“Liar.” The girl smiled and sat with both legs over the same side of the branch, the guy right beside her knees. “You like it because you can relate to Quasimodo.”
“Relate? Is that because the beastly creature falls in love with the beautiful girl?” He hooked a hand over the branch and swung himself outward a little. “I never said I was in love with you.”
“You didn’t have to.” She jumped down. “And that wasn’t what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
“I meant that you’ve always been misunderstood. David is like the good guy, the one everyone adores, while you, who truly means to do only good by all, have been labeled the bad guy—the hideous beast. You’re just misunderstood.” She shrugged. “Like Quasimodo.”
The guy stared forward, his arms folded over his chest. “You have a very unique way of analyzing things.”
“Or maybe I just know good when I see it.”
“So you think I’m the good guy, huh?”
“I know you are.”
He scratched his brow and smiled, then dropped his arms to his sides. “Well, you were right about one thing.”
“Yeah, what’s that?” the girl asked, tilting her head.
“I do lo—”
I lifted my head off the window, rubbing my chin where the car door had left an indent as I slept.
“Morning, Sleeping Beauty,” Mike said, then grimaced as he looked at me. “Or should I say Beast.”
“Shut up.” I whacked his arm then flipped the visor down to look in the mirror. Oh, my dear God.
“There’s a brush in the glove compartment,” Mike said, reaching across to open it.
“You keep a brush in your car?”
“Don’t judge.” He eyed the road, smiling. “A guy likes neat hair too.”
I grabbed it and fixed my hair as best I could, huffing when it stood its ground as a frizzy monstrosity. “Argh!”
“You okay, baby?”
“Yeah.” I ditched the brush into its home and slammed the little door shut. “I think I’m just a bit blood-hungry.”
“Didn’t you eat before you left?”
I shook my head, toying with the lone white-gold band on my finger. “I didn’t want the taste of David on my lips all the way here today. It would’ve been too much for me.”
“It’s okay. Eric’s at the manor, you can feed from him when we get there.” He turned his head and smiled at me. “Unless you want some of mine, to hold you over for now. You do look a little pale.”
I shook my head again, watching his wrist. “No. Blood lust combined with spirit bind and missing my husband could be a bad combination.”
“Right. Good thinking.”
As he withdrew his arm, I shuffled in my seat, wishing I’d taken his offer. My throat burned and my stomach twisted in knots, which could’ve just been nerves. “Hey, Mike?”
“Yeah.”
“David doesn’t really like me drinking Eric’s blood. Are those Donors at the manor yet? The ‘you call, we deliver’ blood guys?”
“There are a few there, but there aren’t too many defected vampires, Ara. And we can’t call them Donors yet, remember. Until we let the secret out about blood immunity, we have to call them Sacrificials.”
“So I just have to let people think I’m killing vampires?”
“Or just not biting them to feed. We have the Upper House convinced we’re using prisoners to feed you.”
“And that I’m killing them?”
“Sometimes. That was how Lilith lived. Her food was sent to her by Set leaders who had sentenced vampires to death for their crimes.”
“So Lilith never discovered immunity?”
“Never had a reason to, I guess.”
“Oh.” I rubbed my face a few times, readjusting my seat to get comfortable. “Who knows about the immunity then?”
“Just your Private Council.”
“Not even the other one? What did you call it? The Upper something?”
Mike scoffed. “No. They don’t know. And they don’t need to.”
“Okay, so when do we tell them?”
He chuckled once, practically snorting. “Are you serious?”
I nodded.
“When we catch Drake, Ara. Until then, venom is our only weapon against him,” he said, his voice pitching like a schoolgirl’s. “If anyone at the manor were to let the secret of immunity slip into the wrong hands, people would not only ask why David died when you bit him, but it might somehow get back to Drake that, a: David might not be dead and that, b: armies, immune to our only weapon could be created.”
“Oh.” I slid down further in my seat.
“Once you’ve taken your oath, that promise—on this apparently magic stone—should give you increased powers. It’s rumored that you would be as, if not more, powerful than Drake. We won’t need to worry as much if that’s true.”
I smiled. I liked the idea of that. Maybe then I could protect everyone else for once. “How do the Sacrificials get immunity from my venom if I’m not feeding them?”
He nodded at his own arm. “My blood.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot your venom’s like mine.” I looked out the window for a second. “So, does that make you tired—donating blood to so many vampires?”
He shrugged. “I drink a lot of OJ.”
I laughed softly. I didn’t really feel like laughing, but I’d not heard the word OJ since I was living in Oz. OJ—meaning orange juice: the preferred drink given to blood donors—not the guy tried for murder.
“We’re working on new weapons,” Mike said out of the blue.
“Huh?”
“Myself, Morgaine, and a few others. We’re developing weapons that may be able to kill vampires, even if they were immune to venom.”
“Oh. Cool. What kinds of weapons?”
“Well, you know about how they invented Lilithian steel back in the late fourteenth century, right?”
“Yeah, the metal that’s strong enough to imprison vampires.”
