Thirst for Vengeance by Victoria Sinclair (important books to read .TXT) 📕

As I was going through the last alley that lead to my destination two dark figures stopped me at the very end of the alley. They wore leather jerkins and were armed with long knives. "What do we here?" On of them said, a greedy look in his eye. "A little girl running around with some goods and coin? Down an alleyway? Sweetie, I think you are lost." The other one chuckled and slowly started creeping forward. "We can help you find your way sweetheart, it will just cost you though." Feeling their eyes crawling all over me, I took a step back and slowly reached down with my left hand touching my blade hilt. I couldn't believe the arrogance of these two men and almost felt a bit of pity for them. They didn't know who they were messing with. One of them noticed me reaching for my blade and pulled out two of his as well.

"Darling, why would you treat us this way? We are only trying to help?" He snickered before taking a step forward. I tensed myself waiting for an attack that would never come. Before I could even move the man on the left jerked backwards, then sideways, his head slamming into the wall closest to him. He fell quickly and the other man on the right whirled around, both blades drawn ready to attack. Before he could react a fist connected with his nose, blood spraying everywhere. Dropping just a fast as the first one I blinked my eyes to adjust to the third figure standing in the alleyway. Damn him, I thought. It was the same man from the bakery. He looked up and gave me a dazzling smile that made my heart skip a beat another beat. Stop that. I'm going to have a heart attack at this rate! I thought as I huffed and started walking forward toward him. "Saw these two giving you trouble, though I would swoop in to save the day!" He again smiled proudly and looked down at his handy work. Both of the thugs seemed to be unconscious.

"Thank you, but I could have taken care of them myself." I growled as I pushed my way past him. I was not some damsel in distress needing a man to come along and rescue me. "Hey, wait, please wait!" He shouted from behind me. The anger swelled in me as I weaved my way in and out of the crowd. I had already had enough of him today.

Not paying attention to where I was going I ran smack dab into Alex, who had just finished buying the rest of our supplies. "Aurora? Are you ok? You have a look on your face like you have been running from the devil!" He chuckled, however, I did not miss the movement in his eye. Alex was checking behind me just to make sure I was not, in fact, being chased by a devil. I turned my head myself, looking for the man who was ruining my day, but who I couldn't stop thinking about. He was no where to be seen. I heaved a sigh of relief and quickly put a smile on my face. "No, it's nothing Alex, I just hate large crowds. Is it time to leave?" I asked a little too quickly and Alex gave me a suspicious glance. "Yes, we have everything we need. I just need to stop on the outskirts of town to get the contract from a local villager. Come on." We slowly made our way through the market, as we walked by the alley I had came out of I took a quick look to see if the two men were still there. To my surprise they were not. Guess the recovered quickly.

Once we finally walked out of the market it felt like a giant weight was lifted over my shoulders. I think I'm just going to deal with small traders in villages instead of going into another market in my life! I thought to myself as we walked over to get our horses. Alex paid the stable smith and we both got our horses and guided them to the trail. As I was about to mount I saw a glimmer of blonde hair in the corner of my eye. Oh no... Not here.... Not now. "Miss, please wait!" It was the same blonde haired man from the bakery and the alleyway. Alex turned to look at him, then turned a curious glance toward me. The blonde haired man finally reached me and gave me another wide smile, "I don't mean to bother you both," the man looked at me and handed me a small brown cloth. "However, I was serious when I said I was sorry and would repay you." The bag felt warm to the touch as I took it from him and looked inside. It was a meat pastry. My cheeks became slightly flushed as I realized he must have been trying to pay me in the alleyway. "T-Thank you." I stammered as he gave me a quick smile. "Don't thank me, I owed it to you."

The man flashed Alex a smile as well. "I will let both of you be on your way then." He turned around and started walking back into the market, momentarily he turned around and gave me one last look. His eyes shinning. "I'm Bryce by the way, hope to see you back around sometime."

