A Hero of Realms(18)

“Hm,” the young woman murmured. “So do I.” She shifted her focus back to her glass.

She was quiet after that, neither asking me more questions nor offering more information about herself. Still, I decided to sit only five more minutes at the table before going up to my room. The noise and the smoke were beginning to get to my head. I craved the silence of solitude.

“Good night,” I said as I stood up.

She nodded briefly in my direction.

My eyes traveled across the room, toward the counter where the waiter stood. I needed to get the key to my room from him.

I was about to cross the pub to talk to him when the main door swung open, letting in a strong breeze and… a young human man. All at once, his scent surrounded me, exacerbated by the breeze. My hands clamped down around the edge of the table as my stomach knotted. I had Bahir within me delaying the Elder from taking over my mind, but I still felt the bloodlust just as badly. Even though my last feeding had only been hours ago.

The female vampire I’d been sharing the table with eyed me with a slight frown.

“Um… Are you all right?” she asked.

She twisted in her chair, following my gaze. The human—a man perhaps in his late twenties—had just made his way behind the counter. He picked up a broom and began to sweep up. Apparently he was a worker here.

“Are you newly turned?” the girl asked, pushing aside her now-empty glass and standing up.

“Something like that,” I managed.

I wanted to bolt from this place, but there were only two exits that I could see—a staircase, and the main door. To reach both would mean traveling right past him, and I didn’t want to risk that.

“Yeah,” the girl murmured. “You don’t want to go harming any humans here. Or anyone, for that matter. I don’t know if you’ve been to The Tavern before—I’m guessing you haven’t if you’re newly turned. The laws here are strict. Very strict. You could be sentenced to execution even for getting into a fight here.”

I glanced at her, disbelieving.

“It’s the only way they can maintain peace with such a myriad of conflicting species all milling about in one area.”

I guessed it made sense.

I looked back toward the counter, hoping for any sign of the human leaving. He was only showing signs of staying as he put down the broom and picked up a mop before cleaning the floor in front of the bar.

I started to panic as my vision began to shroud again. I guessed that it would be a matter of seconds now before—

“Do you have a room in this place?” the hazel-eyed girl asked, walking around me and standing directly in front of me.

“Yes,” I breathed, grateful for her distraction. My eyes demisted a little, my vision becoming clearer at her interruption. “I’m booked to stay in one of the rooms, but I need the key…”

“Ah.” She glanced back over at the counter. “Well, I’ve finished my drink. I don’t mind asking the guy for your key. Just keep yourself in this corner.”

Even that felt like a gargantuan task. But I couldn’t have been more appreciative for her offer of help in that moment.

“That would be… great,” I panted. “And if you could hurry…”

She gave me a small, knowing smile, and then dashed off. She arrived behind the counter, spoke to the vampire waiter and gestured back toward me.

The man glanced my way before opening up a cabinet and pulling down a key, which he handed the young woman. She swept back across the room toward me, deftly snaking around the tables.

“Thank you,” I said as she handed me the key.

Now I just had to figure out how to get up the staircase and also hope that once I was up there, my room would be far away enough from the ground floor for the smell to not bother me so much.

“I’m, uh, retiring to bed now anyway, if you’re headed for the stairs…” the girl said.

She walked by my side, the side that was closer to the human, as we left the table. I rushed toward the staircase and ran up it. Her standing so close to me helped. I felt a twinge in my chest as I thought of River, how much I’d come to rely on her to act as my boundary during the time we spent together. As I climbed the staircase with the girl, I imagined where River would be now. In The Shade, I hoped. I wondered how she had taken waking up to find me gone. How she was coping. How her family was adjusting to the island. Whether they would all stay there. Whether I might ever see River again…

“I’m Julie, by the way,” the girl said.

She looked at me as though she was expecting me to offer my name. I didn’t. I was grateful to her for helping me out of that predicament, but I wasn’t here to make friends.