Ana Mourns (The Clermont Coven Trilogy Book 2)

by Alina Banks

  “Okay, in order to answer this question, you have to listen to what I’m saying. Last night, when I was talking to Jessie, she made it very obvious she wouldn’t be at all pleased if I were to hurt Damien. Understandable. She is his sister. Only, I knew there was more to that threat. I can’t tell you why, exactly, because it was another one of those feelings, but she got expelled from her last school for dealing with someone who’d hurt him. If I thought for one moment she was going to hurt either of us, I’d pick Damien. At least, until I worked out why I’m certain there’s something about them I need to be worried about.”

  I was worried when there was no automatic response, until I heard Alex laughing quietly. “Ana…” He kissed the top of my head again. “I should have known you were going to give that kind of answer. The answer that is linked to so much more than I can understand.”

  “Alex, I care too much about you to let anyone hurt you, and I’ll do whatever I have to do in order to make certain that doesn’t happen.” I breathed in deeply, trying not to let my imagination get the better of me, because anything could happen in the future “There’s something weird about the Easons. Something weird about the way they are. I can’t put my finger on it, but I know there’s something, and the last thing I want is for anyone to get hurt due to my lack of understanding.”

  Damien was in a couple of my classes, which I couldn’t help thinking had been done on purpose. When he walked into chemistry, he made his way straight over to me, looking a little more uncertain than I expected, but he probably found out I’d met Jessie. “I’m sorry.”

  “What for?” I studied him for a moment. “I don’t think anything Jessie said was that bad.”

  “She told you I liked you and then acted as though she was the kind of person who could make you pay if you hurt me.” He shook his head. “She can be like that sometimes, but it’s just because she’s overprotective and seems to believe I can’t look after myself.”

  “From what she said, she does have a reason for that.”

  “The choices I made were mine to make.” He shrugged as he took the seat next to me. “I knew what could have happened, and I was okay with that risk because Johnny had been there for me in the past. Jessie, of course, thinks I made those choices out of weakness, when I didn’t. She sees my need for friends as a weakness I let get the better of me sometimes. I don’t remember her ever having friends, really, apart from me. It’s a lot to deal with sometimes, but maybe being here will change that. Dad told her she can start in a week, after I’ve had a chance to get myself established, in the hope that she won’t screw things up for me this time…but then, she ended up walking into you.”

  Maybe. I could be right. As I studied Damien, thinking about what to say next, I was certain I was dealing with the good cop, while Jessie was the bad cop. The two of them were acting in very specific ways, and that had me wondering if they were trying to make me more interested in him. Not that it was going to work. I had Alex. “She said she didn’t think your need for friends was something the family viewed as a weakness.”

  “Neither Mom or Dad do, but Jessie’s different. She will say one thing and then do the opposite. She acts however she believes she should in order for people to like her, up until the point when she decides she doesn’t care anymore. Whenever she starts at a school, she does her best to keep up appearances, because that’s what Dad wants, but it quickly falls apart. After a while, she becomes the loner who makes everyone feel uncomfortable. Even me. She’s my sister, and I love her, but I’m not going to say I like her all the time. The choices she makes aren’t the choices I would make.” He shrugged. “I see this period of time as something we need to get through before we can move on to something much more interesting. Jessie just…I think she hates everything about it, so she’d much rather make things hard for herself.”

  Sabrina was the first at the table, and I sat opposite her, my eyes meeting hers for a moment before she glanced around to see if anyone else was coming. “Tell me what you really think about Damien.”

  “Brina…”

  “You’re the one who sees people as they are. You were the one who suspected Principal Woods long before anyone else did. I need to know what you’re thinking right now.”

  “Right now?” She nodded, studying me. “Honestly, I don’t know, and I have no idea if I’m ever going to know.” I shrugged. “Being around Damien and his sister has been interesting, to say the least.”

  “When did you meet Jessie?”

  “Last night. I went out for a walk with Sasha, and Jessie was out at the same time. It seemed like a coincidence, but who am I to know? Maybe one of the Easons saw me out walking and sent her to talk to me so she could do her bad cop bit, while Damien did his good cop bit this morning.”

  “That makes me think you don’t like them.”

  “More like I’m suspicious of them. I don’t trust them, and I don’t think I’m ever going to. There’s something about the way they’ve been acting that makes me uncomfortable, for reasons I don’t understand, especially considering the way Jessie talked to me last night. She made it seem as though she would be willing to hurt me if she thought I hurt Damien. All this was after she told me he liked me. I have a feeling she was trying to push me closer to him by behaving in a very specific way, so he could then make me feel more comfortable around him because he was the one who was being understanding.” I shook my head. “If I were to say this to anyone else, they’d accuse me of being paranoid.”

  “Ana, I know better than to accuse you of anything like that. If you get that feeling, then there’s a reason for it.” She bit down gently on her lip. “With there being the two of them…I hate saying this, but there is a chance Jessie might go after Alex, in the belief they can get between the two of you and then you’d be single. Not that I knew the two of you had made it official. I thought you were still dancing around that.”

