Chapter 119
CAMILLA’S P.O.V
I watched as she walked out of the room and I waited until she had shut the door behind her before I turned to Ryker with a teasing smile. “Looks like you have a new fan.”
He rolled his eyes at me and turned back to the table. “We were discussing something very important before she came.”
I raised my hands in mock surrender. “I guess it is settled about the night lock. I can’t take it unless we are very certain that we will see him. Where do we keep it until then?”
“We can keep it in one of the offices or in our room,” Ryker began but I shook my head. There was no guarantee that no one would keep it safer than he would, the problem was that everyone else would expect it.
“If someone were to go looking for it, that would be the first place that they would look,” I dropped my voice to a whisper in case of any more eavesdroppers. “I think Christine should hide it, probably in the same place that you hid the map of the tunnels. No one else can know where it is, not even us.”
“Are you sure?” she asked and I nodded. “What if you need to get it and I’m not there?”
“We will deal with that if it ever comes to it but right now, I don’t want to risk it getting taken. I’m not saying we have any spies in here but I am just trying to be safe.”
She thought about it for a second before nodding. “Fine, but what if you kept some in Ryker’s office like he suggested. Just a small amount of it so that if anyone goes looking for it, they will think that they found everything and they wouldn’t expect you to have any more hidden away.”
I realized that was a brilliant idea and we all agreed to it. Ryker and I took the small quantity of the berries and hid it safely in his office. Fortunately, they had a long shelf life so I wasn’t worried about them getting spoiled within the next week or so. It gave us a little time to figure out how we wanted to do this. If it exceeded a week then I had no idea how we were going to deal with it or handle the situation. Ryker tried to assure me that everything was going to be fine but I couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling that something was going to go terribly wrong.
He met with the guards while I went out for training, Loris wasn’t out there so I trained on my own. I had come to find it relaxing rather than a painful reminder of all I couldn’t do. There was just something about the water that soothed my nerves. It was almost like an extension of myself and I loved it. I didn’t know how long I stayed there, I just knew that I was moving. I felt formidable and untouchable for the first time in a
Chapter 119
long time. I let the water slide back into the stream and was about to leave when I decided to try something.
After Loris had realized I wasn’t making any progress in getting water out of the moisture in the air or out of the ground, he had decided to let it be and he focused on other aspects of my powers. I looked around to make sure no one was looking and crouched down to the ground. I could feel the water- I always had. The problem was that I could never reach it. It didn’t matter how much I pulled or tugged, it just never came within
my reach.
I closed my eyes and tried to pull on the water but it wouldn’t rise. I could have sworn I felt it move an inch but that was it. I muttered a curse under my breath and huffed as I kicked a small stone in my path. I turned to return to the palace but was surprised to find Ryker standing there. I was surprised that I hadn’t noticed him earlier.
“How long have you been watching me?” I asked and he shrugged.
“Not long, you’re doing much better than before.”
“I still can’t get to it,” I gestured off handedly to the floor and he shrugged. “I just never thought it would be that difficult, you know.”
“You’ll get to it sooner or later,” he kept his tone soft and encouraging. He reached out to me and I wasted no time in letting my hand slip into his.
Just as I did, there was a noise behind us. His hold on me tightened and he pulled me behind him. I could barely see over his shoulder and I think that was his plan because he made sure that I was hidden behind him. You wouldn’t have even known I was present if you had walked in.
“Ryker,” I began but he held up a hand to stop me. “It was probably just the wind or something. There is no one here.”
“Yes there is,” he said simply and when I opened my mouth to protest he shot me a hard look. I decided to stay silent for the sole reason that he had more experience than I did when it came to people and fighting so he probably knew more. “Walk away slowly and go back to the palace.”
“Are you crazy? I’m not leaving you out here.”
“Camilla, do you ever listen to me?” he sounded annoyed but underneath all of that, there was a hint of admiration. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I am getting a toothache from just watching you,” I turned to the woods and I saw a vampire leaning against the trees. It was the one who had led me into the mountains. I hadn’t seen him in a while and a part of me had hoped he was dead. “You wolves need better protection. You have no idea how easy it was for me to get in here.”
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Ryker growled and I saw a flash of fear in his eyes. He even took a slow step backwards. It was good to know that they were smart enough to ascertain when someone was a genuine threat to them and that was exactly what Ryker was. He was the most patient and loving partner on the planet but that didn’t mean that he still wasn’t the Alpha everyone thought that he was.
“You have two minutes to get the f uck out of here before I rip your head off your shoulders,” Ryker warned.
“I’m not here to hurt either of you, relax,” he held up his hands to show that he meant no harm. “I simply came to relay a message.”
“I’m not interested not f uck off. You have just one minute left.”
“I figured you wouldn’t want to listen. Well, Alastair is a bit
upset that you would consider hurting him when he has been nothing but kind to you over the past few weeks,” I raised a brow at his words. Did he really say the words kind when Alastair had killed more wolves than I cared to count. “He was upset at the number of vampire casualties at your town and he has promised to right the wrong.”
“You have a lot of nerve coming to my home and saying that,” Ryker took a slow step towards the vampire who took one back. “What’s stopping me from killing you where you stand?”
“I’m just the messenger. Your fight isn’t with me.”
+5
Ryker moved so fast that I barely had time to register it. One minute, he was standing by me and the next, he had his hands around the vampire’s throat and was squeezing tightly. The vampire clawed at his hands and despite the blood dripping down his arms, Ryker never made one move to let him go. I stood fixated in my spot and unable to say anything.
“If you kill me, you will inquire Alastair’s wrath. I was the first man he turned, I am his closest ally and confidante.”
“I don’t give a sh it.”
“You should, we could wipe out this pack in a matter of seconds. You should think about that, Alastair would not be pleased in the slightest,” I could see that he was just trying to buy time to save his life but Ryker wasn’t having it.
“He should have thought about it before sending you here. Let this serve as a warning to the rest of you. If any of you comes near my home or my family, you will die.”
I thought Ryker would let him go to deliver the warning but to my shock, he twisted his neck and I watched as the vampire crumpled to the ground.
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Ryker stood over the b*dy and turned to me. “Get me a torch, now.”
That forced my legs to move. “Is he dead?”
“No, you can only kill them with fire or by tearing off their heads. I just twisted it. He will be up in an hour or less and we cannot have that happening.”
+5
I watched in shock and slight horror as Ryker lit a fire over the b*dy of the fallen vampire. He stood there and watched it burn. I couldn’t even look at the b*dy, my eyes were fixated on Ryker.
“You could have kept him for questioning,” I began slowly and he shrugged. “Why didn’t you?”
“He was a threat to you,” he said simply. “If you weren’t here then maybe, but I had to think of the possibility that he would try to attack you and I couldn’t risk that. It doesn’t matter now, he is dead, come.”
I was shocked by how casually Ryker was saying everything but I took his outstretched hand and walked in step with him.
“He said that Alastair wanted to even out the numbers, what did he mean?”
“I don’t know and honestly, I don’t think I want to find out.”