“Yep, and also strong enough to cut them, even when wielded by the hand of a human.”
“Yep. Didn’t know that bit, but anyway…?”
“We’ve had swords commissioned, but—and this is only in the experimental stage—we’re hoping that if we cut in the right place and bleed the vampires out quickly, the venom tips of the swords might be enough to deteriorate them and either kill them or at least render them useless long enough to escape, even if they had immunity.”
“That could work. But you’d have to bleed them out pretty fast.”
He nodded, smiling at the road. “There are certain points you can cut on the body that’ll bleed a human out in seconds. We’re finding that, with most things, thinking human seems to be giving us the advantage.”
I nodded and looked out at the rolling green hills.
“Of course, this is Private Council talk. You know not to say this to anyone else, especially Arthur, right?”
“I know.”
“Good. Make sure you don’t. Not even accidentally, or you could ruin everything. Drake is a master of strategy. We’re going to have enough trouble finding and catching him as it is. If he knows any of our plans, we’re finished.”
I nodded again. “Don’t sweat it, Mike. It’s all good.”
“Good. And, Ara?”
“Yeah.” I looked up to his sweet tone.
“Good girl for refusing my blood. That’s the first smart choice I’ve seen you make in a long time.”
I was sure he meant that genuinely, and that just made it even more condescending. But I didn’t want to fight with him too. “Thanks, Mike.”
“You’re welcome.”
We sat in companionable silence for a while longer; the radio off, the sound of the tires whirring over the road, until I looked at the clock and realized it was past three in the afternoon. “How much longer ’til we get there?”
“Five minutes or so.”
“Really?” I said, yawn
ing.
“Yeah, look.” He nodded forward.
I sat taller and peered out the front windshield at the wide expanse of countryside, its endless green fields sprinkled with yellow flowers, and a blue sky that went on forever over the distant trees. “It’s not what I imagined.”
“What did you think it’d be?”
“I don’t know. Maybe marshland, creaky branches and a gray sky.”
Mike chuckled. “Well, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The manor is all light colors and big windows, with gardens outside every door.”
“Sweet. I like gardens.”
“So did Lilith, apparently.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. And when Drake built the manor, he actually planted a special garden just for her that’s closed off by high walls. No one’s allowed in there except you and the gardener.”
“Wow. A secret garden.”
Mike nodded. “It was named The Garden of Lilith, but it’s been nicknamed Eden over the years.”
“So, why did Drake build her a garden if he hated her so much?”
Mike turned his head at a half an inch, then shook it.
“What?” I said.
“It just amazes me how you can switch off that much that you know absolutely nothing about Lilithian history.”
“Uh… did Morgaine add that in the politics speech?”
“Lesson, Ara. You mean lesson.”
I cleared my throat. Maybe I should have paid more attention. “I had a lot on my mind, okay, Mike. David was in agony in the next room. All I wanted was to be with him.”
“Well,” he said, shaking his head again, “you’re gonna have to sit in the library and read some books.”
“We have a library?”
He just smiled, eyes on the road, while my blood rushed warm with excitement, imagining bookshelves to the ceiling and winding staircases leading up to them.
“Will I be okay?” I asked. “I mean, I don’t even know what the Upper Council is. Am I gonna make a fool of myself?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “And it’s Upper House. Not Council.”
“Oh.”
“Be sure you at least remember that much.”
“Okay. Upper House,” I said to myself a few times. “So, what do they do?”
“They have the same authority to address you as your Private Council. Most of them were servants to the throne when Lilith was alive. Some of them are professors of politics or were generals in the human armed forces before the war on Lilith. They’re old, traditional, and have strong political influence within our monarchy. You don’t want to mess with them.”
“Why?”
“Because they enforce the laws—including the laws that keep you in line.”
“Like what laws? I’m gonna be queen. Do I even have any laws?”
“Everyone has laws to follow, Ara.” The bored tone of a cop giving a ticket to a defensive teen dominated his voice. “Treason, for example. If you commit an act that goes against the throne—something morally improper or something that puts your people in jeopardy—they could overthrow you.”
“Right. So don’t mess with them.”
“Right. And I know it’ll be hard for you being chastised all the time, but they’ll be the ones who debate your decisions and question everything you do. However,” he said, raising an index finger, “they have centuries of experience, and you’ll need to listen to them. They have the Lilithian peoples’ best interests at heart.”
“And who speaks for the Vampires?”
“Essentially, no one, because Drake still technically rules the Vampires and we have very few on our side yet. But when we do, that’ll be up to the Lower House.”
“Who are they?”
“Okay, so there’s the Upper House for the highest-ranking Lilithians, and the Lower House for the highest-ranking Vampires. Under them there are two other councils: one is made up of six Vampires, who will be the new Set leaders when we kill Drake, and the other six are Lilithians, who are Lords of the lands our people live on—”
“Like vassals and fiefs and all that stuff?” I sat up straight, turning in my seat to look at his face.
