Reading the rest of the letter, Victoria saw that Brigid had also come to the same realization of choice and consequence.
You have brought me hope, Marcus. And so, I cannot suffer this curse to live, even though every part of me begs to survive now that I have so much to live for. If I die, then my blood shall also die, for I am the only one who can conquer it. My son, it has been so long since I have thought of the meaning of true sacrifice. This will be my last gift to them, your beautiful daughters, and their children, and their children’s children!
I leave this amulet to you. This is everything that was best of me. It is my legacy, and your inheritance. It will always protect you and yours. Always know that it was your love that saved me.
I love you now and forever, my son.
Your Mother,
Brigid Anne Warrick Kensington.
And so Brigid chose. She chose to die so those she loved could live.
"GOD, I AM never going to get this assignment done!" Victoria said to Leto as she paced, frustrated in her apartment. "And what is with this hideous weather!"
She peered out the window at the three feet of snow already on the ground and the billowing wind that made it nearly impossible to see more than a few inches. The world was a sea of white that covered everything, a big white nothing!
Well, it is December in Maine, Tori, Leto said patronizingly. And if you are so worried about the assignment, just use magic.
Victoria was horrified at Leto's nonchalant suggestion. "But that would be cheating!" Then when she gave it real consideration. "Could I do that?" Leto smiled his strange little cat smile and blinked his large, green eyes.
You wouldn't believe me if I told you some of the things you could do.
"Like what?" Despite being completely appalled at the mere thought of cheating, Victoria was intrigued.
You could not only create that whole paper in an instant, you could predispose your professor to give you an A. You could even see what he plans to set for finals and give yourself a premeditated grade.
"You are a devious little cat, has anyone ever told you that, Leto?" Victoria shook her head in amazement. "But seriously, what would be the point of me even finishing high school, if I didn't do it properly? Normally, you know, like everyone else."
Well, you're not exactly like everyone else are you? he replied smugly.
Victoria rolled her eyes, sighed and sat down resignedly at her desk. She kept getting distracted by thoughts of Christian and fussing about the weather was just a pretense to think about something else other than him. The last few weeks had been a whirlwind of secret romance, and while she couldn't keep her mind totally closed to Leto without arousing suspicion, she kept her thoughts about Christian carefully compartmentalized.
After finishing the journal, her indecision had only worsened knowing Brigid's story and learning about the ancient enmity between witches and vampires. It didn't erase anything she felt about Christian. If anything, her feelings had become twice as sharp, and twice as difficult to ignore. Despite what she'd read, the truth was she didn't want to listen to the rules. She glanced at Leto lounging on the sofa.
"Leto, can I ask you a question? Why are relationships between vampires and witches forbidden?" Leto's eyes shrank to slits, his ears flattening against his head. A hot hiss rippled down his spine.
Why? Did something happen?
"No, no. I was just curious," she said hastily. "I read something in the journal about it, and I wanted to ask you." She cleared her mind as best as she could and pasted an innocent look on her face.
Relations between our worlds are tenuous at best, bound by a strained centuries-old truce. His tone was cold, dispassionate. We interact with them when we need to, but anything more is expressly prohibited. There are rules, ancient laws in place that prohibit... mingling, like anti-miscegenation laws.
"That sounds incredibly archaic. Why can't they change? This is the twenty-first century, after all." Leto's stare was hot. Discerning.
Because it is the law. It has always been the way since the Great War. We are probably the only two societies powerful and evenly matched enough to annihilate the other. The werewolves would be a threat if they could unite their packs but they are territorial by nature. The rest, like most of the fey, just care about their own worlds. They don't integrate with humans like we do or the vampires do.
"So the laws don't apply to mingling with humans?"
Humans aren't a threat.
"And the penalty for breaking these laws?" Leto's eyes were slits.
Death. Exile. Worse. Exile for a witch means being stripped of all magical powers and forbidden to wield magic for all time. For witches or wizards, it is a fate far worse than death. Losing your magic is like losing your soul.
"And the vampires?"
The same offense is punishable by death. Burning, or so I've heard.
"Oh."
What they were doing was not only wrong, it was risky. Victoria buried her head in her French textbook, feeling the twin lasers of Leto's eyes boring into her, as the familiar flush invaded her body. She kept her mind blank, refusing to think of anything, least of all Christian, despite her racing heart. Leto was far too perceptive for his own good.
The phone rang, interrupting her concentration and the heavy, awkward silence that had suddenly invaded the apartment. She lunged for the phone with a relief that she hoped didn't seem desperate.
"Hello?"
"Tori?"
"Oh, hey Gabriel."
"How's your paper coming?" he asked.
"Not bad, I got stuck so I was just taking a break." One of three hundred breaks, she admonished herself silently.
"A bunch of us are heading down to the Dog tonight. We all need a break with finals right around the corner. You up for it?"
Victoria sighed inwardly. This was the fifth time Gabriel had asked her out this week, and she was running out of excuses. She glanced at Leto who was still staring at her disconcertingly. Gabriel suddenly seemed like the lesser of two evils.
"You know what Gabe, that sounds like fun," she said. "I'll see you there."
