offering. I'm literally minutes old. I may not be able to stop myself."
“Whatever.” Gwen shrugged. "There are a bunch of people who will stop you here. You saved Chloe. You're a friend. Friends don't let friends go thirsty."
Tris looked up at Jack, then sat up higher to reach the offered arm. "Watch me," she told her cousin. He nodded, frowning at Gwen, as though he didn't quite approve, but couldn't, or wouldn't, say anything. Not when Tris's well-being hung in the balance.
And then, Tris drank.
Hunters and Prey
By some sort of miracle, everyone was alive. Alive and well. Diana was right here, half leaning on him, her heat providing him with a sense of comfort and completion.
Mikar's mind finally started working again. And he had approximatively a thousand questions.
For one... "How are you here?" he asked, turning to Eirikr.
It looked like he was the first to think to ask it. Everyone was suddenly paying attention to the ancient, who was braiding Chloe’s hair out of her face.
Looking around, Chloe asked, "Where's Greer?"
The two questions seemed intertwined, one bleeding into the next.
Her ancestor glanced back to Cosnoc. "The witch let me out—not without effort. I believe she might have wanted me to have time to see you." He looked stunned at that. “Before you were lost.”
To be fair, Mikar was stunned, too. He hadn't even noticed that Greer had disappeared. That didn't quite answer the question. "But where is she now?"
“Asleep. She'll have to lock me back in my cage when she wakes.” He bared his fangs. “The slayer child took her. Black-haired, gray dress.”
Ah. Ruby.
Greer was safe, which brought up the next issue they had on their hands. Levi was the one to bring it up. "How did the arrow manage to cross the border in the first place?" He went to retrieve it, his eyes flashing in anger as he took in the weapon that had killed his mate. For a hot second, but still, Mikar could tell Levi didn't hate it any less. He still seemed shaken, pale, his eyes cold as ice.
The black-tipped metal shone violet with Chloe’s blood in the darkness. Levi sniffed at the tip and frowned, handing the arrow to Mikar. He looked at it and smelled it too. Underneath the potent scent of Chloe's blood, there was something else. Some sort of potion, he thought.
Eirikr extended his hand. There was no denying the likes of him. Mikar handed him the arrow. The first vampire merely looked at it. "Vladrien."
The word—or name—sounded fairly familiar. "Wasn't that one of your slayers?" he asked Eirikr.
"Hardly. I turned Vladrien before any other. He used to be a friend, in my mortal life, and he was dying." His jaw set. "Vladrien loved the power, the rush, the strength of this life. He never understood why I condemned drinking from mortals. He resented me for it. So he left, and found Ariadne. For a time—centuries, I think—he was by her side, a protector specifically designed to keep me at bay. Ariadne knew I wouldn't wish to destroy an old friend."
From the way his cold eyes narrowed, that feeling was in the past.
"I know no one else who could shoot from such a distance. Still, time has changed…it could have been another." Regret etched the edge of his features. Then his jaw set. "But this is his arrow."
"That doesn't explain how he could see Greer. Or even how he'd know we were here." Blair waved her hands. "It's not like we go to the lake every day."
Suspicious gazes were cast all around, some of them landing on Seth, others on Diana. Mikar saw her flinch at the unsaid accusation. Despite everything she'd done today, she did attract some suspicion because, well, she was the stranger here, no matter her last name. The gazes soon looked away, as they remembered that she'd raised Death itself to save Chloe. And a good thing, too. Mikar would have gladly ripped tongues out if any of the idiots had voiced suspicions.
"He may not have had to see her," Eirikr replied. "Vladrien has many witches in his service.”
None of this was good news.
"Why would he attack us now?" Levi asked Eirikr. "You said he serves Ariadne. I have no reason to believe she wishes us any ill."
"He served her," Eirikr replied. "Till she tired of him as a lover, at least. For long, he's been on his own, attaching himself to whatever woman he finds most appealing." His eyes were ice. "It would not have taken