by Rye Brewer
He grinned. “Just the way I want it to be.” But doubt brushed over his face like a cloud over the sun.
“What is it?”
“I only thought for a second… I wondered if your commitment to me was, you know, a product of what we’ve been through. Things haven’t exactly been easy for us.”
“No, they haven’t.”
“It’s enough to make me wonder whether you clung to me because you wanted to, or because you needed someone to cling to.” He shook his head. “It sounds ridiculous.”
“No, it doesn’t. I understand. But you’re wrong if you think I don’t love you. I do, more than anything. You never have to wonder about that. I really would have gone through with it back there, when I threatened to—you know.” I made a finger gun and pressed it to my head.
“You wouldn’t have.”
“I would. I most definitely would. There’s no living without you. I mean it when I say you’re stuck with me. Forever.”
He chuckled, stroking my cheek with gentle fingers. “Careful, now. That word carries a lot of weight with our kind.”
In spite of everything we’d been through, in spite of the shock I was still trying to work through, I smiled. It seemed like a strong first step. “I know it—and I used it anyway. What’s that tell you?”
We kissed as the train sped through Italy, taking us further from the horror we’d survived with each turn of the wheels.
35
Jonah
Landon sat in silence after I’d finished speaking, the only sound in the room that of our breathing and of the flames flickering in the hearth. This was the last thing he’d expected to hear when I pulled him aside.
“You want me to be your second-in-command. Am I hearing you correctly?”
There weren’t many ways to interpret the scenario I had just posed. He was stalling for time, deciding on the fly whether I was worth working alongside. Would it suit him better to take complete power for himself now, or was my theory correct? Would the League shoot him down due to lack of experience?
“Yes. That’s the long and the short of it,” I confirmed. “I want us to work together, not against each other. Though we’ve had our differences in the past, I believe we both want what is best for our kind, moving forward.”
“That is true,” he murmured, staring past me as he mulled this over. “Do you think our differences will be too much to work through?”
“If anything, I would rather have someone beside me who disagrees with me on certain things, who will take me to task if he feels I’m overstepping my bounds or neglecting this or that issue. What good are a bunch of sycophants who agree with everything a leader decides? This isn’t a dictatorship—with all due respect, we’ve had more than enough of that mentality, and look where it got us. Two of our leaders murdered within weeks of each other.”
His brow furrowed as he took this in. I would’ve given nearly anything to be inside his head just then. What was he thinking? Was he planning something? Asking himself how to best profit from this arrangement?
Perhaps I was being too hard on him, assuming he thought along the same lines as his miserable father had. Perhaps he truly wanted to turn over a new leaf and begin again, outside Lucian’s shadow.
Possibly it was best for me to keep buttering him up, because I needed him on my side. Out of my two biggest rivals, he was potentially the most dangerous—and the most valuable ally.
“Do me the honor of being straight with me, please,” he said after a long pause. “Why would you want to work with me? Why me, when I symbolize everything you want to clean up and move on from?”
I sat back in my chair with a sigh. “I respect you. Let me say that straight out.”
This brought his attention back to me. “You do?”
“I do. You’ve got a massive undertaking on your hands, and I don’t envy you. If your father could be murdered in front of numerous witnesses without any of them jumping to his defense, what does that say about the sentiment he created over his years in power? You have to bring things back around, create goodwill between your clan and the others. You also have the unfortunate matter of it having been your brother who committed the murder—at least, his physical form. Valerius was truly twisted, using him as he did.”
“He was.”
“I regret that there was nothing any of us could do to stop him. Honestly, we were all stunned. Who could have guessed?”
He raised an eyebrow, amusement playing over his features. “You have a tendency to overstate your point when you feel guilty. Did you know that?”
I let this go, though I wanted nothing more than to put him in his place with a well-chosen word or two. “That doesn’t make it any less true. I’ve asked myself more than once since that day what I might have done to stop the murder from being carried out.”
He lifted a shoulder, sighing softly. “There was nothing you could have done, and so it is for the best that you cease telling yourself anything to the contrary. No one is better aware of my father’s faults than I,” he said. “And I’m referring to what he did to your family as part of that statement. I’m aware of the evils he perpetrated.”
My blood ran cold. It was his turn to surprise me. “You are?”
“He spoke of it only once, when he thought I was too young to understand—at least, that’s what I assume. Why else would he dare speak of what he’d done? I’m sorry for all of you—not that I believe there’s anything to mourn, being as we are. Living as we do. But your mother was not given a choice, and that is what I find unacceptable. His obsession with her and the depths he was willing to sink to, I believe, were what sealed his fate and destroyed what was left of his soul.”
I was speechless.
He stared over my head, at the wall behind me. “He was my father, faults and all. What good would it have done to go against him? To tell him how wrong I believed him to be? That I had no intention of following the path he’d set out?”
I knew well enough to keep my opinion to myself, though I hardly disagreed with him. It seemed we were of the same mind on many things, which I never would have imagined were it not for this conversation.