Gabriel over Leto was an easy choice. She would deal with Gabriel if she had to. His attempts to date her had become more persistent in the last few weeks, no doubt because of the bar kiss. She knew that it was her own fault for misleading him and giving him the wrong impression that night at the bar when she'd been trying to make Christian jealous.
Victoria felt a spasm of guilt for the sneaky reconnaissance she'd done when she had flashed Gabriel's mind. What she had seen was what she'd expected, with maybe with a few extra details like his intense dislike for his sister Angie, which had been obvious. Still, the blunt evidence of Gabriel's feelings for her had made her blush.
He really, really liked her. Victoria hadn't delved too much deeper. There was a difference between protecting herself by investigating someone's motives and invading their personal privacy. Despite her limitless new powers, she was trying hard to maintain some standards.
By the time Victoria finished her paper and walked to the Dog, it was packed. She secretly hoped she would run into Christian, but she knew it wasn't likely. A few days out of every month, they'd decided it was better—safer—for her to stay away from him. Despite her obvious ability to protect herself, the smell of blood, hers in particular, didn't help matters given what Christian was. It was a small but necessary sacrifice each month.
She took a deep breath and headed in to the mob. As she pressed through the noisy jostle of bodies, she was glad that she didn't have to work. She had done three straight nights of six-hour shifts! Hearing her name, she walked over to the large crowd of people on one whole side of the bar near where the Harland college band, "Riot," was playing.
"Hey guys!" she shouted over the music. Charla waved. She was talking animatedly to two football players, and they were all laughing. Angie didn't seem to be around, but she didn't go out much anyway and certainly not when Gabriel was part of the group.
She saw him surrounded by his friends and he walked over to say hello.
"Hey Tori," he said. "I'm really glad you came!"
"Me too," she agreed, happy to be out.
Gabriel's energy was infectious and Victoria soon relaxed. He introduced her to some of his friends, other seniors and juniors from the football team. Gabriel was their star quarterback and everyone had high hopes for the team for the divisional playoffs. Harland had already recruited him with a full ride for college.
Starting quarterback in the high-school social world made him an extremely desirable commodity, and Victoria couldn't believe how many people, especially girls, were standing around their table and hanging on Gabriel's every word. She tried to ignore the daggers that were being shot in her direction from some of the other girls desperate for him to notice them.
Out of the blue, she felt a light brush against her thoughts.
You look beautiful.
I didn't know you'd be here!
Program review ran late.
Where are you? she replied, trying not to react as Gabriel was in the middle of an animated byplay of his last game.
Come on Tori you know you could find me easily if you wanted to.
Victoria focused her energy, sifting through the throng of bodies gyrating to the music. There he was at a booth in the corner over by the front of the bar. She could see that he wasn't looking straight at her and was listening to what the professor he was with was saying, but she could feel him staring at her surreptitiously behind his lashes, the hint of a smile playing about his lips. His glance brushed across her temple, then her cheek, and then back and forth, back and forth across her lips. Her knees turned into jelly.
Stop it!
Why? He continued to mentally caress her lips, and Victoria felt as weak as if he were actually kissing her. It was harmless flirting but she could barely breathe.
I mean it, Christian.
You look even more beautiful when you are blushing.
Victoria nodded to what Gabriel was saying, and focused a sliver of her attention to the corner. Christian's eyebrows rose in challenge, egging her on. She opened her mind to him and vividly imagined kissing his lips. His eyes snapped to hers in immediate response.
She dropped butterfly kisses on his cheeks, down his jaw to his neck where she bit gently into the soft hollow where his neck met his collarbone. The thought was far more provocative than the act itself, and Christian almost half jumped out of his chair. She watched grinning as he explained himself to his companions. He met her eyes.
Touché.
As Gabriel introduced her to more of his friends, she felt Christian's gentle parting caress and soft whisper that he missed her and couldn't wait to see her. Victoria smiled to herself as she recalled the look of utter shock on his face when she had thought of biting his neck. He had definitely not been expecting that!
"Is that smile for me?" Gabriel said, tossing an arm over her shoulders. Victoria rolled her eyes and sneaked a glance at Charla hoping that she was distracted enough not to read anything into Gabriel's amorous attentions. He was laying it on pretty thick!
She chatted to two other seniors for a while, but soon after Victoria started to feel ill, the noise and heat of the bar making her suddenly dizzy. She sat for a minute but a stinging headache had come out of nowhere. She felt disoriented. Even her amulet seemed hot but Victoria wasn't sure if it was the necklace or her body that was burning up. She told Gabriel she needed to go home. After declining his offer of a ride, she insisted that she preferred to walk.
The minute she left the bar, Victoria felt better. The night air was cold but refreshing against her hot skin as she started the two-mile walk to her apartment. The wind sliced across her cheeks, and she pulled her coat tighter around her neck.
It felt good, the icy coldness helping to clear the cobwebs from her head. It was a dark night but she wasn't too worried; street lamps and homes lit most of the way, and there was only one small area that crossed the five-mile loop, which didn't have any lights. She walked briskly before the chill could seep through her coat and settle in her bones. She briefly considered teleporting, and then decided against it—too public, even if the area was deserted.
