Accidentally Married To A Demon - Mila Young Page 0,50

infuse it, letting it seep into the cracks of the post, cementing it back in place.

"Sorry," I whispered to the vine, running my fingers over the leaves. "I'm trying to help, I promise. Don't mean any of you any harm."

I had no idea if talking to the plants would do any good, but on the off-chance that Cretu actually could communicate with them, I didn't want any bad stories seeping out about me to the dryad, who would probably crush me with roots for mistreating her babies.

Another deep breath, forcing myself into calm, but this time I found myself sinking to my knees, placing my hands on the earth. It was loamy, made out precisely the way that grapevines liked it, and reaching out this time had my mind slipping under the ground, in with the roots, connecting with the plants—hundreds of them.

Simple beings, but all connected, thinking together, acting like a nervous system with no center, all working together to keep themselves alive and prospering. Weird to feel, but easy to connect with as I opened them up to the nutrients being pulled up from the ground.

It grew easier and easier with every second that ticked by. Each plant grew more and more receptive to the new influence, making it so that all I had to do was draw the nutrients from deep inside the earth, farther down than their roots could go, feeding them, driving them to grow.

Warning.

Something was wrong. Danger.

The concepts were sent to me by the vines all around, and I opened my eyes, snapping the connection and fall back onto the ground, wiping the sweat that had collected on my forehead.

The vines had grown dense, almost making up a forest around me, with thick, luscious purple grapes hanging from hundreds, thousands of clusters.

More than ready to be harvested.

But then what was wrong?

I looked around to where Dracul was still barking, shaking and driving himself around Bram's legs to take his attention. The two looked more tense, more alert, trying to find the source of the danger as the sky was just starting to show a little more light on the eastern horizon.

The hellhounds had arrived.

"Crap," I whispered, patting one of the vines before pushing myself up to my feet.

It still felt crazy to be talking to plants, despite what I'd learned about them tonight.

Chapter 18

Rog and Bram were both standing their ground, speaking quickly in Romanian.

"Do you guys sense something?" I asked.

Both jumped. Only Dracul didn't seem surprised that I'd arrived, although he stopped barking to look up at me.

"How long have you been out here?" Rog asked.

I wasn't going to lie: It was nice that I was finally the one to get the jump on him.

"I've been out here for hours," I answered, motioning out to the vineyard. "Or have you guys missed the fact that our vineyard is about full to bursting with grapes ready to be harvested?"

They looked out to where I was pointing, slowly being illuminated by the sky turning from gray to pink.

"How did you do that?" Bram asked. "You grew those vines by more than a year. In a few hours.”

The fact that I really wanted to brag about how I'd figured it out through a recurring nightmare of my childhood wasn't going to take precedence over the fact that we were still in danger.

"It's... not important. What's up about the... the..."

I almost didn't want to finish my sentence, looking out onto the road, seeing shadows flittering across it, almost like they were avoiding the light that was starting to grow in the distance. It begged the question of why they had held off on attacking until now, but watching them move reminded me of Rog in his true form.

Demons. Hounds from the depths of hell. I had to imagine that they were better than the humans that went down there, but still dangerous enough to have us all on alert.

Dracul looked terrified again, but standing his ground, like he knew that he had to defend the group but would not stand much of a chance of surviving.

"Don't worry, big guy," I whispered, patting him on the neck. "We've got this."

"Do not give the poor dog false hope," said a voice that I was getting a little too familiar with.

We turned to see the vampire there again, standing, looking out toward the sun, likely trying to determine how much time she had until it started rising. It wouldn't kill her, but it would weaken her to the point of