by Ava Benton
Vanessa made it a point to avoid her. Anyone with eyes could see the resemblance between Vanessa and the woman with the long, gray-streaked braid and heavily-ringed fingers. In a way, her mother Cressida reminded me of my own mother. A powerful personality.
“They had little choice. None of us has a choice when we find ourselves painted into a corner,” Cressida remarked, pursing her lips in a disapproving scowl.
Vanessa accepted this without argument. “I understand this is a difficult position for all of us. And I’ve put us there. For that, I apologize.”
“A High Sorceress needs to be capable of better discernment,” her mother hissed.
“What would you have me do? Create an application form for every man I meet to fill out? Ask if he has any dark secrets or possible magical abilities?” Vanessa fired back.
Her temper flashed—she had told me about it, and about how easy it was to set her off, but I hadn’t seen it until then. She seemed to remember herself at the last minute and backed down before actual sparks flew between them.
One of the other witches spoke up. “We don’t blame you, Vanessa. It’s an unfortunate situation.”
She was lying. Even without powers, I could almost smell it on her. She was too afraid of her High Sorceress’s powers to challenge her. They all were, except for Cressida.
Another one of them nodded before adding, “The real challenge is knowing what to do about the sorcerer. Do you feel he’s a threat to the clan?”
Vanessa’s eyes met mine, but only for a moment. “I think it would be best for his brother to speak now.”
That was my cue.
Holden growled from his place behind Vanessa as I stepped up to her left.
It was important to me that I not start the meeting seated beside her. It would only give the coven the wrong idea.
“My name is Gentry Duncan. My brother is Dominic. My parents were—”
“Lawrence and Grace Duncan,” Cressida finished, her voice flat. “We know of your family and what it’s stood for ever since the first Duncan set foot in the New World. That family is legendary.”
I swallowed hard and reminded myself of how it felt to have my powers. The confidence they gave me.
I would never have let an ordinary witch, ex-High Sorceress or not, speak over me. I wouldn’t have let her look at me the way she was unless she wanted to permanently lose her sight—and I would’ve made sure to remind her of it.
I could still call on that confidence, even if I couldn’t call on the violence. “Yes. The family is legendary,” I said, slipping into my old persona as I did. It was like sliding into a favorite pair of jeans, or shoes which had been perfectly broken in. “It’s no secret that the Duncans have no love for anyone who isn’t one of us, but especially vampires and humans.”
“Why should we believe you’re not the one who planted the explosives in that vampire club?” she asked.
“It’s irrelevant whether you believe it or not,” I replied.
She raised an eyebrow.
I continued, “The question of my guilt or innocence isn’t why we’re here today. It’s for you to gain insight into my brother’s psyche. I believe he will attack the coven in some way.”
“Why would he do that? We’ve done him no harm.” A concerned murmuring rose up over the room.
Vanessa held up a hand to silence them, then turned to me as they rest of them did.
“Because the fact that I’m involved with you, even in the most tenuous of ways, is an insult to him.” I tried to put myself in his place, just as I had been since the night be burst into my apartment and begged me to take the fall for him. “He knows that if he hadn’t stripped my powers—which he was responsible for to begin with—this never would’ve happened. He’s twisted enough to do something to hurt you, to break off my involvement with your High Sorceress.”
“What if you break it off before he can do anything about it?”
There was truly nothing in the world like a hopeful, strong-willed, domineering mother. I had to hand it to Cressida for trying.
“That’s not going to happen, unless Vanessa wants it so.” One look at her told me she wanted anything but that. I looked around the room again. “Besides, even then, there’s no telling what my brother will do. He’s completely unhinged. I suppose guilt will do that to a person. I have to strike before he gets the chance.”
“What possible good could you do?” one of the witches asked with a sneer of disdain.
I imagined gouging her eyes out from across the room, or sealing her mouth shut for having the audacity to speak that way to me.
It was difficult to remind myself those days were behind me when my blood boiled as it was at the moment.
Instead of maiming her, which I wasn’t capable of, I said, “I have an idea.”
15
Gentry
It was cold, crisp and clear. The moon was a crescent, standing out perfectly against the cloudless sky. The perfect late-October night.
And I was standing in a graveyard.
At my feet was the stone sarcophagus which marked the family plot. The word DUNCAN had long since been carved out of the marble coffin over which a weeping marble angel had stood watch for six decades.
Why an angel would ever weep over my father’s death was well beyond me, but Mother had insisted. I could remember imagining the angel weeping tears of joy at the knowledge he was no longer walking the planet. A theory I had never shared with the rest of my family.
Mother was there, too, having been placed alongside her husband earlier in the day. The dirt was still mounded over the new grave. I dropped a handful of flowers and hoped she wouldn’t be able to see what I was about to do, wherever she was.
I had never quite decided if I believed in an afterlife. I hoped for my sake there wasn’t one, or I was in for an eternity of anguish. I would deserve every moment of it.
The pack was bulky, but my jacket zipped neatly over it.
