He’d always suspected Daniel was a genius, now he was certain of it as the flames continued to spread and cause chaos.
“Ashby, we need men behind us!” he called.
Ashby glanced at him from around a wave of arrows raised to fire another round. Ashby took a step back from setting them on fire to peer down at the town below. He nodded briskly before gesturing toward Calista and Barnaby. They took some of the militia with them as they pushed toward the back of the group, preparing to take on the soldiers that were still gathered at the bottom of the hill.
Jack didn’t like the fact their attention was now divided, but they’d known that the guards in the town wouldn’t be distracted by the fires forever. He could only hope they’d bought Braith enough time to have entered the palace already, and that the other soldiers would soon be making their way inside after him. Jack was distracted by an echoing shout, and a loud bang as another tree rammed into the gates.
“Fire!” Jack shouted.
Another wave of arrows rained down from above as answering flames soared into the air. Jack jumped to the side in time to barely avoid being taken out by one. David grunted beside him and fell back as an arrow pierced through his shoulder. Jack grabbed for him but his hand was knocked aside as an arrow shot through the center of it. A hiss escaped him; his teeth clenched together as he snatched hold of the shaft and ripped it from his hand in one sharp, jerking motion.
He had no time to coddle the injury though, no time to staunch the blood flowing from it as he grabbed hold of David and pushed him back from the onslaught of fresh arrows. David’s face twisted as his lip curled, but he managed to reach up and break the tail end of the arrow off. “I’m fine!” he yelled at Jack over the rising noise of the battle. “It’s just bone.”
Jack nodded but took the bow from him. Even if it wasn’t a mortal wound, there was no way David was going to be able to fire anything over top of the wall. Jack took up the stance that David had taught him and placed an arrow against the bow. With a trembling hand David was able to ignite the cloth for him.
Raising it up, he aimed the arrow over the wall but failed miserably as it bounced off the top of the battlements and spiraled back to the ground. He cursed angrily as David shook his head and lit another arrow for him. “Put some of that vamp strength behind this one Wimpy.”
Jack scowled at him but he leaned back and fired the arrow with a lot more force. This time it cleared the high walls and sailed into the courtyard of the palace. “Back away!” someone shouted as a sudden influx of soldiers lined the walls.
The troops outside the gates fell back as a fresh wave of arrows cascaded down upon them. A ferocious shout rose up from the back. Jack had to strain to see over the sea of heads surrounding him as he turned to look behind him. More soldiers had filtered out from the alleys and homes that weren’t yet on fire within the town. Jack suspected that much like the tunnel that only Braith knew about, there were also a few that only the king did, and he had used one of them to establish more of his troops secretly within the town.
From the back, his father’s soldiers released a loud battle cry as they charged up the hill. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Jack realized they were pinned in between the soldiers behind, and the soldiers above as more arrows were released upon them.
Chapter 8
Muffled shouts echoed from above as the sound of running feet pounded over the stone ceiling above her. Aria’s head followed the sounds; her heart did an odd little skip in her chest, as her throat went dry. Moving to the front of the cell, her hands curled around the bars as she strained to hear what was going on. She’d never hated the bars more, she wished she could rip them from the wall or bend them out of her way so she could crawl free of this awful place. She had to fight the urge to stomp her feet and scream like a two year old.
“What’s going on?” the disembodied voice floated through the darkness from the cell to her right.
“It’s Braith,” she whispered.
Saying the words aloud made them true. Saying the words aloud confirmed the bubble of hope that had been building inside of her, at the same time that apprehension swelled within her. He was here, he was in danger, and she was trapped, unable to break free, and of no use to him. If she was there, if she was with him she could help, she knew she could.
“I’m sure you want that to be so child…”
“I’m not a child!” she snapped. “I know it’s so. He’s come, he’s here.”
“Do you really think so Aria?” Mary whispered.
“Yes.”
There was a collective inhalation of breaths and then Lauren began to sob. Aria thought she should feel some pity; instead all she felt was the hard rock of resentment that festered inside her every time she thought of the girl and the torment she had caused.
Aria moved away from the bars, she peered up at the dark roof as she followed the running as far as she could. She felt like a caged animal as she paced within the small confines of the cell. If he was in the palace already, he would find her here soon. Though they had hoped that the influx of another vampire’s blood in her system would dilute Braith’s ability to track her, she knew they’d been wrong. His blood was alive and well within her, it pulsed and surged with every beat of her heart. Even if the king could track her now too, the king’s blood had not diluted Braith’s blood, no one’s could.
Aria flew back to the bars as the door at the top of the stairs creaked open. Anticipation hammered through her, she longed for it to be Braith. She ached to touch him, to feel him, to have him erase the hideous taste of the king and ease the awfulness of these past days. She needed him nearly as badly as she needed air at the moment. She clung to the bars and tried to peer up the stairs as a torch was brought forth.
Slowly her hope began to dissipate. This vampire was all wrong. She knew it before the glow of the torch hit the bottom of the well tailored pants, knew it before the firelight played off of his chest and face. It wasn’t Braith that had come for her first.
Caleb lifted the torch higher as Aria fought the urge to slink into the shadows and hide in the back of her cell. She had nowhere to hide, and her self-respect refused to let her cower from him. He’d never brought her down here, had never pulled her from the filthy depths, he didn’t know what cell she was in, but it wasn’t going to be difficult to find her. She didn’t shrink away from the bars, but she also wasn’t going to call out, ‘Right here, here I am!’