chapter Nine

Caspian's POV

Agreeing to escort her was a mistake.

I knew it the moment Lyra stepped back into the night air. The world bent around her presence, but blood always remembered its own.

Maria’s reluctance was expected.

She stood at the doorway of her shop, arms crossed, and her gaze was sharp towards my direction, “Richard...“ she said finally, without looking at me, “.... Go with them”

The wolf inclined his head once before nodding, standing straighter, I did not object.

If I actually intended harm, I would have done that a long time ago before she even came to Transylvania.

The hotel loomed ahead, too public for my liking or anyone else for that matter. Mortals moved in and out, unaware of how close they stood to predators who had already scented blood. Lyra didn’t notice the shift. She walked ahead of us, alert but determined, unaware of the way the shadows leaned inward as we crossed the threshold.

Her room was untouched.

She moved quickly, gathering her bag, fingers brushing the grimoire with unconscious reverence. The moment she lifted it, the air rapidly changed.

I turned around immediately.

“Down” I said sharply.

Too late.

The door splintered inward and Strigois poured in like rot given form, feral, and blood mad, their eyes glowing with hunger sharpened by weeks without restraint. They moved without discipline or hierarchy, but they had come for her.

Richard shifted mid stride, bones cracking as fur burst across skin, his roar filling the room. The first strigoi didn’t even scream before being torn apart.

I was already moving.

I moved with vampiric speed and struck the second strigoi, with my fingers through its ribcage, heart crushed in my fist. Blood splurting out.

“Frange et cade!”

Her magic flared, instinctive and uncontrolled but effective. A bolt of force slammed one of them into the wall hard enough to crater plaster. She staggered from the backlash but stayed upright.

Good.

One lunged for her and I caught it mid-air and ripped its head free.

Silence fell in jagged fragments as bodies littered the room.

I closed my eyes briefly and summoned.

Lucien arrived seconds later, stepping through shadow as if it were a doorway. He took in the carnage without comment.

“Clean it,” I ordered.

He nodded, already moving, blood magic coiling around his hands as the bodies began to dissolve into ash and smoke.

Lyra stood very still, watching carefully and that unsettled me more than fear would have.

We left before mortals began asking questions about the noise and debris, Maria knew the moment we returned.

She took one look at us, at the blood not entirely erased, at Richard’s torn clothing, and Lyra’s too steady eyes and inhaled sharply.

Richard spoke quietly about the incident and Maria’s jaw tightened with every word.

I didn’t wait for her to finish.

“She comes with me” I said.

Her head snapped up, “No”

“That was not a request”

“It was not your decision”

Power rippled through the room as I stepped forward, anger sharpening my control. “They found her in less than a day”

“And you think your castle makes her safer?“Maria shot back, “You’re the reason half of them would follow”

Lyra stepped between us.

“I’m not going anywhere” she said calmly, “Not running and not hiding behind walls”

Reckless.

Richard pulled on a shirt as he walked over from where he had gone to get dressed, “You won’t survive this alone....”

She looked at him,

“.... My family's estate...” he continued, “.….Wards older than most bloodlines, Wolves protect our own and strigois will think twice”

Maria exhaled, “That’s… acceptable”

I turned on him. “Absolutely not”

Richard met my gaze without fear, “You’ll come too”

A beat....

Then another....

I did not like it....

But I understood it....

“Fine” I said coldly. “But I stay”

Maria moved toward the back room, retrieving an old book bound in cracked leather. She hesitated only once before locking the shop.

“Uhm... What's a strigoi?“ Lyra asked and Maria looked at her too and said.

“They're... Blood mad vampires, when we get to Richard's estate, you'll finally understand a few things about... The war of transylvania supernatural and maybe why you were attacked”

I kept quiet as all of us headed in the direction of Richard's family estate, even though I knew why Lyra was attacked, it would be more profitable to hear what the elder wolves of the Lancaster family had to say about this.