Frayed Ties (Ties, Book 1) | ✓

Chapter 6

The deep red glow of dusk lit up the military camp, casting long shadows down the endless rows of tan tents. This camp was much larger than the one they had stayed in a couple of nights ago.

Simon's touch was gentle but impersonal as he helped Danya down from the horse. His attention fell away the moment Danya was back on his own two feet. When a man tried to take Simon's horse for him, he brushed him off with a wave of his hand.

"This is home, more or less," Hamish said to Danya as Simon led the way to stables that stood on the far edge of the camp. "It's got all the modern amenities like, uh... tents? And... that dog over there eating horse shit. I know it seems kinda shitty right now, but it's actually great because you'll find that by the time we leave you'll no longer hate the idea of heading back to a vampire infested city where we almost all died quite so much."

"He won't be leaving my tent, so boredom is the only thing he'll have to worry about while we're here," Simon said as he led his horse through the stable doors.

The air smelled of hay and horse, and everything was quiet except for the occasional snort or shuffle of hooves from the long row of stalls. The horse in the stall nearest the door stretched its neck out but couldn't quite reach far enough to eat Simon's hair.

"Well, I don't know about you, but boredom is exactly why I go out there and risk my life on a regular basis. Fighting evil? Who gives a shit. Saving lives? Pfft. It's all about adrenaline and men in uniform. Hey, Wyke."

The mage who had stuck his head out of a nearby stall was older than Danya by several years and had short light brown hair that looked like it had been hacked at haphazardly with a pair of scissors. He turned when the horse whose stall he was cleaning nosed at him, revealing puckered burns down the other side of his face.

Danya hadn't noticed him when they had first come in, and when Wyke lifted a hand to open the stall door it became clear why. Like Baine, he had black crosses tattooed on the backs of his hands marking him as a Neutral. He had energy, like any living thing, but it was weak enough that the horses had masked it.

Hamish was gathering the mandarins out of his saddle bag, and as soon as Wyke stepped out of the stall he handed over an armful of them. "I trust this will ensure another month of good fortune."

Wyke took the mandarins without comment and disappeared through a doorway.

"I wish he really could grant good luck," Simon commented. "We've had too little lately."

"Nah, are you kidding?" Hamish shook his head. "We're alive. We should have died last night at least twice, but we didn't. That's luck."

"I'm not sure luck deserves the credit here, but you're right." Simon's eyes locked with Danya's. "And I am thankful for it."

It was a strange feeling to know that the one thing he had done in his life that truly mattered, the one thing that made Simon look at him like he had value, was also something he had been taught was aberrant and dangerous. He bit back a smile and dropped his gaze, but there was a sickly feeling that lingered in his gut. He almost wished Simon would punish him in some small way just so that he could stop feeling like he was still waiting for it to happen.

Danya's head jerked back up as the distant edge of something strange brushed his mind. He frowned as a tall man waved at them from the other end of the stables as he approached.

He felt... odd. Not bad like the vampire had, just completely different from anything Danya had ever encountered before. He was definitely fae-touched in some way, but he didn't feel like a mage and with his square, stubbly jaw he certainly didn't look like one. And his size. Simon was tall, but now that he had reached them it was clear that this guy was nearly a head taller.