The Red Lily (Vampire Blood #2)(63)

He stopped on an instant. That smell. And there was the faint sound that often accompanied such an odor.

"What is it, Nikolai?"

He jerked his head to the left, the direction of the northerly path through the woods. He narrowed his gaze over the treetops, finding the plumes of smoke he sought.

"You're scaring me. What do you see?"

Ramiel whinnied, as if he too could hear and smell death nearby.

"Come. Swiftly," he ordered and heeled Ramiel into a gallop down the lane.

At the first break in the tree line, he pulled his steed to a halt. He pointed into the trees and glanced to be sure she was right behind him. She was. Venturing off track, he led Ramiel down an incline into a small gully, protected on both sides with dense brush, even in the dead of winter when leaves were scarce. He leapt from his mount and tethered Ramiel to the nearest elm.

He pulled Sienna down and set her roughly on her feet. "I need you to stay here and stay quiet."

"What!" She grabbed hold of his forearms, his hands still gripping her waist. "You're not leaving me here."

"Not for long. I need to go and see what this is."

"What what is? I don't see or hear anything at all."

"It's too far away for you to. I won't be long."

"No." She clung to his arms. "Please. Take me with you."

He gripped her by the upper arms, reading the fear and tension in the strained lines around her eyes and mouth. "It could be too dangerous."

"It could be too dangerous to leave me here alone. Let me go with you."

She had a point. He glanced around. Though he didn't want her to see what he knew he would find, she would be safer by his side, not alone here in the woods. 

"All right. Hold on tight." He lifted her into his arms, cradling her against his chest. "Whatever you do and whatever we see, don't make a sound. Do you understand?"

"Yes." She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and nuzzled her head into the crook of his shoulder, certainly closing her eyes as she hated to travel this way.

"Here we go."

He stared ahead through the woods and sped away-climbing the hill on the other side of the gully, speeding in between and around trees at breakneck speed, leaping a chasm that opened up in the valley floor and coming out to a rocky outcropping where an icy gale whipped up the mountainside.

He lowered her to the craggy ledge, and he too flattened himself onto his belly. "Slide up beside me," he whispered.

Bombarded now with the pungent smell that had caught him miles away, he cringed beneath the weight of so much blood. He pressed a finger to his lips to signal Sienna to stay quiet. She nodded, then he inched upward on his forearms, until he could look out and see the valley below. Sienna did the same, not making a sound as he'd warned her. Peeking just above the outcropping, his fears were realized. Sienna clamped her hand over her own mouth.

The village of Kellswater was under siege … by Royal Legionnaires. The distinct silver and blue uniforms of Glass Tower blurred this way and that as soldiers captured another human and dragged them to a line of waiting carts with bars-prison carts. One vampire had a small boy by the arm who kicked and flailed, his screams mixing with that of all the others as he was tossed into a caged cart with other cowering children. It took two vampires to drag a brute of a man toward another cart where human men stood inside, yelling to loved ones on the other side. One man outstretched his arm to the neighboring cart where a woman stretched out her own arm, their fingers just touching.

A high-pitched squeal split the cacophony of savagery but did not stop the tumult from continuing. A young girl, certainly not more than sixteen years, bolted from a small hut, her tunic torn from one shoulder, a trail of blood dripping down her neck. A brawny vampire who'd just caged another child flashed across the space and grabbed her around the waist with one arm. A second Legionnaire, tall and blond, sauntered out of the hut casually in his sleeveless undershirt, his soldier's jacket removed. The two laughed as they met in front of the hut, the larger one still holding the girl who kicked and screamed, her dark hair wild and loose around her shoulders.

A middle-aged man charged toward them with a harvesting scythe raised, screaming like a madman. The blond vampire sped forward and slashed the man's throat as he tossed him to the ground. Picking up the scythe, he then sliced the man's head off. The girl reached out and screamed, the word "Papa!" clear and sharp as it echoed up out of the valley.

The blond vampire who had killed the man, now moving with purpose, took the girl from the other man's arms, tossed her over his shoulder and returned to the hut, her screams reverberating up the canyon wall. The brawny vampire moved on to help another Legionnaire wrangle a feisty adolescent and shoved him in the cage with the men.