His Little Ember • BOOK III

Chapter IX

We started our trek throughout the human town. Fay mentioned that it would probably take around a week to get to the vampires' territory.

"Wonderful. A week to plot on how to kill both of you." West muttered under his breath.

I felt the exact same way. My own soulmate rejected me and my heart hurt. A lot. If I was a human, I would hope that we would break up smoothly, not reject me the way he did. Before we headed off on the second part of our journey, I caught Kain taking the necklace off the ground and dusting off the dirt. He looked at it for a moment then shoved it in his pocket, making me question for the millionth time - who was Moirai?

The city was bustling with people, not caring about each other's surroundings. It was perfect for vampires, werewolves, and a pixie, hidden in Kain's pocket, to blend in. By this time, Mallory had disguised her baby carrier in front of her chest so she looked like a normal mom with her husband. We did get a few glances as to why a very pregnant Isla was walking around so easily. Women also drooled at the guys. The others started to have a casual conversation about the Sunshine-Darkmoon Pack which, of course, left Kain and me out.

"Um, so how old are you? Are you some hundred years old or is that just a myth about vampires?" I asked, trying to strike up some sort of discussion with him. I held my bruised knuckles behind my back so he couldn't see how much the blow had hurt me as well.

He gave me a side look then said, "You're a vampire and yet you know so little about them. You're completely fine."

I huffed, "You know I was raised by a werewolf.

"Then how come you didn't want to learn more about your own kind?"

By this time, my blood was boiling; Catalina told me to keep my temper in check but that advice flew out the window now. "I never cared to. Some werewolves have given me more love and affection than any vampire would and you've proven my point exactly the minute I met you!"

Kain rolled his eyes. "Maybe you actually should care to. Have you ever realized why you're able to survive in the sun even with just a hood? How you can only live on blood pills or animal blood without feeding on a human or even these werewolves around you that you call friends?"

This stopped me in my tracks. "Y-you mean...this isn't normal for vampires?"

My soulmate sighed and looked behind me, frowning. "You'll understand when we get there."

The sun slowly went down, turning the sky into a brilliant scarlet and different shades of coral and gold, indicating it was time to figure out where to set up camp. Mallory, Dion, Isla, and West, decided to grab rooms in a motel in the human town near the edge of the forest considering one of them had a child and Isla was pregnant. Mal also plucked the pixie by its wings, insisting that she had to go with them to help with Alaric. I glared at the four of them, knowing exactly what was happening.

"This is stupid," I muttered, breaking sticks off of some bushes so we could get through them.

He scoffed. "You think? But it's better for less of us to go into the town so we aren't questioned."

Ignoring him, I stopped at a thick tree, putting my hand against it to feel if it was stable enough. "Okay, this one should be good enough for the night." Grabbing a branch, I pulled myself up and swung my leg over, making sure the cape of my hood didn't get stuck on one of the twigs which was always a problem. I was about to haul myself onto the next branch when I didn't hear anything behind me.

Turning around, I noticed Kain was looking up at me, his eyes, wide. "What are you still doing down there? Why aren't you following me?"

"What am I doing down here? What are you doing up there? I thought we were going to sleep!"