  I smiled. “We are. I just used Alex being my boyfriend as a buffer because I have no interest in dating anyone else.” I brushed a hand through my hair. “What you said does make sense, though. I can see Jessie doing that, and I should talk to him about it later so he can keep that in mind. I know he is worried about how things might go. He’s worried I might choose Damien.” I looked around the same way Sabrina had, to make sure Damien wasn’t around to listen in to the conversation. “I might have to, depending on how things work out. The last thing I want is for someone to hurt either of us because my choices have hurt Damien, and the way Jessie spoke last night…I’m fairly certain she would be willing to do anything she had to in order to keep him happy. It’s weird.”

  “Do you think they might have a closer relationship than they seem to?”

  “Not in the way you’re thinking, but I do think there’s something that makes how they’re acting differently than the average siblings. Granted, that could be because I don’t have any. I just don’t know of many big sisters who’d be willing to hurt someone for their brother.”

  “Some are like that, but not in a way that would cause them any problems.”

  “Jessie got expelled.”

  “I don’t really think that’s normal.” She shook her head. “A sister who’d be willing to hurt someone badly enough in order to get expelled is not someone I’d want to get on the bad side of. I can understand why you’re being wary right now.”

  “Maybe I made a mistake when I asked Damien to sit with us.”

  “We both know you wouldn’t have changed your mind. Not when you had that feeling of something being wrong, and it doesn’t seem like you were wrong about that. If Jessie is that kind of person, maybe that was what you were feeling. That they’re a danger purely because they have someone like her in their family.”

  Chapter Five

  “We don’t normally get that feeling for such mundane reasons.” Alice looked at me. “Do you wish it were otherwise?”

  “A little.” I sighed. “I hate not knowing more than anything else. Could it have been b
ecause they were new?”

  “That, again, is another mundane reason, Ana.” She smiled. “The fact you’re becoming more comfortable around them the longer you spend with them doesn’t mean anything. You’ve felt something strange from them. It might just be that the feeling wasn’t all that strong to begin with because they are unusual, but they aren’t truly dangerous.”

  “Then I would have felt something when I first met James, and I didn’t. He’s a kitsune. He’s something unusual but not dangerous, and yet, I still felt nothing. He was like any other person.”

  “Interesting. More evidence pointing towards something we don’t truly understand, which has happened before. There’s no reason for you to believe you’re the only one who’s been through this.” Her eyes met mine. “Fortunately, it is rare. As witches, we do our best to pass information from one generation to the next so we don’t have these issues, and that makes me think it’s because we haven’t dealt with something like this for some time. The earlier journals would be best for you to explore.”

  “Until we’ve looked into this, we can’t even know if this has anything to do with the demon, can we?”

  “No, we can’t, but things like this do often link back to him. He’s done so many things through the years to try to take Clermont.” She shrugged. “Maybe we’re dealing with the vampires he created.”

  “The Easons can walk in the sun.”

  “Never assume that what you read in fiction happens in real life. There’s no reason for us to think vampires can’t walk in the sun, especially vampires that were created by the demon. He would have wanted them to be as normal as possible, which makes it highly likely that the only unusual thing about them is the fact that they have to drink blood to survive. Maybe what you need to do is look into where the Easons were before, so we can get a better understanding of what we’re dealing with, because knowing is the first step towards being able to put an end to them.”

  “If they only need to drink blood to survive, is there any reason to put an end to them?”

  “They belong to the demon. They probably came here to do his bidding, and as always, that puts you in danger. If they know who you are, then they also know what you are. You said yourself that they seemed to be urging you closer to Damien. Why would they be doing that? You’re just one person in a school full of people, and they’ve targeted you. Keep that in mind next time you’re talking with Damien, and he doesn’t seem like he’s really that bad.”

  Miss Cane was waiting for me when I left the library. “How is Alice?”

  “Same as always.” I shrugged. “We were talking about the Easons, and she mentioned she thought they might be the vampires the demon created.”

  “Unfortunately, I believe I’ve come to the same conclusion, which means things are going to become complicated, probably much quicker than either of us want.”

  “Become complicated?” I shook my head. “They already are complicated. Knowing what they are might actually make things a little easier.”

  “Considering the little I know about vampires, I honestly doubt that.” She studied me. “I know you told Lilah you thought they were doing what they could to urge you to get closer to Damien, which…you’re obviously a target. From the way Madeline’s been acting, I think Lilah is too, but the problem with that is she’s weaker than the two of us, and that will make it easier for Madeline than it will be for Damien.”

  “Explains why I ended up dealing with three of them.”

  “True.” Her eyes met mine for a moment. “Vampires, from what I’ve read, are very complicated to kill. Those creatures were created to be the demon’s most dangerous minions once the witches had made the decision they didn’t want anything to do with him, and I know that’s going to affect how we deal with this - especially since killing four people isn’t something I’m particularly looking forward to. At the same time, I know better than to think we’re going to be able to talk them into switching sides. They have no reason to work with us. They have every reason to work with the demon. He probably promised them their freedom if they did what he wanted them to do.”

