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  Warin scoffed. What he had enjoyed was killing priests, showing them that he was a much stronger power than the god they prayed to while he played with them. The memory instigated an unpleasant and unexpected twinge in that dark place behind his ribs. He rubbed at his chest and, for the first time since he had known about their existence, worried that vampires might fall ill. Perhaps he was sick?

  The thought was troubling, and was followed by a host of thoughts and emotions he couldn’t make sense of. Great. More confusion. He hated not understanding a problem. The few times he had met such an anomaly in the past, it had been easy enough to solve it by wreaking havoc upon whatever the root of it was. This time… he didn’t even know how to figure out what the root was.

  Warin collapsed onto his back and stared up at the starlit sky, feeling small and hollow and not at all like the powerful creature he had been for the past centuries. Wrong.

  “Brother…” Aleric’s voice was rough with concern. Warin couldn’t blame him. If he didn’t feel so empty, he’d be concerned too. This—whatever this was—was a far cry from the vampire who had saved them both from the clutches of their Sire and spent centuries feasting on human blood across the European continent. But even the ever-present beast inside of him was quiet now, curled up and aching.

  “Warin,” Aleric tried again. His auburn head appeared above Warin, blocking out his view of the night sky. “Do you need… an Ancient?”

  The suggestion was so ridiculous that the despair in his chest withdrew enough for an incredulous snort to make its way up his lungs and out his nostrils. “I am not dying. I have no need for an Ancient’s blood. And even if I did, how do you suggest we find one willing to trade his blood without demanding our lives in return? I would rather perish than be enslaved.” Again.

  The mere notion of submitting to an Ancient’s will made the wounded beast in his chest rear its head with a snarl. Never!

  “I would steal the blood, if need be. Just tell me what you require, brother, and I will bring it.”

  The devotion in the tall vampire’s otherwise fierce face paired with his ludicrous words ignited a smile across Warin’s tainted lips. He lifted a palm off the ground and cupped Aleric’s strong jaw with it. “You will do no such thing. I value your companionship far too much to see you attempt to take on an Ancient. I will find an answer to this on my own.”

  Aleric frowned down at him, his blue eyes not displaying any sort of conviction. “What is ‘this’? I don’t understand what’s wrong with you. We have raided countless villages with this group of Vikings. But after this one… I find you like this. Is it a curse? Was the girl a witch?”

  Maybe it was a curse. He felt relatively sure Thea wasn’t a witch, but that didn’t mean someone else couldn’t have cast some form of protection over her house. Or her.

  In either case, the answer would lie with her.

  Warin sat up as a piece of the puzzle snapped into place. She was the root of this problem.

  The insignificant human with her sea-green eyes was the key.

  His beast growled in agreement, and an odd exhilaration traveled through his body in response. He cast a glance up at the sky and saw the first signs of the impending sunrise in the east as the dark black of night gave way to deep blue. Whatever fix there was to the problem, he wouldn’t have time to execute it tonight. But tomorrow night, he would rise, and then he would act. And whatever “this” was, he knew the root of it now.

  One way or the other, the dull ache in his chest would go away when he rose again.

  Despite the still-looming pressure behind his ribs, he got to his feet in a single, smooth movement and looked up at his taller companion. “Let us go to ground. Tomorrow night will be better.”

  His brother watched him warily, clearly bewildered with the sudden change, but he followed him wordlessly as he darted for the nearby tree line to find a resting place.

  Chapter 3

  Aleric

  The fresh soil crumbled around Aleric's up-stretched hand as he broke through the surface and into the evening chill. His usual elation at waking up surrounded by the embrace of the Earth coursed through his veins, along with a pang of hunger. He pushed through to the dirt and jumped out of the makeshift grave he’d dug for the night, ready to run, fight, hunt.

  Then his gaze fell on his brother, who had climbed out of his own grave moments before, and a sinking feeling nestled in his gut.

