Chapter 11
Had it only been a week? Three days ago, Lieutenant Troy had reported to her company that their captain had arrived safely at the second garrison and had sent a letter to him. Scarlet been anxious to hear what it contained, but Troy had said it was nothing but orders.
Of course it would be. There was no way that Corazon would start writing about her in letters to Troy. It would raise too much suspicion.
She sighed and ran her finger around the top of her cup of blood. Leaning her other elbow on the table, she propped her head up and stared at the red liquid. There had been a successful hunt last night. Twelfth company had brought four humans back for draining. There was nothing quite like fresh blood.
Actually there was.
That stolen kiss on the wall.
Just when she had thought that he would have to suffer a long painful wait to see him again and discover his feelings for her, he had shown them to her in the best possible way.
She only wished it had lasted longer.
With the guards and the other captains waiting in the courtyard below, and Milton and Aradne at the other end of the wall, it would have been impossible to let it continue longer than it had. It was a stolen kiss in the shadows. A moment she would never forget as his lips brushed softly against hers, telling her heart everything she had been dying to know for months. He loved her.
Scarlet sighed again and dipped her finger in the blood. Bringing it out, she sucked it thoughtfully. There was no doubt in her mind now. These past months they had both been battling their feelings and their attraction to one another, and while she had given up the fight quickly, he had managed to hold on until only a few weeks ago. That was why he had started to change around her. His visits to the wall when she was on duty had grown more frequent and he had began to speak to her more, not as her captain, but as a friend.
And when he’d bitten her.
That was when she’d truly started to suspect that she wasn’t alone in her feelings.
Her thumb grazed the scars on her wrist and she stared at them.
She wore his marks.
Raising her hand to her neck, she closed her eyes as she ran her fingers along her throat and imagined him biting her there. It had been on her mind so often since that night. What would it feel like to have him bite her there? He had been so gentle with her wrist, and it had thrilled her so much to feel his teeth in her and the steady pull on her blood. To have him drink from her neck, and to drink from his, would be mind blowing.
“Is it a pleasant day dream?” An unfamiliar voice chased her thoughts away and she frowned before opening her eyes.
The moment she saw who it was, she straightened in her seat and saluted him.
“Captain Daliel, sir,” Scarlet said, feeling a little flustered by his presence, and then her eyes widened when she saw that he was staring at her exposed wrist. She lowered it and covered the marks with her sleeve.
“You’re with seventh company, yes?” he said and leaned against the table by propping himself up with one hand.
It was incredibly close to her. She looked at it, and then back up at him, and nodded.
“Yes, sir.”
“Drop the sir. It’s never suited me. Sir is for those distant and aloof captains like Corazon, don’t you think?”
She frowned for a split second.
“Ah, I see we don’t like such references to our captain.” He pulled the seat beside her out and sat down.
His knee brushed hers as he turned to face her, leaning forwards and resting his elbows on his legs. She ignored the touch and continued to attempt to figure out what he had meant by his reference to Corazon.
Daliel grinned at her and pushed the tangled threads of his blond hair from his face.
He looked at her shoulder and she realised he was looking at the insignia on her jacket.
“A corporal?” he said with an air of shock and confusion. What was so stunning about her being a corporal? “You must be the infamous Scarlet. I don’t believe we’d had the pleasure of meeting.”
Scarlet didn’t think it was a pleasure to be sitting opposite a man who was clearly trying to win her with handsome looks, petty flattery and abuse of her captain.
“I am a corporal, but there are two in my company. What makes you presume that I’m Scarlet?” She knew that speaking to him in this way was overstepping the mark and she was showing him none of the respect he deserved from her as a captain, but she didn’t care.
“Brazenly spoken, Scarlet.” Daliel leaned back in his chair and smirked as he raked his eyes over her. “I saw you in the line up the day after I arrived but haven’t had the indefinable pleasure of seeing you since. I listened to Corazon when he was handing out orders. The insipid Corporal Miranda was assigned to leadership of your company in its captain’s absence. The beautiful Corporal Scarlet was singled out for the mission, although up until that point she’d looked a little disappointed. Afterwards, she’d looked more eager than any soldier I’ve ever seen.”
