Chapter. 59

Ignoring the Farians, I swing the bag on my back and begin walking south beside the river. The ravager ran off in the opposite direction. While I do feel a little more confident with my ability to fight them off, I’m not going to hang around a glowing beacon anymore, especially with people I don’t trust. I should get out of here before they regain their confidence and try take the doorknob by force.

“Julia,” Bevin calls behind me.

My pace quickens, and my eyes remain forward. He attacked the ravager when its attention was on me, and I did the same for him. I owe them nothing.

“Julia.” He’s right behind me this time.

My grip tightens around my sword. He believes that the ravager was the thing that bit me before, that it was following me and that this is all my fault. I’ve got nothing to prove to him.

His hand wraps around my arm.

I swing around and aim my blade at his chest with my other hand. “My tracks were hidden. Your fire drew that creature,” I spit. “Let go.”

His eyes land on my sword. He may think I’m overreacting by aiming my weapon at him when he’s unarmed, but he could easily overpower me in a fist fight, and he’s been less than friendly so far.

He removes his hand from my arm. “I believe you.”

I step back. He does?

“Do you think…” He turns to look where the ravager ran off, “Do you think there are more?”

“Don’t know, and I don’t plan on waiting around to find out.” I begin walking again, wanting to get away from this area as quickly as possible.

Bevin hurries to walk beside me. Ina and Aled abandon the light of the fire and catch up to us. Aled’s carrying Bevin’s sword, maybe to avoid repeating the mistake of allowing a vampire to pick it up.

“So there could be another?” Bevin asks.

My eyes scan the dark vegetation as I walk. “I’ve seen three in one place.”

Ina gasps. “Three? How did you beat them?”

I didn’t. The man which left this mark on my neck did, and even he was wary when there were that many.

Ina doesn’t get her answer, and she deduces that I’m not interested in talking about it.

“Can you wait a moment while we pack?” Bevin asks.

I stop, turning back to face the three of them. Do they want to travel with me again? Is it because I predicted a ravager finding us, or that I managed to ward it off?

“You will guide me to Fekby?” I ask.

“Yes,” Bevin says, “with the same arrangement as before.”

Ina and Aled nod too.

I don’t know where Fekby is, and without their guidance, I could be traveling for weeks before stumbling upon any village. Ivan will eventually move on, and every day longer it takes me to reach Fekby, the greater the chance that I’ll miss him.

I nod once. Traveling with these Farians doesn’t mean that I have to like them.

Aled hands Bevin his sword and heads back to the fire with Ina. Bevin stays beside me, probably not trusting that I won’t leave them. After his threats a few minutes ago, they couldn’t blame me.

I clean my sword off on a large leaf and slide it back in my backpack. The river water washes the ravager’s dark blood off my hands.

Holding his side in discomfort, Bevin sits on the ground. “I never imagined that vampires were so beastly.”

I shake my hands dry, still keeping a watchful eye on the vegetation. “The normal ones aren’t.”

He gives me a puzzled look.

“That was a ravager – a vampire crippled by addiction,” I say.

He glances back in the direction it ran off. “It did not appear crippled?”

When Rahlan and Ohan dueled in the vampire camp, their movements were fast and precise. Their strikes came in a barrage, each one hitting with so much force that I thought their wooden swords would snap. They quickly reacted to each other’s moves, fully aware of the world around them.

“If it was a normal vampire, we’d be lucky to survive as prisoners,” I say.

The look on his face seems to show that he understands my apprehension.

When the ravagers ambushed Rahlan and I, I had no idea they were upon us until he called them out. They were creeping in the long grass, stalking us. How long was this ravager watching us? Did it follow us throughout the day? The thought that I could’ve been snatched up whenever I was near the thick bushes makes my stomach flip. From here on in, I’m staying as far out in the open as possible.

Soon Aled and Ina return with their bags, and we follow the river south under the black of night.