by Alina Banks
“I know you picked that up from me.” Violet smiled for the first time. Her eyes met Damien’s. “I’ve had more of an effect on you than I thought I would.”
“Getting close to you was something I never could have imagined happening. I was so certain I was going to hate you.” He shrugged. “I was taught to hate the witches, and no one gave me a chance before. They knew what they were meant to do, so that was what they focused on. They hated us purely because they knew it was how they were meant to feel about us. You, on the other hand, are very different than those witches, which is how this happened. You spoke to me. You treated me like a person rather than a creature. I know I’m not a person, Vi, but this…” He breathed in deeply. “It was something I never could have imagined was possible. I didn’t believe anyone was ever going to give me a chance. I didn’t believe I was ever going to be able to find a friend because of what I am…”
“Being a vampire doesn’t change the fact that you are a person, Damien.” I could feel Violet’s emotions then. She had come to care about him, even though she never thought she could care about something as dark as a vampire. Reaching out, she put her hand over his, and when she looked at him, she was able to see similar emotions in his eyes. She knew he cared for her too. “I know your family is going to make this complicated.”
“Neither of my parents are going to be pleased with the choices I’ve made recently. They can’t imagine not wanting to be what we are. This life has become normal for them. It’s not normal to me. Having to feed off people isn’t normal to me. All I want is to have my old life back, even though I know that’s never going to be possible. Times have changed so much, and they’re going to keep changing. I have no way of knowing if I can become mortal again, but it’s what I want.”
Sitting there as Violet, I thought about what Damien had told me in the past. How he said his entire family wanted to be mortal again. “You said the demon could make you human if you do what he wants you to.”
“He might. Honestly, I can’t be certain if he was being truthful with me.” He sighed. “My parents wouldn’t want to be mortal. At least, I don’t think they would. I think they’d want to keep their immortality, even though that does mean they’re going to have to keep drinking the blood of humans. Then again, that’s never seemed to bother them before. I still remember how they laughed at me when they saw how affected I was by having to drink blood.”
Chapter Fifteen
The sun was rising when I awoke from the dream. It was earlier than I’d been up for a long time. I laid in my bed for a few seconds, the dream still wrapped around me, and I knew I needed to go back to Violet’s journal. Silently, I slipped out from under the covers, listening for the sounds of anyone else being awake. Not hearing anything, I made my way down to the living room. Dad was on the sofa, snoring. Sasha was snuggled up close to him, comforting him, as he wasn’t in bed the way he was supposed to be, which made me smile. Mom and Dad were losing whatever it was that had kept them together for so long, and I hated it, but there was nothing I could do to change anything. At least, until I had a better idea of how I was supposed to deal with the vampires. Damien told me he didn’t want to be a vampire, and he’d told Violet the same thing. I didn’t think he was lying to either of us.
When I reached the sanctuary, I knew someone else had tried to enter. I stood at the door for a moment, feeling out who it was, and I shook my head when I realized it was Mom. It wasn’t a surprise. Of course she wanted to go in there. That would be where she’d be most likely to find the spells she needed, but they were spells she’d never be able to cast. Not with the strength of magic she had. If she wanted to go up against the vampires, she couldn’t do it alone. Sighing, I stepped into the sanctuary, and it was obvious she hadn’t been able to get in. Everything was where I’d left it. The only time Mom could enter the sanctuary was when I was already there. She was too weak to open the door. She always had been. That weakness was her main limitation, especially if she wanted to go up against the vampires, but there was nothing any of us could do to talk her out of what it was she wanted to do. She wasn’t willing to listen. Being the coven leader meant she was the one who should be listened to, but I knew better than to follow plans that were going to fail.
Knowing how badly Mom wanted to get in there, I decided it would be better for me to be elsewhere. Grabbing Violet’s journal, I stepped back out, making my way to the back gate, and then tried to work out where to go next. Maybe the graveyard. Sometimes, it was hard to be there, to feel the magic of all those who were gone, but right then, I had a feeling that being there would actually help. The walk wasn’t too long. But then, I looked down at myself. I was wearing pajamas, which…I shook my head at myself. No one was going to care if I was wandering around in something other than normal clothes, if I even came across anyone out at this hour. It was way too early for anyone to be outside, so I left, certain that I was making the right choice.
Stepping through the gate that led me to the cemetery, I was able to feel this calling. I wasn’t entirely sure how to put what it felt like into words, but it was as though one of the witches who was buried there wanted to talk to me, which wasn’t entirely a surprise. I made my way through the headstones until I reached the one I needed. Of course it was Violet. I put her journal on her stone and sat down in front of it, wondering if she was going to come to me or if I was going to have to do something to draw her out. Then, she was sitting in front of me cross-legged, her eyes meeting mine. For a few seconds, she studied me silently, and I waited, wondering what it was she saw.