Scarlet frowned at him, wondering if he was insinuating something with that. He couldn’t know about her and Corazon though, although she had never hidden her admiration of her captain.
“I was. You have superior powers of deduction, sir. I am impressed,” she said, keeping the snide tone from her voice so he didn’t realise that she was mocking him with her words. “Although I would have to say in my company’s defence that Miranda is not insipid and I am far from beautiful.”
His eyes narrowed on her in a way that she didn’t like. There was too much hunger in their clear blue depths and too much charm in his wide smile. “I would say you have a very poor opinion of yourself for one who has made her way quite quickly through the ranks. You’ve only been a corporal for a short time, no?”
“I made corporal barely a few weeks ago.” Scarlet held her nerve, not letting him fluster her as he was so clearly trying to.
“After an attack in which you saved many, including your captain. I’m sure that he was very grateful for your service to him.”
She frowned this time. “What is that supposed to mean?”
He seemed to ignore her and continued, “A fine soldier such as yourself should be in a better, more distinguished company. You should be with a stronger, more capable captain.”
He reached out and placed his fingers under her chin, raising her head so her eyes met his.
“I’d love to have you,” he said with a short pause, “in my company.”
Scarlet pushed his hand away and stood.
“I seem to have lost my appetite. If you’ll excuse me.”
She walked straight out of the assembly room without looking back.
Who did he think he was? As if she was going to fall at his feet and swoon over those words. He had insulted Corazon, had insinuated that he knew something was happening between her and her captain, and had shamelessly flirted with her. She would bet easy money on him having worked his way around every female soldier in the garrison and that was why he had known that she wasn’t Miranda. He had probably already attempted to seduce her.
Hopefully, he had failed. She knew that Miranda had a lover in another company.
Heading straight into her quarters, Scarlet threw on her cape and pulled it closed around her before leaving again. It was milder tonight but the sky was clear, telling her that it would get cold later on. She walked up to the East Wall and nodded to each soldier from the twenty-first company that she passed.
She was technically off duty tonight, but being up here alone in the dark was better than being plagued by Captain Daliel.
Stopping halfway along the wall, she turned and leaned against the stones. She stared into the distance towards the second garrison and Corazon. The moon was shining off the snow on the mountains but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t see the fort near them.
She sighed and folded her arms in front of her, leaning forwards and resting her chin on them as she looked at the mountains and thought about Corazon.
She missed him.
Countless minutes passed while she watched the subtle changes in the scenery as the moon moved around, sometimes partially obscured by small wisps of cloud.
She thought only of Corazon, of what he was doing right this minute and whether he was standing on the West Wall of the second garrison looking back at her, trying to see her. She had never felt as lonely as she did right now.
“There you are, Scarlet. You’re a hard woman to find,” Captain Daliel said and she tensed as he stepped up close to her.
Standing, she kept her eyes locked on the distant mountains and then slowly turned her head a fraction so she could see him out of the corner of her eye.
“Corporal Scarlet,” she corrected him.
He looked mildly irritated by her audacity but it passed quickly and his face was soon set in a smile again.
“Have I said something to offend you?”
She said nothing and returned her attention to the mountains. If she ignored him, he might go away.
He moved a little closer, near enough that she could sense him clearly, could feel him without trying.
“I would never mean to upset someone as beautiful as you,” he whispered. She snapped her head around so she was facing him, her brows tightly knit. He sighed at her. “The moonlight makes you look like a goddess.”
Moving away from the wall, Scarlet tried to get past him but he blocked her path and no matter which way she went, she couldn’t escape him. She wanted to go back to her quarters where he wouldn’t dare go.
