Slay Alive

Chapter 8

eight

“Now where did a vampire hunter learn to make threats like that?” Cade asks with a raised eyebrow. “Points for creativity, sweets. Your lot aren’t exactly known for it.”

Cade Graves was turned in the early 18th century by London’s elite. Born to a decently well off family but not quite gentry, Cade was known as a poet. A true gentleman in every sense of the word. All of that changed one rainy night after a poetry reading. Cade read his latest original work and socialized amongst friends into the late night hours but when he left for home, only minutes away, his human life ended at the hand of Aurelia the Seer of the storied vampire house of Crimson Veil.

He’d changed in the two hundred plus years since he was turned by Aurelia. Everyone knew Cade Graves’ story of poet to predator. But few knew the reason why he left the Crimson Veil, why he left his sire, Aurelia.

I did though. At least sorta.

I knew Cade didn’t agree with the old ways the vampire houses thrived on. Vampiric society was nothing if not a stickler for hierarchy and rule, no one was without their place. Nearly all vampires fell into line with little fuss, but Cade wasn’t like the rest. He’d never been a noble. Yes, he’d lived as a poet and his human family had been well off but it had been earned through blood and sweat. He knew what it took to create something from nothing. Maybe that’s where his disillusionment began, or maybe it stemmed from the fact that Cade was known for his abilities in battle and chafed as Aurelia’s pampered pet. Whatever the motivation, not even I knew it from my playthroughs with Cade. It was hard to carry on a conversation when you were fighting an uphill battle to keep the vampire you’re wooing from murdering you, but that was neither here nor there with the real life vampire standing in front of me.

Sky high cheekbones and a sharp jawline that could be the definition of chiseled in the dictionary give Cade a dangerous look. His mouth, though. Gods. The vampire has a sinful mouth that has no business being as distracting as it is, given the amount of time he’s murdered me at the Eclipse of the Eternal Night Masquerade.

You only think his mouth is hot because of his accent. Knock it off. I order myself but it does little for me when the vampire shifts closer and his two-toned gaze starts at my feet ever so painstakingly slowly moving up my body, deliberately lingering on my hips and chest before he lifts his eyes to meet mine.

There’s amusement in his eyes. One icy blue and the other a warm amber brown. I never thought Cade Graves would look at me like this. The training yard fades away. I think another hunter falls from the third floor again but I don’t notice. I don’t look away from Cade, it’s impossible. Or maybe it only feels that way because I don’t want to.

I want him to keep looking at me. I want him to come closer. His lips part and my cheeks heat. I want this vampire to close the space between us and-

“I know you,” he says softly, effectively putting a stop to where my mind was about to go. The spell is broken. What the hell was I just thinking? What was I feeling? My traitorous brain and body are in cahoots with the way I was feeling hot and heavy over Cade.

He kills us. He murders us all the time.

I give myself a mental slap and clear my throat. “What?” I whisper. I see recognition in Cade’s eyes but how can that be? No one has known who I am in this world. Why would Cade be the one to know me?

“I know you, hunter.” He snaps his fingers and steps back from me with a shake of his head. Fear spikes in my belly. I don’t know what he’s about to say. What if he sets my dream off kilter and everything just…I don’t know, folds in on itself. Is that possible? Oh why didn’t I pay more attention in that lucid dreaming workshop.

“No, you don’t,” I blurt out, trying to pump the breaks on Cade but he’s not having it.

He snorts and wags a leather clad finger at me. “You’re that chit from Haven that’s been stalking me.”

“I-what?” I stammer. I wasn’t expecting that one. “Stalker?”

“Don’t give me those innocent eyes, Duskweaver. I know exactly who you are. Thought I’d seen the last of you when you stopped skulking about after me this past week.”

My mouth falls open when he says my dream surname. Oh my gods. I’m a stalker in this dream world.

I clear my throat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I cross my arms for extra measure and do my best impression of a woman that isn’t freaking out at being accused of being a stalker.

“You’ve been following after me for months now. I wondered how long it would take for you to make it to Briarwood Hollow.” Cade gives me another up and down look but this one isn’t slow and lingering. It’s the look you give something that’s stuck on the bottom of your shoe. The vampire is not impressed, not even a tiny bit, by my being here. “A bird off her rocker like you, how’d you swing the hunter gig? I bet you got that witch to help you, didn’t you?”

Witch.

Instantly, I know Rhia is involved in this somehow and I perk up. “Rhiannon?” I ask and he narrows his eyes.

“Who else? You two are thick as thieves, you are.”

