by Jenna Barwin
He had never seen this photo before, even though he had perused most of the photos available on the internet. This photo was different, the resolution so crisp the thousands of craters seemed to explode from the planet’s surface, the colors vivid and intense, reminding him of flowing lava.
The corner of the matte was signed “Cerissa.” On the back, an inscription dated today: “To Henry—Looking forward to many evenings stargazing together. C.”
He placed the framed photo on a chair and sat down in his chair opposite it. He stared at Mars and sipped his blood. Thirteen nights seemed very far away.
The doorbell rang and his heart quickened. Could it be Cerissa? He wanted desperately to see her, but not at the risk of being banned from his own community.
When he reached the front door, he turned on the security camera and looked at the small monitor on the entryway wall. Tig stood on his front porch, holding her chief’s cap in her hand. His shoulders drooped, the disappointment running off his fingertips like water. He opened the door.
“Good evening, Founder,” she said. “My apologies for the intrusion, but the mayor asked me to stop by and see you.”
“Then this isn’t a social visit.”
“No. May I come in?”
Henry stepped aside and, with a sweeping gesture, answered her.
“Are you alone?” she asked, her eyes pointed in the direction of the upstairs landing.
“I am abiding by the council’s ruling, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Do you mind if I look around?”
“Yes, I do. But I suspect I have no choice in the matter.”
“The town attorney didn’t want to issue a warrant. No reason to have a warrant on your record, unless you insist.”
“How thoughtful,” he replied, letting the sarcasm show in his tone.
Tig strode through the entryway and into the drawing room. He followed her. “When was Cerissa last here?” she asked.
“The night of the dance.”
Tig visibly sniffed the air and walked further into Henry’s drawing room. “Her scent is here, but it’s faint.”
“I am not a liar.”
“Henry, don’t make this any more awkward than it already is.” She walked to the far end of the drawing room and stuck her head into the adjoining library and music room.
He burned with anger over the intrusion. An insult. The mayor had no business sending Tig here. Then he remembered the photo, and his hot anger turned to icy fear. He quickly removed the photo from the chair.
“Please sit down, Tig.” He started to turn the photo around to hide Cerissa’s signature on the matte, and then remembered the note on the back. Tig would see today’s date, so instead he propped it on the floor against the wall, photo forward, placing the box in front of it.
“Wait a moment.” She followed him to where he stood by the photo. She moved the box away and kneeled down. “That’s an amazing photograph. Mars, right?”
“Yes. It arrived today.”
She looked closer. “Cerissa’s name is on the matte.”
“I’m sure she ordered it before the unfortunate incident at the stadium. The night of the dance I showed her Mars through my telescope.”
She stood up. “You bring a lovely woman to your home and you spend the night looking at a planet? I’m learning new things about you, Founder,” she said, slapping him on the shoulder.
He was in no mood to be teased. “Do what you came here for and leave.”
“Lighten up, Henry. I don’t care if Cerissa sent you the photo yesterday or today, or if you have her hidden away upstairs. This whole thing is politics, and you know it. I told the mayor I’d stop by and check on you. I have. I can report back that you haven’t violated the council’s ruling. Okay? You started to ask me to sit down. Was there something you wanted to discuss?”
The list. He’d almost forgotten the list. He returned to the fireplace mantel and picked up an envelope he’d left there. “The list you requested—people who may hold a grudge against both Yacov and me,” he said, handing it to her.
She opened the envelope and slid out the single page it contained. “I wish I’d had this weeks ago.”
“Yacov swore he emailed it to you long before the dance, and again afterward—and he wasn’t wrong. You can see the date, and his email address is at the top of the printout.”
“I never received it.” She scanned the list. “Why three groups of names?”
“The first group—both Yacov and I voted against granting them permission to turn their mate vampire. The second is a list of those who wanted to move to the Hill and were denied.”
“Why is Blanche on your list?” she asked.
He picked up his tall mug, considering his answer. “Do you mind if I drink while we talk? I could warm some for you.”
She waved her hand. “Go ahead. I’m fine. Why Blanche?”
“I wrote in her name because the homeowners’ board just voted to deny her residency.” He took a long sip from his mug. “But at the time of the attacks, her application was still pending. She had no motive to attack either Yacov or myself.”
“And the third group?”
“Those we ordered staked when Yacov and I were still on the council. The death penalty is not often meted out, but when it is, surviving makers or offspring may try to seek retribution.”
“What about your bookie?” she asked. “Is his name on here?”