She pressed on. Halfway through it, she was just starting to regret her decision to take on the subzero temperatures and the wind chill, when out of the corner of her eye, Victoria thought she saw a quick movement, and a chill that had nothing to do with the weather ran up her spine.
She walked faster, wrapping her arms around her body, glancing behind her once or twice but seeing nothing out of the ordinary. The hairs on the nape of her neck were at stiff attention, and suddenly she regretted not taking Gabriel up on his offer of a ride. Movement to her left caught her eye again and she froze, her body tense with coiled fear.
It was a man, a short thin man.
A menacing snarl curled from his throat. Before she could think, he sprung toward her with lethal precision. Victoria felt the blood roaring in her ears and summoned her energy, sledge-hammering it toward the man's body. He flew back twenty feet and crashed into the base of a maple tree but was on his feet in seconds snarling hideously.
Victoria's focus sharpened and the blood rushed in her veins, giving her strength and clearing her brain of everything but self-preservation. The amulet at her breast pulsed hot as her blood pushed her fear into a dizzying frenzy. Another quick movement on her right made her spin around, and in the darkness she could make out another shape, a feminine shape. As her eyes adjusted, she saw a beautiful woman with long, white-blond hair.
All Victoria could think was that somehow she knew that face, but the memory eluded her. The woman dropped into a crouch and feinted, ready to attack, and Victoria braced herself, feeling the magic responding to her needs, the energy amassing in her fingertips. The blast rocketed past the woman who spun with inhuman speed to avoid the blow. Victoria shifted to the left keeping the first attacker in sight and realizing that there was a second man, behind her. She didn't have time to hyperventilate. The power surged through her leaving her breathless—she was born for this.
They circled like three sharks that smelled blood in the water. One of the man-things leapt toward her. Words shot through her head and Victoria screamed them without even thinking about where they had come from.
"Ignis cremo!"
The curse's fiery arms destroyed the creature in midair. Its shrieks were hideous as it died, and Victoria's blood soared in response, exultant with its success. On her left, she could see the blond woman staring at her uneasily.
Victoria lifted her chin in cool challenge. The woman's answering stare was venomous, and as Victoria fought to grasp the elusive memory of who she was, she didn't notice the other man-thing springing toward her from the side. Razor-sharp, serrated fangs tore into the flesh of her right shoulder. Victoria screamed, but before she could react, the thing fell onto the ground and started convulsing in terrible agony and clawing at its face. She stared in horror as its mouth and face blistered off, the rest of it smoldering to slow ashes before her eyes.
Blood congealed into her sweater and coat, its tackiness coating her skin, pungent like corroded rust. Her shoulder stung as if there were powered glass underneath but she ignored it, her burning eyes scanning the area. With some relief, she realized that the woman had disappeared. Her vision clouded as her knees buckled. The earth was cold and wet, and her eyes grew heavy as she lay back on the grass at the side of the road, looking at the black sky and feeling the blood dancing in her veins. It was resonant with victory, but she felt drained. The pain in her shoulder faded to a dull throb as she felt herself slipping into unconsciousness.
Christian ...
VICTORIA WAS FLYING. There were tight bands around her arms and her thighs, holding her close. Dizzily, she turned her face and saw the familiar angular profile. He had come for her, just like she had known he would. Her throat stung from the effort of the words.
"Killed v ... v ... vampire
... oh God ... I killed it ... them ..."
Sleep, chérie.
And she did.
CHRISTIAN SHOUTED FOR Anton the minute he arrived at the house with Victoria limp in his arms. Although Anton's special poultice, made for an infected vampire bite, seemed to calm the weeping of the lesions, they still remained angry and raw. Even worse, Victoria was still unconscious.
When she'd called him, Christian had followed her call, the lushly wet scent of her blood like a beacon. Its siren song was nearly impossible to resist. The thought that a vampire had bitten her incensed him, and he fought to keep his rage under control as it simmered beneath the surface. He knew exactly who had sent it, and his wrath made him reckless. He picked up the phone and punched in a number. No answer.
I know you're there Lucian! he roared mentally.
They rarely communicated telepathically but the unique bond they shared had not diminished with time or immortality. They had always been able to finish each other's sentences as children, and that ability had evolved into something much more unique. Despite its usefulness, it reminded Lucian too much that they were brothers, a fact that he preferred to forget.
Christian's cell phone rang.
"What can I do for you, brother?" Lucian's voice was composed, arrogant.
"Explain."
"Explain what? That you were hiding a witch of immense power? That she killed two of Lena's men in the space of minutes? Or worse, that you thought I wouldn't find out?"
"You sent Lena?" Christian's voice was choked.
"Afraid, brother?"
"She is of no threat to you Lucian!" Christian could scarcely control his fury, he felt like he wanted to rip Lucian apart with his bare hands. He didn't even want to imagine what he would have done if they had been on the same continent. Lucian's response was quiet.
"You forget your duty, Christian," he said. "The Watchers have foreseen it. The prophecy—"
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