Still, agreeing with him might be construed as pushing too hard. There was a line to walk.
His gaze lowered once again to meet mine. “I know he made a great many enemies. Believe me when I say I don’t want to be the sort of man he was. If earning the trust of the League means joining forces with you and presenting a unified front, I’m more than prepared to go along. It’s the least I can do to make things right.”
I wanted to believe him. Was it too good to be true? “You’ll back me up, then.”
“Entirely. And I will be your second-in-command.”
“You will.” I extended a hand, which he shook with a firm, decisive grip.
Why did I feel as though I was making a deal with the devil?
As if reading my thoughts, he flashed a knowing smile. “You wonder whether you can trust me.”
“Can you blame me?” I shrugged. “While I believe your intentions are good, that doesn’t make me eager to place my head on the chopping block. And make no mistake, that’s exactly where I’ll be should you choose to act in your own interests—as Lucian would have.” Instinct told me it was best to remind him of where he’d come from and the reputation he was striving to live down.
“Fair enough.”
“How do I know I can trust you, then? How do I know you won’t look for the first opportunity double-cross me?”
He tilted his head to the side, shrugging, and at that moment he looked exactly like his father. Yes. I would make it a habit of keeping an eye on him until I was certain his word was true. “I suppose you’ll have to trust me, won’t you?”
“Yes. I suppose I will.”
“I’ll spread the good word out there,” he promised as he walked to the door.
“They won’t take it as a rather abrupt change of opinion?” I asked.
He chuckled. “What
does it matter what they think? They’ll go along if we’re convincing enough.”
I wasn’t sure whether I admired his confidence or feared it. No matter what, one thing was clear. I’d made the right choice, getting him on my side.
On the other hand, Will Carver just happened to be passing the room when Landon opened the door. What a coincidence. Landon obviously agreed with me, as he was barely able to suppress a chuckle as they crossed paths.
“Please, Will, join me.” I settled in and waited for him to do the same. He wouldn’t roll over as quickly as Landon would, because he didn’t have Landon’s good sense. He only pretended to, just as he’d pretended to be cool and calm while I spoke in front of the assembly.
“What’s this all about?” he asked, setting the tone straight away. “I hope you didn’t believe it would be a simple matter of pulling me aside and telling me to play nice.”
“No, I would never think that,” I assured him with what I hoped was a pleasant smile, even as I gritted my teeth. Just as insufferable as Marcus, and just as unskilled at masking his true feelings. “I only wished to have a talk with you about your clan, to ask how you’re progressing after the robbery.”
“Don’t think for a moment that I don’t intend to bring the responsible parties to justice.”
“To what end?” I asked, eyeing him. Bluster. That was all he had to offer. Bluster and a thirst for vengeance. “Will it bring back those you lost?”
“You can’t honestly think me willing to overlook the wrongs done to my clan,” he whispered. “If this is the attitude you intend to take once you’re voted as our permanent leader…”
“Yes?” I prompted when he went silent. “Finish your thought.”
His face went an interesting shade of burgundy. “I won’t be able to support you if that’s the case. If you’re more concerned with protecting witches—”
“Wait.” I made sure to convey my irritation through my tone of voice, and its volume. “I won’t let you continue with that, because it’s clear you only intend to stir up trouble. I can’t be so easily threatened. Never once did I say I intended to protect witches, if that’s indeed who perpetrated the attack. You have absolutely no proof.”
“I have dozens of dead vampires.”
“None of whom can explain what happened that night. Yes, the evidence is clear, I’ll grant you that. But to what end would you start a war with the witches? Who will benefit from it? How many more would you lose?” I leaned in, elbows on my knees. “Wouldn’t you be better off protecting those still living? Rebuilding, stronger than ever? A war would only serve to weaken you further, and you know the witches would want nothing less if you went after them. Perhaps it’s time to be the bigger person and agree to leave things where they are.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“You’re right. I’m not serious.” I fixed him with a cold stare. “I fully support your insatiable desire for vengeance, which makes you a cookie cutter reproduction of your father.”
“How dare you?” he hissed, his face darker than ever. It made a disturbing effect against his light hair.
“How dare you?” I fired back. “You realize that, were a war to begin, we would all be part of it? Not just your clan? I highly doubt any witch would stop to ask a vampire which clan they affiliated themselves with before killing them.”
This gave him pause, but not for long. “What do you suggest, then? Allowing them to get away with it, pretending nothing happened?”
I wished more than I ever had that Anissa hadn’t sent anyone to that mansion. I didn’t doubt her motives were pure, but did it have to be the Carvers? “No, I don’t. I think sitting down to speak with a representative of their kind would be a solid first step, however.”
“What good would that do?”
“A lot greater good than rushing headfirst into further destruction.” I spread my hands as I shrugged. “I’m sorry, but that’s my feeling on the issue. If we can get through this without losing more of our kind—no matter their clan, because I’m sick of holding ourselves separate from each other—isn’t that the ultimate victory? I would rather move forward in strength and unity, working together to keep all of us safe, than sliding back into the old, suspicious, destructive ways.”
