The wagon rattles as its wheels grind over the stone-littered road. I'm beside Rahlan on the wooden driver's bench. The cargo cavity would be more comfortable, but it's occupied by Julke and Keld, and I don't feel secure sitting beside vampires I barely know, especially since the scarred one has made a habit of glaring at me.

Mittens tugs the wagon around a bend in the road. Thatch-roofed buildings emerge from behind the hill. The village spurs into activity at the sight of us – people run to their homes, slamming doors with the occasional uninterpretable shout.

I remember looking back at my own village when we fled from the vampires. The ones who chose to stay also hid in their homes. They didn't know that the vampires would enslave them and raze everything to the ground. I would've been among them if Jacob hadn't instructed me to flee beforehand.

My hands run down my legs to straighten the long purple dress. It's far more luxurious than anything I've worn before. I feel like I don't belong in my own body while wearing it.

Rahlan brings Mittens to a stop at the village perimeter. There's not a soul outside. It's eerie seeing a village void of activity at midday.

All three vampires hop off the wagon, and Rahlan halters Mittens to the closest post.

I jump to the ground and straighten my shiny dress again, still not used to the feeling of the smooth fabric.

Rahlan heads towards a house and motions his hand in a circle. "Round them up."

Julke and Keld each move towards the neighboring homes.

Rahlan draws his sword and bangs his fist against a front door. "Open!"

The door remains shut. With no patience to spare, he takes a step back and lines his boot up for a kick. The door's bolt shatters with a puff of dust and splinters.

He steps inside, and a woman screams. I'd be terrified too if a sword-wielding vampire broke down my door.

A loud bang catches my attention. Keld has smashed another home's door. Is all this destruction really necessary? They're hardly any better than bandits.

Rahlan emerges from the home, dragging a screaming woman back by the collar.

I hurry over to them. He's dragged me like that before too, but at least I had some security knowing that he wasn't going to murder me.

He twists the woman around and shoves her to kneel in the middle of the village. Thankfully, her gray garment is void of blood.

A man's screaming erupts from a home – another victim of the vampire's terror attack.

The woman's wails dissolve into a softer cry. Rahlan's holding her shoulder in one hand and his sword in the other.

"Yield," he commands.

She whimpers, shielding her face and cowering away from him.

Rahlan releases his grip and marches to another house.

I kneel beside her and grab her shaking hands. "It's okay. It's okay," I repeat.

Her eyes meet mine, terrified – that's what Rahlan wants. Terrified, obedient subjects.

I rub my thumb over her knuckles. "I know him. He will not harm you." Though he's done terrible deeds, these people aren't Huntsmen. He won't kill innocent farmers out of irritation.

Julke shoves an old man to his knees beside the woman. The man tenses his shoulders up as if he's about to be struck. Without even glancing at me, Julke storms off to the next house.

Though the old man's silent, his eyes are wide and his arm is shaking. I move to the man and cup his hand in mine. "It's okay," I repeat, "Just be still, and everything will be okay."

His wide eyes meet mine. "Lady?"

My gaze falls to my dress for a moment. I'm the furthest thing from a noblewoman, but it may ease his distress if he believes I am more than just Rahlan's captive.

"They'll kill us," the woman whisper-shouts, "We have to run."

"No," I grab her hand again in a bid to both calm her down and stop her from taking off. "Be still. They will not harm you."

Her frightened gaze meets mine. "How can you know?"

"The lord." I point to Rahlan, who is currently banging on another door, not helping the point I'm trying to make. "I've been his captive for weeks, and I am unharmed." While unharmed may not be strictly correct, it is true that I do know him well enough to reassure them of their safety.

A girl's scream cracks through the air. I jump to my feet. Another wail follows. It's from the house at the end of the road. I sprint to the small home, shooting past Rahlan as he frogmarches a pair of farmers to the village center.

"No!" the girl's voice cries from inside the small house. I burst through the half open door, and the sight makes me gasp.

Keld has a young girl pinned against the wall, his one hand holding her arms above her head and his other balled into a fist. The girl groans in agony, tears running down her cheeks. Her feet hang above the floor, putting all her weight on her shoulders and leaving her middle open to his assault.

Keld swings his fist into her, crushing her stomach between his knuckles and the wooden beams. She lets out another agonizing cry, breaking into sobs.

"Where are you hiding him!?" he shouts, his sharp teeth just inches from her face.

"Keld stop this!" I latch onto his arm without the thought of possible retaliation. He knows I belong to Rahlan. "Let her go!"

He shoves me back with a growl. I stumble away, losing my balance and hitting the wooden floor with a thud.

His eyes return to the shaking girl, and his hand forms a fist. "Where?" He bares his teeth at the word. He's going to hit her again. She can't be older than fourteen. He could kill her.

I jump to my feet and grab a breadboard. The white flour covers my hands as I swing for Keld's head. The board flies out of my grip as it collides with his skull, coating the wall with a thin layer of flour.

A hand lunges at my chest and grabs the dress in a fist, tightening the material around my frame. My whole body is shoved backwards. I struggle to regain my balance, my feet scrambling beneath me until my back impacts with the wall, knocking the air out of my lungs.

