Yew Queen Trilogy, стр. 10

Lucus ignored the vampire and lifted a hand, the muscles in his forearms straining his silken shirt. Emerald sparks danced over his fingertips. The vines carried me out of the chamber and thrust me down the hallway. The woody fingers of the plant scratched my bare legs as we rounded a corner, climbed a set of worn stairs lit by flickering sconces, and returned to the wooded courtyard. Lucus and co. were there in a blink, and then Lucus’s hands were sparkling again and the vines were releasing me.

I dropped to the cold cobblestones, tasting bitter fear on the back of my tongue. Scrambling to my feet, I tried to run, but Lucus’s hand shot out. He towed me toward the exit while the others spoke in hushed tones behind us.

Lucus whirled me around to face him. I threw a knee at his groin, but he evaded me easily. So I spit at him.

“Let me go, asshole.” I still wasn’t sure what he wanted out of me. And if I didn’t know what he wanted, how was I going to manage it? Sounded to me like if I failed in whatever they had planned, I was as good as dead.

The portcullis’s iron teeth caught the starlight above our heads.

Calmly wiping my spittle from his stupid handsome face, Lucus tightened his grip. “If I turn to ash when we cross the threshold, the others will want to feed on your aura and your blood. We have been trapped here for a very long time, traveling through time. We are nearly starved. I don’t know if I can save you. One of my brothers will die of starvation if I simply release you. It is you or them until I determine another plan.”

“Can’t you just take a little bit of my whatever and get a few more folks to volunteer to give more? Then no one would need to die to keep you all alive.” I couldn’t believe what I was saying. I’d fully lost it.

“Aurelio, my younger brother, did feed on you while you were blacked out. He was so weak, near to death by starvation, that I was shocked he was able to sneak into your chamber without my knowing. I had been talking to Baccio about you and the curse. We caught my younger brother quickly once his presence…increased. We sensed him feeding. I’m not sure how to explain that to you. But I knew then. We rushed down to save you. I stood guard close by after that.”

I swallowed bile. “Why do I feel okay?”

“We caught him quickly, and our work doesn’t harm if we feed carefully. In fact, we can give back energy under the proper circumstances.”

“Wait. Give me a minute.” I pressed the heels of my hands into my closed eyelids, my mind on fire. “Please tell me the red-lipped guy didn’t have a turn.”

“The vampire did not. He has little control. Before he was here, trapped with us, Kaippa killed many during his feedings. We fae have only accidentally killed a handful of humans.”

My heart skittered around my ribs as I stared at him and nodded. “A handful. Cool. No problem.” Oh my God. This wasn’t happening. Nope. Nopity nope nope.

Lucus inclined his head. “It is difficult in our current situation. But I can handle it.”

I pinched my arm again. “Ack!” Damn. It still hurt. I was awake even though this was an impossible nightmare. “Why me?” I nearly wept the question even though I was really glad Hekla wasn’t here in my place.

Lucus eyed the space around my head, assumedly studying my aura. “Because of the curse, only the first woman who witnesses our cursed castle when it appears every century can come here and ease our suffering.”

“That’s why no one can see the castle except me?”

“Exactly.”

“Well, didn’t I just roll the wrong numbers.” What luck.

“I believe there is more to you than simply…”

“A meal? That’s what you were going to say, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. I felt no pain, no reduction in my well-being when I lunged across the threshold of the castle with you last time. You have some kind of power in your blood.”

“If I have some kind of woobie woobie,” I said, waving my fingers like he did when he did his vine magic, “then perhaps will you all let me live?”

“My aim is not to end your life. We can come up with a plan that will save my brothers and refrain from hurting you. If you have power in your veins, its presence will certainly prolong your life. We will want to know if you can somehow affect our curse and this hell of a life we have been given by our enemy.”

I wanted to ask more questions to stall this event of will Coren die or will Coren live, but Lucus was obviously out of patience. With shining eyes full of hope, he dragged me from the castle and into the night.