I’ll never leave you again, my precious jewel.
She felt a little bigger in my arms. Not enough where I lamented the change, which was nice. Her baby smell was everything, and I cherished having it in my nose again. Knight and Arthur approached, both out of breath. I stood up and held Kitty close.
“They’re all dead, my lady,” Arthur reported. He leaned against his mace and wiped his forehead. For a brief second, he turned his head to the side and furrowed his brow, his eyes focused on my neck. His nostrils flared and he looked at Knight in alarm, but said nothing.
“Arthur, gather the Council in the smaller drawing room. Let me know if any of them are among the dead.” Arthur bowed his head and left.
Alexander, in human form now, came through the doorway. He was as bloodied as the rest of us, some of which was his own. “We came as soon as we got your text. I hope we got here in time.”
“We’re very grateful. You came when we called. We would’ve been lost without your help. Thank you, Alexander.”
He whistled high pitched and all the packs came up to the doorway. Kitty squirmed and complained in my arms at the noise. “Pick up the bodies, gather them all out in the field. We’ll burn them to ash.” He whistled again and the Lycans fanned out to start the clean-up. Picking up the bodies was only part of the work. Cleaning up the blood would be a different story, and one I was very much so not looking forward to.
For now, we met Arthur in the bigger drawing room standing outside the smaller drawing room door. Kitty was quickly falling asleep in my arms with her little fingers on my neck.
“Council members only,” Arthur said flatly, his eyes darting to Knight and back to the wall opposite him.
“I don’t appreciate your tone,” I cautioned him. “But he is correct. You’ll have to stay outside.” I turned to my mate and leaned in for a kiss. His mouth had some blood on it, but I didn’t care much as I could still taste him underneath. “Be good,” I whispered to him, and disappeared into the smaller drawing room, Kitty in tow.
Nine Council members had survived the escape from their homes when they came here for refuge. Eight were seated in the room before me. With three members now gone, we had to think about re-filling the seats the dead had held. Now was not the time, sadly.
“Is everyone okay?” I asked as they grew silent. Most answered yes. Estinien made sure to show me his broken arm and whined that it had taken a full five minutes to heal itself. One of the other members was completely missing his arm, and there wasn’t a peep from him. He did appropriately glare at Estinien though.
“They came so fast,” Thaddeus groaned from the corner. “I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think. There is no possibility that an army that size could’ve come all at once unless they planned this. They waited. They knew. They knew where to strike, they knew the vulnerabilities. This was not an attack. It was an invasion.”
The wheels in my head started spinning. The turned had also attacked when they knew the Lycans were away. None of us would turn on our own kind, so they must have scouts watching us. Where was their base of operation? If we could find it, we could gain the upper hand.
“What do we do?” Castilla asked me. She sat as dainty as ever on the edge of a sofa, stained in blood like the rest of us, but she’d gone to the trouble of re-fixing her bun.
Me again. Why was I always in charge? I didn’t want to be in charge. No one likes the boss. They all hate the boss. They talk about her behind their back about how awful she is. Not to mention I was younger than most of the members, and age meant something to us in terms of leadership.
Someone. Anyone. Take the wheel. I was far too lazy for this.
An idea came to me and I kissed Kitty on the head, then I opened the door to the hallway. Knight was lounging on a couch playing on his phone with one leg on top of the couch and one hanging to the floor, and Arthur leaned against one of the walls, ignoring him.
“Arthur, we need your expertise.” He pushed away from the wall and passed me to get inside the doorway. Knight smiled at me, his eyes lowering to the sleeping infant on my chest. I winked at him and closed the door again. Inside, Arthur stood waiting for orders. “The turned knew when, where, and exactly how to strike at us.”