  “Immortals that never wanted the gift of immortality?”

  “From what I’ve read, that definitely seems to be the case. They were people chosen by the demon to follow his orders. In order to make it so he wouldn’t have the same issue he did with the witches, he made it so they would have to obey him until he was free. I don’t understand everything, but that’s because the witches barely knew anything about the vampires to begin with, which makes me think we didn’t care enough to do anything to help them. Honestly, that doesn’t surprise me. Back then, the witches purely focused on doing what needed to be done.” She shrugged. “That choice meant they didn’t learn about the vampires until it was too late.”

  “I’m surprised he chose two women.”

  “As am I, but I’m guessing he did what he did in the mistaken belief that they would be enough for each other. There was something written in the journal that makes me think the vampires all once had families of their own, and to be ripped from those families to become immortal…that’s not something I’d wish on my worst enemy.”

  “There is a chance that’s exactly what we are dealing with. Our enemy. Four people we need to kill. At the same time, I think we need to learn more about them before we decide they are definitely the vampires the demon created. We have no reason to rush into things. That’s just going to make things much more complicated.”

  “Yes, it is, but I think we need to get this done before they start working toward freeing the demon, which means we don’t have a lot of time to learn more about them, especially if I am right about Lilah. The vampires will find it easiest to enchant her. We’re stronger, but she…even though I know she’s doing her best to accept what she is, I know it’s not easy for her. I think there is a part of her that would really like to go back to pretending everything is fine, so she could walk away from Clermont.”

  “She knows I made the decision to stay. I’m not like Mom. I am going to do whatever I have to in order to kill the demon, the way Nan wanted. When he’s dead, hopefully we won’t have to worry about this any longer.” I smiled. “Then Clermont will be safe, there will be no more minions, and I won’t need to worry about the new arrivals to town possibly being vampires.” My smile faded as I shook my head. “There’s a part of me that does wish I never learned the truth, but there’s a bigger part of me that’s grateful to know the whole truth, because now, I have a chance to be the person I should have always been. Before, I kind of felt like I was trapped in a straitjacket.”

  Mom was home when I got back. That was unusual. When she looked at me, I could see something in her eyes that wasn’t normal. “Hey, sweetheart.” She smiled. “Maddy gave me the afternoon off. With everything I’ve done recently, she said I deserved it.”

  “Everything you’ve done?” I shook my head. “I didn’t know that anything interesting was happening.”

  “Oh, it wasn’t so much a work thing as a personal thing. Maddy and the other Easons want to have a party to celebrate them moving to Clermont, and I was helping with that this morning. Honestly, it’s been months since I had any time off, so there’s no reason for me not to take it.”

  My eyes met hers. There were so many things I wanted to say, and I knew from the way she was looking at me, that none of them were going to be the right thing. Whatever it was Madeline had done, it was obvious to me that Mom wasn’t who she was a few hours earlier. Biting down hard on my lip to stop myself from saying anything stupid, I tried to work out what I should say. “When’s the party?” That seemed like the safest option. “Damien didn’t mention it to me.”

  “I’m sure he will tomorrow. Maddy didn’t want too many people to know, at least, not to begin with, because they didn’t know how they were going to settle in, but now that they’re certain they’re going to stay, a party seemed like the right thing to do.” Mom smiled. “We’ve all been invited, and I know Becca w
ill be too. Your dad isn’t certain he wants to go, but then, that’s not really a surprise.” She shook her head. “He’s never been a party person.”

  “Do you want me to talk to him? See if I can convince him?”

  “That would be great. He’s always much more likely to listen to you.” She shrugged. “I should be getting dinner on. I have the afternoon off, so he should have an afternoon off too, and I know he’s never enjoyed being the one to cook all the time. I’ve actually been thinking about maybe finding a different kind of job. One where I can be home more often. I know I’m gone far more than I am here, so…I don’t know. Maddy said they’d be sad to lose me, but she can understand why I’d make that kind of decision. From the sounds of things, she moved up into a management position in order to have slightly more regular hours. I won’t be able to do the same thing, so I’d need to move sideways. I’m sure there’s something I could find that would work for me.” She nibbled her bottom lip. “Your dad’s not really pleased with that either, but it’s not up to him what I do. The house is paid off and I have enough in savings for us to cover the bills for a while. His job brings in enough that we wouldn’t need to worry all that much. I don’t know what he has against it.”

  He could see how much she’d changed in a very short space of time. Dad had been a part of her life since the two of them were young, so he could see she wasn’t the person she had been, and that would be worrying him as much as it worried me. “Let me talk to him. I’m sure I can make him see things the way you’d like him to.” I tried to smile, but I didn’t know how natural it looked, because Madeline had changed my mom into someone she wasn’t in such a short space of time. “You go and do dinner.” Not that Dad and I would eat it. Mom was a terrible cook. That was why Dad did most of the cooking, but obviously, Madeline had made her forget that too. Instead of being who she was, she was trying to be the perfect housewife. I didn’t get it. “Once I’ve talked to Dad, I’ll do some homework, so I’ll be in the house the whole time.”