Of Blood And Snow - Paranormal Romance Serial Ebook

Chapter 6

Scarlet woke feeling more refreshed than she had done in a long time. She lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling and listening to the stirring of her comrades. There were a lot of groans and complaints of sore heads, and she silently told them all that it was their own fault for drinking the poison that the officers made.

She glanced at the door when someone opened it and realised for the first time that she had a direct view to Captain Corazon’s quarters through it. The captain’s quarters were always removed from the rest of the company’s. As were the lieutenants’.

Staring at Corazon’s small stone building, she wondered what orders awaited her tonight.

It was the first night that the thirteenth and twenty-first companies had been at the garrison, which meant they were going to be ordered to patrol the walls. The seventeenth were due to leave for the third garrison. She didn’t envy them. Corazon had mentioned the third garrison a few times and he had made it very clear that he didn’t like the place. She hoped they were never posted there. Most who were didn’t survive a season.

There were all manner of rumours about the twenty-first company. Everyone was speaking about how it was the elite of the companies, with the best soldiers assigned to it. If that was the case, they should’ve had Corazon leading them rather than that womaniser Daliel. Scarlet had heard all about him, every sordid little detail. It was disgusting.

She never wanted to meet him.

The drill bell sounded and she got out of bed and stamped her feet to get the cold out of them. They weren’t cold, but she’d never been able to shift some of her human habits. She dressed, removing her nightdress and putting on her trousers, padded black tunic and boots. Armour was only necessary for those on the wall, so no one ever put it on until the captains had handed out the assignments.

She grabbed her cape and followed the others out into the courtyard. Putting it on, she frowned when she realised it was still wet from the snow last night. Her eyebrows rose when she saw the deep snow that the storm in question had left behind. The werewolves had cleared it from the central courtyard, but around the edges near the wall she could see it was over a foot deep.

Straightening out her clothes, she fell into line beside Milton and Aradne, and as far away from Troy as she could get. She stood straight and tall, holding her head high as the captains of the companies came to inspect the men.

There were four of them now. She recognised the captain of the twelfth company, a demanding looking woman called Karin. The other two beside Corazon had to be the captains of the thirteenth and twenty-first. One was of stocky build and had the same air about him as Karin. He wore his dark hair tied back into a tight neat little ponytail.

The other had to be Daliel. With short cropped blond hair that was long on top and blue eyes, and a physique that was toned and powerful, he couldn’t be anyone else.

There was a murmur amongst the women and she resisted her desire to sigh. There was only one man among those captains worthy of her attention.

Corazon.

She sighed now.

His calling her by only her name when he’d said goodnight hadn’t gone unnoticed by her, and it had sent her to a sleep filled with pleasant dreams of him. If they had more time together, just them, then she was sure that he would lose more of his formal ways around her and they would grow closer.

She straightened again when he walked past, raising an eyebrow in her direction. She hadn’t meant to slouch, but she’d been miles away, lost in thoughts of him and her on the wall alone, speaking for hours about anything that came to mind.

Daliel looked at her too, a smirk tugging the corners of his lips as he ran his eyes over her. She kept her eyes forward and ignored him.

The other captains moved off to issue orders to their respective company when the inspection was over. The thirteenth and twenty-first were assigned to the walls and active duty. The twelfth were off duty. She waited to hear what her orders were.

“Seventh company, all of you are off duty tonight bar a few.” Corazon moved along the line and she swore that he had looked at her as he’d passed.

Who was he assigning orders to and why?

“Lieutenant Troy, Second Lieutenant Stanislav,” he said, “You will join me on a mission.”

Disappointment twisted her gut and she didn’t know why. Had she wanted him to pick her for this mission too? It had been months since she’d been outside the fort and the idea of Corazon leaving without her was painful.

“Corporal Miranda,” he said and Scarlet’s heart sunk. Would he take Miranda with him instead of her? If he was taking a corporal, why not her? “You are to act as superior within the seventh if the fort comes under attack.”

Scarlet frowned. What the hell? He wasn’t taking Miranda but he was letting her lead the company if there was an attack. She struggled to keep her eyes forwards, wanting to look at him and see why he wasn’t choosing her for this role. Was it because of her actions the other night? Was he punishing her for disobeying his orders and accidentally shooting him?

“Corporal Scarlet,” he said, so close that she jumped and instantly saluted. She hadn’t realised he was standing before her. He paused and she swallowed hard, desperate to hear her orders. “You will attend the mission with myself and the lieutenants. That is all. Company dismissed.”

