A Shade of Vampire 25: A Clan of Novaks (12 page)

B
astien headed
into his apartment briefly before we left, to retrieve the satchel still filled with blades and arrows, as well as his belt and bow.

Then he took me downstairs, to a larger dining hall than the one we’d sat in last night, where a table was laid out with an array of breakfast items. There was nobody in this room, and judging by the mostly empty metal food containers, the rest of the wolves had already eaten. I forced myself to eat more than I had last night. I might not be hungry, but I also wasn’t stupid. I needed strength for the journey ahead. Still, I didn’t want anything too heavy. I filled my plate with a pile of exotic-looking nuts and a handful of round pink fruits that resembled plums, but whose texture was fleshy and slimy, more like jackfruit. Then I drank a large cup of milk—which, for all I knew, could have been wolf milk, for it didn’t taste like cow’s milk. I preferred not to ask Bastien.

Once I was done with my meal and he was done with his much larger one, we headed to the exit, where a large pack of wolves were waiting. I estimated over fifty in total. Surely not all of them were Northstones, though I guessed that they must have all been related to them in one way or another.

Many turned to eye me coldly as they noticed us approach. They had similar looks of suspicion in their eyes as Brucella.
I guess they’re all wondering whether I have stolen Bastien’s virtue, too…
If the poor guy ever fell in love with a wolf other than Rona, I wondered whether all of these wolves would go after her, along with Brucella. It certainly looked like it, from the way they were glaring at me.

I gripped Bastien’s arm, moving closer to him, as we all began to pile out of the mountain and assemble in the clearing outside.

It being daytime, all of the other wolves were stuck in their human forms. Although Bastien could’ve turned at will into his wolf form, to my surprise, he stayed human.

I climbed onto Bastien’s back as the wolves began bolting into the woods. Once he’d clamped his hands around my legs, checking that I was secure, he raced after them.

“So where exactly are we going first? Which tribe?” I asked Bastien, even as I struggled to breathe against his ear due to the speed he was running at. He had only just started and he was already outpacing all of them, even the werewolves who were taller than him.

“The Bonereaver tribe,” he said with a grimace.

“And do you know them personally?” I asked.

“Some of them,” he replied. “I can’t stand them. The only reason we’re heading there first is because Sergius has some relations with them. Otherwise, they would be the absolute last on my agenda… maybe not even on my agenda at all,” he added beneath his breath.

“Why do you dislike them so much?” I asked, as Bastien ducked down to avoid a low-hanging branch.

“Oh, come now, Bastien!” Brucella’s voice shrilled before he could reply. I cast a look back to see that she was trailing right behind us, not so subtly eavesdropping. “They’re not that bad.”

Bastien rolled his eyes, but said nothing.

“Just because you and Dane quibbled as children doesn’t mean you have to paint them all with the same brush.” She sped up in an attempt to run level with Bastien, but as she increased her pace, so did Bastien.

“It’s not just about Dane,” he muttered. “It’s their whole… vibe. I’ve never been able to see eye to eye with them.”

“You should get to know Dane’s older brother, Regnard,” Brucella persisted, as if she hadn’t heard what Bastien had just said. “I’m sure you would get on well with him.”

Bastien did not bother replying to this. Instead, he surged forward, making it even more impossible for her to catch up to us. Then, without warning, he thrust upward and we went shooting into the tree branches above.

“Bastien?” Brucella’s voice drifted up. “What are you doing?”

God. She behaves like his mother.

“Where are you going, Bastien?” It was Sergius this time.

“Just keep going,” Bastien called down over his shoulder, even as he swung higher with me. “I’ll be traveling alongside you still. Just from up here.”

“We don’t want you getting lost,” Brucella called.

“I know the way,” Bastien growled down, even as he took a giant leap and thrust from one tree to the next. The food in my stomach churned. I was glad that I had not eaten more than I had.

The wind trailed its cool fingers through my hair, leaves brushing against the back of my head, as Bastien swung gracefully amidst branches. As he gained momentum, his limbs were fluid, precise, breathtakingly powerful. It was hardly even bumpy anymore, just one long flow of movement as we flooded through the trees.

I pressed my cheek down hard against the back of his neck, listening to his soft breathing. I slanted a glance at his face. His eyes were alight, shining with adrenaline.

I could barely even hear the stampede of werewolves whizzing through the undergrowth below. Although I was sure I caught Brucella’s voice calling up to Bastien every now and then, it was distant enough to be mistaken for the cawing of a crow.

