Blood & Honey #1

VG~ Chapter Two

"Looks like you are on your own. Good luck making it back to the castle before nightfall," Narran yells down at me. She and Vera are still on top of the cliff she pushed me off of.

I pull my gaze from the woods Tristan disappeared into ready to tell Narran that's not funny, but she and Vera are already gone. They left me out here all by myself. Oh, gosh. I am all by myself off castle grounds and I don't even know the way back.

I'm seriously thinking Narran brought me out here to watch the Beast of the Damned eat me. I thought he was for a moment. I can't believe I offered him a taste of my blood. How foolish of me.

Shaking my head, I push to my feet. My dress is drenched in water and the tear on it only gets bigger when I twist to look at it.

Yep, Marianna is going to be super mad at me.

Sigh.

I wrap my arms around myself, the chilled fall air and wet clothes not a good combination for a warm-blooded being like myself.

The reds and yellows of the fall forest don't look as beautiful to me anymore. It looks haunting in the diminishing sunlight. Tree branches creak and groan while the wind makes ghost-like noises as it swirls through the treetops. I squeeze onto myself tighter, hoping I am heading in the right direction.

Winding my way through the dense forest, my head snaps in every direction when I think I hear something. I pick up the pace, eager to get back to the safety of castle grounds. My feet halt when I feel a strong chill at my backside. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I'm scared to turn around because I know a vampire is behind me. I can feel the energy they put off slithering around me, slowly squeezing me.

Why oh why did I follow Narran and Vera out here?

I twirl around, hoping the vampire who is behind me will think twice about touching one of the girls from the Dark Prince's Vamperial Garden. I am not like the other massarra though. The Dark Prince made them immortal while I was born this way. Immortal blood flows through me, yet I grow as if I were one of the offspring of a vampire.

All I face when I turn around is trees. The cold that was just behind me is now gone. What I can hear is Narran's and Vera's laughter carried in the wind.

"Ha ha, very funny." I hate to admit that, while Narran and Vera are playing games with me, it makes me feel more at ease knowing I am not alone.

My stomach sucks in and my breath gets caught in my lungs when I pivot back around and end up nose grazing a stone chest. Tristan Darkos looms over me. He is over a foot taller than me and looks every bit the famed Beast he is.

I don't get a chance to even blink before I find myself pinned against a tree somewhere else in the woods with Tristan's hand over my mouth.

"Crap, where did he go?" Vera asks, her voice audible though she is out of sight.

"I don't know. I thought he had left because I couldn't his energy." Narran replies as the sound of a twig snapping under her foot cause birds in a tree near them to take flight.

"What if he kills her, Narran? The Dark Prince will have our hearts for dinner is anything happens to his favorite pet."

"He isn't going to kill her." Narran growls.

Tristan presses me tighter into the tree, the cold of his body seeping through my wet clothes and making me shiver. He is keeping us out of sight from them. The question is why?

"Did you see the way he crawled on top of her? He was a half second away from plunging his hand into her chest cavity and yanking out her beating heart," Vera exclaims loudly, her worry over me touching if it wasn't really her worry about the wrath she and Narran will face if something happens to me because of them.