Her.

There was only one woman here. And it was me. It had to be me.

I didn't even have a chance to consider an escape plan before the door was ripped open so hard it almost fell off its hinges. A scream I willed to stay silent came ripping out of my lungs at the sight of a man. A very normal looking man, indeed, with average brown hair and clear brown eyes. If someone had told me he lived in my village, but I had never noticed him, I probably would have believed them At least, I would have until I saw the bloodied sword in his right hand and the wicked grin twisting up his mouth.

My screams turned into wails, wild things that begged the heavens to save me. I clawed my way back onto my knees, knowing that I could not fight, but wishing so badly that I had even a butcher's knife to hold right now. Anything to give me hope.

"Don't worry, it'll be over quickly," the man assured. I could have sworn there was a flash of guilt in his eyes as he stepped up, moving into the carriage.

I could do nothing but cross my arms over my delicate heart as if I were some damsel. Because, right now, I was.

A tanned hand appeared on his shoulder. Then the man seemingly disappeared. In reality, the king of the vampires had yanked him off his feet while he was unstable, ripping him into the mud below as if the man was of no more consequence than a sack of flour.

I didn't see it or maybe I just didn't comprehend it. One moment, the man was coming for me with a wicked glint, the next, he was lying on his back on the soaked earth, blood was dripping out of his mouth, a red patch was growing on his ruined shirt and his eyes skyward.

Dead. Mostly certainly. Just like I would be. Just like I should have already been.

I sprang from the coach. I was a fish in a barrel in there. They knew where I was. But they had known all along, hadn't they? Xion had said to stay in there until it was no longer safe. I think that this certainly qualified as no longer safe. My boots hit the mud with a wet squelch. The body of the man who had threatened to kill me was before me, but there was another body to my right. It was the driver of the carriage. I hadn't even bothered to ask his name. Now he was dead.

But there was a sword resting on the ground beneath his limp hand. I snagged it without a thought. I didn't know how to use it, but I was certainly more intimidating with it than without it. I would slash my way out of this if I had to.

"Lark."

A hand touched my arm, halting my motion just as I began to run.

I swung around, blade raised. I had faltered with this once before. I would not falter here. I would not falter now. But with my teeth bared and my eyes wild, I still could not bring the sword down on the man before me.

Xion stood, hands raised in surrender. Blood had splotched his once fine shirt at the throat and on the sleeves. His knees were muddy and there was a slight tremble in the hands he kept up. But he was upright and that made relief swell within me, even if I didn't want to address it.

"Get down!" Devlin yelled.

I didn't process his words, he sounded so far away. But Xion moved fast and pushed aside my hand with the blade, tucking me up against his body and leaning back into the coach that I just escaped from. His chest rose and fell harshly against my back as he struggled to catch his breath, but even so, his simple touch offered a small sense of calmness. He was here. I would be alright.

Until I heard an arrow whiz by. There was an awful fleshy noise and a groan of all the air and the life leaving a being. I watched a man in the distance fall to his knees, an arrow buried in his back.

"You could have wounded him. We could have questioned him," Xion chided, already moving us off the carriage. He kept a comforting grip on me, steadying me when I slipped in the greasy mud.

Devlyn raised his chin, a violent expression clouding his normally sunny features. "He killed Micheal." He sucked in a quaking breath. "And he fucking killed Xanthos."

So that was the awful horse scream I had heard from inside. My stomach churned. I was going to be ill.

"Lark." Tentative hands turned me around until I was facing Xion. Then those hands found my shaking grip on the sword. "You can put the sword down, Lark. It's over."

Tears flooded my eyes. I stared up at Xion, at the fear that caused his brow to furrow, at the tension bracketing his mouth. As he began to blur, the sword slipped from my quaking fingers, landing with a dull thud in the mud.

Hands rose towards my face. At least I think it was a pair of hands, it was hard to tell between the tears. All I could see was the gleaming crimson of blood that made me flinch backwards. The hands dropped down immediately.

"Are you alright, Lark? Did they hurt you? Did they touch you at all?"

I shook my head, trying to keep the sounds of my sobs to a minimum but they came ripping out of me anyway. My trembling hands that had been holding a sword just a second ago came up to my chest, clasped tightly together. My heart galloped beneath my ribs, pounding harder than I had ever felt it. I wondered if it would burst. Maybe it would be best if it did, so this would all be over.

"Okay, come with me," Xion murmured gently. His arm wormed beneath mine -- presumably so he would keep his bloody hands off of me -- and he tugged me gently. I stumbled blindly in the mud, sniffling and whimpering the entire way. He held onto me tightly, whispering words I couldn't comprehend until I was seated on the stump of a tree. I couldn't hear anything over my choked sounds, only vaguely aware that there was a stream somewhere nearby and we were surrounded by woodlands that would have looked magical if there weren't dead bodies everywhere.