She stood rooted to the spot as everyone else broke away from the group and went off in different directions.

He’d chosen her.

He was taking her with him outside the walls and she was going to be a part of this mission.

She smiled, relief blossoming inside her. Now all she had to do was find out what the mission was.

* * * *

Scarlet kept quiet, moving from tree to tree with barely a sound. She paused and waited for her next command when Corazon stopped. He signalled to Troy and Stanislav to go east. They moved off, leaving her alone with Corazon.

It had been a long cold journey to the outskirts of the nearest human village and she still wasn’t sure why they had come. If it had been to attack, they would have brought the rest of the company with them. She couldn’t see the village yet, but she could sense they were close. She could almost feel the humans’ heartbeats in her blood, calling to her. It had been a long time since she’d been able to drink fresh blood. Her thumb rubbed the scar on her wrist.

Corazon motioned for her to keep moving and she trailed along behind him, following his footsteps through the snow. The trees were dense here and evergreen. The heavy snowfall had only made it through by settling thickly enough on the branches that the weight of it had caused the snow to slide off and to the ground. It acted like a cushion, hiding the sound of their footsteps as they moved swiftly through the forest.

She thought about asking Corazon what they were doing here, and then thought better of it. Breaking the silence wasn’t wise. Her voice would carry on the clear air and there could be humans nearby that would hear.

Clouds moved across the moon, plunging them into darkness, and she changed into her vampire guise, using it to heighten her senses so she could see. Vampire vision was strange. It gave the world a too sharp and slightly overexposed look.

But it meant she could still see Corazon.

He wasn’t limping now. His leg wound had finally healed, but she had her doubts about his shoulder. That wound had been deeper, and the sword had been twisted after entry, opening up a hole. She’d tended to it as best she could with what little training she had, but she was worried that she hadn’t done enough. If he had gone to sick bay as she had wanted, they would’ve made sure that the wound was properly sealed and he was given enough blood to help the healing.

If he had gone to sick bay, they would’ve found the arrow and she wouldn’t have been walking here with him.

She would’ve been on her way home.

Feeling cold and alone at that thought, Scarlet moved up to be beside Corazon. He glanced at her, dark eyes meeting hers for a split second before he focused on their surroundings again. In the brief moment that they’d met hers, they’d sent a jolt through her and had made her realise something.

They were alone.

And he had sent the two superior officers off together.

Sense dictated that he should have remained with Troy and sent her off with Second Lieutenant Stanislav. If the humans found them, it was imperative that, as the only two commanding officers of their company, Corazon and Troy survived. Placing them together on this mission would ensure that.

The humans were also likely to go for the weaker of the two groups.

It would be easy to replace her and Stanislav.

They were expendable.

So why had Corazon chosen to go against sense and take her with him?

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, studying what she could see of his face. His dark hair was hidden beneath his black helmet, and the collar of the tunic he wore rose high up his neck. In the dark, she couldn’t make out the scar that marked his cheek. The ear it cut was beneath his helmet, but she could picture it exactly. The first time she’d seen it, it had piqued her interest, just like his tattooed arm.

The second time she’d noticed it, had been the night she had made Lance Corporal.

* * * *

“Milton, quick!” Scarlet shouted across to him as they came under heavy fire. She didn’t want to be hit by one of the humans’ arrows, not after last time. She shifted guise to bring out her abilities when she realised that Milton wasn’t moving.

He was frozen to the spot, fear widening his eyes.

This was her first full scale attack too. She had never heard such horrible cries of anguish or seen so many die. It wrenched her heart from her chest, making it ache, and she wished she could do something to stop the battle, but she was too scared too.

She reached Milton and grabbed his arm, dragging him with her as she ran towards the archers.

Glancing over the wall, she saw the humans below, their torches burning brightly and as golden as the autumn colours on the trees. They fired volley after volley up at the walls, not aiming at anything in particular. They were just hoping to hit something, anything. Her hands shook as she watched them, and when they fired straight at her she had to dive behind the wall for cover.

It was then she realised that fear wasn’t the only thing that had stopped Milton from coming to her.

He was hit.

She yanked the arrow out of his forearm and pulled his sleeve up, revealing the wound. Remembering what Captain Corazon had done, she wrapped her lips around the wound and sucked as hard as she could. Milton screamed but she didn’t stop. She kept sucking until her mouth was full of bitter tainted blood and then she spat it onto the floor. She sucked the wound again, wanting to be certain that it was clean.

He couldn’t have been shot more than a few minutes ago. Before then, he was helping her throw water onto the torches of the humans so they couldn’t see.