The hairs on the back of her neck rose and she realised that his soldiers had closed in. She looked at them where they stood not fifteen feet away, blocking the path in both directions. She swallowed and her senses screamed at her to get away. There was a chance this was going to get out of hand and she couldn’t defend herself against five men.
“Now, now, Scarlet. What’s the hurry?” Daliel drawled at her with a boyish smile.
Scarlet stood firm and swallowed hard, desperately trying to settle her nerves so he and the soldiers wouldn’t sense how upset she was getting.
“I need to leave,” she said. “Please unblock the path, Captain Daliel.”
“Call me Daliel.” He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Do you call your captain by his first name?”
She frowned again. “No.”
“Are you lying to me?” he said with a tilt of his head that leant him a curious but deadly expression.
She wasn’t going to answer that question.
“You seem intimately acquainted with your captain... I am sure that you’ve called him Corazon plenty of times... sweet little whispered pants in his ear no doubt.”
She blinked. “What is that supposed to mean?”
She knew damn well what it meant. He was insinuating that she and Corazon had slept together. How had he jumped to this conclusion? Did he really know they had feelings for each other, or was he simply trying to goad her into reacting so he could get the information out of her?
He laughed. “Don’t be so shy.”
“I’m not,” she said, her tone as hard as her expression. “Captain Corazon is my superior, a man I greatly respect. I am sorry that you believe we’re intimate in that way, but I have to tell you that you’re sorely mistaken.”
He looked a little shocked. “Really?”
She nodded. “Now if you’ll let me pass.”
She made a break for it, almost getting past him this time, but he grabbed her upper arms and shoved her back to her previous position in front of him.
The men she could see over his shoulder smiled and looked at each other.
She panicked.
“Please let me go,” she whispered to Daliel.
He just smirked.
“No need to hurry off. I’ll let you go... once I’ve had a good long look at the woman who has melted Corazon’s cold heart.” Dark intent laced his tone, making images dance in front of her eyes that she didn’t want to consider.
He wouldn’t do such a thing. He wouldn’t try to take advantage of her in Corazon’s absence. But what if he did? She gave a panicked glance to the soldiers surrounding her. They wouldn’t stop him. If anything, they looked as though they would cheer him on.
Scarlet shoved Daliel but he didn’t budge. He laughed at her and held her tighter, until her arms ached where his fingers were pressing in. It drove her panic on, sending her mind racing as she tried to think of a way out of this mess.
Daliel leaned in close to her, his lips brushing her earlobe as he spoke and his breath tickling her neck.
“You really should be with me. You could be first lieutenant in no time.”
She frowned. “I don’t understand.”
He kissed her ear and she shivered, feeling dirty and weak as he licked her neck.
“You think no one has noticed how quickly you’ve made your way through the ranks?” he murmured against her neck. Sharp teeth scraped against her skin. Scarlet went rigid, too frightened to do anything to defend herself. “Damn, you taste sweet... it’s no wonder he’s been promoting you for your services.”
She pushed him now, fire sparking in her veins and forcing her to react. “Get off me!”
Daliel laughed again, a low mocking sound that sent her trembling. He didn’t let her go and he didn’t move away. She clenched her jaw and whimpered when his fangs caught the soft skin near her collarbone.
“Come, Scarlet, don’t be shy. Show us just how you get yourself promoted.”
She cursed the tears that filled her eyes when his right hand left her arm and squeezed her breast. His knee forced her legs apart and his thigh pressed against her groin.
Gritting her teeth, hot anger blasted through her veins and she snarled.
“I have no desire to be yours or anyone’s conquest!” She pushed him again and this time he stumbled backwards, slipping on the icy stones.
His look could have melted iron. There was such fire in it, so much anger, all directed at her. She backed away, her throat tight and body thrumming with fear.
He sneered, revealing his elongated fangs.
She touched her neck and felt the trace of blood and the tiny cut there.
“Captain Daliel!” A familiar voice made her heart sing with relief.