How is that woman the root of my problems both in real life and in the dream world? I rub my temples and try to game it out. Discomfort wasn’t really working for me. Not even tossing myself out of a tree worked, but…

What if manipulating my environment is a way to take control? I haven’t been able to wake myself up so trying to go to sleep isn’t going to do the trick. But if my dream self can make contact with Rhia and cook up an incantation to go home? Maybe that will work.

I’m desperate enough to try it. And it beats being looked at like I’m the weird one because Cade thinks I’m his stalker.

“Where is she?” I ask him.

“What do I look like? A manservant? I’m not telling you, hunter. I’m here to do exactly one thing for you idiots and then I’m leaving. Just being in this place is giving me the chills.”

Dramatic fucking vampire.

I wave him off and turn to Tamsin. “Where’s Rhiannon? I need to see her now. ”

“But the training?” Tamsin gestures around the training ground and Riley grunts in agreement.

“Tell you what, I train for an hour and then we hop like a bunny to Rhiannon. How’s that sound? I ask her, already yanking my harness off and working out how to put it on. I’m going for full vampire hunter extra credit right now. Who knows where Rhia is hiding. I’ve got no hope of finding her on my own, which means Operation Convince Tamsin I’m A Vampire Hunter is underway.

I get one arm through what I think is the right arm hole and work on buckling the strap that came loose earlier back where it belongs when I hear an aggrieved sigh and angry footsteps stomp my way.

“Bloody hell, come here,” Cade grabs my harness out of my hands and I freeze. “Arms,” he barks at me and I hold them out.

“What are you doing?” I ask him. What the fuck is he doing?

“Putting you out of your misery, you simpleton,” he growls at me and hells if it doesn’t do something to me when I feel the bass of his voice against my back. “I swear to god if I burn up because I’m too busy with your sodding harness than my umbrella, I will end you.”

I reach out and steady the umbrella. “Why didn’t you just ask for help then?” I ask him when he lets me take it from him. It’s delicate work holding an umbrella for a vampire standing behind you but I manage it with just one internal small panic attack over it.

He raises an eyebrow at me. “I could ask you the same thing, Duskweaver.”

“You got me there,” I admit.

Cade doesn’t say anything else, just keeps working at getting me strapped in. It’s undeniable that I forget how to breathe when the vampire’s hand brushes my side. I feel his fingers slide up my back to straighten the leather strap there before he clips the piece in place. I remember to breathe when he grabs me by my hips and turns me to face him.

“For fuck’s sake, hunter. You have one job,” Cade groans and jerks to the side when the umbrella I’m holding dips to the side and sunlight hits him in the shoulder.

“Oops. My bad.” My cheeks are on fire with embarrassment from nearly setting him on fire via the morning sun but I keep my hand steady while Cade keeps working.

Cade leans in close to me and turns so he can whisper in my ear. “What the hell are you doing here?”

My eyes go wide in surprise. “What do you mean?”

“You? A hunter? The last time I saw you, you were mooning over me and skulking in the shadows. That’s not exactly the path to being a chosen one, now is it, Duskweaver?”

I bite my lip and turn it over. If what Cade is saying is true, whoever he thinks I am had a case of the hots for him, which I get. But I’m not her…and yet, my last name is the same. Is there another version of me in this world?

It’s not a world. It’s a dream. I remind myself but it’s getting difficult to remember the longer my dream goes on. What if I get lost in my head?

“I, ah, I had a change of heart,” I tell Cade. I lift my chin and give him a nod when he snaps the buckles the last strap in. “Thank you for your help.”

“It was more for myself than you. Do you know what torture it was watching you flail about?”

I narrow my eyes at him. “You could have just said ‘you’re welcome, Bonnie’ like a normal person.” I shove his umbrella back in his hands. “Would that be so hard?”

“Yes, it would be. You seem to forget I’m not a human. I’m a vampire and I don’t engage in niceties with hunters.”

I scoff. “Then what are you doing here decked out like a goth Mary Poppins?”

He cracks a smile at that. “You think I look goth?”

“It’s, you know, okay, I guess.” I shiver and look away. Note to self: Cade Graves has a damn fine smile, even if it is a sarcastic one.

“I don’t want to interrupt but seeing as Bonnie is my recruit and you’re meant to give instruction, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” Riley shoulders his way between us with a glare. I look at him and roll my eyes. Riley looks more ticked than normal. Like he smelled something foul and blames me for it.

“You’re training us?” I ask Cade.