The pain down my spine makes me groan, and before I know what's happening, Keld has my hands pinned over my head, raising my feet off the ground. I cry out from the sudden tension on my burning shoulders.

The girl has disappeared, leaving me alone with the demon. He's so close that I can make out the small ridges on the scar across his cheek. Fire burns in his red eyes, and his fangs poke out between his lips like they're about to tear me apart. His fist curls back behind him ramping up for a strike.

"I hate your kind," he stresses every word.

He slams his fist into my gut, crushing me against the wall. I scream from the wave of pain the ripples up through my body. I didn't mean to anger him. It was just to stop him from killing that girl. There wasn't supposed to be a fight.

He pulls his fist back again, preparing for another strike. I've barely had a chance to recover. My middle can't take another impact like that so soon.

"No, no, stop," I choke out.

A hand wraps around the vampire's neck. The grip on my wrists disappears, and I fall to the floor as my legs fail to support my weight. Keld flies across the room. His body crashes through a wooden table, snapping it in half like a twig.

Rahlan kicks Keld's sword from his belt before the groaning vampire knows what's going on.

Rahlan kneels in front of me, resting his hand on my shoulder. "Are you injured?" His eyes run up and down my frame.

I rub my head and wiggle my shoulders. My gut aches, but it's nothing I haven't dealt with before. I shake my head, cursing myself for not insisting on wearing the tunic.

Rahlan stands, and his attention returns to Keld, who is in the process of sitting up.

"Did I not make myself clear," Rahlan says.

Keld rubs his head. "What?"

Rahlan kicks Keld across the face, sending his torso back against the broken wood.

A low groan escapes Keld's lips, blood now running from his nose.

Rahlan raises his foot over Keld's stomach. "I said that I will discipline my pet, not you." He stomps down, and Keld cries out from the impact.

I stand up with one hand nursing my middle and the other on the wall for balance. A part of me is happy to see Keld get a taste of his own treatment. That's what it feels like to be powerless, to be at the mercy of someone who wishes to do you harm. Maybe now he'll think twice before inflicting that feeling onto others.

"Lord," Keld chokes.

"I said arrest her and go no further." Rahlan slams his boot into Keld's side, making him wail. He pulls back his foot for another strike. Keld's wide eyes follow the boot, and he tries to shield himself from the blow.

I know that feeling, desperately hoping that that boot won't slam into my side again, praying that his assault will end soon, wanting nothing more than for the onslaught of pain to stop, wishing to be anywhere else. It was the night when Rahlan beat me for my escape attempt. That night, when I was struggling to ignore the residual pain and fall asleep, I promised myself that if I ever held power over someone, that I would never cause pain for the sake of it.

I grab onto Rahlan's coat. His boot stops in midair, and he steps back to steady himself.

"No more," I say, shaking my head.

"I shall take retribution as I please. Remove your hand."

"No," I stumble forward into him, propping myself up between the two of them. "You will not hurt people because of me. You will not."

He looks over my head at the vampire clutching his stomach on the ground.

I tug on his coat, pulling his attention back to me. Keld didn't kill me. I've got little more than a few new bruises, and it's not like this is the first time I've been struck by a vampire.

I drag him away from Keld, encouraging him to follow me out the house. His eyes land on the group of kneeling humans in the village center, and he remembers the reason he's here. He straightens his coat and marches back to them.

There's movement in the corner of my eye. It's the young girl, hiding in the small gap between a house and a barn. Her legs support her weight without the help of the wall, suggesting that her injuries aren't too bad.

She could land up in trouble if she's found separated from the others. I hold out my hand to her. "Come."

She hesitates for a moment. I smile, trying to appear as welcoming as possible while hiding the pain emanating from my middle.

She steps out from the structure, and a little boy follows with his hand locked in hers. They're siblings. That's who she was protecting. Without their parents, she took on the role of looking after her younger brother. Just like Jacob did for me.

She approaches, and I keep an eye out for any stiffness in her gait. It looks good considering the beating she suffered from Keld's fist. I take her hand in mine and lead them both to the village center.

The urge to glance back to see if Keld is following gnaws at me, but I don't want to worry the girl. I doubt he's in a state to move right now.

I kneel at the back of the group of villagers, encouraging the boy and girl to kneel beside me. There are roughly thirty people, far fewer than I'd expect for so many houses. The others must have died in battle or fled well before we arrived.

Rahlan stands before the crowd, his menacing expression keeping their attention. His eyes scan the villagers, observing his new subjects. His gaze stops on me. He signals to Julke and points in my direction.

The blond-haired vampire circles around the group, drawing their nervous gazes. His hand wraps around my arm, gently tugging me up and pulling me to follow him.

I move without a struggle, not wanting to cause a scene and make the villagers worry. There is no danger, no reason to fight. The boy and girl watch me leave with wide eyes. I smile at them, trying to ease their nerves.

Julke and I stop a few feet behind Rahlan. He's pacing from side to side with his hands behind his back and his eyes on the jittery villagers. They're dead silent, each one afraid that Rahlan will single them out.

What do they think of me now, standing among thevampires while they kneel, decorated in royal clothing while theirs is muddied?