I hoped my brother’s eyes would be too full of lying, murdering tears to notice the difference.
“Do you think he’ll come?” Vanessa had asked before I left the penthouse.
She had clutched my jacket, fingers curling into desperate claws.
I did think so at the moment, and I still did as I stood there waiting for him.
He would come. Nothing could keep him away.
A figure approached in the darkness, joining me on the hill which overlooked the rest of the cemetery.
“She would like being up here,” Dominic murmured, looking out over the other graves and mausoleums, then at the city in the distance. “She can look down on everyone else.”
“Yes. It suits her. I think that was part of the reason she chose this plot.” I caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye.
Dressed to kill, as always. I would’ve been disappointed otherwise. His long, black coat fluttered in the breeze which ruffled his hair as he turned to look at me.
“I suppose you’ve come for a reason other than paying your respects,” he observed.
“Isn’t that reason enough? I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to her before you ended her life.”
He didn’t bother denying it. “She was suffering. You saw for yourself.”
“You’re so damned predictable.” I faced him, hands on my hips. “Why don’t you try being a little less predictable for once? That is exactly what I thought you’d argue.”
“It’s the truth.”
“It’s a convenient truth you tell yourself to soothe your guilt. Yes, she was suffering, but that wasn’t why you did it. Try being honest for the first time, while you still can.”
His shoulders fell when the truth of my words sank in. For a moment, he was my brother. Not the twisted, sick, corrupted sorcerer. Not the vicious, hateful monster. My twin. My first friend and first enemy.
“I didn’t want her to know.”
Finally, the truth.
“I understand that.” It didn’t make m
e feel better, but I did understand. “And I think she would’ve understood it, too. Just like she would understand what I have to do now.”
“What do you have to do?”
I unzipped my jacket and held it open so he could see the C4 strapped to my waist.
Vanessa had been too upset before letting me leave to notice the extra thickness under the leather. She never would’ve let me leave if she had.
“I have to kill us both.”
“You’re insane.”
“Maybe. Maybe I’ve always been.” I slid the detonator from my pocket and held it up for his examination. “If you try any magic to kill me before I press this button, you’ll set off the explosives yourself. So, it’s really up to either you or me when we die.”
He shook his head, falling back a step.
He had imagined multiple scenarios—that was how his mind worked—but none of them involved me doing this.
“Why would you…?”
“Because you came here with the intention of killing me. You can’t stand the reminder of what you’ve done, and you can’t live with the possibility of my telling the clan about it. It will be much easier for you with me out of the way. The thing is, I would be fine with that.”
He scowled. “Be serious.”
“You don’t think this is me being serious?” I asked, almost laughing at how ridiculous he sounded. “I don’t know how much more serious I could possibly be.”
“You don’t want me to kill you, or else you wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble. Where did you even get your hands on that?”
“You’d be surprised what a person can purchase when they’re determined enough. That’s beside the point. And I meant it when I said I want you to kill me.” I moved closer to him, and took pleasure in the way his eyes widened. The sadist in me hadn’t completely faded away. “I’m not sure I want to live with the memory of what I’ve done. I’m not sure I deserve to live. You would be doing me a mercy, just like you tell yourself you did for her.” I jerked my head in the direction of the grave.
“So why go to all this trouble, as I asked?”
“I can’t let you hurt anyone I care about when I’m gone.”
Understanding touched his features, and he went back to being the cold, imperious sorcerer I recognized. “I see. This is all for her. You think you love her, don’t you?”
“Perhaps I do.”
“You’re weak.”
“Perhaps I am.”
“You always were.”
“I don’t disagree with you. Do you think these accusations will hurt me?” I asked with a smile. “You can’t hurt me anymore. I’m beyond that point. And I understand why you can’t comprehend what I’m doing now. You always considered love a weakness.”
“It is. It makes us do stupid things. Case in point.”
“This is the smartest thing I’ve ever done. The smartest and the best.” I held up the detonator. “I hope you’ve made peace with your life, because it’s about to end.”
The snap of a twig caused us both to look toward a large, gnarled tree a few dozen feet away.
From behind it stepped a hulking figure, cloaked in darkness.
Even though I couldn’t make out the face, I already knew the shape. He’d only tried to kill me several times.
Holden.
My heart sank.
Because if he was there…
“Gentry? What do you think you’re doing?” Vanessa stepped out beside him.
She didn’t know she had just ruined everything I’d barely managed to convince myself to do.
It was difficult enough to kill myself, but knowing I was leaving her had made the decision ten times harder. I couldn’t do it with her there.
Dominic’s laughter rang through the cold air. “Oh, my goodness. This just got interesting.”
16
Vanessa
“Don’t get any closer to them,” Holden warned, a hand on my arm.
I tried to shake him off, but he wasn’t having it.
Gentry nodded. “He’s right. Stay back. Stay as far away as you can. You shouldn’t have come.”