He launched into Hunter mode. “They must be nearby, or have scouts watching us. We should set up sentries, choose some of us with better senses so they can reach further out. It wouldn’t hurt to put up some motion sensor cameras in a perimeter around the castle. None of us can mask our scent from them, but that means they can’t mask from us. If any come near, we can hit them with a tracking dart. It won’t pierce their skin, but it can leave the tracker on their clothing, providing they don’t notice it until they get back to their base. Then we’d have them.” He stopped for a breath and looked over at me for confirmation.
“Yes. That. Sounds fab. You’ll get it done?” He nodded.
“Where did the drones come from?” Thaddeus asked from an armchair, the same one he’d been in the last time. “They had to have come from somewhere. Maybe if we knew where, we could find out where the turned are hiding?”
I gave Thaddeus a thumbs up. “Capital idea, Thaddeus. Arthur?”
Arthur looked impressed and nodded at me. “We can try and I.D. some of the corpses with fingerprints. It’ll help narrow the area down. Even if the turned aren’t in the same city, it might be close to them.”
“We’ll need a count of how many of our humans were killed. We’re getting dangerously low on companions,” someone said.
Going through the companion selection process was long and arduous. I doubted anyone felt like doing that, because I certainly didn’t.
…
“There’s always the Lycans.”
I regretted it as soon as I said it because the entire room turned into a foghorn of “NO”’s, and it woke up Kitty. She howled at me for disturbing her rest.
“Fine,” I conceded, rocking Kitty in my arms. “But all of you get to go through companion selections, and we all know how long that takes.” They groaned in response. Glad I wasn’t the only lazy one.
Something loud came up to the door and pounded on the wood to get our attention. Arthur opened it to see Olivier standing out of breath in the bigger drawing room.
“Lisbeth come quickly. Cameron is here.”
CHAPTER 18
Cameron was brought in and thrown onto the carpet face first. It was already stained with blood, so what the hey, let’s just rub people’s faces in it. That wasn’t the important part. The important part hit me seconds after I stepped forward to help him.
Cameron was in the sunlight.
A turned vampire was in the sunlight.
The Council was filing out of the room when they saw him and a collective gasp ran through them. First, they stated the obvious. A turned vampire, sunlight, etc. And then they asked the real questions.
How?
“How are you in the sunlight, Cameron?” I asked him in wonder. It was a magic trick. Maybe he was a mirage we could all see. This couldn’t be real. It simply wasn’t possible.
And yet. It was.
“I’ll tell you, if you grant us safety,” Cameron said from the carpet. He hadn’t looked up yet.
“Us?” Arthur repeated in alarm. “There are more turned walking around in the sunlight?”
“We’ll never be safe during the day now,” Castilla worried.
Alexander came in pulling a woman with him. He dumped her unceremoniously on the carpet next to Cameron. She saw him in a crumpled heap and jumped up to check on him, swiping her long black hair out of her face.
With her face exposed, Knight sucked in a breath of surprise. He’d been standing safe in the window light where he couldn’t get in the way, and now he stepped forward like he’d seen a ghost.
“Merrick,” he breathed in shock.
She looked up at him and looked equally surprised, but happy. “Jason!” She got up and ran to him, and they hugged in the rays of sunlight coming
from the giant window. “Jason, I can’t believe it,” the girl said from Knight’s shoulder. “I finally found you.”
Jason. Knight’s name was Jason. And also, who was this chick? She needed to keep her hands where I could see them, and fast.
Knight ran his hands through Merrick’s long hair during their very long hug, the way he always did with mine. When he set her feet on the ground, he had tears running down his cheeks.
First girlfriend? Long lost love? High school sweetheart? There were so many possibilities.
“I thought you were dead,” he choked out. “You disappeared and I couldn’t find you again. How did you become a vampire?”
She smiled sweetly at him. “It’s a long story.” They grabbed each other in another hug.
Boy. You are about to get it.
They had the nerve to chuckle and laugh to themselves. Eventually, someone cleared their throat and broke the little bubble of happy.
“Who is this?” someone else asked, thank god.
“Oh, right,” Knight said bashfully. I’ll ‘oh, right’ you! “This is my sister, Merrick.”
