Vampire Court: Checkmate by Ingrid Seymour

Author:Ingrid Seymour [Seymour, Ingrid]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PenDreams
Published: 2020-03-16T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

Bianca

I scrambled backward, a scream caught in my throat.

Without knowing what I was doing, I ran out of the cave, imagining an undead skeleton reaching for me, its bony hands imbued with the power to tear me to pieces.

Finally, realizing that no one was following me. I stopped, the oil lamp still in my hand. The corpse had opened its eyes, hadn’t it? I hadn’t imagined it. Gods knew Talyssa had read me plenty of scary stories. But I had nothing to fear now, much less ancient skeletons. I was a vampire.

Turning around, I headed back. As long as it was daytime, I had nowhere to go. I had to stay in this cave, even if it meant sharing it with a skeleton.

At my return, I found that the creature’s eyes were indeed open and not just that... they were following my every move. I swallowed, moved the lamp from side to side. Eyes like murky marbles tracked the movement.

“Who are you?” I asked.

His gaze snapped to my lips. Despite the derelict state of his face, I thought I perceived surprise.

“Are you alive?”

Nothing. Just a blank stare, that made me think I’d imagined that small expression of emotion.

“Who are you?” I asked again.

His eyes lowered toward the paper in his hand, then met mine again. I frowned. Was he trying to tell me to take the scroll?

I took a reluctant step closer, my boots scraping the rocky ground. What if he was trying to lure me closer so he could snatch me and kill me? Loretta had said there were things out in this world much worse than I suspected. What if this creature ate vampires for breakfast?

“Can you talk?”

No reaction.

“What’s in the paper?”

His eyes snapped back to the scroll, faster, more insistently.

Glancing around, I spotted a small wooden box. Without tearing my eyes from the corpse, I set the lamp down on the box and carefully reached for the scroll. My hand shook as I tugged on it. It didn’t budge.

A small, almost imperceptible sound came from the creature as he intensely stared at his own hand. One of his fingers moved a fraction, sending a small cloud of dust into the air. He was trying to open his hand, but he seemed incapable of doing it. He gave a slow blink, clearly frustrated.

I reached for the finger he had moved and pulled it back carefully. It was as hard as an oak branch, but with a little prying, I was able to extend it open. I tried to pull the scroll out again, but he had a good grip on it. He stared anxiously as I worked on the other fingers, expectation building in his wide-open eyes.

At last, there was only his smallest finger in the way. I tugged at it, but it would not budge. I gave it a stronger pull. It snapped clean off. I held it up in horror.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “It wasn’t my fault. I mean...” I trailed off and gingerly dropped the finger in his lap.

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