by Rye Brewer
“So, you moved across the river. I remember that. None of us understood why. I cried every night for a week,” Philippa admitted.
“We knew you did, and we wished there was something we could do for you. But it was the only way. We trusted you’d understand one day. It wasn’t only survival, either. We needed others like us. We couldn’t survive on our own. There were things we needed to know. We needed support. The only way to find it was in Manhattan.”
“How did you find others like you?” I asked. “I mean, it’s not like you could go to the internet to find others with similar interests.”
“We learned to look for certain traits. Pale skin, bright eyes. I’m sure you’ve noticed how we carry ourselves differently from humans, too. Over time, it was easier to recognize those like us. We found that, most of the time, they were happy to make connections, too. Many of them were unorganized, moving around on their own. I decided to band us together. One thing led to another, and, after a few years, we met the members of what’s now the Bourke clan. When I took over leadership of the clan, it took our name.”
“Did you ever regret turning? Becoming what you are today?” Philippa sounded a lot more subdued than usual.
“Never for a minute. If I hadn’t, it would’ve meant saying goodbye to Elena. I couldn’t do that. I didn’t want the four of you to be away from her, either. We were a family.”
Philippa let out a sort of choked cry, but we all pretended not to hear her. It was easier that way.
“Do you ever regret our decision to turn you?” Fane asked.
We were quiet for a long time, all three of us. When neither of the other two spoke up, I decided to.
“We were a family. If any of us had chosen not to turn, that person would’ve had to live without the others. I don’t think any of us wanted that.”
“And we didn’t want to leave any of you behind,” he agreed.
Suddenly, the pain broke. One second my arm burned the way it would as if Anissa’s silver blade was pressed to it, then the next… nothing.
I stopped dead in my tracks.
“Gage?”
“You, too?” He was looking at me.
“What is it?” Allonic stopped short and turned to us.
“The pain’s gone. Absolutely gone.” I flexed my arm in amazement. It was enough to make me want to drop to my knees and thank whoever made it stop.
Allonic’s eyes glowed like fire. “I had suspected that would be the case but didn’t want to get your hopes up in case I was wrong.”
“What happened? What changed?” Anissa asked him but stared at me.
“We’ve crossed the boundary and are now in Sorrowswatch. There was a chance the brand’s spell would last until we reach the very spot where Valerius waits, of course. I couldn’t be sure.”
“It doesn’t matter much to me either way,” I admitted in relief. “I’m too glad it’s over.”
“Do you think we’re very close now?” Fane asked.
Allonic nodded. “We’ll have to be careful now. We could come upon the chamber at any point.”
“Chamber?” Philippa asked as we set off again.
“I doubt he’s waiting for us above the surface,” Allonic said. “We could come upon him at any moment. Where we stand, this spot, is where the brand leads to.”
I looked around and noticed the tunnel had widened. The ceiling was higher than before, too. “Is it lighter in here, or am I imagining things?”
“I thought so, too,” Gage murmured.
We all moved with a lot more caution than we had before. Since I didn’t need his help anymore, Fane took his place beside Allonic. He wouldn’t let his kids go ahead of him. No matter what he said, I couldn’t believe he wasn’t still the same person he used to be.
Anissa fell back a bit, and I walked next to her. “You okay?” she whispered.
“Better than before.” Which was an understatement.
Allonic stopped short with his arms spread.
We all paused behind him.
“What is it?” Fane asked.
“We’ve arrived,” Allonic announced.
Glancing around, I didn’t see anything different from what I’d seen all along. “Where?”
“Here. Straight ahead.”
A rock wall stood before us, but Allonic stepped forward with his hands out and touched the stone. It seemed to dissolve under his hands.
“Holy hell,” Philippa whispered.
Why any of us were surprised by anything like this anymore, I couldn’t say.
I tried to see inside the chamber Allonic had revealed, but the opening was too small to allow a very good view. Anissa took my hand as we walked through the doorway, and I didn’t let go. None of us knew what we would find on the other side.
There was more light in there, though I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. The sound of water went away and left a sort of deafening silence in its place. An enchantment, I guessed. The chamber reminded me of a church I’d been to back when I was young, before turning. The ceiling stretched up beyond us, up and up. I never would’ve guessed it would be so large.
“Where are we? I mean, what is this place, really?” Anissa turned in a full circle, looking around.
Allonic shrugged, but I wasn’t sure it meant he didn’t know or didn’t want to say.
Something along one wall caught my attention A huge glass box. The light reflected off it, so I couldn’t see what was inside. It sat straight up, on its end, just like in those mummy movies.
“What is that?” I couldn’t help but walk toward it. Something about it drew me closer.
Philippa and Gage followed me.
“Wait.” Fane drew up behind me. “Don’t make any fast moves. We don’t know what we’re dealing w—”
He went silent before he finished speaking.
I knew why.
I couldn’t find any words.
None of us could.