He scaled the trees higher, until finally we burst out through the canopy of leaves into a world of pure blue sky and dazzling sunshine. He paused for a moment, casting his gaze outward and admiring the view. I was certainly admiring it. An ocean of trees stretched out for miles around us, and bordering our right were more mountains.

“Are you all right?” he asked softly.

I tightened my hold around his neck. “Yes. I’m, uh, actually enjoying this a lot more than the last time you carried me.”
A lot more
. The night he had swept me up and away from the hunters’ compound had been utterly terrifying. I hadn’t known him then… not that I knew him now, of course. But I’d come to trust him enough in the past couple of days to feel safe in his grasp. To know that he would not let me fall. He was a master of these trees.

My answer seemed to please Bastien. Invigorate him, even. I could practically feel his body pulsing with electricity as he leapt to the next treetop. He was on fire, his spirit wild and free.

I couldn’t help but feel that no matter how much time he spent as a human, he’d always be more beast than man.

A
s I flew
through the trees with Victoria, no speed was fast enough. With my aunt’s vexatious voice finally muffled, it felt like we were in a world of our own. A world in which the troubles beneath us did not exist. A world in which I was still happy.

I pushed myself harder, even as Victoria gasped. I gripped her legs and fastened her closer around me. She should not worry about falling. I would never let that happen.

Sweet Victoria. She didn’t know how much she’d helped me during these last few days.

After she had freed me from the cage and I’d escaped back through the portal, I’d never felt more vulnerable in my life. Even after I’d managed to climb a tree and escape being noticed, I could barely register it as a victory. A crippling despair had clawed at my chest, taking over my mind and practically blinding me. The very basis of my existence was my family, and in my entire life, I had never been alone. They were my foundation. My epicenter. My meaning. We’d done everything together since I’d been a cub. We’d hunted, eaten, fought, defended, laughed, cried, rejoiced as one. Being the youngest of seven siblings, I’d never known a world without them.

After watching them stripped from me before my very eyes, it felt like my chest had been gouged open. Most of what had happened next was a blur. I’d just been aware of the pain, inside, not outside, even as they maimed me.

Then Victoria the stranger had arrived outside my cage and insisted I be freed. It was that glimmer of kindness she’d shown me that had sparked life in me again, that fleeting connection with another feeling, living being. Fragile human that she was, she had unknowingly fulfilled a need so deep within me, so primal, that it breathed soul into me.

After I had left her to return through the portal, escaped the compound, and stumbled through the woods outside, I hadn’t been sure what I should do or where I should go. The world had seemed vacant and I’d wondered why I was even still in it. Nothing made sense. Nothing seemed fair.

Then I had heard Victoria’s cry for help, and it had been a call straight to my heart. Her vulnerability became my strength. Suddenly, purpose returned to me. There was somebody who needed me. Somebody who was kind and had shown goodwill toward me needed it back in return. As I had raced back to the compound, somehow, I’d managed to block out all other thoughts from my mind. The desperation. The grief. My only focus had become saving Victoria.

She’d become my salvation in that long, dark night, as I raced her away to safety.

I was not sure what I would have done without her. I didn’t know how I would’ve coped returning to my lair only to find out that my uncle and cousin had been the betrayers… or whether I would have had the fortitude now to face what was up ahead of us. It would kill me when we finally discovered a portal. The Northstones might be my relatives by blood, but they were not by soul. I felt closer to Victoria than I did to them, and I barely even knew her.

“Do you know how much longer it will be?” Victoria murmured against my ear, lifting me from my reverie.

Poor girl. She had done so much traveling of late, and there would be much more to do yet. Still, I would look after her. I would make sure that she was as comfortable as possible. She need not fear while I was around.

“We can lower to the ground to check now,” I said, realizing that hers was a good question. “I think we’re nearing our destination. The Bonereavers do not live so far from the Northstones.”

As loath as I was to leave this wondrous world of open sky and treetops, I descended with Victoria to the ground.

As I gazed around, it appeared that we had traveled quite far ahead of the rest of the wolves. They were nowhere in sight yet. I smirked to myself as I imagined the look on Brucella’s face as I had lifted Victoria up into the trees and out of sight. She fully believed that I would still marry her daughter. And she would continue to harass me about it. But I could not step into that cage. I did not love Rona the way I guessed a lover should. I did not know exactly how one ought to feel—for I had never been in love—but from the bond I’d witnessed between my parents, I knew that it should be something stronger, something more powerful, than what I felt for my cousin. If my refusal to wed her meant that I had to be “single” all my life, as Victoria had put it, then so be it. I refused to let Brucella put chains on me.

