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didn t place her in constant danger or force her to lead a
life of secrecy and lies.
He had to protect her, and right now that meant leaving
her.
But leaving her felt so impossible.
She moved behind him, her hands closing around his
waist. He removed one of his gloves and touched her
hands. They were freezing. With a sigh, he removed his
other glove and took hold of her hand, letting the horse
lead itself for a moment. He placed his gloves on her
hands and locked them back together around his waist.
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Taking up the reins, he geed on the horse. A fork in the
road ahead drew his attention. To his left, hills rose up,
blanketed by trees. They were almost there. He could
smell werewolves.
A grumble from behind him made him look over his
shoulder at Nika. He couldn t see her. She had her cheek
pressed against his back, her cloak drawn up over her
head to protect her from the cold.
 I m hungry, she mumbled quietly and he realised the
noise had been her stomach.
He wasn t surprised. She hadn t eaten since the
werewolf attack. She should be starving by now.
She shuffled forwards and the cloak fell away from her
face when she sat up. He turned to face forwards again
and guided the horse down the road to his left, towards
the hills. The reek of werewolves grew stronger and he
knew they were heading in the right direction.
 Do I have to eat blood like you do? Nika said and her
hands tightened against his waist. Her heart sped a
little. She didn t like the thought of eating blood.  Must I
kill?
He frowned at her second question. Sometimes, you
didn t have the option whether to kill or not. Sometimes
your only choice was to kill. He had faced that situation
enough times to be immune to the sight of death now.
While the broken bodies of the village had rattled Nika,
they hadn t affected him at all. The sight of a hundred
beaten and battered corpses wouldn t make him blink an
eye. The blood of a hundred humans on his hands
wouldn t bother him in the slightest. In his years, he had
killed thousands. It was their life, or his.
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But the fire. He blinked away the memories that flooded
him. No. Death didn t bother him.
Something told him that he couldn t tell Nika that
though. She was still very human. The knowledge that
he had killed so many without the slightest ounce of
remorse would probably drive her away. A voice at the
back of his head whispered that it might be a good thing
to drive her away and make her hate him. It would
make things easier on them when it came time for him
to leave. He shut it out and told himself that it wasn t
the way. He couldn t take the easy way out of this. Their
parting would hurt them both, and there was a chance
neither of them would ever truly recover from the pain
and loss if he couldn t return, but it was another
situation where he had no choice. He had to leave, for
both of their sakes. He had failed to protect her once. He
wouldn t fail again. Leaving her would keep her safe
from his kin and the law.
Even though it would break her heart and his own in the
process.
 Do I? Nika said again, this time grabbing his shoulders
and pulling herself up. Her soft breath washed over his
cheek, a white mist that drifted away on the breeze.
 No, he said and when she didn t move away, he
realised that his short answer wasn t satisfactory. A
wooden gate stood in the distance, a field beyond it.
They would have to walk the horse from there. There
had to be a road to the stronghold but he hadn t seen
one. It was probably on the other side of the hills. They
didn t have time to go around. Willem would be close on
their heels. Walking through the forest would be
quickest. Speed was of the essence. He needed to get
Nika there and get her safe.  Werewolves do not have to
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kill humans. Animal blood and human food and drink are
enough to sustain you.
 And you? she whispered with a tremble.
His eyes narrowed on the distant trees. Him? What did
he tell her? What she would like to hear or the truth of
the matter?
He had been honest with her so far. Now wasn t the time
to change that. She would probably encounter other
vampires in her lifetime, ones that weren t associated
with the place he was taking her to live. He had to
continue to be honest with her so she knew what type of
creature his kind was.
 I cannot drink or eat human food. Animal blood would
not sustain me. I need human blood, at least once every
fortnight, if not more. Nothing else will suffice. Winter
paused and drew a deep breath, feeling the need for air
in his lungs. He had never breathed as much in the past
five hundred years as he had these past few days.
Quietly, solemnly, he stared up at the starlit sky and
said,  A vampire must kill.
Nika slumped back into her place on the saddle behind
him and her hands slipped from his shoulders. He waited
to see what her reaction would be and whether she
would dare touch him again now. Surely, in her head she
would be calculating his age and how many lives he had
potentially taken.
A minimum of twenty-six a year to feed alone, if he
hadn t been injured or involved in battle. When injured,
he needed more blood to replace his lost blood and the
strength it took to heal. Twenty-six lives a year and over
a thousand years of living. He had killed the population
of her village around two hundred times over.
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 Oh, she said, as though she wasn t sure how she was
supposed to react.
He pulled the black horse to a stop and was about to
dismount when her arms wrapped around his waist and
she pressed her cheek against his back. He closed his
eyes, hung his head forwards, and sighed out the breath
that he had been holding. His hands came to rest over
hers and he stared at them and the way she still clung to
him, even though he had just told her that he had killed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]