“You want me to roll over and pretend nothing happened,” he murmured, shaking his head. There was no getting through to him.
It was time to be firm, then, as he clearly had no intention of listening to reason. “Do you want to talk about vengeance? Let’s talk about it, then. Why don’t we start with your father’s plan to poison my clan with tainted blood?”
His face went from red to ghostly white in the blink of an eye. “What are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about. His scheme with the shifters out of Europe. They conducted experiments on humans. I know all about it. Gage stumbled upon it purely by accident, and another shifter confirmed it for me just today. Not only that it happened, but that Dietrich De Clerq was working at your father’s command. I also know of two cases of that very same tainted blood turning vampires into elemental witches.”
“You… you do?” This seemed to truly surprise him, as if he hadn’t known.
“When I think about it that way, it seems almost fitting that a witch with the power to create walls of ice would invade your clan.” I mimicked his posture, tenting my fingers beneath my chin in a thoughtful manner. “Perhaps this is where we let it end. Bygones can be bygones. I don’t need to waste time on revenge, because I have a clan to see to, a League to lead and a future to build. You have the same thing on your hands—in fact, your position is more difficult than mine, as you came into your position so suddenly. You had no chance to ease into it.”
“That’s true,” he muttered, rolling his eyes.
“I know how that feels,” I reminded him. “One day, my father headed our clan. The next, both of my parents were gone, and I was left with a broken, beaten clan immediately post-war. I had my brothers, my sister, all of us mourning the sudden loss. All the while, I thought you and yours were my enemies. I don’t feel that way any longer, and I see what a waste of time all that hatred was. I won’t return to those days. I hope you can join me in starting fresh. That means allowing the past to remain where it is.”
He appeared to size me up, one brow lifting in a skeptical manner. “You truly won’t make an issue of the blood tainting?”
“I truly won’t. As long as I have your word that you won’t pursue vengeance against the witches who invaded your home. It’s over now. We’ll work with them, make sure it never happens again. I promise you that.” It wouldn’t be difficult. I only knew of a handful of elemental witches and knew they had only done what they did out of desperate need. Though what need exactly? I had a good guess about that too.
He pressed his lips together in a thin line. It killed him to accept the damage done, but there was no denying the wrong his father had accomplished. My example was only one of many. Something we were both aware of.
He stood, huffing as he did. “Fine. I’ll allow bygones to be bygones, as you request.”
When I stood, I held out a hand. “Let’s shake on it, then, and move forward together. I bear you no ill will. I’m happy to let go of the past, now that your father is gone. You aren’t him. I don’t hold you responsible for the squabbles I had with him.” Including his attempt at having me assassinated, but instinct told me to stay quiet about that.
He only hesitated for the briefest of moments before shaking my hand. “Fair enough. I appreciate this.”
“As do I.”
It was over. I didn’t know whether I wanted to heave a sigh of relief or collapse from sheer exhaustion. Was this what life would be going forward? Negotiating a chess game with dozens of different players?
It was still preferable to the alternative of Lucian’s leadership, which had never been leadership at all. I was willing to sacrifice if it meant a brighter future for those I loved.
&n
bsp; “I’ll be out shortly,” I promised. “I need a minute to get my thoughts together.”
He accepted this without further explanation—perhaps because he knew he got off easy—and I was soon alone.
It couldn’t have happened at a better time.
A portal opened in front of my very eyes, expanding until it nearly touched the ceiling.
Out of it stepped my father. And he looked grim.
“We need to talk,” he announced.
36
Jonah
“What happened?” I whispered, looking to the door which had just recently closed. I went to it and locked it. “And how did you manage to portal into this building? I thought it wasn’t allowed. Not inside the walls.”
“There are ways around everything,” he explained, shrinking the portal until it was nothing more than a tiny pinpoint of light which quickly disappeared. “I knew this was the most likely place I’d be able to meet privately with you.”
“You just missed Will Carver,” I informed him. “That would’ve made for an interesting conversation.”
The slight bit of humor I saw in this was not shared, I noticed, as he hardly flinched. “There’s a great deal you need to be aware of before you go in for the vote—unless it’s already been held.”
“It hasn’t. Though you couldn’t have waited much longer and still made it here in time. What happened? Here. Have a seat.” I drew one of the chairs nearer the fire, as he seemed cold and rumpled and heartsick.
The worst suddenly occurred to me. “The baby? Anissa? Philippa? Gage?”
He held his hands palm-out as he sat. “No need to worry. I haven’t come with bad news, but news that will nonetheless come as a shock to those outside this room. I believe it will please all those who hear it once the surprise wears off.”
I was fit to burst. “What is it?”
“The Starkers are no more.”
“I hope you’re not joking,” I warned. “I’m in no mood for it.”
