A Dawn So Dark (Blood Bound #1)

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Arden

D aemon was going to kill me.

He had warned me against coming to the human realm, not quite forbidding me. The realm of humans thought us extinct. I frequented this tavern only to get away from the constant buzzing of my sister and Noa, Daemon when he was in a particularly bitchy mood. Watching humans and their problems gave me perspective on what it was to live for eternity. They are born. They eat. They fuck. They procreate. They die . I had been alive for over seven hundred years, thousands more ahead of me, and each of these people would be gone and dust in a fraction of that. I had fought in wars to save humans, to save my people and all I had to show for it was stale ale. I spent my days training an army for a war that would never come, the world thought us extinct, dead . I felt it everyday. Living the same day for eternity. Same drills, same meetings, same women, same ale. The ale came as a price for getting to sit and experience humanity for a brief moment. They thought my kind extinct , hated us in the name of a King that let them die of starvation. All for what? A few dusty artifacts?

I nodded to the barkeep to fill my cup again, his response was a grunt. The tavern was nothing impressive, nothing extravagant like my usual haunts back home, no watchful eyes that knew who I was, questions of the wars I had fought in. Here, I was no one. Even if it was a run down place that held a musk of old men and mildew. The hearth was warm, the crass laughter echoed off of the crumbling walls, the stale food and watered down ale. This place was an escape. A shitty escape.

A new ale was placed before me just as my escape faded. Laughter melted into whispers as the metal door of the tavern was thrown open. I remained focused on my ale, uncaring of what the mumbles were about. My plans of ignoring the newcomer dissipated like smoke when a scent struck me that sent a shiver down my spine and landed square in my chest. The smell was delicate, warm like a setting sun on an autumn day and mixed with…. blood . This was no ordinary smell of blood, the metallic notes held a softness, a sweetness that made me want to turn around and ravish whatever had just dared to enter the tavern. But I remained civilized, not wanting to alert a tavern full of humans that a Vampire walked among them. I brought my ale to my lips as I listened to hesitant footsteps make their way across the tavern to the bar where I sat. The smell overwhelmed my every sense. My skin felt like it was set ablaze, my blood boiling in my veins, screaming, begging for a taste. I wanted to turn and figure out what in the seven hells had my pulse rising in anticipation. Then the source of the smell spoke and my heart turned over in the chest.

“Whatever is strongest.” My breath left my body. Did someone poison my drink? The smell of blood had not made me this crazy in hundreds of years. I blinked hard, fighting my fangs back like a young man trying to tame his cock. Looking towards the source of the smell, I was surprised to see a young woman who could only be described as unlike anything that had walked this earth. Her hair was a rich sunkissed auburn, matted and filled with twigs, her cheeks a flushed peach against the creamy skin of her delicately carved face and her full, pink lips. She would haunt my dreams like a siren. But what stunned me was her eyes. A green that matched the forest canopies, a polished jade surrounded by lush lashes that swept across her cheekbones as she blinked. I had seen thousands of humans in my lifetime, bedded just as many, but this one-a tattered mess and anger in her eyes, intrigued me more than all of them combined. Her cloak hid her body, but I imagined it was hiding a great deal more beneath it. A glass of dark spirit was placed before her. Her pink lips curved around the rim as she tossed it back, wincing as she handed the glass back with a coin. “Another.” her voice wonderfully low, soft and clear, husky from exhaustion.

Daemon really is going to kill me .

“Long night?” I inserted myself into her solitude, trying to coax her attention towards me. Her eyes snapped towards me, widening when she registered me fully . Her pulse quickened and her cheeks flushed a perfect pink. Good, she also found me appealing. That was going to make this easy . “One could say so.” She answered cooly as she placed another coin down for the second drink. When she reached for her next glass, I saw both old and fresh wounds decorating her wrist, seemingly from restraints. Looking her up and down, there were clear signs that she had been attacked in recent hours. Unexplainable rage boiled in my chest at the thought. “Would you be able to direct me towards Verona?” She looked damn near collapsing, but her eyes told me that she had no intention of resting any time soon. Fiery little thing. Goddesses above , I had half the mind to kneel before her and carry her wherever she desired . But there was an easier way to get what I wanted.

“Follow the path behind the tavern straight for a mile and when the path splits, veer left. You will dead end right to your destination.” Noa was going to kill me. Daemon was going to yell, maybe break something. Something told me he would forgive me . She smiled softly, nodding in thanks, seeming surprised I had responded to her question. Her smile shifts, her cheeks tinting pink. “May I buy you a drink?” She tucks her lower lips behind her teeth as she nervously awaits my response. She was flirting with me . My chest ignites as I smile broadly at her, prepared to buy her as many drinks as she could handle. I wanted to give her anything she wanted.

Before I could answer her, a man approached her from the other side, clearly drunk and clearly very interested in her. He stank of ale and one of the tavern girls who he had bedded an hour ago. “How much for a night with you, pretty girl?” He teetered as he spoke. Before I could say anything to scare him off she growled “Fuck off.” The man disliked her answer and grabbed her wrist.“I asked, how much ?!”

I stood to kill this man where he stood for placing his hands on such a divine little thing. She moved first. She stole the knife from the breadbasket atop the bar and rammed it through his forearm, pinning his flesh to the wood of the bartop. His once gruff voice was now a child-like screech of pain. “You could never afford me.” She spat with angry tears gleaming in her eyes, punching him in the stomach for good measure before skirting around him. Her eyes met mine over the man and my cock instantly hardened in my trousers. She nods a silent thanks before hurrying towards the back exit.

“Safe travels!” I called after her, unable to hold back a laugh. The man screamed as the barkeep ripped the knife from his arm and growled a disapproval in my direction.

It was her… it was her . I had dreamed of this moment for ages. Hundreds of years. Imagined every outcome. Yet here she was, a blur of rage and violence… and beautiful . The goddesses must have thought I had done something right in eight hundred years to deserve to even be in the presence of such a miraculous creature.

Maybe Daemon wasn’t going to kill me after all .