I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 47 - So What Happened to...?

"I love this!" Evangeline crowed as her next arrow took down a goblin in one shot. She was having the time of her life with her new synergy skill.

Valerian laughed and howled as his knives found their marks with each strike.

The rest of the group was having as much fun as they were.

The band of goblins had been wandering around, a baker's dozen in all. What had been a tougher fight before, now was pure joy as even with them doubling and tripling themselves up, they were simply no match for them anymore.

That couldn't have been more evident as Evangeline fired an arrow into the last goblin as he intended to attack Valerian from behind, just as the vampire finished a double attack that landed him in a very cool final pose with both arms crossed over his chest, the knives running parallel to his pointed ears. A second later, the goblin with a fresh arrow in his eye dropped to the ground.

"Woohoo!" Artmond crowed to the sky. The rest of the party joined him, baying and cheering as loud as they could. The cheers soon disintegrated into chattering excitement as they congregated together to compare notes, re-enact amazing moves, and start searching the bodies for anything worth taking.

"Did you and Valerian synergize?" Artmond asked, as he picked up a goblin sword, which was more like a glorified bar of metal that had been roughly sharpened on both edges. "Because you two seemed to be getting hit after hit. It was damn masterful."

"Why thank you. I'd like to think I contributed," she said, beaming.

For her part, Evangeline found a loose purse on the goblin it used to belong to, pulling her knife to slice through the straps holding it to a belt. Neither the bag nor the ties that had been more tangled than knotted were worth saving, but she found five silver pieces inside and a crystal gem. It was tinged green, like spring grass had been turned to stone, were pretty in the daylight.

"Found another gem," she announced, and held it up as Valerian approached.

He only hesitated a moment, apparently a bit surprised that she would just had such a thing of value over to him. He turned it over in his hand, appraising it. "It's an auglite. Worth about 8 gold pieces. Maybe 10 if we find a gem merchant who knows his gemology."

Knowledge: Treasure. Success.

"So that would be better used for giving to the Phoenix," she said, taking it back when he offered it.

"You really think they would resurrect one of us? For a gem of so little value?" Valerian smirked.

"It's not about the value for them. It's how pretty it is." Evangeline smirked back, tucking the gem into her own pouch. "Just remember it if something should happen to me, alright?"

"Right, thank you for that. I'll make sure to loot it off your body. Wouldn't want to leave something of value behind..." He leapt out of the way of her strike, aimed for his rear. He giggled as he cleared it, then scurried away as she followed up with another smack attempt.

"You bastard!" she laughed.

"Quiet!" Hagor barked, then added in a gentler tone. "Please." Cocking his head to one side, his elvish ears twitching as he listened. Everyone froze, listening as well.

Skill: Perception. Success.

"Someone help!" a voice faintly called.

"I hear it," she said, turning about, "But I'm not sure which direction it is coming from?"

"That way!" Hagor said, pointing into the forest.

"Looks like the goblins left behind another victim," Valerian said, kneeling down in the area Hagor indicated, pointing out the foot tracks. Evangeline didn't need to roll as well to see them now that he indicated them. They led in a trampled line into the woods.

Sigismund stepped up beside her, her lips in a flat line. "Which means there is a good chance there are more goblins," she said.

"Which means we can take them easily, even without a rest," Artmond said confidently.

"But we don't know the state of the hostage. They could kill them before we can stop them."

Valerian snorted. "Then we could resurrect them. Isn't that what the jewels we're collecting are for?"

Evangeline's fingers found the bag holding her newly acquired jewel and squeezed it through the leather. "The thing is... the Phoenix... it will only resurrect one of us. Not anyone else."

"What? Why?" Artmond asked, wrinkling his nose.

Knowledge: Arcane. Failed.

Hagor answered, instead of Evangeline. "Because we are who it's decided to bond with. A Phoenix's bonding choice is not lightly given. It will bestow it on a party like ours but not necessarily everyone we befriend."

"Exactly," Evangeline agreed, glad she didn't have to burn a Meta point to remember that tidbit of information.

"Woof, that puts things into perspective." Artmond wrinkled his nose. "So what do we do then? We can't just leave them to goblins right? Whoever it is."

"Well that's easy to solve," Valerian said, lifting his chin to look at Evangeline. "We got a seer right here."

"Hey! That's rude," Sigismund scolded, setting her hands to her hips. "You can't go around asking people to just burn their special power points. That sort of thing has to be offered. She's not your private fortune teller!"

"It's alright," Evangeline said, her tiredness slipping out in her voice. "He's right. It would be better to know what's up ahead and who we need to be rescuing."

Special Skill: Meta Knowledge.

As the point burned away. Evangeline's fluttering eyelids, snapped open.

"Oh crap," she groaned.

"What is it?" Artmond urged, alarmed.

"It's Harrowheart."

To be continued...

To read the latest chapter as it comes out join my newsletter at meganmackieauthor.com