I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 7 - Sanctuary! Sanctuary!

"Just leave off me," Valerian snapped as he shrugged off Evangeline's hand and straightened, clearly trying to pretend he hadn't just revisited the contents of his stomach all over the ground.

She didn't care to take them in, either, knowing what she knew about him... that he was... he was...

Dammit. I did know a little bit ago, she thought. She kept reaching for those thoughts, but it was like they were behind a barrier she couldn't quite get past.

"Are you alright?" Hagor asked her, setting a concerned hand on her shoulder.

"What? Oh, yes. I guess. I'm just having trouble thinking right now. Probably still the effects of whatever the goblins hit us with, you know?" She brushed a tendril of hair back over her ear, which allowed her to politely shrug off Hagor's hand without seeming like she meant anything by it. "We need to find somewhere safe to hunker down and figure out our next move," Evangeline said, then gestured at Valerian, "before the sun comes up, especially for his sake."

Valerian's eyebrows shot up while Hagor's crinkled together. "Why would that be a concern?" he asked.

"Well, because he's a..." and again, she couldn't remember, even more so when Valerian's eyes narrowed to threatening slits at her. "I... Sorry. I knew why a minute ago."

"Sounds like you really got your bell rung harder than the rest of us," Valerian said with a jovial tone of voice that also had a note of warning to it, contradicting the coldness of his stare. That look certainly made his handsome face look ugly.

"I can find us sanctuary," Hagor volunteered, seemingly oblivious to the tension between his two new companions. "It will take a few minutes though."

He resumed sitting on the ground, his legs crossed once more. Closing his eyes, he took several deep breaths. At first, nothing happened, but then a light shimmer seemed to coat his skin, like a veil of starlight.

"I guess we just wait," Evangeline said.

Then, as if that statement summoned them, goblins shouted from nearby. Immediately, Evangeline and Valerian crouched down, eyes snapping up warily to peer into the dark. Unfortunately, Evangeline didn't have any special abilities for night-seeing.

"Anything?" she asked Valerian, and even though she had been speaking softly, he shushed her sharply. He continued focusing for three breaths.

"Dammit, they're coming this way," he said, and he reached out each of his hands to touch her and Hagor. Inky shadow peeled off from the ground under him, filling the space they were crouched in, obscuring what little the moonlight revealed. "Stay quiet. As long as they don't try to detect magic, they shouldn't see us."

Evangeline nodded, and even though she knew he couldn't see her, she reached up to take Valerian's hand so he could lean back and not have to stretch so uncomfortably to touch her. For a brief moment, she thought he would pull away, but then he gripped her back. If it wasn't for the deadly situation, it would be pretty nice.

Long seconds passed as they waited, the shouting getting louder.

Then like a pair of deer, two figures leapt over a bush to run past them. In the moonlight, their collars winked, another pair of prisoners escaping with less luck.

The goblins were right on their heels. One swung with its club, connecting with the figure on the left's body, knocking them over. The fleeing prisoner cried out in pain, bringing their arm up to defend way too late. The other slowed, spinning on their heels to lift up their hands before them.

" !" they shouted, and a bright flash popped up in front of the goblins both blinding and pushing them back with an otherwise unseen force.

"Come on, get up," a deep, musical female voice ordered harshly, as the figure who cast the magic rushed forward to help their partner up.

More goblins poured in around them, however, and he had to turn again, blasting a fire bolt from his hand that went wide, and only managed to force the goblins to dodge around, but not stop them.

Evangeline couldn't help herself. She attempted to rise, grasping for her +1 dagger, only to remember she had sent it to her camp inventory, which meant it wasn't equipped. And they hadn't gotten to camp yet.

Naturally, Valerian grabbed her arm, stopping her. "What are you doing?" he dared to hiss, more urgent and alarmed than angry.

"We can't just leave them," Evangeline hissed back, wresting her arm away.

The goblins were forming a loose circle around the mage and his unmoving partner on the ground.

"We have to save ourselves," Valerian argued.

One of the goblins lunged, scoring a hit with a rough-looking piece of metal they were using as a sword. The mage grabbed his arm, crying out in pain, even as he attempted to shoot another fire bolt out of that wounded arm. It took went wide, but it did hit the goblin beside them.

"Careful, idiot!" another goblin barked. "You kill him, we'll have to drag back a corpse. No way to get the collars off otherwise, so don't kill 'em."

"My back hurts enough as it is!" a third goblin roared, then laughed heartily at his own joke.

"I'll burn you all if you so much as touch—"

Then the mage's partner attempted to make a run for it, moving so fast they actually outpaced the goblins and would have gotten away, but then their collar flashed. Like someone had yanked them back on a string, their feet flew out as their head snapped back, dropping them to the ground. At the same time, Evangeline and Valerian were yanked forward, not enough to fall over, but offset their balance to need to catch themselves. Hagor shifted too, but it had not broken his trance.

Then the two rogues looked at each other, barely visible in the darkness they were cloaked in, conscious of a newly discovered fact.

Their collars had linked with the two newcomers.

"Dammit," Valerian muttered and slid his hand down his thigh, somehow pulling a hidden blade out of the lining of his clothes. He offered it to Evangeline, then slid his hand down the other one. "Okay, fine," he sang out. "Let's go be big damn heroes."

To be continued...

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