“Yeah.” He laughed. “Exactly like that. Actually, Arthur was the Lord of Loslilian back when David was human.”
“Really? But wasn’t he a Set leader?”
“Yeah. His Set resided here for that period—in the houses you’ll see over those hills in a minute.” He nodded out his window. “Anyway, do you understand more about the political side of things now?”
“Yep.”
“Repeat it back for me.”
“Um… So there’s an Upper House, who deal with Lilithians and report directly to me.”
“Yes, and they have a minor council—the Lords—who report the daily issues of the Lilithians to them.”
“Yep.” I nodded. “And the Lower House deal with the Vampires—”
“And just like with Drake’s rule—how he has the Minor Council report to the High Council, who then report to the World Council, it’ll be the same. But instead of a World Council, it’s called the Lower House.”
“Right.” I nodded. “Got it. Thanks Mike. You just condensed Morgaine’s eight-week speech into eight minutes.”
“Well, I’ve always had a way with words.”
“Yeah, you’d make a great teacher.”
Mike nodded to himself, his lips arching downward with thought. “But I make a better Security Chief.”
I nodded and looked out at the seemingly state-wide expanse of fields. “So, how much land do we own out here?”
The Chief rattled off a bunch of numbers and then, seeing my concentration waver said, “You can fit the entire region of New England on our land. We own the mainland portion a few miles either side of the bridge, and this entire island. And we own the beach, too. No one can access it without approval—well, no humans. It comes up as a military base with limited access. Those at the manor can go down there as they please, though.”
“What’s the sand like? Is it white and smooth, or is it covered in shells and sea-weed?”
Mike hesitated. “It’s white. Smooth. But I don’t want you down there.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s a dangerous beach, Ara. It’s a narrow strip of sand, caged in by two massive cliffs that get thrashed by ferocious waves. It’s private and secluded and you have to go down a really steep set of stone stairs to get to it.”
“So?”
“So, it’s dangerous.” His voice rose four octaves. “You could get swept out to sea if you’re not careful, or bashed against rocks.”
“Are you saying I’m too weak to swim in the ocean?”
He just raised a brow.
“Fine. I won’t go down there…” When you’re around.
“Thank you.” He exhaled. “Look, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be a jerk, but I promised David I’d take care of you.”
“It’s fine, Mike.” I reached across and tapped his knee, then quickly drew my hand away. “So, will I get to see the manor over the hill before we get there?” I sat a little taller.
“Yep, just watch over that rise.” He nodded out his side window. “We’ll come to a forest soon, so you won’t see it for long, but you’ll get a glimpse.”
I did see a glimpse then, of something other than a manor. “Is that the houses you were talking about?”
“Yeah,” Mike said. “We’ve just had them all refurbished. We’re moving Lilithians back in there this week.”
“What about the vampires who lived there?”
“Unless they’re faithful to the new queen, they’ve been evicted.”
Somehow, that didn’t feel right.
“Ara, the Lilithians we’re moving back into those houses have been living underground in cells for hundreds of years, working as slaves. Their only food has been the vampires that were sent to Loslilian for torture and—”
“Really?”
“Yes. So, don’t feel sorry for the
vampires. They never felt sorry when they marched in and took over the village in the middle of the night—ripping human children from their adoptive Lilithian mothers and burning them in a bonfire.”
I covered my mouth. “They had children?”
“We were a nation of very human-like creatures, Ara. Lilithians lived for their families.”
“Will they be allowed to start families again—adopt children?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the Upper House disapproves.”
“Why?”
“Because they do.” He huffed, re-gripping the steering wheel. “Look, no more discussing politics outside Council meetings, all right?”
“Why?”
“Ara. Just… just shut up for a bit.” He laughed. “I’m not used to all this talking. You’re actually doing my head in.”
“Fine.” I sunk back in my chair and folded my arms, but my frown washed away when the grand cream fascia of a colossal building crept over the hill. “Whoa.”
“Told ya it’s big.” Mike’s tone had completely changed.
“Big? It must be six stories high.”
“Three,” he said in short. “But each level has high ceilings, so I guess it would equate to the height of a six-story.”
“It looks like a castle from a fairy-tale,” I said, seeing the star-like glow of the midday sun bounce off a glass dome at the center of the large, seemingly rectangle building.
“Yeah, it has an undeniable charm about it.”
I closed my eyes, savoring the image as a forest swallowed the day around us. The warmth of the cream bricks set among bright green lawns, with windows on every wall, stayed in my heart while the car followed the winding path farther and farther away from the sun. “I think I’m going to like it here.”
“I know you will.” Mike smiled, taking the turns in the road as if he’d lived here his whole life.
“I can see why you like it.”
His smile widened. “This has been the best few months of my life. I… well, it’s been hard leaving Em behind, but I’ve kept busy getting the manor and the knights ready for your arrival.”
“Is Emily visiting this weekend?”
“No.”
“I wish David could visit.”
“I know.”
“He won’t talk to me again, you know?” I said.
“What do you mean?”
Dark Secrets Box Set Page 139