My chest shuddered and shook as I tried to take slow breaths to calm myself down. I was okay. I was alive. No one was coming to attack me right this moment. Whatever this was, whatever had happened, had passed. It didn't help as much as I had hoped it would, but reminding myself that neither Devlin nor Xion had shed a tear made me bite my lip hard enough to slow the tears. The girls in books never cried. They knew how to handle tragedy.

Xion was walking back towards me, wiping his now clean hands on his breeches. He must have washed away the blood in the nearby creek. Now that my vision was clearer, I could see that his shirt had been torn in several places and there were streaks of dirt on his face as if he had wrestled with someone in the mud. He squatted down in front of me, his hands on my shoulders, eyes locked with mine.

"You promise that no one hurt you?" he pressed, hands roaming down my arms as if he wouldn't believe my answer anyway.

"There was only one and he didn't even get very close to me before you--"

I had started turning my head, needing to see the body to determine if it was really over, if the man who had been intent on killing me was in fact dead himself. I knew the image of him lying flat on his back, staring up towards the gods would forever be seared into my mind, but somehow, I couldn't stop myself from taking another look.

A thumb and a forefinger captured my chin, steering me forward again. Before me was the vision of a relaxing painting, a quiet stream with a distant mountain range and sunlight dappling through the thick foliage. It didn't speak to the carnage behind me. Or the massive vampire still crouched before me.

"Devlin is dealing with it," he assured. "It's all over now. All of them have been dealt with. You don't have to worry about them anymore."

"I just want to—"

"No, Lark. You don't want to look at it again. I have learned the hard way that the more details you find, the more things will trigger memories. All you need to know right now, is that it is done."

"I couldn't even defend myself," I managed. I had literally been waiting for them to either kill me or to leave. I had relied on everyone but myself.

"You didn't have to. I dealt with it. I would have died before I let anything happen to you. Do you understand that? You're my mate, Lark."

"Are you two done having your moment over there?" Devlin demanded, striding up. For a man who was such a bright ray of sunshine that he made Xion appear stormy, he was certainly his own hurricane now. "Because you are bleeding."

Xion's jaw ticked, his hands dropping away from me as he straightened to his full height. "I know."

"So, what do you intend to do now? We cannot continue like this."

Xion glanced down at his arm and the growing red blotch there. I had assumed it was someone else's blood. I was so caught up in myself that I hadn't even considered that something could have happened to them.

"It will heal."

"Obviously. That's the fucking problem though, isn't it? It will heal faster, draining the magic in your blood. You will go into bloodlust as your body forces you to find the sustenance it needs." Devlin opened his arms on either side of him. "So, what is your plan? We both know you aren't going to come after me if you go into bloodlust."

"I know how this works, Devlin. Save me the lecture. You will take Lark on the pack horse and go back home. I will keep going and meet my mother tomorrow."

"Perfect. So, maybe I'm confused, but I was under the impression that we just got attacked. There is no way for either of us to know if there is another attack ahead, towards Hydren or if they are prepared for us to retreat and there's another gang waiting for us closer to Bayforte. I cannot fend off another group of four alone. You cannot either. Especially not like this. And what happens if you go into bloodlust when no one is around? Who will have to bear those consequences?"

"I will find a deer or something to feed on," Xion sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. "I cannot risk going back with you like this and my mother will simply chase us if we do not show. I have to meet her."

"We need to go together," Devlyn pushed.

"I know. I know."

"I can't give you enough without risking my own ability."

"I know that too."

"Lark--" Devlin began.

"No," Xion barked. "No. I promised her."

I would have to be a fool to not know what they are talking about. My blood. He needed my blood to help him heal so that he wouldn't succumb to bloodlust.

"We won't make it back home or across the border before the bloodlust hits. You know that. Unless you can find some creature and hope that it will carry you for a few more hours, we are out of options."

"You and Lark could climb on the back of the pack horse and ride hard. I will figure this out." Xion had started pacing, his attention on anything but me. I had to wonder if he was already starting to experience it.

"You are my king," Devlin said, his voice low and stern. "I am your guard. I will not leave you. Not even if you order it a hundred times. Not even if you threaten to kill me for treason."

"Is there a way to do it safely without, you know, being bitten?" I asked.

"Lark, darling, you don't have to," Xion said, shaking his head. "I swore to you. I won't force you. Not now, not ever."

"You aren't forcing me. You saved my life. I can do this for you. It is the only way forward without risking Devlin's ability to fight, should something else happen, right?"

"I can make it as painless as possible and we can get the blood in one of the empty water packs. I'll put my own blood in there too, just to make sure there is enough," Devlin explained.

"Okay, I can do that."

~~~Question of the Day~~~

What is your favorite cat breed?