Encircling a bush several feet to our right, I pointed out to Victoria the large gaping hole in the ground—the entrance to the Bonereavers’ abode.

“At least there are no hunters around,” Victoria said, her eyes darting across the enclosure.

I looked around again. The Northstones still had not caught up with us.

A snapping of twigs drew my attention from behind. I whirled around to see a man springing from the bushes. He was unmistakably a Bonereaver. I grimaced at the sight. Crude people who talked too much and did too little, with egos bigger than the moon.

I recognized this werewolf by face, though not by name. He was thickly built with long shaggy hair and a beard that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a week. He was shorter than me, though, I had my parents’ fine bloodlines to thank for the fact that I was taller and larger than most wolves in The Woodlands, especially after shifting.

He raised a spear he’d been clutching in one hand and poised it in front of him, pointing it toward my chest.

I backed Victoria against the bushes and stood firmly in front of her, even as I swept out my bow and an arrow from my satchel. I considered simply turning into a wolf to scare him off, but I did not want to rip my clothes just now. I only had a limited number of sets in my satchel, and I certainly did not want to waste one on a Bonereaver.

“What are you doing here?” the man snarled. His eyes flickered from Victoria—mostly hidden behind me—to me.

I aimed my arrow at his chest. “I suggest you calm down,” I said, gazing at him steadily. “I have come here with the Northstones. They wish to speak with your leader regarding a matter of great importance to all of us.”

His eyes narrowed on me, but I was spared trying to convince him further of my innocence when the rest of our pack burst into the clearing—Brucella and Sergius at the lead.

“Cedar!” Brucella exclaimed, arriving at our side.

Cedar lowered his spear and, prying his eyes from me, fixed them on my aunt and uncle.

“I see you have already met Bastien,” Brucella said. “Our dear nephew.”

I could just imagine her adding on, “And my future son-in-law,” if only Rona were not present. I glanced at my cousin at the back of the pack as Cedar began leading us into the burrow. Rona was innocent in all of this, which made me feel guilty in a way for stalling her marriage. She deserved a mate just as much as any she-wolf. I—and she—just had to hope that eventually Brucella would stop waiting for me, and in desperation to get her daughter married, relinquish the betrothal and find another suitor for her daughter.

Something told me, however, from what I knew of my aunt, that this would not happen any time soon.

As we moved into the burrow, I kept an arm around Victoria’s small waist, keeping her close to me. Cedar led us deep into the earth’s bowels until we emerged in an entrance chamber.

Cedar left us, assuring my aunt and uncle that he would fetch the leader, Weldon Bonereaver, and his wife, Annik Bonereaver. In the meantime, he called for a couple of werewolves to bring us wine. I rolled my eyes. Wine at this time of day was typical of this tribe. These wolves spent more time drunk than sober. Hopefully the grave news we were about to deliver to them would make them lose their appetite for alcohol, for a while at least.

None of us accepted a drink, and instead we waited in silence until finally Dane’s parents Weldon and Annik arrived. Weldon was of the same short and stocky build as Cedar, while his wife was tall, slender and graceful, originating from a different pack. Weldon’s eyes traversed the room. I steeled myself as his gaze fell on me. His eyes darkened immediately. Annik also glared daggers.

“What is he doing here?” he demanded of my uncle.

Sergius heaved a sigh. “Weldon, you know that he is my nephew. Please, let us not divert our attention to Bastien at a time like this. We have urgent matters to discuss. If it would make you more comfortable, take us somewhere else and we will talk to you without Bastien present.”

Weldon nodded slowly. He cast me one last dirty look before he and his wife left the room with Sergius and Brucella, leading them deeper into their lair. I hadn’t been expecting to do much talking during this trip, anyway. I’d already relayed all the information to my aunt and uncle that was required in order to convince other packs to unite with us. I grimaced at the thought of all the other packs we were going to have to face, although the Bonereavers were the pack with whom I held the most animosity.

I led Victoria to a cluster of chairs in the corner of the chamber and sat down with her, keenly aware of her still damaged ankle.

“Why do they hate you so much?” she asked in a whisper.

I heaved a sigh. “That story goes a long way back,” I replied in a low voice.