It was a sarcophagus. There was a body inside. It had been decades since I last saw her, but I would’ve known her red hair and creamy-white skin anywhere. Not to mention the nose that was so like mine, and the light scattering of freckles Philippa had inherited.
“Mother?” Philippa breathed.
“Impossible,” Fane murmured.
But she was there, in front of us.
We all saw her.
Then her eyes flew open.
21
Jonah
Philippa’s scream was loud, echoing off the walls. “No! It’s impossible!” she shrieked. She clawed at my side.
I put my arm around her. I could barely move or make any sense of it.
Gage rounded on Fane. “You said she was gone!”
“Because she is, son.” He took Gage by the shoulders. “This has to be an illusion. Don’t allow yourself to be taken in by it. Be strong. All of you!”
“Jonah?” Anissa’s voice was barely a whisper.
I put my other arm around her.
“I don’t understand. That’s your mother?”
“If it’s not her, maybe she has a twin none of us knew about.”
Philippa, meanwhile, sobbed against my chest.
I couldn’t blame her. It was unsettling, seeing somebody who looked just like her. But Fane was right. It couldn’t be her, even though her eyes were so much like Mom’s. Everything about her was.
The sarcophagus opened, and we jumped when she—I couldn’t think of her as anything else—stepped out. She wore a long, flowing white gown that just brushed the floor and made her hair resemble fire.
“Who are you?” Fane asked. “I know you’re not Elena. You can’t be Elena. Who are you?”
She gazed at all of us with a blank, flat expression. “Please, do not raise your voice in this chamber.”
The fact that it didn’t sound at all like our mother was a relief. If she’d had the same warm, sweet voice of my mother, I might’ve lost my mind. I wouldn’t have been able to take it. It would’ve been too cruel.
>
Philippa stared at the woman with our mother’s face and body. “Who are you?”
“There is no time for that,” Mom-not-Mom said. “We’ve been waiting a long time for you. I’m glad you’re finally here.”
We? She’d been alone in there, or so it seemed.
“Come. Follow me. Valerius awaits.” She swept along the floor.
We didn’t have a choice but to follow, and, at this point, I was too curious not to.
“You look like my wife, but you don’t sound like her,” Fane said as we walked. He still appeared horrified. For once, his steely exterior cracked a little.
When Allonic spoke, it was almost a surprise. He had been silent up to that point. “It’s Nivia,” he whispered.
She whirled on him, and the gown whirled with her. “Very good, shade.” She stood in front of a small, stone door.
Nivia?
I glanced at Anissa, at my family. The same confusion was on all their faces.
“Come.” She pushed the stone door open and stepped into a small room.
“But Nivia is dead,” Allonic said as we followed her inside.
“Not exactly,” she murmured. “I’m in this body now. I’ve needed it, in order to watch over my beloved.”
“Your beloved?” Allonic asked.
Instead of answering, Nivia—whoever that was—raised an arm to motion to one corner of the room.
All of us turned to look.
A tangle of roots had overtaken the corner, filling it completely. Tree roots, thick and white, crisscrossing over each other, forming a sort of tomb.
In the center was a white-haired man.
He was old.
Ancient. His skin was as thin as paper, his cheeks sunken and gaunt. He didn’t move. It didn’t even look like he breathed.
He was in a state of living stillness—alive, but not alive.
“Valerius,” Allonic announced.
Nivia nodded. “My love. My consort, now and forever. I have been keeping watch over him for longer than you’ve lived.” Then her eyes landed on me and Gage. “You’re here. Finally.”
Fane stepped forward. He had shaken off the shock of seeing our mother again and had composed himself. “Why are you in my wife’s body?”
Her thin shoulders rose in a shrug. “My soul needed a vessel, and this body was available.” She raised her arms to the sides, flexing her fingers. “I could’ve done much worse.”
“How did you do this?” Allonic asked.
“He arranged it.” She looked at Valerius with an expression that could only mean love. Adoration, even. Complete devotion. “It was after I died and before he became trapped in this… this hell. Motionless, surrounded by roots.”
How had that happened? And why? I glanced at Anissa to see how she was taking everything. Her expression was one of complete awe.
Nivia smiled at us. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am you’re finally here to free my love.”
“That’s why we’re here?” Gage asked.
“How is that possible?” Fane’s voice overlapped Gage’s. “Why did Valerius brand my sons?”
She drew a deep breath. “I suppose it would be best to start at the beginning. You’ll understand better then, why we’ve gone to these lengths.”
She stared at Valerius again. “I was born a shade, many centuries ago. Valerius, on the other hand, was a member of the fae. We fell in love, even though we knew it was a terrible mistake for us to be together. There is no stopping true love, however. Neither of us could fight what our hearts wanted.”
Her eyes went unfocused, like she was looking at something very far away. “When my father found out, his fury was otherworldly. He killed my love. My Valerius. I was certain I would die with him. There was nothing worth living for without him. Father didn’t care. Our love disgusted him. Valerius did not deserve to live, and I barely deserved protection from my father anymore.”