Daliel turned slowly and moved slightly, enough to reveal Lieutenant Troy to her eyes. For the first time ever, she was glad to see him.
“Let my corporal leave as she wishes.” Lieutenant Troy’s tone carried so much venom that it surprised her. He had never defended her in the whole time she had been a part of the seventh company. Now he was coming to her rescue and his expression made her believe that he might not hate her after all. He was helping her. If he hated her, he would have let Daliel do as he pleased.
She edged towards the wall and slid past Daliel as quiet as she could so he didn’t notice she was leaving.
“Lieutenant Troy, what right do you have to interfere in a captain’s business?” Daliel said and turned fully to face him.
Scarlet stopped just short of Troy and looked back at Daliel. This was going to be interesting. With Daliel as the commanding captain of the fort and all of the companies present, Troy should have been obeying his orders rather than challenging him.
Troy smiled—a small one that spoke of victory and confidence.
“The safety of all seventh company soldiers is entrusted to me in Captain Corazon’s absence.” He pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Daliel, who read it with a heavy frown and then stared at her.
“I see.” Daliel handed the letter back and she could sense the anger in him as he glared at Troy. “Take her then.”
Troy did. Before she knew what was going on, Troy had grabbed her arm and was marching her away and down the steps into the courtyard.
Her knees felt weak and she couldn’t stop the tears that fell onto her cheeks, slipping down to her jaw and falling from there onto her chest. She didn’t want to think about what would have happened had Troy not shown up, but the very idea of another man’s hands on her made her sick to her stomach.
“Thank you,” Scarlet said in a broken whisper, her throat too tight with emotions to speak properly.
Troy sighed and then stopped walking. He moved around to stand in front of her and pocketed the letter he had shown Daliel. She wondered what it said. Whatever it was, Daliel didn’t like it and it clearly gave Troy some modicum of power that Daliel couldn’t overturn. Was it from Corazon?
“Keep safe when Captain Corazon isn’t here,” Troy said in the same harsh tone that she had grown used to hearing from him. It made her feel three feet tall and a child again. “Captain Daliel is a danger... and it seems that he’s intent on you. Why?”
She dropped her gaze to her feet. “I don’t know. Maybe because I’m the only woman in the fort he’s not tried to seduce.”
She did know, but she wasn’t about to tell Troy that.
“Go to your quarters,” Troy said and began to walk away. “And I don’t want to see you alone on that wall again until Captain Corazon returns.”
Scarlet took a deep breath and walked towards her quarters. Sniffling back her tears, she wished that Corazon would come back and make her world safe again. With him here, she felt as though she had nothing to fear and was protected from anything. When he’d told her to watch herself around Daliel, was it because he had reason to believe that the twenty-first company’s captain would try something like this? Had he known what Daliel had revealed to her tonight?
He had seen her and Corazon, watched them together. He had studied them and had seen what everyone else couldn’t. And now he saw her as a challenge to be overcome, as nothing more than a twisted game.
Captain Daliel knew Corazon’s feelings for her.
Captain Daliel wanted her because there was nothing sweeter than stealing a fellow captain’s woman.
Captain Daliel could go to hell.
She pushed the door to her quarters open and found her bed. Curling up on it, she listened to the chatter of the other occupants of the room and wondered what she was going to do.
Troy’s words and that letter weren’t going to deter Daliel.
What had happened tonight had given her a reprieve, but Daliel was a headstrong man who wasn’t going to be turned down. She had to be careful around the fort and stay close to Aradne and Milton, or better, Troy. She couldn’t risk Daliel catching her alone.
Because her heart said that tonight hadn’t stopped him from wanting her for himself.
Tonight had only made him want her more.
Before, she had been nothing more than another pretty woman—unattached and free for him to seduce.
But the way he had looked at her after reading that letter and the suspicions she had confirmed for him.
Now she was spoken for by a rival captain.
Now she was unattainable.
Now she was forbidden fruit.
She touched her neck.
And he’d had a taste.
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