Blood Fever (The Watchers 3)

“And blood. ” I made a little chuff of a laugh, as if to say duh.

But the old man didn’t like that much. His face hardened. “You’re not listening, girl. ”

I hadn’t realized he was telling. “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t realize. So…you’ll tell me why they don’t kill you?”

“They don’t kill me because I’m not afraid. ”

“I don’t get it. ”

He stopped what he was doing at the stove to turn and face me. “Draug drink blood, sure. They need it to live, like you need water. But what they crave is fear. Crave, like you crave meat or sugar or love. They’re creatures of fear. Fear makes them feel alive. They’ll cut you for your blood, but they kill you for your fear. ”

His speech silenced me.

He put a chipped teacup in front of me, and it was surreal, seeing this formerly fine piece of china, decorated with tiny pink rosebuds, its rim tarnished a faint tinny color where it’d once been painted gold. “Drink,” he said. “Hope you like the goat blood. ”

I stared in horror at the cup, and he cackled again, long and loud, ending in a racking cough. He cleared his throat and spat into the sink. “You’ll face down demons, holding naught but those wee Christmas stars, but you can’t take a joke. ” He nodded toward the teacup. “That’s good tea, girl. Scottish breakfast. Drink up. ”

I kept wary eyes on him as I picked up the cup. I was still trying to decide if the old man was simply eccentric or full-on insane.

But the warm cup stilled my trembling fingers and the tea did smell divine. I blew on it and took a sip. It was good, and it warmed something inside me that I hadn’t realized had been chilled. It gave me courage. “What are they, anyway? The Draug, I mean. ”

He plopped down on a stool across from me. “They tried to be vampires. Didn’t make it. ”

I pictured the creatures in my mind’s eye. They were in the shape of men, though I knew that many had been no more than boys. “No, I mean, how do they come to be? Did the vampires mess up? Did something go wrong in the change?”

He shrugged. “There’s a test. These are them what didn’t pass. ”

I tried to make sense of his weird accent. “You mean like a written exam or a physical or something?”

“A test. The test. Boys go into the cave and they either come out Vampire or they come out the Draug. ”

He’d said the cave, not a cave. It struck me who could tell me about this test and this cave. Carden. The need to save him was more urgent than ever, and it felt like this was somehow connected. “What happens in the cave?”

“Can’t say for sure. ” He sipped his tea as casually as though we were discussing the weather.

I studied the old man, studied his features and his movements, wondering—as I did whenever I spotted a human—if this might’ve been some relative of Ronan’s. “What’s your name?”

He peered hard at me, looking bemused. “That’s something I don’t generally tell strangers. ”

“I’m Drew. Well, Annelise Drew, but people call me Drew. So there. No longer a stranger. ” I sipped my tea, trying hard to look as nonchalant as I’d made my voice sound.

He did that cackly laugh of his, only lower this time. “I’m Tom. And folk just call me Tom. ”

Was this guy actually okay? Granted, he was a strange old dude and, wow, he smelled, but he didn’t strike me as a sociopathic killer. Which brought me back to square one: Who was the sociopathic killer?

What the hell…I figured I had nothing to lose and said, “So, Tom. I don’t suppose you’ve seen anything strange, have you?”

He looked at me like I was the nutter, not him.

“Okay,” I quickly amended. “I know there’s lots of strange stuff. But girls have been dying. ” Something in his cheek twitched, and I sped up. “I know—that tends to happen a lot around here. But there have been mysterious killings, too, stuff like bodies being drained, and nobody knows who’s doing it. ”

He bristled. “Why would I know?”

“Because you seem like the type of gentleman who notices things,” I said, turning on the charm. I was rewarded with another cackle.

He nodded, looking decided about something. “Aye, and so I do see things. Like that new vampire who’s roaming about. ”

A horrific thought sideswiped me. Carden. Carden was a new vampire.