Ohhh.
“And here I was plotting your demise,” I told him. I took one hand off Kitty to put it out for Merrick to take.
She shook it with a cautious smile. “You must be Lisbeth, my brother’s mate.”
“You’re… well informed?”
“Cameron speaks very highly of you.” She looked down at him with a smile. A smile only for him. Well. My adopted brother and Knight’s sister. That was going to be interesting.
“Why are you here?” Arthur interrupted, all business.
“We brought something. Something you’ll need to win this war,” Cameron told him. He stood up and finally looked at me. Last time we spoke, I was kicking him out of the castle because the Born vampires felt too threatened to have any turned in their mix. I’d felt so guilty, and regretted it ever since. Cameron smiled, and there was no hatred in his eyes. He finger waved at me before looking back at Arthur. “We’ll trade it for safety. Both of us under the castle’s protection.”
“It depends on what it is,” Arthur countered. He crossed his hands over his chest and waited.
Cameron carefully reached into his jacket, making doubly sure no one was going to jump him for doing so, and pulled out several sheets of yellowed ink stained paper.
“This is the formula for the potion that lets us walk in the sunlight.” He waved the papers with a devilish grin.
“You stole those?” Knight questioned. “Won’t they hunt you two down for that?”
“You brought them straight to our door!” Estinien declared.
“Calm down, I’m not stupid. I copied it. Here.” He handed one of the pages to me to inspect.
“It’s his handwriting,” I confirmed. The paper smelled very old and had a few things written here and there that had become illegible with time. The formula was odd to me, but then again, I wasn’t a chemist. Cameron swiped the paper back with an apologetic smile before I could look further.
“Do we have a deal?” he asked with finality.
“Did you know?” Arthur inquired. “Did you know they were going to attack us?”
Cameron dropped his hands to his sides. “Yes. We knew. We tried to get here first to warn you, but our information was incorrect. I think they were becoming suspicious of us. It’s why we left.”
Patting Kitty’s back, I turned and motioned for the Council to go back into the smaller drawing room. Arthur closed the door behind us.
“You know I trust Cameron, but this is a choice we all have to make. Will we protect them here in exchange for their information?” I checked the faces around me, and none were defiantly decided, which was good.
“They could have other information besides the sunlight antidote,” Thaddeus reasoned. “What if they’ve seen who’s behind this? Even if they didn’t realize?”
“We can’t even make the potion. None of us are chemists,” I pointed out.
“I don’t like it,” Estinien complained, “but… if it keeps us alive… I don’t see the harm.” Aww. Look who can be mature! “I want them on guard at every hour of the day, though. No exceptions.”
“Fine,” I conceded, nodding. “All in favor?” There was a steady raise of hands. “Done. Now, we have more ahead of us in the coming days. More decisions we’ll all have to take part in. I trust everyone can compromise?”
“We will do our best,” Castilla declared.
“Clean-up teams. Delegate some of your people and start on getting fingers from the corpses before the Lycans burn them, on the off chance we can find out where these people came from. Then we’ll get to cleaning up our home.” Everyone agreed, and started filing out of the small room. Castilla and Arthur remained. She approached me carefully. Her appearance was much improved since last we spoke, leading me to believe she’d obeyed me and stopped binging.
“You still went to her,” Castilla said gently. “Searching for answers, and finding long buried secrets.” Carefully, she put her hand up and pulled my pendant out from under my dress. “The house of Bathory. If I didn’t know your character as I do, I would be afraid of you right now. Your mother brought us to our knees, and made us pay for what we did to her. Not to mention what your grandmother did to all those humans so she could feed her bloodthirsty child.” She flipped the necklace back under my collar.
I hesitated. “What will they do when they find out?”