“No, no, she should have. I’m glad she’s here—her and her little pet,” Dominic sneered. “I can do what I wanted to do out in the street the other day. There are no witnesses here.”
“Don’t let him get to you,” I whispered.
It was bad enough he was close to getting to me. I couldn’t risk Holden losing control, as much as I would’ve loved to see him shred the bastard who laughed at us.
“Doesn’t it bother you, having to spend so much time with a creature who barely deserves your attention?” Dominic asked, shaking his head as though he pitied me. “You’re obviously a strong witch, or you wouldn’t have earned the position you now hold. Doesn’t your skin crawl when you stand as close to him as you do now?”
“Hold your tongue,” I ordered as Holden’s hand tightened enough for me to wince in pain.
“And you,” he continued, turning his attention to my vampire, “doesn’t it burn you up inside to know you’ll never be good enough for her? You’re not even fit to lick the soles of her shoes. You’ll never be anything more than a blood-sucking servant, a slave, someone to trail around in her shadow. She’ll never see you as anything more than a pathetic tool for her to use. And she’ll never love you.”
Holden shoved me aside then lunged at the sorcerer.
“No!” I screamed, throwing myself after him, but he was much too fast.
Not fast enough.
Dominic’s laugh was enough to freeze my blood as he held up his hand and fired a bolt of sizzling, white light into Holden’s chest. He seized up with an agonized shriek, his body freezing for a split second, before crumpling to the ground.
“No!” I screamed again as I landed beside him, rolling him over.
His eyes were wide open in unblinking, unseeing shock.
“No, no, no,” I whispered as I brushed his hair back and cradled his head in my lap. “Oh, Holden, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“See the way she kneels beside him in the dirt? See the way she debases herself for his sake even after I’ve ended his pathetic life? He’s lucky I didn’t prolong things as I wanted to.” Dominic laughed again.
I raised my head slowly, and the wind kicked up as I did. I got one foot under me, then another, and stood beside Holden’s body. My hands tingled and burned in anticipation of all I wanted to do to him.
Clouds rolled in from all sides, blocking the moon and stars. Thunder rumbled loud enough to shake the ground and lightning leaped from one cloud to the other, making the sky look as though it were on fire.
“Vanessa!” Gentry shouted over the storm. “Don’t do this! He wants you to do this!”
That wasn’t so. Gentry was right about a lot of things, but not about this.
His brother’s face was a mask of stone, but his eyes told another story. He was terrified. He had no idea what I was capable of.
I threw up a shield around myself in time to deflect one spell, then another, the bolts of white and blue light diverted easily before they could hit my body, shooting off in all directions.
I walked to him, one careful step after another, taking my time. Savoring the growing panic in the coward’s eyes the closer I moved.
He tried to put the marble sarcophagus between us.
I pointed one palm in its direction and cracked the monument in two.
“How dare you?” he shrieked. How could he look so much like Gentry but be so unlike him?
His features twisted in rage as he threw another spell, then another.
One of them hit the tree I’d hidden behind, and I could feel the heat from the flames.
The rest bounced off my shield.
He was growing more frantic with every passing second, dripping sweat as nothing he tried to do to me worked. Meanwhile, I wasn’t even breathing heavy.
“I’ll kill him!” he screamed, pointing his palms in Gentry’s direction.
That stopped me in my tracks, even though the storm still raged around us.
Leaves twirled through the air in funnel clouds, and entire branches became projectiles as the wind tore them from the trees.
“And if I kill him, I’ll kill us all!”
I looked at Gentry. My love. He was willing to sacrifice his life to save mine. I would do the same for him if I had to. But it wouldn’t come to that. I wouldn’t allow it.
I lowered my shield and turned my powers in his direction.
Gentry didn’t feel the change—the storm had reached fever pitch, and he could barely keep his eyes open for the roaring wind and debris. He didn’t notice what I did when I did it.
“Fine,” I said, brushing hair out of my face. “You win. I won’t kill you tonight.”
“As if there was ever any doubt, witch.” Dominic threw back his head and laughed bitterly. “Oh, love. The stupid things it makes us do.”
“Yes. Very stupid.” I looked at Gentry again, and he shook his head.
“Don’t let him win! You can’t let him win!”
“That’s up to you!” I shouted. “It’s in your hands now!”
His hands.
Confusion touched his face, making him frown.
He looked down at the hand not holding the detonator and flexed his fingers.
A slow smile formed at the corners of his mouth and spread as understanding seeped in.
He raised his head, looking at his brother with loathing and pity and rage.
“This ends now,” he said as he slid the detonator inside his jacket pocket and pointed his palms in Dominic’s direction.
Dominic gaped at him in awe, then laughed louder than ever. “Are you that deluded? Don’t you remember I’ve already stripped you?”
Gentry’s answer came in the form of red bolts of light which blew the head off the marble angel just to Dominic’s right. He smiled wider than ever.
“What?” Dominic shrieked. “This is impossible!” He glared at me. “You! You did this! How could you do this? You’re just a witch!”
