The Sacrifice: The Watcher Series Book Three (First 50 pages)

Chapter 3-BLOOD OF THE SLAYER

Chapter 3—BLOOD OF THE SLAYER

I awoke…I don’t think I had been asleep long.  Joshua was still behind me, my head on his arm.  I carefully rolled over, trying not to jar him from his sleep.  His eyes opened to slits.  “Sorry…I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You didn’t,” he whispered.  “Just enjoying being here with you.”

“Mmmm,” I blinked my heavy lids.   After a long pause I said, “I still can’t believe you are alive.”  I reached over and traced the angles of his face with my fingertips.  “Dagan is certainly an enigma.  How did he save you and not draw suspicion?”

“There was an underwater cave under the stone dock.  He dragged me into it and revived me.  He said he would send someone I trusted to retrieve me.  When he went to leave, I asked about you.  He simply said, ‘Concentrate on healing,’ and dove back into the water at the mouth of the cave.  I don’t know how much time passed by, but Dagan found Gabriel, and Gabriel got me home.”

I ran my finger over the scar on his neck and spoke through downturned lips, my thoughts coming out in fragments: “If Tyran…two more inches and…I thought…he almost took your head.”

“But he didn’t,” he answered as if my thought was coherent. 

A smile flickered on my face.  “Your voice…you sound more like you today.”

“Do I?”

  Speaking about his voice reminded me of how I was told he shut down when he thought I died.  “Josh…If something ever happens to me again…I need to know you will be okay…I need to know you will move on.”

“We have forever now…nothing will happen to you.”  But there was an edge to his voice.  He didn’t seem himself, like he was shell-shocked that I was back, and there was emotion ready to well up in him at any moment.

“I know…I…It’s just that…” I closed my eyes.

“I am angry with you, though,” he said in an eerily calm voice.

“About what?”  My mind raced, knowing there were a dozen things about which he could be upset about.

“You tried to take yourself out—before I could get to you.  I felt it.”  His look was keen and penetrating, and it made me squirm.

I closed my eyes for a moment, ashamed.  “I did.  I’m sorry.  I lost hope…I was afraid if you came…what happened would happen.  I tried to use a guard to kill myself, but Dagan intervened and literally tore the guard in half when he went for me.”

“That’s three for Dagan.”

I blanched involuntarily.

“Four?”

I sighed, “Long story short…me unescorted… sunlight…tested with my arm…”  Joshua winced.  “When I went to finish the job he pulled me back inside.  He posted guards after that…and he…”  I didn’t finish.

“And he what?”

“He said, ‘Not all is as it seems.  Hope is not lost.’ I didn’t try anything after that.  I felt like he wasn’t speaking about anything within the castle.  I wonder if he was hinting about you.”

“Did you speak with him much?”

“Uh…no.  I think that was two of ten sentences he ever spoke to me.”

He was quiet for a moment.  “What was it like...being exposed to the sun?”

I took in a slow breath, trying to put it into words, “Not what I expected.  In the movies, it is always fast.  I didn’t know if my arm would turn to ash and fall off or explode into flame.  I held my left arm in the light and watched.  It was the same reaction a human would have except accelerated by a thousand.  It turned pink…then blistered…it became purple…it watered and swelled…then black blotches appeared as the fat started burning up.  It was excruciating…but it was better than feeling the way I felt.  I started to lean forward and that’s when Dagan tore me from the light.  It took a long time to heal…Bowen told me that if you don’t will yourself to heal, it takes longer.”  I ran my fingers over the rent in his throat.