Neither option was good, but in the end, there was only one thing she could do.
She waited until Marius reached the trees before grumbling under her breath about the absolute ridiculousness of the situation as she hurried after the prince.
It was official: she should have just tied him up at the ball and hauled him over to the king.
Thatwould’ve been so much easier than this.
She caught up to the prince, who was removing Azil’s reins from the tree. He fished out a treat from the saddlebag and fed it to the horse.
Vivienne took deep breaths until she was certain she could speak without yelling, and calmly asked, “So, what’s the plan?”
The prince smiled and swung into the saddle with the ease of a practiced horseman, his brown eyes twinkling.
Right then and there, she knew she would hate whatever her charge was about to say.
To saythat Vivienne was right about the prince’s plan being horrible would’ve been an understatement of epic proportions.
There were certain things she hated. The sun, for obvious reasons (although she occasionally missed the feeling of warm skin). Her inability to touch silver without dying. People who were unnecessarily rude to others without just cause.
Vivienne didn’t just hate this plan. She despised it with every ounce of her being. It was idiotic and would get them both killed.
Marius wanted to track, trap, and kill the First without any backup. Of all the dangerous ideas, he had to go and concoct the worst one.
She tried to argue with him and convince him that this was foolish, but he refused to listen to her. Ultimately, she gave in because she refused to be in Hoarfrost Hollow when the sun rose.
They followed the trail of footprints, even though most were little more than indents in the snow.
An hour later, they found the first body.
The woman, who looked like she was in her thirties, was drained of blood. Her eyes were open wide, and her mouth distorted and frozen in death. The corpse was half-covered in snow and carelessly dropped on the ground. Broken fingernails and frozen tears lining the woman’s cheeks spoke to her struggle before she died.
What had she been thinking, wandering so close to Hoarfrost Hollow?
They would never know.
That first night, they came across two more bodies, each drained and bearing evidence that the humans had fought back.
When dawn was near, Vivienne found a frozen cave for them to stay in. It was cramped, even with Azil standing outside. Marius ate dried strips of meat from the saddlebag before resting his eyes, but Viviennedidn’t dare sleep. She stayed awake, watching the sun rise outside the cave as she regretted her life choices.
They were off as soon as the sun set. The only good thing about hunting the First—and Vivienne was using the term ‘good’ in the loosest possible sense—was that the feral vampire would be just as affected by daylight as her.
The fact that their prey also had to follow the movements of the sun and the moon was a small reprieve.
Yesterday had been bad, between the highwaymen and Hoarfrost Hollow, but today?
Somehow, today was worse.
Vivienne was running beside Azil, and they were making their way through the frozen northern forests, following the First’s tracks.
The running wasn’t the bad part. In fact, Vivienne would go so far as to say that she enjoyed the exercise. She’d always found it stimulating, even as a human.
But everything else was dreadful.
Her fangs were burning in her gums, and her stomach was cramping. She’d been a vampire long enough to recognize the early signs of hunger setting in. She’d gotten some blood from the highwaymen when she killed them, but she’d been far more focused on saving the prince’s life than feeding.
The urge to feed would get worse if she didn’t find blood.
Not only that, but charcoal clouds churned in the sky. A storm was coming. Judging by the shift in the air, it would be bad. If the snow fell, the tracks would disappear.