  The dark-haired vampire was crouched on the ground, peering up at the stars as if lost in thought, his deceptively young face void of the usual ferocity that had marked his features in most of the years Aleric had known him.

  Whatever it was that had possessed him the night before, it clearly hadn’t passed.

  “Good evening, brother,” Aleric called, discreetly scenting the air for the taint of sorcery. There was none. If it was witchcraft, the trace of it was long gone. “How did you rest?”

  Warin looked at him over his shoulder, an odd fire behind his blue eyes. “We will be leaving the raiders tonight. Feed quickly—we are traveling further inland.”

  Aleric blinked, a bit thrown off by his brother’s odd shift in mood. Last night he’d been melancholic and almost frighteningly passive, and now he wanted to hurry along a feeding? It was usually the best part of the night for both of them. Aleric considered objecting, but changed his mind when Warin lifted his face back up to the sky and sat still, like a hunched sentinel. Whatever his brother needed him to do to get through this unsettling episode, he’d do. Even rush through a meal.

  With a huff he set out toward the burned-down village to find the men they had raided with for the past couple of months. If there were no surviving villagers left, one of them would have to do for a quick feeding.

  It was only after hours at breakneck pace through thick forests and across trickling streams and sweeping meadows that Aleric caught the scent of what his Elder was so determinedly chasing.

  Soot and the tang of fear clung to the branches hanging over the narrow path, marking their prey as a runaway villager. The scent of woman underneath made Aleric narrow his eyes in suspicion. Warin had blabbed about some girl making him feel wrong. Given the single-minded focus he displayed as they ran through the forest, Aleric had a sinking feeling he’d soon get to see the female who’d bewitched his brother so.

  She was close now. Droppings on the path and the smell of animal mingling with the human’s fear told him she was riding, but no horse could ever outrun a vampire. Judging by the smell of sweat, she’d been riding since dawn, and they would be upon her soon.

  How she was even alive in the first place, Aleric had no idea. His brother’s bloodlust was as inescapable as it was gruesome. Sure, he might play with his food for a couple of hours, but in their more than two hundred years together, since the night they escaped their Sire, Warin had never let a human he’d set his sights on live to see daylight.

  What was so special about this one?

  Aleric's thoughts came to an abrupt halt when Warin stopped and veered off into the underbrush and sank into a crouch, his gaze locked on something further ahead.

  Aleric followed him. The sounds of crackling firewood and a faint orange glow told him as clearly as his brother’s predatory prowl that they’d caught up to their prey. Curiosity burned in his veins as he sank down into a crouch next to Warin.

  He arched an eyebrow at the sight of the woman who’d curled up by the small fire in the clearing ahead of them. She was dirty and exhausted-looking, with long, tangled hair and soot streaks across her face. Red rimmed her eyes and he could smell dried salt on her cheeks. She’d been crying probably all the way up until she became too dehydrated to continue.

  All in all, she was a pretty pathetic sight. Pretty enough underneath all the grime, sure, but nothing special. Why had this particular girl caught his brother’s attention?

  Her horse, who’d been eagerly grazing at the meadow’s lush vegetation, suddenly lifted its head, nostrils flaring. No doubt it
had caught the scent of lurking predators. It let out a panicked whinny and reared up, pulling at the reins tying it to a broken tree stump with all the desperation of an herbivore knowing it was about to become dinner. Not that either vampire would ever touch an animal when there was a delectable little human nearby.

  “Shh, shh, be still!” The girl got to her feet in an attempt to calm the animal, but her soothing words did little to calm the beast.

  Warin chose that moment to stand up and deliberately put his foot on a dry branch. It snapped with a crack that rang through the clearing.

  The girl spun around, fear plain on her face. Aleric could hear her heart thundering in her chest.

  The horse used her distraction to tear free of her grip, finally breaking the reins that tied it to the tree stump. It reared back again with another whinny, spun around, and disappeared in the opposite direction at a full gallop.

