Troubled (The Binding Chronicles #4)

10. Dire Straits

Dire Straits

I t wasn’t that Vivienne didn’t want to help the woman.

On the contrary, her heart ached at the sight of a mortal in pain.

A hundred years ago, which somehow felt like yesterday and an eternity ago, she’d been this woman.

When Ian Beaumont, a soldier in the queen’s army, had found Vivienne, she’d been on the brink of death after a vampire attack. Ian had Made her, which saved her life.

Once she was safe, he hunted the three vampires who had assaulted her before using her as a midnight snack. Ian had avenged his new progeny, ending their immortal lives.

Vivienne’s Maker had taught her about being a vampire, and it was because of him that she joined the vampire army in the first place.

She would never forget what he’d done for her.

The problem was that over the past century, Vivienne had learned a complicated truth.

Sometimes, death was a blessing .

There were moments in a person’s life when letting go of everything and giving into the peace that came from no longer breathing was easier than surviving in the hell that often was this life. Eleyta was a harsh place to live, especially for mortals, and sometimes, the best path to healing was to pray for a quick passing.

The human’s injuries were extensive. Bites covered most of her body, the snow was red with her blood, and her heartbeat was irregular. The hand Vivienne held between hers was like ice, and the darkness within her knew this woman was close to the end.

Death would be easier than the pain the woman would have to endure on the road to recovery.

Marius met her gaze. “Can you give her your blood, Vivienne?”

It would solve their problems, but unfortunately, it wasn’t an option.

“I’m sorry, I can’t.” She shook her head. “I gave you everything I had.”

She needed to feed.

Earlier, her growing hunger had been something she could ignore, but that was no longer the case. It had increased tenfold during the fight with the First. Her stomach had become a hollow entity inside her, and her fangs ached. Healing the prince had taken every available drop of blood she had.

Vampires her age still needed to consume blood on a regular basis.

Vivienne wouldn’t feed from the prince—that was a terrible idea for several reasons—but she needed to find a Source. Drinking from the woman in front of her was out of the question, too. Not only would it be immoral, considering the human’s near-dead state, but who knew what kind of toxins the First’s bite had transmitted?

The creature’s blood had been black. She’d never seen anything like that.

At this point, even a deer would be better than nothing .

“Damn.” Marius frowned, raking a hand through his hair. “We can’t leave her here. It would be wrong.”

Vivienne pointedly ignored the way the prince’s brown locks settled ruggedly against his forehead.

You’re the man’s bodyguard, and a woman is dying in front of you; for Isvana’s sake, she chided herself. If you want to keep your head on your shoulders, you’ll stop thinking about him like that this very instant. Boundaries, remember?

Forget the king being angry that she’d failed to stop the prince from going on this mission. Imagine if he found out she’d almost kissed her charge?

Shadows would undoubtedly swarm from King Sebastian, his wings would burst from his back, and he would make an example of Vivienne, resulting in her lengthy, drawn-out death.

No, thank you.

“You’re right.” She returned her gaze to the dying human, stroking her thumb down the woman’s hand.

“Hi,” she whispered. “My name’s Vivienne Beaumont.” Following vampiric tradition, she’d taken her Maker’s last name after leaving her mortal life behind. “Can you understand me?”

A long, drawn-out moment passed before the injured woman opened her eyes. They were shockingly blue, like clear water on a sunny day. Her lips parted, but the movement caused more blood to rush out of the wound on her neck.

“Don’t try to speak,” Vivienne said hurriedly.

Reaching over, she grabbed the hem of the prince’s cloak. He seemed to understand what she was doing, and together, they ripped off a strip of material. She held it against the woman’s neck to staunch the blood flow. It seemed unsanitary, but it was better than nothing.

“Just blink.” Vivienne held the woman’s blue gaze. “Once for yes, twice for no. Can you do that?”

She held her breath, a holdover from her mortal days, until the injured woman closed her eyes once before reopening them.

“Good,” she murmured. “I know you’re in pain, and I’m sorry.”

The woman whimpered, the sound hurting Vivienne more than the ache in her fangs.

Marius leaned forward. “Is your home nearby?”

One blink.

“Okay, good.” Vivienne brushed back a lock of the woman’s sable hair, her stomach twisting as she prepared to ask the next question. “Do you have a family?”

She wasn’t sure what she wanted to see—one blink or two.

A long moment passed before the woman closed her eyes once.

Somehow, that made things worse.