Her eyes shifted to Kitty, and back to me. “Nothing good. I believe this is a secret we must continue to keep. Someday the world can know, but it is not today.” She glanced at Arthur standing sentry at the door. “You will also keep your lady’s secret. No one can know who she really is.” Through our time together, Arthur’s allegiance had shifted from a strict policing Hunter to being under my command. Only the purest of respect for someone could’ve shifted him like that. His haunting icy blue eyes flicked briefly to me, and then he nodded to Castilla.
“You needn’t make me swear. I will protect her life and her secrets without question.”
Castilla admired him. “There was once a day where you would’ve done anything to uphold our laws, and now look at you. Somehow, you’ve regained your humanity. It suits you.”
He stared straight on like the soldier he was. “If I could blush… I still wouldn’t do it. Your flattery is wasted, madam, but…” His face changed slightly, and I could’ve sworn he was smiling. “It’s appreciated.”
Castilla turned to me and leaned in close. “I saw one other thing, nothing bad, just a premonition. Three pairs of visitors will come to you, and the first has already arrived. The last pair will make you very happy.”
Okay then.
After she left, Arthur looked at me thoughtfully. “Your mother is a criminal. A wanted fugitive.” He knew of Anastasia? It was a crime to repeat her story. He saw my confusion and explained, “I stole the journal and read it.” Oh. Of course he did. Why was I surprised? He took a step towards me. “You’re nothing like her.”
Amused, I laughed bitterly. “That’s where you’re wrong. I am exactly like her. We killed her mate. I would destroy the world if Knight was killed.”
“So you’re with the werewolf now. Officially.” He motioned to my neck. “He marked you. I smelled it. I knew you cared for him, but I never thought…” His hand dropped, and if I could’ve described the way he looked, it was… forlorn. That was gone in an instant. “Forgive my candor. The turned need to be monitored. I volunteer Olivier for the task.” I nodded. “I’ll begin work on the perimeter.” He bowed slightly, and was gone, leaving me more than a little bewildered at his behavior.
He hadn’t thought what? That my feelings were real? He encouraged Knight to be there to protect me, and now he was whining because we were together? The complexities of Arthur were making my head spin.
“Yo,” Knight called. He stood in the doorway smiling at me. “Olivier took Cameron and Merrick to be microchipped or something. Sh
e said it was to make sure we always knew where they were. I wanted to break her arm for not trusting my sister.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.” My smile fell.
Knight walked to me. “I heard what he said to you.” I felt embarrassed and I couldn’t say why. “He has feelings for you.” I scoffed but Knight wasn’t playing. “I’m serious, Lis. I saw it the first day I came here.” He put his hand on my neck, right over his bite. “He tolerated my feelings for you, but he never thought we’d become mated. Even said as much one time.”
Oh.
Oh.
My mind raced over all my memories of Arthur. Like a spinning wheel, I saw him changing from the man who ruthlessly hunted me down to the man who just now acted like taking orders from the daughter of a criminal was no biggie.
It wasn’t his humanity he’d gained back.
He’d learned how to love again.
More specifically love me, but still.
Knight took my hand that wasn’t holding Kitty and kissed all five of my knuckles. “If things were different… would you have let him in? Would he have taken my place?”
A question I didn’t want to answer. Arthur had been there for me during the worst year of my life. Of course we had a bond. I enjoyed his company. I trusted him.
Did I love him? No.
Could I?
When I didn’t, couldn’t, answer, Knight gently pressed his lips to my forehead. I looked up at him, searching his brown eyes.
“I chose you,” I told him. “There was never another option for me. There never will be.”
He kissed me again. “If one day, I’m no longer here, which will mean I’m dead because let’s face it, I want you forever.” I pressed my face to his chest at the thought of him dead. “I know,” he soothed. “But if. If that day comes, I can take comfort in knowing he’ll be here for you.” I couldn’t help crying over the thought of Knight dead, the thought that had haunted me into near madness.
“Stop, I can’t.” No, never again. Without Knight, I couldn’t live. My lungs seized on me and I felt like I was drowning.
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