She flapped her wings like a wild bird, very enthusiastically. It was totally awesome. Can I become smoke? She could scare the pants off her nephews with shifting. How cool would that be?
I think you should try flying first. Smoke is more complicated. Take a few hops. You will have to land. And, Teagan, I know this feels amazing to you, but you have to stay in control. Stay close to me at all times. There are vampires close by. We do not want them to know we are anywhere close. I believe they are still nursing their wounds, and gathering strength, but they must feed, and that means they will come out each rising to do so.
Do they know you killed their friend? She continued to flap her wings and hop around on her taloned feet. So cool. The best—except for kissing and sex with Andre, of course.
Vampires do not have friends. In the old days, if they met one another, they fought to the death to keep territory. Now a master vampire will find fledglings, those who have just turned, and he uses them as his pawns.
She couldn’t help but notice the contempt in his voice. He had such a sense of what was honorable in battle that he found the practice appalling. She opened her beak in a semblance of a smile.
The vampire will have connected all of his pawns. They all are aware I defeated the undead in battle. He did not return to his master with a victim to feed from.
She went still. She stopped hopping around and folded her wings. Are you telling me that he would have taken me back to his master so his master could feed off of me?
Each of the pawns will be sent out to bring back a victim for their master. He was wounded far worse than the others in our battle. Had they not come to his rescue, I would have killed him.
You fought him, and that’s why you were wounded when I found you.
I was in bad shape, he admitted. I could not open the earth enough to crawl in. I was that weak. Fortunately, I was able to open it just enough that the nutrients in the soil helped to rejuvenate me enough that I could eventually heal myself.
I would have healed you, she said quietly. Not like you can do it, but I really can heal people tuning crystals to them and centering on the problem. She had wanted to heal him. That had been important to her, but when she saw his gift—it had been so much more than hers.
Not so much more, sivamet. Different. Move to the top of that little mound of dirt just above the drop off.
Do you think they have found another victim to bring to their master instead of me? She couldn’t help the tremble in her voice. She couldn’t imagine how it would have felt to be taken to someone worse than the vampire she’d encountered.
I do not know. I will hunt him, but if he has someone with him, csitri, it is already too late.
The gentleness in his voice turned her heart over. She even felt a caress inside her mind. How was that even possible, and yet he soothed her with his nonphysical touch.
He would kill them immediately?
He hesitated, and her stomach churned. She wasn’t certain she wanted the answer, not if he was hesitant about revealing what a master vampire would do to his victim.
There is no way of knowing. I doubt it. He would want to feed as long as possible on his victim while he heals. He knows I am hunting. He will not wish to move until he thinks it is safe.
That said volumes. Teagan realized the master vampire had to be afraid of Andre. He had taken on the master vampire and several of his pawns. She couldn’t help the little surge of pride she had in him as well as the fear for him. She wanted him to stop the vampires from taking any more victims, but at the same time, she didn’t want him hurt. Not one scratch.
Stop thinking about vampires, Teagan. This will require complete concentration. You have to allow your owl to take flight. You will need to recede into the background enough that whatever form you take can behave naturally with you present enough to guide it. Do not try anything else. One skill at a time.
He didn’t have to remind her of that. She was a climber and she was terrified of heights. She knew how to focus her entire brain on a single problem, especially when she was afraid. She was about to try to fly. She didn’t risk looking at the sky, because she considered the sky pretty much as high up there as she was ever going to get.
Um, Andre. Her heart began to hammer. She heard it. The birds heard it, and so did he. There’s something you should know about me.
Tell me.
I often, as in every time, completely fall apart when I’m around fifty feet up. I freeze. I always cry. It’s a total panic thing. I can’t stop it. I talk myself out of it, or my climbing partner does, but no matter how often I climb—and it’s a lot, both bouldering, and with ropes on the higher trad climbs—I always panic.
Teagan.
Her heart turned over. No contempt. No arguing. No telling her not to do this. Just her name. Tender. Sweet. Silk and velvet. His voice helped to settle her.
I will be with you. If you get too high and panic, I can talk you out of it. I will be right beside you. Look to me. I have got you, always.
She believed him. That calm, absolutely confident man wouldn’t allow anything to happen to her. He didn’t seem to mind that she needed reassurance, or that she confessed she panicked. He was there, right next to her, and she sensed that he was proud of her, whether or not she actually got into the air.
You are allowing me to show you my world, csitri, and I am honored and privileged to do so.
He was so formal. So gallant. She so wanted Grandma Trixie to meet him. She knew her grandmother would love him. So would her sisters. Unless of course, Grandma Trixie didn’t take the time to know him and staked him instantly.