With a quick wink he disappeared through the entrance and back into the market. I quickly mounted my horse as Alex gave me another curious glance. "So anything you would like to share Aurora?" "No." I replied to quickly, my face turning slightly more red. Alex gave a laugh and steered his mount west toward a small village to get the contract from. I took a quick bite of my pastry, my stomach roaring with hunger. I decided to give one more quick glance before the market disappeared behind us. I could have swore I saw a shine of blonde hair at the stables. Bryce, I liked that name.

It was almost half a day's ride to the village, which actually was pretty far away from the market. The entire time my mind was not on the dirt trail ahead of us. It was on blue-gray eyes and blond hair. I'm sure why I couldn't get his face out of my mind, I was about to go crazy.

"So Aurora, you never did explain who that was back there." Alex said as he looked over to me, amusement showing in his eyes. "Just a stranger is all. He ran into me, causing me to lose one of the pastries. I told him not to pay me back." I said all this while looking down.

I could feel my face reddening slightly. Alex gave me a knowing smile. "You say it like that is all that happened, but your face tells me there is more!"

I continued to keep my head down, not wanting to go into any more detail. Alex gave me another glance over before turning his attention back to the path. "Fine, don't tell ol' Alex anything." He said and gave a dramatic sigh. "Young woman, never want to share anything unless it is with another woman." I laughed as he finished his sentence. "Alex really, nothing else interesting happened," I said. He gave another dramatic sigh, clearly not believing me. It seemed he let the situation go though, as we continued on for another ten minutes without a word. It was almost night time before we reached a small village, devoid of almost any life. You would have thought it would have been a ghost town if it was for some of the lanterns that had been hung up to lighten the dirt roads.

There was a small barn right next to the entrance and both Alex and I dismounted and went ahead and tied the horses. I shuddered slightly as the wind started to pick up. I was tired of fall already and just wanted it to be summer again. Seeing Alex start to walk toward the village entrance I quickly trotted over to him, seeing the uneasy look on his face. "What's wrong?" I said, trying to see where he was looking.

"Something doesn't feel right here, I could just be over paranoid." He quickly started walking into the village.

Startled, I followed after him. This town gave me the creeps as well, but I figured it was just where it was dark. As we walked through the quiet village I couldn't see any lights on in any of the little houses. When we finally reached what I assumed was a small tavern in the village I did see one light in the window. As we entered, the smell of alcohol and stale bread entered my nostrils. Stopping for a brief moment I tried not to gag at the horrible smell.

I had never understood how people could drink that stuff. As I finally got my composure back, I looked around and saw there was only two people in the tavern. One was, of course, the barkeeper and a frail man sitting at a table in the corner. He was a curious thing. He was dressed in a black cloak just like ours and kept it wrapped closely to his small frame. From what I could see he looked to be in his late thirties early forties. Anything else was obscured by his hood.

'Why does he have his hood on in the tavern?' I thought to myself as Alex made his way toward the small man. 'Was this the guy we were getting our contract from?' I quickly followed behind Alex. We both sat on separate sides of the table, leaving the frail man in the corner seat. He quickly gives me a suspicious glance and turned his full attention to Alex.

"She has no business being here." I was taken aback by his sudden raspy voice and felt my tempter start to rise.

Alex gave me a warning glance as he addressed the old man. "Jarvin, I have no time for this argument today. Please, let's discuss the contract." Jarvin glared at him for just a moment, I will only discuss it if she is not in the room. Jarvin turned his head and glared at me. I had absolutely know idea why this little man hated me already and I didn't really care. My tempter getting the best of me, I rose quickly and started walking to the door. "I'll just wait outside, then since my presence intimidates you." I said as I walked out of the tavern. The nerve of that man was infuriating. Was it because I was a woman? Or had just turned eighteen? Either way it still angers me. It also, I had just realized, make me walk outside on a dark night in an unfamiliar place. Leaning against the outside of the tavern I tried to take in my surroundings. The village pretty much had a one way street with two turn offs at the tavern, small cottages were on both sides of the roads extending all the way down the road. The tavern