  “No!” the woman cried after her four-legged companion, but it was no use.

  Silence fell over the clearing, save for the crackle of burning wood and her quick breaths. She scanned the tree line, eyes wide and fearful.

  Warin took a slow, deliberate step forward, snapping another branch under his bare feet. The woman jolted at the sound and grasped a burning log from the fire, holding it out in front of herself like a weapon.

  “Show yourself!” she demanded, her voice much stronger than her panicked heart would suggest.

  Aleric caught the wry smile on Warin’s lips as he stepped fully out into the clearing.

  The gasp of recognition from the woman the second she laid eyes on him cemented Aleric's hunch that this was, indeed, the same girl his brother had run into the night before.

  “Stay away, demon!” she shouted, swinging the branch in front of her so the sparks flew like fireflies around her. “I am not afraid of you!”

  Warin made an amused sound. “Your heart says otherwise, little bird. Da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, racing against your ribs so loudly I can hardly think.” He spoke in her language, but his accent revealed the lingering touch of the northern lands they both hailed from. They had learned this island’s language during their travels, amusing themselves with the carnage of battle when they joined a raiding party. They cared little for gold and treasure, but the blood…

  For two hundred years they had wandered the European continent, seeking out human battles. They relished the fight and feasted on blood of friend and foe alike. It was their sole purpose: rise with the stars and hunt for blood until the beast within was sated yet another night.

  “I hunger for you,” Warin said, advancing on the girl. She took a step back, eyes locked on his form. “I thirst. Your heart calls to me. Da-dum, da-dum, da-dum. Why? What magic runs through your veins, little one?”

  She backed up as he walked toward her, prowling like a big forest cat, her gaze never leaving his. “I don’t know what you are or what you want from me, but I promise you, I will never give you anything! Not a drop of my blood, nor my soul. Begone, monster!”

  Warin pounced then, moving faster than her weak human eyes could follow. He was behind her in the blink of an eye, one strong hand wrapped around her wrists. Deftly, he ripped the makeshift torch from her and threw it back on the campfire, rendering her defenseless in his grasp.

  Aleric grimaced. He’d seen his brother torment countless humans over the years. He himself had slaughtered thousands. They were food, after all—food and warm, soft bodies built to pleasure. But Warin’s needs were far darker than his own, his beast’s demands more sophisticated. It wasn’t enough for him to feed and fuck, and the games he played with his hapless victims were unsettling, even by vampire standards.

  Aleric hadn’t know their Sire for long, and for that he would always be in Warin’s debt. For the eighty-some years before Aleric had felt the Night’s Embrace, Warin had been alone with their Sire.

  Something had broken within him during that time.

  Whatever this girl had done to attract Warin’s attention, before the night was over she’d wish she had died by a raider’s hand back in her shithole of a village.

  “You smell… divine,” Warin murmured as he drew his nose up along the side of her neck where her pulse drummed rapidly. Her shallow gasps made her chest heave and her pupils blew wide with terror. When Warin’s fangs lengthened with a snick, she flinched and whimpered, but the vampire didn’t let her escape. He kept her pressed tightly against his own body as he nuzzled her neck with his nose.

  “Stop playing with your food,” Aleric sighed as he stepped into the clearing. “I keep telling you, they taste better without the bitter notes of fear.”

  The woman in Warin’s grip jerked and cried out at his appearance. She wouldn’t be able to understand the language he’d spoken, but he knew she’d have no trouble recognizing him as another Nightwalker.

  “I’m not playing,” Warin sighed. His eyelids were half-closed as he sniffed and nudged at his prey, much like a loving cat. “She’s magnificent, isn’t she?”

  Aleric arched an eyebrow at the pathetic human. She was small and dirty and scared witless, and for the life of him, he couldn’t tell what had his brother so enthralled. But he knew better than to question his Elder when he was consumed by bloodlust.