The vampire inclines his silvery blond head. “I am. Lucky for you all, we’ve entered into a bit of partnership and just in time for your arrival.”

“Why would you help the hunters?” I can’t help it, I have to know.

Riley points at the line that’s formed on either side of Tamsin. “Duskweaver, get in line.”

I don’t want to obey Riley but my mom used to tell me that when you run up against someone who’s stubborn it pays to have a cool head. “ Sometimes you have to go along to get along,” and Riley seems the type for this strategy so I fall in line beside Tamsin as ordered.

I feel eyes on me but I ignore them and stay focused straight ahead. I used to be in a marching band. I know how to stand at attention for hours.

Riley starts to pace and I spy emo boy nearby. He’s holding a clipboard and watching us like a hawk while he scribbles away. Why is he watching us so closely?

“All right, Nightwardens! You are the best of the best,” his eyes come to me and he clears his throat, “mostly.” I almost flip him off at the slight but I hold still when I see Cade tilt his head to watch me. He’s smiling again. He absolutely saw me want to murder Riley. I look away quickly before I can get too wrapped up in why the only thing I want to look at are eyes that are blue and brown.

“We have with us a very unique opportunity for all vampire hunters and you will be the first class to experience it. Never before have we had such a guest as Cade Graves the infamous Nightstalker.”

Infamous is new. That was never included with his game description, was it? I think hard on Cade’s description.

Cade Graves

NIGHTSTALKER

Wandering Rebel

Never was there a more defiant vampire determined to go their own way. Once a member of a wealthy family but recently fallen from grace due to his disillusionment with vampiric society. Known for their refusal to compromise and devotion to doling out vigilante justice. Intense nature lures in those searching for excitement and freedom. Personality- Intense, sarcastic, and highly artistic. Drawn to those willing to challenge them.

No, nothing about infamous but it does track with my experiences of him being an insatiable vampire hunter annihilator. Cade is nothing if not thorough, so why is he watching me? I start to sweat under the vampire’s scrutiny. Even when I’m not looking at him, I know he’s watching me. Good gods, he’s probably plotting on how to rip my head off now that I’m here.

Tamsin turns her head and whispers to me. “That vampire is watching you.”

I want to scream because she’s right, he is. He’s even gone so far as to tip his shades down to make it known I’m the one he’s watching.

“No, he’s not,” I lie.

“He totally is,” Tamin argues.

“He thinks I’m someone else, that’s all,” I tell her while Riley drones on about the history of the Nightwardens and how we are the trusted protectors of all humankind, blah, blah, blah. You’d think doomsday was going down with the way he’s blathering.

“Why would he think that?”

“I’ve got one of those faces?” I try.

“Bonnie,” Tamin says and I know she’s not buying my shit.

I look at her and sigh. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before. I promise. I, ah, I think he’s just you know doing vampire things. They stare.”

She goes silent and then nods. “They do stare. Creeps me out.”

“It’s because they forget to blink.”

She laughs. “Yeah, that doesn’t help, does it?”

“No, it really doesn’t. Like, what are we? In a staring match falling in love or are you going to murder me?”

Tamsin laughs and has to hide it with a cough but Riley still glares at us and I pantomime that I’m zipping my lips to show him that I’m done hot gossing with Tamsin.

“ As I was saying , today we have Cade Graves with us as a Vampiric Specialist. He will be helping us upgrade our current training program to ensure we are prepared to face off against The Ascendents. As you all know, their attacks have grown bolder and more frequent. The House of Lunar Veil will join our efforts to defend Briarwood Hollow. They have increased patrols along the borders and will be keeping a close eye on the forest for us. There’s been word that The House of Nocturne leader Dante Shadowfang has gone missing in the area, we suspect Ascendent involvement in this which makes the defense of Briarwood Hollow a joint effort between the Nightwardens and the vampire community, isn’t that right, Cade?”

I’m stunned by Riley’s words. He knows I killed Dante but he’s not saying a word. Why is he keeping my secret? I glance at Tamsin and see a blank look on her face too. My secret is safe unless emo boy stops taking notes to tattle.

Cade saunters forward, the swagger in the vampire’s steps makes my mouth go dry. How the fuck is he this hot? He was never this hot before. Murderous, yes? Hot, no.

“Well, put Nightwarden,” Cade says with a tip of his head. “That’s what I’m doing here. A little community service to do my part. The Ascendents think the world needs to be destroyed and all of you humans should serve as nothing more than meals to go, but you know what? I say bollocks to that! I happen to enjoy this world and all its carnal pleasures. I reckon I’m not the only one among you who feels that way, am I right?”

