Ana Mourns (The Clermont Coven Trilogy Book 2)

by Alina Banks

  Gently, someone shook me. I felt myself wake up, at least a little, but I couldn’t get my eyes to open. They just didn’t want to move. “Come on, Ana. I need to get you out of here, and that’s going to be a hundred times easier if you can walk.”

  Hearing Damien’s voice was a reminder of what had happened. I tried again to force my eyes open, fighting against the spell Mom had put on me, and feeling betrayed all over again. That was what got my eyes open. “Where’s Mom?”

  “You really don’t want the answer to that question right now.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “For now, no one else knows you’re here, and it’s infinitely better that way.”

  “Probably.” I ran my tongue over my dry lips. “What time is it?”

  “Just past six o’clock. I wouldn’t even have known you were here if it wasn’t for Sasha sitting in the garden. She came out to me and led me to you.”

  Between the two of us, we managed to maneuver me into a standing position. My legs felt more wobbly than they ever had before, possibly because the spell Mom had put on me was still wrapped around me, but Damien’s help meant I was able to fight it enough to walk. “Okay, let’s get me out of here, and then you can tell me what happened to Mom.”

  His eyes met mine for a moment. I could see the uncertainty in them, but then he nodded, leading me through the maze of things, which was harder than before. Ever so often, my legs wanted to give up on me. Had it not been for him, I would have fallen into at least one of the piles, but he managed to keep me moving, using his body to keep me putting one foot in front of the other, and finally, we were stepping out into the morning. Fortunately, the light wasn’t too bright, but it was still bright enough that it hurt my eyes. Blinking, glancing down to see Sasha was waiting there for us, I let Damien almost carry me to the edge of the garden. When we reached it, I felt safer than I had, even though I was still closer to the house than I really wanted to be.

  “Tell me what happened, Damien.”

  Nodding, he kept a tight hold on me as we started making our way down the street. “The spell she used was one that’s been used on us before. It was never going to work even if she had gotten it right, but she didn’t.” He sighed. “There was an element missing.”

  “When I found her, I told her that, but she wasn’t willing to listen.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me. Mom…Madeline, for whatever reason, tried to talk Delilah out of using the spell, telling her she knew it wasn’t going to work. I think Madeline might actually like you, even if she is working against the coven. It happens sometimes.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Delilah wouldn’t listen to Madeline either. She just laughed and set the spell loose, which…it drained her of everything. All her magic. What she had, anyway. She collapsed, and that was when Madeline called on Rebecca Cane to get Delilah some help. As far as I know, your mom’s at the hospital. Your dad might even be there by now. I can either get you there or bring you home.”

  “Get me to the hospital.” I blinked away the tears I felt welling up in my eyes. “Mom was always going to do something, but that…I just don’t get it. Why did she do that?”

  “All she wanted was for us to pay for what we did. It’s something I’ve seen before, when memories have been taken by vampires, and I had a feeling that was what Delilah was dealing with. There was nothing we could have done to change that. It was something they wanted to happen, and they wanted her to make all the wrong choices.”

  “Which is why Madeline said what she did. She wasn’t trying to stop Mom. She knew how Mom would react, and so she poked at the angry witch to make certain this happened. Whatever happens next, I am the new leader of the coven now.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Dad stared at us. “What’s he doing here?”

  “He helped me.” I nibbled my lip. “Where’s Mom?”

  “Becca’s doing what she can to help. I don’t know all the details about what happened, but it’s not good. All I know is that whatever was done to her is something she might never recover from.”

  “She did it to herself.” I could hear the frustration in my own voice, so I knew Dad would be able to hear it too. “I tried to stop her from attacking the vampires with a broken spell, but she wasn’t willing to listen to me.”

  For a few seconds, Dad just stared at me. “You were there?”

  “Sasha came to get me last night. I followed her to the Easons’ basement. I found Mom there, and I knew there was something wrong with the spell. I tried to talk Mom out of doing something stupid, but she wouldn’t listen to me.” I shook my head. “Instead, she put a spell on me. I slept through all of this in the Easons’ basement, and if it hadn’t been for Damien, things could have been much worse.” I glanced at Damien. “Thank you for getting me out.”

  “You’re welcome.” He studied me. “Do you think you’re going to be okay to stand up now, or do you still need support?”

  “I should be okay.”

  But when Damien took a step away from me, it became obvious that I wasn’t okay. I was grateful he had vampire reactions, because I would have been on the floor if he hadn’t caught me, and that was the moment Miss Cane stepped through the door to see us. She glanced at Damien before turning her attention fully to me.

  “That’s going to take a little while longer to wear off.” Her eyes met mine. “Lilah said you were there when she woke for a moment and that we needed to get you to safety. Fortunately for all of us, you already had someone there to help you. Thank you for that, Damien.” She shook her head. “Lilah’s in a complicated position right now. The spell was strong. It took everything she had to cast it, but because of the missing element, it rebounded on her, taking even more. She wasn’t strong enough for that kind of rebound, so it took her life as well as her magic.”