“Hello, Ana.” She smiled. “I didn’t know when you’d be coming, but I’m glad it happened sooner than I was expecting.” Putting one hand up, she grabbed her journal, something I didn’t think a ghost could do, and opened it. “We’ve all been watching over you, seeing what you’re capable of, because there are those who believe you’re the one to bring an end to all of this - and I’m beginning to think they might be right. You aren’t simply following Delilah, and that says you’re someone who is able to see that the choices we make emotionally aren’t often the right decisions. I can understand it. The vampires have certain skills we don’t and having your memories affected…it’s hard to come to terms with.” She ran a finger over one of the pages. “I went through something similar before Damien gave me my memories back.”
“Will you tell me what happened?”
“That’s why I was waiting for you. You need to understand the vampires, and that is hard to do. Damien, I know, has had the hardest time of it all. He hates being what he is. When he asked me to help him…at first, I thought he had only given me my memories back in order to ask for that, but he hadn’t. He…okay, so, the vampires came to Clermont because they knew we were here, and the demon was working on something. I don’t entirely know what the demon’s plans were. What it needed was for the coven to be gone, and the vampires were his best chance of making that happen. It was so easy for them. They simply took our memories of being witches, and that was enough to rid Clermont of the coven for a time, at least, until Damien had a crisis of conscience. He has more of one that the rest of his ‘family’. Giving me back my memories was something he knew his family wouldn’t approve of, so he made me promise to keep acting as though I had no idea what I was. If he had been found out, I don’t know what they would have done to him.
“Making the decision to play along wasn’t easy for me. I was angry with all of them, including Damien, but spending time with him made it possible for me to see who he actually was. To get past the act he was still putting on, because he believed he needed to be like the others. I think he still does. Being different is just going to bring him more issues than he really needs, but he isn’t like them, and that’s something I’m absolutely certain of. He needs help to find the path he wants to take. I did what I could, but I wasn’t strong enough to remove the curse the demon put on him. There’s a chance you may be, and if you are…I hate asking this. The other vampires
are going to cause more issues because they always do, but Damien deserves a chance. A chance he was never given before. I wouldn’t ask this of you if I didn’t honestly believe it was the only option, but you’re the only one who might be able to do this now.”
Going home wasn’t something I really wanted to do, but it was something I had to do. I needed to get ready for school, so I could at least act normal, even if I was actually in the middle of something much more complicated than English homework. As I stepped into the kitchen, Mom pinned me with a look. “Where were you?”
“I went for a walk.”
“In your pajamas?”
I shrugged. “With everything that’s happened, I needed some time to think away from here.” I glanced at the living room. “Dad wasn’t sleeping in the bedroom.”
“Until he accepts that I’m the one who makes the decisions when it comes to the coven, I don’t really want to share a bed with him. But I know he’s not the only one working against me, is he?” She shook her head. “Both you and Becca seem to think you can make a different choice when you can’t. The coven is going against the vampires. They need to pay for what they did.”
“Neither of us disagreed with that. All we said was that it would be better to give it some time before we get ahead of ourselves, so we can have some time to prepare, and, hopefully, make the vampires believe we have accepted the false overtures of an alliance against the demon.” I studied Mom. “We’ve never dealt with vampires before. There’s no reason for us to run before we can walk, and the more I learn about them, the more obvious it becomes how hard it will be to deal with them if we aren’t ready.” I nibbled my bottom lip. “You do understand how dangerous they are, don’t you? The demon’s minions are bad enough. The vampires are stronger and far more capable than the minions could ever be.”
“Yes, they are, which is why we need to move fast. If we give them time to get settled, then it will make fighting them much more complicated. I am preparing for us to move at the end of the week.”
Blinking, I tried to work out if there was any way I would be able to convince Mom she was making a choice that was only going to lead to all of us dying. I didn’t think there was. She’d already made her decision, and there was nothing I could do about that, but what I could do was talk to Miss Cane. If she knew what Mom was planning, then we stood a chance of being able to protect ourselves from whatever came next. But that meant that we’d actually have to work against Mom, which was something I really wasn’t entirely comfortable with, even if it was due to her terrible choices. When I looked at her, I wasn’t able to see the coven leader she had been becoming. It was as though the anger she felt had taken away everything that made her who she was.
“How do you think that’s going to work out, Mom?” I shook my head. “You didn’t give either of us any real warning of what was to come. How are we meant to be able to move with you in that kind of situation?”
“Do what you’re told. Nothing more. I don’t need to hear either of you telling me I’m making a mistake again. You either accept me as your coven leader or you leave town. Pick an option, Ana.”
“I’m your daughter.”
“Are you?” Her eyes met mine for a moment. “I’m not so certain of that. When I look at you, I see my daughter, but that doesn’t mean you are who you appear to me. I can’t know for certain the vampires haven’t been working on you in the same way they were working on me. They might have taken you from me, and that’s why you’re arguing so hard for a path that’s going to make it harder for us to bring an end to the vampires.”
