Chapter 140

I watched him continue drinking.

“And who are you to teach me a lesson about anything?” I growled, my eyes burning. “You’re just a vampire! This is werewolf territory—Candido’s territory!”

His lips didn’t even twitch, but someone nearby snickered. Then, there was laughter that filled the hall, mocking.

“Stop laughing,” I growled. “Stop laughing at me!”

“Are you not meant to laugh at something funny?” He asked and ducked his head. His eyes brightened. “Oh, look. It is nearly time to be done with this.”

He stood and addressed the hall. “So sorry to take the entertainment for the night early, but my patience has worn thin.”

The woman who had threatened me with a sword glared down at me. “There is nothing amusing about her… Lady Hedwig deserved better.”

He placed an arm on her shoulder. “As we all know, but we must work with the hand we have been dealt.” He chuckled. “We all know how fickle our Goddess is.”

“Willful,” someone said.

“She would adore such blasphemy,” he said, a bit of humor in his voice before he turned to me. “Are you going to stand and follow, or shall I drag you through town as well?”

“I haven’t eaten.”

He lifted a shoulder. “I’m sure someone else will care that you wasted the time being petulant.”

I glared at him. “I’m hungry.”

“I’m sure,” he said, “And when Raven brought you to the hall, did you not think to fill your stomach rather than insult, attack, and otherwise over stay your welcome?”

“I didn’t do any of that! You brought me here!”

“And I will soon be returning you,” he said. “Are you going to stand or be dragged?”

I sniffled and pushed myself to my feet, knowing that he wasn’t bluffing. Everything still hurt. My stomach growled. I looked to find someone who had a bit of sympathy for me, but no one even seemed to care that I was there.

He turned and walked. “Follow.”

“I’m not a dog.”

He snorted. “No, just a mutt. Follow.”

I stomped after him, gritting my teeth. “You don’t have to be rude to me.”

“Courtesy is for those who have earned it,” he said.

“You haven’t even told me who you are!” I shrieked. “You’ve dragged me here without any information away from Candido. You’re a vampire. You’re probably in league with that other one that’s been attacking us! Admit that you’re just looking to take over the werewolf world!”

He stopped in the middle of the square. The people who were milling around turned and glared at me. Hissing with bared teeth, but they weren’t all vampires.

Some of them growled like wolves. One of them shifted into a black wolf with a rumbling growl. She prowled towards me with narrowed, blood-red eyes.

“How could you—You’ve kidnapped—”

“Shut up,” he said, turning around and facing me. I felt something force my mouth to close, and panic filled me. “You know nothing, nor have you tried to learn anything.” He gestured to the sky. “The world as you know it is a very thin veneer over the truth. The sooner you learn that, accept it, the better.”

I narrowed my eyes at him as I felt the pressure around my jaw release.

“Follow. Silently.”

I cast a glare around the group who glared back at me. A bunch of vampires and traitors, like Bella. He led me through what seemed to be a town, but it was nothing like the New Moon town where I’d met Francia. The sky was still night. The moon hung over the city, unmoving.

Yeah. It was more like a city, I guessed. There were no cars. There wasn’t that scent of cement either, but the roads were paved and smooth like the stone had been melted and poured or something. The buildings were as tall as the buildings in Full Moon’s Capital, but there was something different about it. The color of the bricks and the other materials was different than anything I had ever seen before.

We drew closer to a grand, sprawling building that I could only describe as a palace out of something like an old book. It reminded me a little of what the old Full Moon Estate looked like before the vampires burned it down and murdered mostly everyone inside.

The doors opened as we approached. Warm air rushed out and swept past me, but there was nothing but darkness inside. He paused at the threshold and cast a glance back at me. With a roll of his hand, light appeared above his hand and went streaking down the hallway, lighting the lanterns down the long hallway.

I climbed the stairs weakly, panting through the pain that seemed to be getting worse and better at the same time. My stomach growled, loud and angry.

“Why isn’t the moon moving?”

He looked at me, searching my face as if trying to decide whether or not to answer that question.

“This is the realm of our Goddess,” he said. “It is night as she wishes as a sign of doting upon us.”

“Because you’ll die in sunlight.”

He snorted. “Because the night is our delight.”

I narrowed my eyes and followed him inside. The doors closed behind us, but still I saw no one.

“How is it doing that?”

“Should a home keep its family out?”

“Are you going to answer every question I have with another question?”

“Will it make you stop talking?” He asked.

“Not until I’m back with Candido,” I said. “Where is he? Where are you taking me? What part of the continent are we on?”

He kept walking. “Your beloved will be here shortly.”

My heart lurched and I growled. “Is that a threat? I won’t—”

The air tightened around me, subduing me like I had been wrapped in ropes. I couldn’t speak. I could barely breathe. Then, I tilted and my feet dragged across the floor after him. I realized then, that he was dragging me. I tried to struggle.

“You are much too young to fight me, defend him, or yourself, even if I was inclined to kill him. He is coming due to his injuries, you idiot.”

Injuries? Why was Candido injured? What had they done to him? I struggled harder, but the bands of tight air around me didn’t even shift. My mind was racing. I tried screaming, but nothing came out as if he had silenced me. He walked through another set of doors and to a large doorway. Above us, the ceiling was made of glass and let in moonlight. Then, the moon’s light turned golden like the sun and the doorway in front of us opened, revealing nothing but a deep darkness. He walked out and as he did so, his appearance changed.

My heart raced. I had seen this face before. I had seen the uniform before too, down to the last buckle. I didn’t know the name, but I recognized him as a security officer that had been at the Blue Moon compound. I felt sick as he vanished through the dark doorway and I couldn’t stop myself from being dragged through the threshold.

As I crossed the threshold, the darkness washed over me like an odd chill. I opened my eyes as the bands of air released me and I collapsed to the ground. The floor was familiar, as were the walls. We were inside the Blue Moon Compound, in the heart of it. I turned back to the way we’d come and saw nothing but a simple closet door that was slightly open and showed the entrance to some sort of warehouse, not the room we’d been in before.

My blood ran cold as I turned back to where the man was, standing in his new disguise with his arms crossed and looking down at me.

“Are you going to stand now that you are… as you say back in werewolf territory?”

I crawled towards the wall and shook my head. My mind was spinning, but I got to my feet and stumbled away from him. My heart clenched. My blood was cold in my veins. I heard him following me leisurely, but I said nothing. Someone had to know that the vampires could just walk into the compound. Was anything safe? Was anywhere safe?

Where was Candido? Was he okay? Had he been lying? Was it because he was on that cliff and collapsed? What did mean that he was going to be brought because of his injuries? No one would ever turn over the alpha king to a bunch of vampires.

Especially not after the way they’d been treating me! Candido wouldn’t go with them. He’d tear this guy apart the way he’d torn those men from the locker room apart.

I turned another corner and panted, slumping against the wall, trying to catch my breath. He rounded the corner just behind me.

“You know it would be easier if you didn’t attempt to run.”

“I—”

“Hedy?” Someone called. “Hedy!”