Blood Bound

Chapter 16: A bloody surprise

"You're not making things better," I moan as my brain begins to conjure up horrific scenarios about being mauled to death by a bear.

"Relax, Leia," Sophie sneers at me, the tone of her voice is laced with irritation. "They're not going to attack you as long as I am with you."

I try to feel reassured but images of the time she assaulted that mugger invade my mind and I'm yet again reminded what Sophie really is and what she's capable of doing. Suddenly the thought of her protecting me against a bear doesn't sound so appealing anymore.

Everything around us is eerily silent, except for the occasional shuffling in the grass, made by small animals, and hopefully not bigger animals. I'm not much used to the silence as I'm more accustomed to the every day hustle and bustle of city life. Even when we went camping, I would always have an easier time sleeping if I was listening to music. My dad always scolded me for doing that, claiming that I wouldn't be able to appreciate nature in its finest form.

Well, dad, I don't know about you but the quietness and the darkness is not something I appreciate about nature, that's for sure!

I shake my head as the familiar pang of guilt rises within me. I have to stop thinking about my family so I push it to the farthest realms of my mind and lock it up. I can deal with it some other time.

The silence is finally disrupted by the distant sounds of cars and commotion, and the darkness slowly melts away from the illuminating pollution of lights. We've reached the city limits of Tok.

Sophie cries out in joy and I feel relief wash over me like a welcoming shower. One of the hard parts is hopefully over.

"Then we don't need this anymore!" Sophie gleefully exclaims and throws the cart away which lands sideways with a thud on the soft patch of grass.

"Yeah," I nod. "It's served its purpose dutifully." I almost want to give it a proper goodbye but Sophie is too eager to end our forest hiking and enter civilization.

We walk at a brisk pace through the remaining density of trees and cut through to the main road that leads into the city. It's around 10 pm so there's not much activity on the roads or streets, which is quite beneficial for us. The less people are around, the better.

Sophie wants us to keep to the alleyways and the narrow dark streets to avoid detection and she isn't sure if there are any sangues communities here.

"Do you think they've already been notified of your crime?" I ask.

Sophie shrugs. "No idea," she replies as she looks cautiously in every direction before sneaking into an alley. "But word tends to travel fast, both in my community and theirs. I once heard that it took 2 days to find a sangue and execute him after he was caught delivering info to hunters." She nods grimly at my shocked expression. "The network is vast, I'm telling you. Which is why we can't take any chances and we can't trush anyone, do you hear me?"

She grabs my arm and squeezes it for emphasis. I shut my mouth to stifle my squeak of pain and nod vigorously.

"Good," she releases my arm.

"Why are you so afraid that I will betray you?"

The words come out of my mouth before I can stop them. I didn't mean to say it out loud, it was supposed to be kept in the bottomless pit that is my mind. I go rigid and the lump of clay in my stomach hardens painfully as Sophie turns to glare at me.

"Because that's in your human nature," she replies matter-of-factly. "Self-preservation, it's engraved in every human, hell, even us vampires heavily rely on that." She leans against the brick wall, sighing. "In the end, it's all about survival."