“And yet, Valerius lives,” Allonic murmured.
“Yes, because I made a deal to bring him back,” Nivia replied. “I found a witch and a necromancer who were willing to barter. They brought him back to life—or, rather, a sort of life.” Her expression darkened.
I had stopped thinking of her as my mother, but when she looked like that, I couldn’t help but remember the way my mother would look when I was in trouble. It was uncanny.
“I didn’t know the necromancer would turn my love into one of the undead. I had him back, but the creature he’d become was possessed of a severe bloodlust.”
“A vampire.” The words were heavy as they fell out of my mouth.
“Yes. The original Ancient.” She shook her head sorrowfully. “I still wanted him, of course, even though I had no idea what to do with him once I realized what he was. It didn’t matter, since his soul was still his. He still loved me. Enough that, when my father had me killed for bringing him back, Valerius used his powers to resurrect me, as well as created a cadre of vampires to attack the shades in revenge. Those vampires became the Ancients.”
My head spun from everything she was sharing. I had always wondered who the original vampire was, how they had come about. How we had spread throughout the world.
“Once the war with the shades was over and I was safe, Valerius rarely created more vampires. They’d served their purpose. However, there were a few exceptions. One of them was—” She appeared ill. “Lucian.”
Philippa went stiff.
Gage let out a growl.
Fane didn’t move a muscle, but the tension in his frame gave him away.
“It was Lucian who put my love in this hell,” she said, her voice deep with rage. “He weakened him by feeding him a victim whose blood was laced with silver flakes.”
“Sick,” Anissa whispered.
I agreed with her. Only a monster would even imagine something so twisted.
“He was in agony,” Nivia mourned. “And weak. So weak. Too weak to fight back when Lucian then imprisoned him here. He couldn’t dig his way out of his tomb. So many layers of roots, thick and strong. It’s been hundreds of years since Valerius has fed. He’s been starving all this time.”
I couldn’t imagine. When she’d used the word “hell,” it hadn’t been an exaggeration. Every moment of his life must’ve been hell.
“Where were you when this happened?” Allonic asked.
She closed her eyes. “I was in another body then, the body I’d taken over after I first died. Lucian locked me away, far away. There was nothing I could do. It took me ages to free myself. After that, I needed to find a new body. Which I did.” She ran her hands over her sides and hips.
A twinge struck my heart. My mother’s body. What happened to Mom?
“How are we supposed to help you?” I said instead of asking about my mother. “Why did Valerius bring us here?”
“The blood of true vampire twins carries indescribable power,” she explained.
So Allonic had been right about that.
“That’s it? He’ll drink our blood?” It seemed a little too easy—not that letting an Ancient feed off me sounded easy.
“That’s all.”
“Why did you wait so long?” I asked. “We’ve been vampires for a very long time.”
She nodded. “And it’s been torture, waiting all these years. But the timing had to be just right. All pieces had to be in alignment.”
What pieces? But I had the feeling that explanation would only lead us down yet another road full of more questions than answers.
“Why were we branded?”
“How else could Valerius be sure of your protection, while at the same time ensuring you could find your way here?” She shrugged like it made all the sense in the world—and, in a way, it did. I wondered why they’d had to hurt so damned much, but that was another story.
“What happens after he drinks our blood?”
Gage and I looked at each other. I could tell from his expression he wasn’t a much bigger fan of the thought than I was.
“What about the other Ancients?” Fane asked. “You said Valerius stopped creating vampires after the first group, but where did they go?”
“They’re everywhere, all over the world,” she replied. “Some choose to live in anonymity while others possess positions of power. But none of Valerius’s other vampires sought out power the way Lucian did. It twisted and warped him.”
She wasn’t kidding.
He had wreaked havoc on so many lives, and I wondered how many we were unaware of.
Her gaze fell on Allonic, who returned her gaze. “You are a shade, the way I was born. At the same time, you are not. How is this so?”
“My father was a shade. My mother was—is—a vampire.”
“And of what line was your father?” she asked.
“The Archein, the first line of the shades. I’m the son of Traxon.”
“Traxon?” Her eyebrows shot up. “Does this mean you rule?” It surprised me she was aware of the name, being locked up in a sarcophagus as she’d been.
He shook his head. “Ressenden would never allow a half-blooded shade to rule. Only a pure-blood is allowed to do that.”
“So, who does rule now?”
“A blood relative,” Allonic said with a shrug.
I wondered why he was being so evasive.
“This is very nice,” Fane interrupted, “but it’s not getting us anywhere.” He stalked over to her and stood face-to-face.
Philippa shuddered, seeing the two of them together.
When Nivia wasn’t speaking, it was so easy to think of her as our mother.
“I want your assurance my sons will not be harmed when Valerius takes their blood. I want your assurance their blood is all he wants.”
“Do not be alarmed. All he needs is their blood. Nothing more.”
“What about his body?” he asked. “He’s withered and decayed over the centuries. What will become of his body?”