Pressure built behind Vivienne’s eyes, and she blinked away the tears. “Does your village have a healer?”

One blink again.

That was a good sign.

Vivienne glanced up at Marius, who exhaled.

“Good.” The prince’s voice was low, laced with a gentleness she hadn’t heard before. “Do you want us to bring you back? If not, we can… ease things for you. Make you more comfortable.”

He understood.

This man, who craved adventure and danger and made her want to pull out her hair, knew this world was filled with pain and suffering.

Vivienne’s heart clenched. She wasn’t too full of herself to admit that perhaps she’d misjudged the prince. He understood just how dark life could be, and that was at once the best and worst thing that could have happened .

Keeping those barrier between them would be harder than ever, now.

Those blue eyes crawled between them, and it felt like an eternity passed before the human lowered her lids.

Just once.

“H-h-home,” the human croaked.

Tears broke through the floodgates of Vivienne’s eyes, and she didn’t stop them. “Okay,” she whispered through a watery curtain. “We’ll bring you back.”

Hopefully, they would get her there before it was too late.

Vivienne reached over to pick up the woman, but Marius beat her to it. His arms wrapped around the injured woman, one hand circling her back and holding the cloth against her neck and the other looping beneath her legs.

“I’ve got her,” he said. “Can you scent her village?”

Vivienne chewed on her lip. “Maybe. I’ll give it a shot.”

Unlike fighting, which had come easily to her since the night of her Making, tracking had never been one of her strong suits.

She would try, though. If this nameless woman died on her watch, she would carry the weight of that death until the end of her days.

The woman had made her choice, and Vivienne would do whatever she could to honor it.

That thought propelled her to her feet. She shut her eyes, inhaling deeply as she focused on her vampiric senses.

The scents of the forest flooded her.

The crisp aroma of freshly fallen snow.

The copper tang of blood, belonging to the woman and Marius.

Pine needles.

Dozens of animals, each with their own distinct fragrance.

Beneath all that were two warring scents. She opened her eyes and looked to the east. The scent of death that clung to the First was stronger in that direction.

She swiveled her head to the west. There, beyond the forest, were scents that spoke to her very soul.

Fresh blood. Life .

Vivienne’s lips tugged up into a small smile. “There are humans in that direction.” She pointed east. “They can’t be too far away.”

Marius adjusted his grip on the injured mortal and nodded. “Good job.”

Her chest warmed from his praise, which absolutely shouldn’t be happening. She wasn’t allowed to have feelings for him. She knew that, but that knowledge didn’t seem to stop her from being drawn to him, especially now that she’d seen the kind, caring man hiding beneath his adventurous exterior.

Needing to put space between them, Vivienne stepped away. “I’ll grab Azil, and we can leave.”

You’re duty-bound to keep him safe , she reminded herself. You’re essentially his employee.

That was it. Nothing else existed between them.

Nothing.

At.

All.

The storm fell upon them quickly.

The human settlement had just come into view when the wind picked up, seemingly out of nowhere.

Snow-covered, white-washed two-story houses stood around a cobblestone courtyard. The village was built in a valley at the base of three mountains. Smoke stretched from chimneys, fingers reaching for the sky. A few lanterns flickered in lampposts, and a laugh rose from deep within the village. The sound was a faint, welcome sign of life.

Clouds covered the few remaining stars, and snow fell in white sheets around them. The wind howled, and Azil snorted and stomped her forelegs. She whinnied in distress, and Marius cursed from atop the horse. He’d ridden with the injured woman cradled in his arms. The human was still alive, barely clinging to the threads of life.

Vivienne exchanged a worried look with the prince.

“Halt!” a baritone voice called out from the forest. “Who goes there?”

The hairs on the back of Vivienne’s neck prickled as she shifted toward the voice. Her wings were out, proclaiming her vampiric nature to whoever was coming. Unlike their earlier encounter with the highwaymen, the element of surprise wasn’t on their side.

Hopefully, they wouldn’t need it.

Dark shapes emerged from the forest, their faces hidden behind the wall of snow.

Vivienne’s stomach churned, and unease flooded her veins. She wasn’t sure exactly what was wrong, and maybe she was overreacting because it had been a long night, but something felt… off.

Her fingers twitched at her sides.

“Greetings,” she called out to the newcomers.

The howling wind was the only response.

“My companion and I,”—something told her it wasn’t wise to let them know the prince of the realm was traveling with her—“have rescued one of your villagers. She’s in dire straits and needs a healer.”