It was also a story that I would prefer to not recount to Victoria, for it was rather disturbing. And I had caused her enough disturbance already—if she had not freed me, she would not have been separated from her family in the first place.

“It’s due to an old family feud,” I concluded. Which was the truth. Just not the full truth.

The feud had started because of Dane and me. My parents used to be on fairly good terms with his parents, and our tribes had lived much closer to each other. Back when I was seventeen, Dane, the eldest son of Weldon and Annik—and three years my senior—had taken a disconcerting liking to my sister, who had been less than a year older than me. She had already been betrothed to another man—a man I knew she cared for. Dane had always been an animal in every sense of the word. He respected no one’s boundaries, and he had a disgusting sense of entitlement. Especially when it came to females. I still shuddered to think what would have happened that night if he’d managed to steal my sister into the woods. If I had not noticed him crossing the clearing from my bedroom window, and if I hadn’t arrived in time to fight him off—tearing one of his eyes out in the process—he would’ve had his way with my sister.

Even though Dane had clearly been in the wrong, his parents were too proud to admit it and they immediately severed all ties with my parents. They’d relocated to this hole. To this day they had never forgiven me for what I did to Dane, and I had never forgiven him for what he’d tried to do to my sister.

I
expected
Sergius and Brucella to be longer talking to Weldon and Annik. But they emerged again after barely half an hour. Apparently, my aunt and uncle had been successful. More wolves followed after them, flooding into the entrance chamber until it became so packed that I took Victoria’s hand and led her toward the exit. I wanted to speak to my aunt and uncle to ask them for details about how it had gone, but they were still in conversation with the Bonereaver leaders, talking about where we would travel next. The Kaelins, by the sound of it. They were a pack that was not in allegiance with the Northstones, nor with my own family, the Blackhalls, but the Bonereavers had relations with them. I didn’t know much about the Kaelins, but based on what I caught of their conversation as Victoria and I made our way back out into the open, their lair was not far from here.

Aside from the claustrophobia, there was another reason why I was keen to step out of that burrow once the Bonereavers started gathering to leave. Dane. I wanted to avoid him as much as I could. And I wanted Victoria to avoid him, too.

The Northstones emerged from the burrow and moved toward us, Lavonna and Rona near the front. Sergius and Brucella followed after them, followed by the Bonereavers. Victoria and I backed up beneath the shade of a tree as I surveyed the crowd piling out. And then I caught sight of him. The one-eyed man, Dane.

I looked away before he had a chance to spot me and make eye contact. He didn’t look much different from the last time I’d seen him. He had an extra scar on his cheek, a more pronounced jawline and protruding Adam’s apple, but otherwise he was the same man—the same old Dane I despised.

“Where are we headed next?” Victoria asked. Her human ears would not have picked up on Sergius and Brucella’s conversation with the Bonereaver leaders amid the hubbub of the chamber.

“To visit a tribe known as the Kaelins,” I replied.

Her eyes bulged. “The Kaelins?” she gasped.

I frowned. “Yes. Why?”

“I know a Kaelin. That’s if he’s from the same tribe. Micah Kaelin is his name. He lives with us in The Shade, but before that he had left The Woodlands due to a disagreement with the head of his pack. He became a wanderer.”

“That’s interesting,” I remarked. “I’m sure there is only one Kaelin tribe in The Woodlands.”

“Are we ready to leave?” Sergius’ voice boomed through our conversation. There must have been at least three hundred wolves milling about the small clearing now. There were many nods and murmurs of agreement. “Then let us go,” Sergius said.

I
could not swing
through the trees like I had done when traveling to the Bonereavers, because I did not know the way to the Kaelins. It turned out to be a journey that lasted several hours. By the time we arrived, it was dark, all of my fellow travelers now turned into wolves, while I remained human for Victoria’s sake. I knew it was more comfortable for her to cling to my back while I was a man than while I was a wolf.

Like the Bonereavers, the Kaelins had also made their lair underground, in a burrow. I didn’t bother entering this one, and neither did the Northstones. This was a job for Weldon and Annik.

Waiting for them couldn’t have been more awkward, being surrounded by Bonereavers. What I’d done to Dane all those years ago had of course made me an enemy to all of them. I was glad that—at least so far—nobody had come up to me, though I did catch Dane glancing my way. Disconcertingly, he had been eyeing Victoria when I looked up. On realizing I’d noticed, he immediately cast his eye away.