Cade gestures at the crowd and there’s a few mumbled replies before he waves a hand at them. “I know it’s not kosher that I’m here but if we want to come out on the other side of this, we’re going to have to work together. Now, who wants to learn how to kill a vampire?”

That energizes the crowd and all the Nightwardens raise their hands and shout that they do.

“That’s my bloodthirsty humans. I knew I just had to talk to you right.” Cade gestures for the first of the line to step up. “We’ll start with the basics, now shall we?”

FIVE HOURS LATER…

“That wasn’t an hour. That was many hours,” I tell Tamsin. We’re sitting with our backs against the training ground wall while Cade instructs a recruit through how to disarm a vampire. He’s not partaking in any of the training today. Not with the sun out. Riley has been his stand in for the day and I don’t know if it was better that I wasn’t manhandled by Cade because it was Riley that threw me across the training circle and into the next sparring couple.

Just because I have reflexes, speed, and strength doesn’t mean that Riley doesn’t as well. It was easy for him to beat up on me but I swear to god the second I catch him with his back to me I’m going to hit him with the closest blunt object. Thanks to Riley, I’ve entirely ruled discomfort out as a possible trigger to get my ass home. I’ve never hurt or ached like this, and yet I’m still in Briarwood Hollow. My plan to get Rhia to make me a potion to send me back is now in play. It’s the only card I’ve got left.

Tamsin winces and drinks water from her waterskin. “Yeah, that was…a day. But I’m proud of you. You fought well.”

I lean back against the wall and close my eyes as the sweet sounds of Riley making a recruit cry fill my ears. “I got my ass kicked.”

“And yet, you still got up for more. Not many recruits are strong enough or brave enough to do that, Bonnie.”

I smile at her encouragement. “You’re a good friend, Tamsin.”

“Thank you. I try to be.”

I crack one eye open and look at Tamsin. “Speaking of the power of friendship, can we go see Rhiannon now?”

She gives me a sidelong look. “You really want to see the witch, don’t you?”

I clear my throat and glance towards where Cade is pacing. He’s gesturing for Riley to throw the recruit across the training ground and a minute later the poor soul is airborne. The two of them together are a menace.

“It’s important that I see her today. Just trust me.”

Tamsin gets to her feet and holds a hand out for me. “Fine, let’s go now before Ben sees.”

“Ben? Who’s Ben?”

“Riley’s second,” Tamsin tells me. I nod in understanding. She doesn't have to explain anything more.

“Emo boy,” I say.

“A what?”

I point to where the dark haired Nightwarden is still taking notes. “Him.”

“Oh, yes, Emo boy.”

“The one and only,” I agree and follow her out of the training yard. “What is Riley talking about? The Ascendents…who are they?”

“I swear to god, I’ll never forgive Haven for the way they’ve sent you to be a hunter.”

“Homeschooled, remember?” I remind her.

Tamsin grunts. “The Ascendents are old vampires.”

“Define old. Aren’t they all old? Cade is over two hundred years old and that doesn’t make him a spring chicken.”

“Bonnie, when I say old, I mean ancient. They are the forgotten vampires. The ones that walked before there was light. For centuries they slept but recently they’ve awoken and now it falls on our shoulders to protect Briarwood Hollow.”

“Holy shit,” I whisper. In Fangs Are Forever there’s no mention of the Ascendents. This is entirely uncharted territory as far as my knowledge of Briarwood Hollow goes. “Why are they coming here? Why not Haven?”

“This is where they were made. It’s their place of power and they want it back. They see the vampires who live in the city with us as traitors. Betrayers of Lilith’s word.”

I nod and swallow hard. “That makes sense in vampire logic.”

“There is no logic when it comes to vampires. They’re insane creatures of the night and I’d sooner my soul be lost to the tides than ever walk as one of them.”

Note to self: Stop telling Tamsin how much I love vampires.

I laugh nervously. “Yeah, me too. Big time,” I tell her and cosplay as a woman that hasn’t dressed up as a vampire for Halloween for the past decade.

Tamsin claps me on the back and gives my shoulder a squeeze. “That’s because your heart is pure, Bonnie. Please watch yourself around Cade. He’s old and with age comes treachery. You don’t need a vampire like that paying you mind.”

If she only knew how many times Cade has killed me. Why would this time be any different if I were to get close to the vampire the way I want to?

I can’t ever do that. Tamsin’s right. I have no business catching his eye.