could recover.

“Let go,” I growled, trying to slide from the saddle.

Silver eyes glinted. Vander’s mouth was a thin slash in his pale face. “Corinthe, listen to me.”

“No!”

Twigs snapped, and Rasimir trotted into view with Lorcan at his side. A dozen breathless courtiers emerged from the trees, and suddenly I was surrounded by vampires. Bright eyes bored into me.

My father walked his horse forward, his narrowed gaze traveling from Vander’s grip on my reins to my sweaty face. His lips curved in a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You seem eager to claim your quarry, Daughter.” He tipped his head toward Alon. “Go ahead.”

“What?” My voice emerged as a whimper as I looked from Rasimir to Alon. The servant writhed on the ground, his pitiful cries drifting back to us.

“This hunt is for you,” Rasimir said. “We held it in your honor. The quarry is yours to claim.” The smile dropped from his face. “So go claim it.”

His meaning was clear. Rasimir meant for me to drink Alon. To sink my fangs into him and drain his blood. The servant was fatally injured. I’d assisted Mama enough times to know there was no surviving those arrows. Not near the spine. Not embedded that deeply in the muscle. Alon was dying.

He was supposed to. I was supposed to finish him.

“I can’t,” I said, more sweat dampening my back. “He’ll pull me with him.” Drinking from someone who was actively dying was madness. As the life force left them, the vampire risked getting sucked into death, too. But that wasn’t the only danger. Feeding deeply meant absorbing a victim’s memories. Good and bad, they flowed through blood like water through a broken dam. Memories taken from the living faded with time. But a dying person’s memories clung like desperate fingers, refusing to let go. Vampire after vampire had been driven insane by the accumulated weight of stolen lives, their minds fracturing under the pressure of experiences they had no right to possess. It’s one of the few rules vampires follow, my mother had said. Never drink the dying. She hadn’t reminded me in a long time. Because she never expected me to try something so stupid.

Rasimir’s eyes glittered, and when he spoke, his voice held winter’s chill. “That’s a myth. The servant is of Nocta. His blood contains power. The only way to harness it is to drink him as he fades. We grow stronger when we take power from others. I have done this, as have others among my court. As my heir, you will do the same.”

Fear was a vise around my chest. The courtiers were utterly still as they watched, waiting to see if I would defy the king.

All of Nocta bows before King Rasimir. He’d conquered everyone. Lorcan. The witches. The trolls and werewolves. The centaur I’d seen on the road. The pixies who glared at Vander like he was the enemy.

Because he was. Vander worked for my father, and my father was exactly what everyone on both sides of the Feyline claimed. A monster.