Black Blood

Chapter 44

Novak just nods approvingly. He had apparently brought a fork with him when he went to pick up the trays. He takes the fork off his leg and stirs it in the trays of food. He takes a bite from the fork and a puff from his cigarette, a nasty combination if you ask me.

Soon after, he finishes the cigarette and throws it in the fire. Novak takes the tray from the fire and puts it in front of us.

More and more I start to wonder how I thought I was going to survive on my own. I consider myself lucky that Novak is sitting next to me. I bet I wouldn't have lasted a week on my own here. In castles, they clearly don't prepare you for life outside those walls. Maybe that's how they keep you in.

'Here, you must be hungry.' I look at the fire. Novak holds out a tray to me with a few pieces of bread on it. I gratefully take it from his hand and look at my dinner. In the tray is a red sauce with all sorts of vegetables in it. The bread is dark and full of seeds. Everything is different since my departure from the palace, even the food.

'It's a kind of vegetable stew, the first I could find.' I take a piece of the bread, use it as a spoon to pick up the stew and take a bite. The flavour is mainly herbs and tomato, something I like.

'Tastes good,' is my sincere reaction.  Next to me, Novak himself starts eating from the other bowl. It still amazes me that vampires eat normal food. Sometimes I seem to forget that Novak is a vampire at all. I haven't seen the vampire side of him yet and I don't know if I want to see it.

'So you're Franders' wife?' I almost choke on my food. I look at Novak like a child who has been caught taking a sweet. I swallow my bite of food and begin to nervously dip the bread into the tray.

'Yes,' is my only and honest answer. Every time Christiaan comes up, I feel the fear run through my body.

'How did he treat you?' Novak doesn't mince words, let that be clear. I let a sigh slip from my lips. How do you describe it? He treated me terribly in so many ways that I can't find a word that sums it up. So the only word that comes to mind is the only answer I can give.

'Terrible.'

'Was he the reason for all your wounds and bruises?' I don't want this topic of conversation on the table, I want to hide it in a place where it can never come out.

'Yes.' I don't know who I blame more, my father or Christian. I take another bite of the food and look at the fire. It's quiet for a while, to the point that I wonder if Novak is going to say anything to my confession. I take the last bite of my food. I set the tray next to me in the grass and pull my legs up.

'Should you have the idea that I have the intention of doing something to you against your will, it is not so. I don't hit others, if they don't do anything to me, and I'm certainly not out for sexual contact against someone's will. If I do something you don't want, tell me and I will stop immediately, even if it is something small.' Although I already suspected he didn't have the intentions, it feels like a relief to hear him say it. I smile slightly, but don't look up from the fire.

'Thank you,' I murmur softly. I let a blade of grass slip between my fingers until the cold wind sends shivers down my spine. Novak gets up from the grass and holds out a hand to me. I look up from the fire, gratefully take his hand and pull myself up from the grass.

'Let's go to sleep, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.' Despite his reassuring words, the idea still hasn't quite landed in my head, nerves continue to rise. I don't answer his announcement. We walk towards the tent together. His hand grasps the front flaps of the tent, opens them.

'Do you want to change?' he asks. I look at him for a second, confused by his proposal. If I wanted to change, it would mean that I would be lying next to him in only my underwear. That is something I would like to avoid in any way possible and besides, sleeping in a small tent with him is already a big thing for me.