  “Wonderful,” he said, his tone dry. “Are we staying here for the night then, or do you plan to be quick about it?”

  Warin finally looked up from the girl’s neck then, and something… odd seemed to flame in his eyes. He wasn’t lost to bloodlust. No, this was… something else. Something deeply disturbing.

  “I want to keep her.”

  “Keep her?” Aleric raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “You want to Embrace this pathetic human?!”

  Warin growled. The girl flinched again and tears began to leak from her eyes, but Warin didn’t pay her any mind. “I will never sire a Child. You know this.” His furious expression softened as he pressed his cheek against the crying girl’s. “She will stay human. And she will stay with me.”

  Aleric narrowed his eyes at the girl. She had to be some sort of witch to have made his brother lose his mind within the span of a single night. “And what, exactly, do you plan to do with your new pet?”

  “You speak as if this is unheard of. We have encountered many of our kind who kept human companionship,” Warin snarled, clearly irritated with Aleric's less than ecstatic response to this newest twist in their journey. He released the girl and stepped toward the taller man. “You yourself have pet humans whenever we stay in towns for any length of time. Why shouldn’t I?”

  Aleric resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Instead, he looked his brother up and down, arching an eyebrow as he tried to find a way of explaining his… hesitance… at the idea of Warin growing attached to a human he’d picked up in the middle of the wilderness. Preferably without getting the temperamental Elder in one of his moods. His long, dark hair stuck together in matted clumps. Dirt smeared most of his visible skin, giving him an eerie, wild appearance. Smears of dried blood still adorned his lips from their evening meal.

  “Humans need shelter. Food. You can’t keep her out here, and you dislike crowded towns. Just… put the pitiful thing out of her misery and let’s continue our travels, brother. Maybe a trip back to Sicily? You did so enjoy the monasteries there.”

  “No!” Warin’s roar echoed through the clearing, and Aleric quickly dropped to one knee in a show of submission.

  “She is mine! She will stay with me.” Warin pointed menacingly at Aleric, his darkened eyes narrowing. “Do not cross me! I have to know why her heart sings to me. I have to know, or I will go mad! I will not eat her. You will not eat her. As your Elder, I command it!”

  Aleric blinked. It was the second time in his life he had heard this command. The first time had been when Warin had stood bathed in their Sire’s blood, the wild flames in his eyes so similar to those now dancing in his gaze as he’d commanded his brother to never speak of what had transpired that night.

  After their Sire
’s death, he was the eldest known vampire in their bloodline. His command was law. And yet, through their more than two hundred years together, this was only the second time Warin had used it.

  And it was over a human.

  Aleric bowed his head in acceptance, then looked back up. “As you command, brother.”

  Warin held his gaze for a moment longer, then nodded as well, some of the tension leaving his body. “She is special, Aleric. I intend to find out why.”

  Aleric got to his feet and glanced over Warin’s shoulder at the girl currently sprinting across the clearing. She was still naïve enough to believe she could ever escape the vampire whose interest she’d piqued. “Then you should probably catch her, before she trips and breaks her neck.”

  Warin looked in the direction his prize had run off in, a frown marring his features. Aleric was pretty sure it was inspired by dawning realization that his new pet could easily die even without encountering vampire fangs.

  He watched as the wild vampire who’d cared for him when he was still new and vulnerable bolted across the clearing and tackled the human girl to the ground, pinning her in the grass with a menacing growl. The same growl Warin had given him when he’d taught him how to survive and he’d done something unforgivably stupid that would undoubtedly have gotten him killed, had he been on his own.

  The woman, whose face was currently less than three inches from Warin’s bared fangs, looked like she was about to wet herself.

  Aleric sighed and sank down in a crouch by her campfire to poke at the burning logs with a stick. Warin may have taught him how to survive as a creature of the night, but he had a feeling that he’d have to teach his feral brother how to live as a human, if this wasn’t going to end in complete disaster.

  Chapter 4

  Warin