I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 96 - Involuntary Escort

The pounding on the escape hatch startled Evangeline awake.

Wiping her mouth, where she had apparently been drooling, she sat up on her bedroll with the decided impression that sleeping on rough stone versus sleeping on solid ground were in fact two different experiences. The other hated her less than this. Stretching was painful as her bones sought to pop back into place, but at least her HP bar was full and her condition bar was empty. No more blood loss.

Looking around, she saw the other members of her party doing the same.

"What's going on?" Sigismund asked as she stood from her bedroll so she could easily pull her over robe on.

Another round of pounding echoed in the space.

Valerian, already dressed except for his boots was approaching the ladder leading out of their camp, looking up at the grate above.

"Someone's asking to come in," he reported. "Rather polite of them."

"The grate will be more re-enforced just like the gate to our camp. Not impossible to breakthrough, but not as easy as it was before," Hagor reported, joining Valerian at the ladder.

Harrowheart was right behind him, hefting her hammer on her shoulder. "So do we just let them in or ignore them?" she asked.

"It's probably a sewer worker who is very confused why they can't get to work today," Evangeline said, tugging her own boots on. "Let's just open it."

She hurried over to the ladder herself, jumping over the small stream of "sewer water" that was too clear to really have the name, and scurried up the rungs of the ladder.

Popping it open, she discovered several bodies standing around the grate. A couple held torches that were dancing a warm light around them. It was clearly night outside; they could safely leave their sewer hideout.

The footman who must have been doing the knocking, took a step back from the whole, truly surprised by her sudden appearance.

"Oh my!" he said flustered. "You truly are down there."

"Can I help you?" Evangeline asked in her best receptionists voice, as if her coming out of a sewer was a perfectly normal thing for her to do.

The footman cleared his throat. "Uh, yes, madam. I have been sent looking for Lord Artmond," the footman then leaned a bit closer, genuinely asking. "Is he here?"

"Yes, he is. We'll be up a few minutes," Evangeline said. "Please wait here."

"Uh, yes of course. Please inform his lordship that First Lady Enrichetta has sent her carriage for him, to escort him to her manor house as soon as he is ready and willing," the footman added formally, straightening up.

"I will inform him," Evangeline said with a nod and a blatant grin. She then let the portal above her drop and slid down the ladder.

She spun around and focused in on Artmond who had joined the rest of the party as they waited for her.

"I heard," he said, and sighed. "Guess I need to go explain myself now."

Sigismund, the only one of the party who hadn't congregated at the bottom of the ladder, came up beside him, offering him his sword belt with sword.

Without another word, he took it, buckling it on quick while she stood ready with a piece of stick she had been using as a staff.

Everyone else exchanged a couple of glances then went to grab what remained of their stuff without another word. Whatever they didn't want to take with, they left by their bedrolls for the magic to gather up. Then one by one they followed Artmond up the ladder. Evangeline was the last one, to climb up, and she glanced over at the corner where the Phoenix had nested.

They sat there watching, then when she was alone, they winked at her once.

Shivers ran down Evangeline's spine, and she ignored them by climbing up and away.

On the surface, the group that had been waiting for them, a few of them in house livery and a couple more city worker types, had moved away from the hole. They all now stood back, creating a sort of alley from the sewer to a well-appointed carriage that her party were climbing into.

Only Harrowheart remained to one side. "There isn't enough room in there for Hagor and me to fit, so I'm going to ride on the back with this guy here." She tipped her head toward the footman who had done the knocking, holding the door. His expression didn't change, but Evangeline thought he looked a bit pale at the prospect.

"Are you sure?" Evangeline checked.

Harrowheart grinned and nodded. "Prefer it anyway, Inside coaches always makes me feel like I'm stuck in a box on wheels."

"Because you are in a box with wheels," Evangeline agreed.

"There you go," Harrowheart laughed, just as it was Evangeline's turn to climb in.

Harrowheart wasn't wrong about there not really being enough room inside for the entire party. Hagor with his large size, took up one side with Valerian squeezing in next to him, which left Artmond, Sigismund, and Evangeline on the opposite. Even then, Artmond had to lift his arm up and lay it over the back bench to give Sigismund more room in the middle, so that he was pseudo holding her if he only laid his hand down on her opposite shoulder. Sigismund didn't move a muscle, but sat ramrod straight. It made for a very awkward ride to First Lady Enrichetta's house. No one said a word the entire trip, but Evangeline could hear the question rolling around all their heads.

Are we really going to assassinate her?

The tension didn't lessen either when the door finally opened. Sigisumund bolted right out. Artmond's gaze followed her with a longing and acceptance that broke Evangeline's heart.

He's in love with her, she dared to think. And she could just about kick him for not doing something about it.

But there was nothing more to do other than exit the carriage and enter the next battlefield.