Lucian Nightshade's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

Lucian left Lilith by the painting. He went down to the garden alone. The watchers waited among the dark stone and guttering candles. Two hung back. The third stepped forward, hands loose at her sides, a crossbow quarrel tucked in her belt. A silver cross swung at her throat. She watched him the way a hunter watches a wounded thing. "Helena Crow," she said, naming herself. "We've stood in your garden three nights. You never asked who sent us. That was foolish." "Then tell me," Lucian said. "I need to know what I'm facing." Helena smiled. "You already know you can't buy us. So let's trade." She nodded at the house. "The woman upstairs. Her blood, her warmth. We report what we see. Our master has waited a long time for a reason to take this house from you." "Name him," Lucian said. "That costs you something." Lucian had nothing left to hide behind. He thought of the oath sealed in the locket at Lilith's throat. One life already wagered. He could wager more. "The binding charm," he said. "I'll swear one to you. Whatever you want. In exchange for his name." Helena's smile thinned. A binding charm meant death for the breaker. She knew he meant it. The other two watchers shifted behind her, uneasy. A black cat with red eyes slid out from the hedge and sat between them, still as a carving. "You'd stake your life twice over," Helena said, "for a name." "For time," Lucian said. "Give me the name, and I swear I'll leave Duskwood with her inside the month. You'll have done your task. Your master gets the house empty. No blood spilled." Helena studied him. A long silence. The candles bent in the wind. At last she spoke. "Vladislav Draemar." She let the name fall like a stone. "He ruled these hills before your painter ever mixed his first color. He doesn't want the house, Lucian. He wants you kneeling in it. The woman is only the hook." Lucian felt the ground shift under him. Not a stranger. Not a rival he could outrun. A vampire lord, old and patient, who had set his watchers years ago and simply waited. "The oath," Helena said. "Swear it now, or the name's a gift I take back with my knife." Lucian knelt on the cold stone. He spoke the binding words. He swore to leave Duskwood with Lilith within the month. The charm closed around him like a cord drawn tight. His life, forfeit if he stayed. Helena stepped back, satisfied. The watchers melted into the dark. The cat blinked once and vanished. Lucian rose alone in the candlelight. He had his answer. He knew the threat's name at last. But knowing had cost him. He had thirty days to carry Lilith away from the only home he'd kept for three centuries—and he had not yet asked her to leave it, or told her why.