She grabbed one of the buckets of water and took a big mouthful of it, swilling it around her mouth before spitting it out. The poison tasted disgusting but she was sure that she hadn’t swallowed any of it. If she had, then she hoped that she’d built up enough immunity to only be sick. All of the new recruits had gone through exposure to it over the past two months. In fact, it had started the day after Captain Corazon had saved her.

Her eyes scanned the scene for him as she covered Milton’s arm. She couldn’t see him anywhere, but she was certain that he would be leading the archers of the seventh company. She hadn’t been assigned a role yet or a weapon to specialise in. So far, herself, Milton and Aradne had all been doing the lower duties such as cleaning and this was their first time manning the wall.

Scarlet slung Milton’s arm around her shoulder and helped him down the stairs.

“Medic!” she called out and was thankful when one rushed over to them. She handed Milton to the man and ran back up the stairs to the wall.

When she looked over it at the humans, there seemed to be even more of them.

She had to do something. Putting the fires out wasn’t stopping them. She looked around her for inspiration, and stopped when she saw a bow lying on the floor a short distance away. She didn’t hesitate. Running over to it, she grabbed it and a sheath of arrows. She crammed as many into it as would fit and ran back towards the other end of the wall where more humans were coming out of the forest.

Taking a deep breath, she focused on them and her fingers did the rest. She strung the bow and had fired the first shot a second later. Another followed it, hitting its target with a true aim and bringing him down. She fired another, speeding up until she was picking off the humans quicker than they could string their bows.

Her vision faltered a little, but she kept going. She ignored the pain that cramped her stomach. She had to ensure the fort was safe. She had to protect the walls and make the humans pay for what they had done tonight. She growled and unleashed another arrow. It pierced a man straight through his heart and his shrill death cry filled her ears, satisfying her. The pain creeping into every inch of her body didn’t matter.

All that mattered was protecting the fort.

She fired another two shots before she was sick, vomiting all over her boots. The world wavered and drifted between light and dark. The bow clattered to the floor.

“Protect the fort,” she whispered as she fell into someone’s arms. She was half aware of being picked up but it felt as though it wasn’t her body and she was only watching what was happening.

“Private Scarlet... Scarlet... Private... arlet... let?” A voice danced around her, broken in her ears and distant. She tried to open her eyes, but the world was bright and painful, and dark and sinister at the same time. She squinted when someone cradled her, their arms against her back and hooked under her knees. She leaned her heavy head against their neck. “Scarlet?”

She looked up and through the pain to see nothing but a scar and an ear with a nick taken out of it.

Captain Corazon had her.

She cried with relief and the feeling of safety seeing him brought.

“What happened?” he said, his voice a little clearer, closer.

She could feel him moving with her.

“Milton... the poison... protect the fort,” she whispered and then lost consciousness.

The room was bright and hurt her eyes. This couldn’t be heaven because she wasn’t due to go there. No vampire did. Those that had crossed over to darkness belonged to the darkness, to hell. This was too comfortable to be hell.

She blinked rapidly, trying to get her eyes to focus so she could see where she was. Her head was killing her and she wanted to throw up, but instinct told her that her stomach was empty and nothing would come up if she did.

Voices drifted in, as though her hearing had only just come back, and her vision cleared.

She was in sick bay.

Milton was sleeping in the bed next to her.

She was glad to see he was alive.

“Private Scarlet?” a soft voice said, wrapping her in a comforting blanket that shielded her from all the pain it brought back as she remembered that night.

She looked at Captain Corazon, at his dark eyes and those strong arms that had held her, that had carried her here to safety and saved her once again.

“Will Milton...?” She couldn’t manage any more. The sickness returned and she screwed her face up and curled into a ball as her stomach cramped.

A heavy but gentle hand against her shoulder made her lie back down and soothed her.

“Milton will be fine,” he said, sitting beside her on the bed. “When you mentioned the poison, I realised what you’d done and brought you straight here. It was a brave, if foolish, thing that you did for your comrade. If you hadn’t, he would’ve died. Many would have died.”

She frowned. “Many?”

“I saw you with the bow. I think you have found your weapon. You killed many last night protecting the fort. It hasn’t gone unrewarded.”

He held up a piece of paper and she stared at it a moment before the nausea became too much and she closed her eyes.

“Rest, Lance Corporal Scarlet.” His hand pressed against her shoulder, comforting her.

Lance corporal?

She sighed out her breath and smiled.

She had taken her first step closer to him.