“A woman?” The voice was closer now.

“Is it Alyce?” asked another man who was further away .

The woman in Marius’s arms moaned at the sound of her name. The sound was soft, like a kitten mewling.

“It is her!” a third man yelled over the whipping wind.

A short, stocky man strode towards them. A glint of something metallic beneath the heavy fabric of his hooded cloak caught Vivienne’s eye, but she didn’t get a good look at it as he approached the horse.

“I’ll take her.” He extended his arms in Marius’s direction. “Alyce is my sister-in-law, and she’s been missing since yesterday. Her children have been worried sick.”

Children .

The word echoed through Vivienne’s mind, and her stomach bottomed out. Of course, this injured woman was a mother.

Such a cruel twist of fate.

She’d seen many things over the course of her long life, but the one that always bothered her more than others, the one that never seemed to stop haunting her, was the way this world seemed especially brutal to mothers.

Vivienne was so caught up in her thoughts that she barely noticed the prince handing Alyce over. The man cradled the injured woman to his chest as he slipped into the snowstorm.

Only then did Vivienne notice that the other men didn’t retreat with the first. If anything, they seemed tenser than before.

“What did you say your names were?” The question came from the first man, who was close enough that she could make out the shadow of a bruise under his left eye.

Vivienne wasn’t sure if it was his tone of voice or the unease she’d been feeling since the storm hit, but her stomach twisted into knots. If she’d been blessed with shadows, they would’ve been writhing in her veins.

She raised a brow. “We didn’t, actually. ”

The prince was ten feet away from her, still seated atop Azil. Had he moved further away when he handed the woman over?

Damn it all.

Vivienne had let her wandering mind and soft heart distract her from the job at hand.

The villager made a sound at the back of his throat. “You know, it’s interesting. Several of my men left for the Southern Border over a week ago. They were supposed to return yesterday, but they haven’t come back.”

The knots tightened in Vivienne’s stomach, and her unease worsened. Her skin felt too tight for her frame, and she took another step towards the prince.

What were the chances that their missing villagers were the same ones they had encountered on the way to Hoarfrost Hollow?

“Oh?” Vivienne attempted to sound casual, even though every part of her wanted to reach for her sword. She didn’t, because there was a chance she was overreacting and nothing was wrong. If that was the case, she didn’t want to spook the villagers. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

The snow seemed to pick up, and the howling wind was even louder than before.

“Are you?” the man mused. Had he moved even closer? “Because it’s awfully suspicious that they disappear, and then you two show up. How do we know you aren’t the ones who hurt Alyce?”

“We didn’t,” Marius and Vivienne said at the same time.

After what had been done to her, Vivienne would never take an unwilling Source. She would starve herself into a husk before feeding from someone against their will.

“I’m sure,” the man said, his tone making it abundantly clear he didn’t believe them. He flicked a hand over his shoulder, and something rustled behind Vivienne. “Take them. ”

“No!” she shouted, reaching for her sword as she dashed towards the prince.

Her fingers curled around the engraved hilt, but before she could draw the weapon, something cool and heavy slammed into the back of her head.

At the same time, Marius cried out. Someone pulled him off Azil, the horse panicking at the loss of her rider.

Vivienne screamed and kicked as hands wrapped around her neck.

“You shouldn’t have come here, vampire .”

From the corner of her eye, she saw someone throw Marius’s body over their shoulder, carrying him towards the village.

This couldn’t be happening.

Vivienne thrashed against her captor’s hold. She slammed her elbow back, and he grunted.

“You’re going to regret that, blood-sucking bitch,” a man growled.

The hands lifted from around her neck, and she bolted. She ran, her arms and legs pumping, as she headed for the blizzard.

Arms wrapped around her, yanking her back.

She screamed.

“Got you,” someone sneered.

She twisted in their grip, her wings flaring. Someone grunted, but then, cold metal was snapped around her neck.

No, no, no.

Time seemed to still as her body fell into a state of panic.

She cried out, her wings vanishing as if they had never existed. She reached inside herself for her magic, but it was as though she was looking in an empty pit.

A sob crawled up her throat.

Gone.

It was all gone .

Her darkness, her wings, all of it.

If not for the fangs nestled in her gums, she would think herself completely mortal.

Oh gods.

A sharp sword poked Vivienne in the small of her back.

“Walk,” her captor hissed. “Or I’ll remove your head from your body right now.”

Isvana help her, but she did exactly as he asked.