Chapter 14 Blood reunion
RAVEN'S POV
A voice slid into my mind. Clear. Unmistakable. A whisper that had no business existing.
"Raven. We know you're here."
I stopped mid-stride. The servant ahead of me paused, confused by my sudden halt.
Vampire telepathy. Impossible. I was the last of my kind—the others hadn't survived.
Or so I'd believed.
I needed to see this for myself.
"Leave me," I said to the servant. "Tell no one you saw me leave the estate."
The servant bowed, confused but obedient, and disappeared into the mansion.
I turned toward the woods beyond the gardens, toward the presence pulling at my senses like a hook in my chest.
They wanted me to come. A summons, not an ambush.
Obviously.
~ ~
I found them in a clearing deep in the woods. Six figures standing in a loose circle, waiting.
Moonlight filtered through the branches overhead, catching on pale skin and gleaming red eyes. I recognized the man at the center immediately.
Derek.
Tall, dark-haired, with the same crimson eyes we all shared. But he looked different from the last time I'd seen him.
He was fading.
They all were.
I looked at the others—five vampires I'd known in the sanctuary, decades ago. All of them showed the same signs. Paler than they should be. Eyes duller than the bright crimson I remembered. Like candles burning down to their final hours.
Two centuries without a Vampire Lord. This was what it looked like.
"Lord Raven." Derek smiled when he saw me approach, but there was no warmth in it. "It's been a long time."
"Not long enough," I said. "How did you find me?"
"Find you?" He laughed, the sound bitter. "We've been hunting you for decades. And we finally tracked you here."
I kept my expression neutral. "What do you want, Derek?"
"What do I want?" He gestured to the others. "Look at us, Raven. We're dying. All of us. Without you, we're fading into nothing."
"You look healthy enough to me."
"I see your wit hasn't dulled." His smile turned sharp. "Do you know how long two hundred years feels when you're slowly dying? When you watch your friends fade one by one, knowing you're next?"
I said nothing.
Derek stepped closer. "We've been searching for you. Finally, after all this time, we found you."
"And now that you have?" I asked quietly.
"Now?" Derek's expression hardened. "I came for answers, Raven. Why did you abandon us? For a ghost?"
The words hit harder than I expected. Because he was right.
I had abandoned them.
Not intentionally, but grief doesn't care about intentions. I'd been so consumed by Helen's death that I'd forgotten the living who still needed me.
But I couldn't go back. And I couldn't tell them why.
"Helen isn't a ghost," I said quietly.
"She's dead, Raven." Derek's voice sharpened. "Dead for two centuries."
"I'm bringing her back."
Silence fell over the clearing.
Derek stared at me, something flickering across his face, disbelief.
Derek laughed, but it sounded broken. "Of course. Of course you'd find a way. Two hundred years, and you're still chasing her." His hands clenched into fists. "We've created a new law among our kind since you abandoned us. Betrayers are executed."
"I didn't betray—"
"You left us to rot!" Derek's composure shattered. "We watched our brothers and sisters fade to nothing while you mourned a woman who chose death over you!"
The words cut deep. Deeper than I wanted to admit.
"How many, Raven?" Derek's voice dropped. "How many did we lose because you weren't there? Because you were so consumed by grief that you forgot we were still alive, still suffering, still needing you?"
I had no answer.
Derek circled me slowly, like a predator. "You taught us well—we know killing a Vampire Lord is impossible." His smile turned cruel. "We just need to visit your little friend in the mansion."
I moved before I could stop myself, a half-step toward the house.
Derek's smile widened. "There it is. You care about one too. Which means she's leverage."
"She's under my protection," I said quietly. "The blood contract—"
"Means you'll die if she does." Derek's eyes gleamed. "Which is exactly the point. Choose, Raven. Come back with us, or die."
"It's too late."
"Then watch her die."
Derek lunged.
I was fast, but I'd forgotten how well he knew my movements. He anticipated my dodge, caught my arm, and slammed me backward into a tree.
The impact cracked the bark. Pain shot through my spine.
Two other vampires grabbed my arms, pinning me against the trunk.
"Let me go," I snarled.
"Come back with us," Derek countered.
I threw off one vampire, but the other held firm. Derek's hand closed around my throat.
"Choose," he said softly.
An arrow split the air.
Derek jerked backward, the arrow embedded deep in his shoulder. He hissed in pain, stumbling.
Another vampire lunged toward me—or toward whoever had fired. A second arrow caught him square in the chest, dangerously close to his heart. He dropped, hitting the ground hard.
I turned sharply.
A figure emerged from the shadows between the trees. Golden hair caught the moonlight. A sword gleamed in one hand.
Prince Arthur.
Behind him, a man with a bow already nocking another arrow. Guards emerged from the tree line, surrounding us completely.
"Attacking on noble ground." Arthur's voice cut across the clearing like winter steel. "That's an act of war. Leave now—or your heads will decorate the palace gates by dawn."
Derek clutched his shoulder, black blood, thick as tar, seeping between his fingers. He looked at the arrow, then at Arthur, calculating.
But it wasn't the shoulder wound that made him hesitate.
Another arrow whispered past, close enough that Derek flinched. A warning shot.
But the third found its mark—lodging between his ribs, inches from his heart.
Derek staggered, hand flying to the wound. His face went pale. Paler than usual.
He staggered, his hand flying to his chest. The second arrow had lodged between his ribs. Not deep enough to kill, but close. Too close.
"Fall back," Derek snarled to his group.
"But—" one vampire started.
"Now!" Derek's eyes blazed with pain and fury. He looked at me one last time. "This isn't over, Raven."
Then he vanished into the darkness, his group dissolving like smoke. Two of them had to half-carry the vampire I'd seen drop—the one with the arrow in his chest was barely conscious, black blood pouring from the wound.
One vampire remained on the ground. The one Tir had shot first. He wasn't moving.
Dead.
Silence fell over the clearing.
Arthur turned to face me, sword still raised. His expression was unreadable in the moonlight.
"Thank you," I started. "Silver—the ritual—"
"Silver is fine." Arthur's voice was ice. "She's being protected."
The sword didn't lower.
I looked at him more carefully. At Tir behind him, bow still drawn, arrow trained on my chest. At the guards positioned around the clearing, weapons ready.
This wasn't a rescue.
This was an ambush.
"Now," Arthur said quietly, taking a step closer. His blade caught the moonlight. "You're going to tell me exactly what those creatures wanted. Why they mentioned my wife." His eyes narrowed. "And what you've gotten her involved in."
Behind him, the man arrow remained perfectly steady. At this distance, he wouldn't miss.
I looked at the dead vampire on the ground. At the blood pooling beneath him. At Arthur's face.
I'd been saved from one death only to face another.
And the worst part?
Arthur had every right to ask these questions.
I just didn't know how to answer them without losing everything.