Winterly (Dark Creatures Book 1), стр. 124
Of course! It was Milli they really cared to protect. Emma sat back, suddenly drained. It was not in her nature to be hostile, exhausting effort that it was. She wanted to hate him, truly, but it was difficult to correlate this man with the creature that had bitten her poor sister. “Where is he?” Her whispered query would not have reached a mortal ear above the din of the coach and hooves, but she had no doubt Valko could hear her. And he did not need to ask to whom she referred.
“Markus did not say and I did not ask.”
“Why did you bite my sister?”
“It was not I that bit her.” Valko sighed. “But I do feel as responsible as though I had.” He leaned forward and said, with such intensity of feeling that she trembled beneath the force of his pathos, “We never meant to harm her, you must believe that. Milli is a sweet girl, and I will spend every last immortal breath protecting her and ensuring she is treated as a queen the rest of her days.”
Emma turned her head away, her eyes closing against the sudden tears that came. “You cannot mean to follow me all the way to Scotland?”
“Scotland and beyond,” he replied with a gallant flash of teeth. “You shall both be protected as long as William and I have life in our veins.”
“And who is William?”
There was some pause before he said, “My brother.”
How fortunate, a guard dog for each sister. “And where is this brother?”
“He…disrelishes the company of strangers. He shall be along shortly. On foot, of course.”
On all fours, no doubt. Emma gave a shudder, thinking of poor Boudicca. “Does he eat cats?”
Valko chuckled. “He has an aversion to cats…”
That was hardly comforting. “What if I’m averse to being guarded?”
“Your aversion is regrettable, but I am afraid you must suffer the arrangement as best you can.”
To own the truth, it was not the guardianship itself she disdained but that it should be undertaken by wehr-wolves. “So I am to have you and this William at my heels regardless of my wishes?”
Presumably he felt he’d already answered that, for he made no reply.
“For how long is this to continue?”
“As long as the threat of witches exist.”
To say nothing of the threat of wehr-wolves and vampyres, she thought, gritting her teeth. Secretly, she was glad of his presence tonight, now that she wasn’t vibrating with fury. The company of wehr-wolves was infinitely preferable to feeling so utterly forsaken. She had always liked Valko’s ready smile and easy manners, and it was very hard indeed to sustain her enmity in the face of his continued gallantry. However much she wished to remain repulsed and suspicious, Emma felt safe with him.
Valko leaned forward, the movement was so swift that Emma blenched against her seat. He was a large man with a long torso and his sudden nearness crowded her. His gaze swept over the sleeping faces of the other passengers with measured care before his hand disappeared into his coat pocket and reemerged with a weapon. A Horeb blade! “Tuck this into your boot,” he said.
Although she’d had just about enough of those infernal blades, she dared not defy him—not when his eyes blazed with demonic fire. So she observed the command with haste. Only once her skirts were settled over the concealed weapon did Valko relax back into his seat, the shadows banking the fire in his gaze once again. The weight of the weapon nestled against her ankle inflamed her with renewed courage. “Foolish of you to furnish me with the means to bring you to reckoning—a tooth for a tooth, Mr. Valko.”
“I would welcome the bite of that blade if it would secure your sister’s safety, but it is not I who poses the threat.” He lowered his brim over his eyes and settled back. “And you should not be without a means to protect yourself. I only hope you shan’t be moved to slay a man in his sleep.”
“You must know I will never forgive what was done to Milli.” This was said as much to remind herself to stay guarded and aloof as it was to warn him.
Valko lifted his brim with an elegant finger and considered her, sober in his cloak of shadows. “Such leaden shadows weigh heavy on the heart, Miss Rose; forgiveness lightens.” When she made no answer, he shrugged. “At any rate, what was done to Milli is for Milli to forgive.” Down came the brim again.
Emma turned away to pore over his words, the brim of her bonnet offering a little relief from that preternatural glare.
“Would that she had not been wearing Devil’s Bane that night,” he continued, his voice almost too low to hear. “It confuses the nose. How was she to know that wehr-wolves abhor the reek of witchcraft; he might have withstood the call of blood, but not the Devil’s Bane that masked her scent.”
Emma felt the blood drain from her face, but she kept it hidden and shrank back deeper into her shawl, her nose suddenly filling with the Devil’s Bane still clinging to her clothes. How was she to forgive herself for having forced her sister to wear it in the first place? It was apparent that she was as much to blame for her sister’s predicament. And Ana too for giving her the wretched stuff in the first place. It also meant that she, Emma, was the author of the vicious mark upon Milli’s neck—the Bane had been reacting to Milli’s altered flesh.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Hobkirk Priory
Emma and Valko were soon settled at The Hob’s Inn and, after the journey’s dust had been washed from Emma’s face, the pair set off