To Kill a Vampire - A.K. Koonce Page 0,10

a soft splintering sound cracks along the frame. He releases it immediately. “That’s a hard no, human.”

Gabriel instinctively wraps his arm around Luca and she lets him. She lets him take care of her. After years of holding onto her guard so tightly, she lets him in. Now I’m holding on to that guard like it might save my already lost life; like it might save all of their lives by just keeping some distance between myself and them.

“I cannot sneak you all in through security.” Ayden’s quiet voice becomes scraping and harsh. I’ve never heard a whisper sound so angry in all my life. “You can’t hold me responsible for the actions of other mortals.”

Asher begins unfolding a black cloak as if he couldn’t care less what my friend has to say. Before I realize what he’s doing, he walks over to me and begins tying the soft material around my shoulders, meticulously adjusting the large hood until my eyes are shadowed.

“I would never let anything happen to her,” Ayden adds.

With burning lungs, I hold my breath as Asher looks down at me, studying every angle of my hidden features. His warm hand dips into the shadows of the hood and, with unsure movements, he lightly brushes his palm along my jawline – just as I did to him only a short while ago.

I blink a few times, swallowing hard as his heartbeat begins to dance in a faster rhythm, making me crazy with the simple sound of it.

He drops his hand, allowing me to breathe freely once more, then storms back to the edge of the ship. “Fine. Just take me then. Fallon and me.”

Kaino stares a hole through the spot between Asher’s tense shoulder blades. Everyone is silent for nearly a minute.

“I’ll take you, but I can’t stop them from throwing you in with the others.” Ayden speaks without care as if he wouldn’t mind this outcome in the least.

The others. The other hybrids the Capitol is holding at their own disposal.

“I’ll go alone,” I tell them in a voice that was intended to be confident but came out small and uncertain.

“You’ll go alone. With me,” Asher says as he slips on an identical cloak, tying it loosely around his shoulders, the hood concealing his hard features from me.

He makes sure to tuck the Crimson Sword into the dark cloak, only his black boots and dark jeans are revealed from the knee down.

From beneath my hood, my eyes bore into him until I release an anxious breath and begin descending from the ship; not pausing to see if he follows or not.

My feet falter the moment I’m in front of Ayden, my boots slipping against the creaking, damp dock. My friend looks at me, his eyes staring into the shadows that surround my features. An irrational anxiousness fills my chest, and I dip my head low before he can look any closer at what I’ve become.

Heavy and confident steps sound against the old boards until Asher stands at my side. With a small dip of his head, Ayden begins walking toward the endless, towering wall.

“It’s almost as though you’re trying to keep people out,” Asher says sarcastically, his hand skimming along the perfect stones of the barricade. A small skip seems to be in his step, as if he isn’t afraid at all. Today is just another day to him.

“We have security measures to ensure no unauthorized guests enter the Capitol.”

Asher nods, his hood bobbing slightly, as if it makes logical sense.

The small amount of lawn that leads our way is the greenest grass I’ve ever seen. My steps are lighter and cushioned against the immaculately manicured ground. Soundlessly we travel along the wall. Nearly an hour passes with no entrance in sight.

Fear begins to creep into me as I start to calculate the time. We have maybe three hours before the sun rises.

A screeching sound pulls me from my stress and into defensive thoughts in a mere second. My hand grips the Crimson Sword. Asher reaches into his cloak and does the same. Ayden, however, walks confidently toward the sound.

With an unnatural and anxiety-riddled clicking noise, a veil skitters down the wall. It’s long, thin taloned fingers dig into the crevices of the brickwork until it is eye level with Ayden. Its slick gray face looks at him up-side-down and calculating.

The smallest of signs gives Ayden away. He swallows hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing while the veil breathes in his aroma, sniffing his scent so hard