  “Can we do anything?” I let myself lean on Damien, even though I didn’t want to, but my legs felt like they might give out at any second. “If I give her some of my magic…”

  “Right now, it’s likely that giving her your magic is just going to make things worse. Otherwise, I would have done it myself. The fact the spell took her life complicates everything.” Miss Cane bit her lip. “I will look into what we can do, but there is a chance that her choice is going to lead to her death, and we all knew that it was a possibility.” She shook her head. “I’m glad you tried to stop her, Ana, even if she wasn’t willing to listen, because it means you are the right person to take over the coven.” She reached out to squeeze my shoulder. “You should go home. Take the time you need for the spell to wear off. Nothing that has happened is your fault. Lilah made her decision, and now she’s going to have to accept what comes from it.”

  “Is she able to have visitors?” Dad’s voice broke. “I want to be with her.”

  “You can sit with her, but she’s not very lucid most of the time.” Miss Cane reached out to squeeze Dad’s shoulder the same way she had done mine, and I could see how much she cared. “Having you there might help give her the strength she needs to fight through this, if that’s even possible.”

  Nodding, Dad followed her into Mom’s room while I looked at Damien, feeling like I shouldn’t ask him for any more help. “Between the two of us, we can get you home.” He glanced down at Sasha. “I know you don’t want me to help you, but that seems like a necessity, as your Dad is planning on staying.”

  “One way or another, I’ll be able to get home.” I smiled at him, trying to seem normal, when really, I was furious. “I do appreciate you being willing to help.”

  Letting Damien into the sanctuary wasn’t something I ever thought I’d do, but there he was, sitting in my comfy chair. I was sitting on the ground, my legs stretched out in front of me, as I tried to regain full control of them, which proved harder than I wanted it to be. For some reason, Sasha had decided she liked him enough to curl up in a ball on his lap. He looked at me. “Tell me what you have planned, Ana.”

  Raising an eyebrow, I shook my head. “Why do you thi
nk I’d be stupid enough to do that?”

  “I’m not your enemy here. I want to help you, and if I know what you have planned, I might be able to do something to make things easier.” He stroked a hand over Sasha. “I know you don’t trust me yet. Not entirely. You might be willing to accept my help for a short period of time, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to see me as anything other than a vampire when I’m doing my best to be your friend.”

  “What makes you think I want to be your friend? I know we’re pretending to be together, but that doesn’t mean I actually like you. It was a means to an end. Nothing more.” I ran my tongue over my bottom lip. “You are a vampire. Yes, you seem to be a vampire who’s willing to help, so maybe I am making the wrong choices right now, but I know for a fact that you’re one of the demon’s minions. You were chosen by him to be a vampire, and there has to be a reason for that. There has to be a reason he thought you’d do what he wanted you to do. Maybe it was jealousy, because your cousin was the one who was gifted magic, or maybe it was something else.”

  Damien’s eyes met with mine. “It was jealousy. Not because of my cousin’s magic, though. It was because I didn’t know she was a witch. Our families had always been close. She, at one point, was like a sister to me, and I remember spending more time with her than I ever spent with anyone else. Only, she fell in love with someone. He was a person I didn’t believe was good enough for her, so I tried to talk her out of being with him. She told me I had no right to get involved, and she wasn’t wrong about that, but I went to her father. I told him who she was with, and he pushed for her to end things, since he expected better for her too - which led to her being furious with me. I ruined the friendship we had, even though I was looking out for her. At least, I thought I was. She started spending more time with other friends, and I was jealous of them. Of the man she’d loved. If it hadn’t been for her magic, I’m certain she would have just married him, but suddenly becoming a witch complicated things for her.

  “The demon thought I’d be willing to harm her to make her pay for how much she’d hurt me. He made me into a vampire for that very reason, and there was a point when I wanted to. I was so angry with her for what she’d done. So angry with her for turning against me, even though I was the one who’d turned against her first, but when she found out what happened to me, she was the one who first started to find a way to free me. At least, she said that was what she was doing. I had no reason not to believe her, but she was new to magic, and even with her skill at building spells, she couldn’t find a way to fix what was done to me. Fortunately for me, it wasn’t long after that when the others decided to leave Clermont. I went with them in the hope that I’d be able to find my path.”

  “Being away from everyone just made things worse.”

  He nodded. “Instead of fighting being a vampire, I just accepted it. I hated myself for it, but at the same time, I felt like it was a path I had to walk, even though I really wanted something more for myself. Like my mortality. Maybe, finally, I’m even going to be lucky enough to be gifted that.”

  “She never told me what it was like.” Damien looked down at the journal he was reading. “I had no idea how hard it was for her to go through all of this.” He glanced at me for a moment. “Has it been like that for you?”

  I shook my head. “Your cousin was born into the coven and was taught what that meant. I know it’s never made it easy for those born with the power, because it meant they were living different lives than the ones they expected - lives where they had to hide a huge part of who they were. For me, it was different due to Mom not being willing to open up to me about being a witch. For me, it was suddenly learning the truth and finding myself thrown into this situation.”