“Unless you’re wrong.” I felt unwanted tears welling up in my eyes, so I blinked them away, not willing to show Mom how much she was hurting me. “You could be sending us all to our deaths, purely because you aren’t willing to listen, and that…” I looked down for a moment, breathing in deeply, before looking at Mom again. “I didn’t think this would happen. I thought, no matter what, you’d be willing to listen, but you aren’t, and there’s nothing we can do to change that.”
Chapter Sixteen
Miss Cane was waiting for me when I got to school. I glanced at Alex. “I need to talk to her.”
He nodded. “Things aren’t going well.”
“No, they aren’t, and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better.” I squeezed his hand. “In the end, I think everything will work itself out, but until then, nothing is going to be easy.”
“If you need me, you know where I am.” He kissed my cheek. “No matter what.”
Knowing I wouldn’t go to him even if I did need help, I gave him a smile before stepping over to Miss Cane. “Mom thinks our arguments mean we’re more likely to be working with the vampires that we are against them.”
“Sounds about right.” She raked a hand through her hair. “Lilah and I…she’s pulling rank, which was something I wouldn’t have imagined her doing before, because she knows both of us are stronger witches than she will ever be. That…I don’t even know, Ana. Whatever comes next is going to be bad, and we need to keep our distance from it. Doing things that way will save us from whatever happens to her, but…” She took one of my hands in hers. “You know it’s not going to be good.”
“How could I not?” I sighed. “Mom’s making bad choices, and that’s never going to make things better than they were before.”
“Unfortunately, she’s letting her emotions get the better of her. That was something your grandmother always worried about. She knew Lilah and how easy it was for Lilah to let her emotions lead her in a specific direction, which…there’s a chance, had things worked out differently, you would have been asked to become coven leader, rather than Lilah. I think she knows that, which is making this much harder than it was before, and you acting the way you are is nothing more than a reminder of how different the two of you are. You’re arguing for us to plan this our move carefully, while she wants to throw us into a battle we have no chance of winning. The vampires are stronger than us. Weakening them is the most logical first step, but getting her to see that…it’s impossible. We’ve both tried.”
“When I talked to her this morning, she said we could either work with her or leave. She really does see us as a part of the problem now. If we’d simply gone along with what she wanted, everything would be different right now, but the last thing I want is to die due to her terrible choices. She doesn’t know anything about vampires. She doesn’t know what they’re capable of, and when I talked to Violet earlier, it was obvious to me we aren’t ready for whatever Mom wants to throw us into.”
“You had contact with Violet?”
“From what was said, I think she was waiting for me. I went to the cemetery when I couldn’t sleep, not wanting to be in the sanctuary when Mom’s acting the way she is, and Violet was there. I didn’t think it would be that easy for me to talk to other witches, but apparently, it is.” I smiled. “Got any idea what it might be?”
“You have a connection to the afterlife that neither Lilah nor I do. That explains why you were able to connect with Alice in the library and why your grandmother is able to travel back here to speak with you. It makes me think it might be possible for you to bring about the end of the demon, even though it’s not going to be easy, because you can speak with so many of the witches who came before.” Her eyes met mine. “What did Violet say?”
“We were mostly talking about Damien, but when she mentioned the other vampires, I could hear the fear in her voice. She was scared of them. I asked her about the others, and she told me that taking them on is going to be the hardest thing we’ve done up to now, because the vampires were created as something more than minions, something more than us, and that meant the demon put so much power into them that it might well be possible for them to destroy the coven without actually trying. Only, for now, I don’t think that’s what they want to do.”
“Having at least one of you alive at the end of all this is going to make it easier for us to open a door for the demon.” Damien’s
eyes met with mine. “Father thinks you’re the best one for that because of how strong you are, while Mom’s arguing for Miss Cane, as she thinks it will be easier than trying to keep you contained long enough.”
“You never needed Mom.”
“Lilah’s weak in comparison to the two of you. From what I remember, she’s the weakest witch I’ve come across, and I’m sure that’s because she fought her destiny so hard. Had she accepted it the way you have, things would have been different, although I don’t think she would ever have been as strong as you are.”
“Which is why you want me to help you.”
“Vi told me I needed a stronger witch. The curse on me…the demon made it so he was the only one who might be able to break it, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think you might be able to if you can recreate the spell Vi came up with, and then…maybe I can live my life normally.” He looked down. “I’ve said this before, but I don’t think you believe me when I say I don’t want this. I never wanted this. My life would have been much simpler if the demon had never chosen me. As he did, there was a time when I did what I could to act like the others. They took to being vampires in a way I didn’t. They never felt guilty when they took the blood of a human, and I know my father actually killed his entire human family. He thought a clean break would make it all that much easier.”
“All of you were Compton born.”
Damien nodded. “We were. My family…” He looked at me again. “My cousin was one of the witches who turned against the demon. I didn’t know that until I was turned, and that…Father told me I should kill her, to make her pay for what she did, but she was my cousin. It never once crossed my mind she might end up becoming one of the leaders of the new coven.”