  “Being changed into a vampire was almost like that, and coming to terms with it…even though I’m not like the others now, I know I made similar choices to them in the early years. I didn’t care who I hurt when I fed from them. I know they’re much more likely to choose those who are in some way related to the witches, which is far less rare than you might think. The majority of the coven did leave, those who survived the last fight against the demon, but they left behind large families, and because the coven have called Clermont home for so long, magic is tightly entwined with so many families, some of whom don’t have any idea now that they ever had any link to the coven.”

  Nodding, I looked back at the journals. “I know there was a family tree. I meant to find it, because it was lost a while ago, but I haven’t had a chance. It’s either that or recreating it, which won’t be easy, considering how long ago this all happened.”

  “That might be something I can help with, at least during the times when I was here.” He sighed. “I feel like it might have been better if we had stayed, so we could see who the demon truly was, but I don’t even know if that would have stopped the others. I don’t think for a moment they really care about the demon all that much. They’re just doing what they have to in order to keep him happy. They were the ones who told me that doing this would get us our mortality back, but they probably just told me that to get me to come back here.” He shook his head. “I think they know me better than I want them to. They know what I really want, and they know I’d do anything to get it. Even opening a door for the demon.”

  “Letting the demon into Clermont isn’t going to be good for anyone.”

  “Which is why I wasn’t planning on opening the door, no matter what anyone said. I thought I might be able to find a witch here who would be willing to help me, and I did. Fortunately, I met you.”

  Going back to the hospital was something I knew I should do, even if I didn’t really want to. Damien had gone back home, leaving his cousin’s journal on the shelf after he’d decided it would be safer with me. I was willing to let him head back with it if he wanted to, although I was grateful he didn’t. The last thing I wanted was to lose one of the Conway journals. I slumped down into my comfy chair, and, like she always did, Sasha jumped onto my lap. Gently, I stroked my fingers through her fur. She was the reason I’d at least had the opportunity to stop Mom, but I hadn’t been able to, and that…if I had been able to, she wouldn’t be in the hospital. If she’d been willing to listen, then I wouldn’t be sitting there feeling guilty for not being able to do more. She’d made her decision, and we were the ones who had to live with it. Like all the Conways who came before her, she’d be buried in the cemetery of witches while I took her position as leader of the coven. A tear trickled down my cheek.

  “You did everything you could.” When I looked up, I saw my grandmother. “We all knew this was a possibility, sweetheart.”

  “What I did wasn’t enough.” I shook my head. “Mom’s…” I ran my tongue over my lips. “I knew it might happen, but I thought I’d be able to stop her.”

  “Lilah was dealing with a lot of emotions she hadn’t come to terms with when she should have. Burying things…it was a part of who she was, unfortunately. Even coming back here brought up emotions she hadn’t dealt with, because instead of dealing with them, she ran away. What she did was ignore it all, believing she was going to be fine. Then everything changed. Madeline did what vampires do. They play with people. She took your mom’s memories, made her into someone else, and then when you pushed her to give those memories back, it also meant Lilah was flooded with emotions. Emotions that got the better of her. She was angry with everyone. Had I still been alive, she would have been furious with me for choosing to have children, in the same way she was furious with you for taking her magic. Those emotions weren’t logical, but, sadly, emotions rarely are.”

  “She cast a spell on me last night to make sure I wasn’t going to be able to do anything to stop her. I don’t know if I can forgive her for that. It was just another sign of how big a gulf there was between the two of us. As much as I love her, I just…I’m angry with her, and I feel guilty for being angry, because I know this was at least partly because of the Easons. At the same time, it’s Mom’s fault for not m
aking better choices.”

  “I’m sure you understand from last year how complicated this all is for Lilah. I’d be angry with her too, if I were in your position, because she really did make it difficult for herself.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Miss Cane was waiting for me just outside Mom’s room. As I looked at her, I could see the mix of emotions she was feeling. “Will’s still in there with her.”

  “Were you able to find anything that might help?”

  “No, but then again, neither of us thought there would be anything.” She nibbled her bottom lip. “Okay, so, the situation we’re in now is a complicated one, as it means that a move has been made against the vampires. Whatever truce we had is technically at an end, which means we need to be ready for whatever comes next. I know you said Madeline wouldn’t hold any move Lilah made against us, but we can’t hold her to that.”

  “Damien, I think, is more on our side than he is the vampires’. All the time we’ve spent together has made me more certain of that, and he did help me this morning when he didn’t have to. He could have just left me there. Him choosing to help me…I think it’s a good sign. I might be wrong, but he’s done more than I thought he would already.” I sighed. “Of course, he could have just done that to make me think he was on my side, but I have to make a decision one way or another. Either I am going to help him or I’m not. For now, I really think I am going to at least try to make the spell work for him.”

  “Lilah might actually agree with you now. The spell turning on her seems to have mellowed her a bit from how she was recently. I know she wants to apologize for the way she treated you before.”