Not a question he wanted to answer, but the town attorney had finally provided an acceptable immunity agreement, so he no longer had any excuse to delay. Too bad he hadn’t signed the agreement before the Bugles ballgame. He could have used it to get out of his house arrest. Problem was, he hadn’t revealed anything to Tig yet, and the town attorney had been clear on the point.
“So?” she asked, looking at him expectantly.
“My bookie’s name is Petar Petrov. We had a small problem with him, but we settled it.”
“We?”
“Yacov and I. I had placed a bet for us through one of his mortal companions. She wrote down the wrong amount.”
“How much?”
“She wrote fifty thousand apiece when it should have been five thousand. When we lost, Petar tried to collect the erroneous amount.”
“What happened?”
“We settled it—we split the difference.”
“You each paid twenty-five thousand instead of fifty thousand?”
“Exactly. Nothing worth killing over.”
Chapter 55
The next night
Cerissa stood on the mountain plateau behind Gaea’s house, looking at the valley spread out below. A series of rarely used trails ran across the mountain range, all leading to this private place, a place where she could change form when she needed to.
Like a creepy itch, staying human too long irritated her.
She had to clear her mind. A carefully worded message had been taped to her bedroom window, asking her to meet Henry here at four in the morning. She understood what he hinted at—he was coming to take her blood.
She took a deep breath, trying to release the tight pain building in her chest. Her heart longed for nothing more than to become Henry’s mate.
But too many things didn’t make sense. How could he get free tonight? Wasn’t someone guarding him, making sure he didn’t leave? That was why she hadn’t used Lux technology to flash to him inside his house.
And why did he just happen to pick this location for their rendezvous? She regularly hiked up here, but she had never mentioned her habit to him.
She undressed and morphed into her native form. As a precaution, she set up electronic wards around the area to extend the reach of her contact lenses. The clearing was bordered by pine trees, and the brush became denser beyond the trees. If anyone entered the area, the wards would alert her.
Stretching her wings to their fullest, she walked to the edge of the plateau to look at the valley again. Lights dotted the landscape, the vin
eyards creating dark patches of shadow against the low foothills.
Her contact lenses blinked a red warning. Someone had entered the airspace above her. The soft flap of wings followed by the crunch of feet landing on pine needles—she was no longer alone.
“Hello, Ari,” she said, drawing her wings back in. She had asked him to meet her here, an hour before Henry’s planned rendezvous. She needed advice, badly. Yeah, I must need it very badly if I’m asking him for advice on my love life. She remained facing the Hill’s valley.
“Ciss, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Standing on a mountain.”
“I saw the video of you and Henry at the hotel room,” he said. “You can’t let him take your blood.”
She remained facing the Hill’s valley. “Why not?”
“You can’t become bonded to Henry. Not until the Protectors decide what to do with the vampire communities.”
She spun around to face him. “What are you talking about?”
“Ah, your assignment had special rules. You can’t let a vampire bite you.”
“Why? Nothing happened when I fed Leopold.”
“You fed him by cutting yourself with a knife. You’ve never had fangs pierce your skin. From what we’ve figured out, fangs contain some sort of venom that’s involved in the transformation to vampire. The Protectors don’t know what effect it will have on you.”
Her eyes got wider. “Wait a minute. You’re the one who told me to seduce Henry. What did you think would happen? With vampires, sex and blood kind of go together.”
“I, ah…I read your orders last night.”
“You hadn’t read my orders before this?”
“Hey, I have a lot on my plate right now. You aren’t the only Watcher I’m running.”
“You’re too busy screwing Ducky to read my orders.”
“Kid, you could’ve read them too.”
“I did, but you’re the one who told me to seduce him. You!” She pointed at him and fluffed out her wings. “I thought you got revised orders—how was I to know?”
“Look, the Protectors aren’t sure they’ll let the vampire communities survive, not if they’re a threat to humanity—”
“Wait a minute. Nothing in my assignment said anything about destroying the vampire communities.”
“They didn’t want you to know. They thought you’d be able to do your job better if you didn’t.”
“What about the non-interference rule? Huh?” She raised both hands. “The least amount of interference possible—destroying all vampires sure isn’t the least amount.”
He looked at her like a doctor about to give bad news. “The non-interference rule only applies to humans.”
Oh shit. Her stomach clenched and bile crawled up her throat, her mouth turning sour. Why hadn’t she thought of that before? The Lux didn’t need vampires in order to survive—they only needed humans.
“Look, Ciss, the Protectors haven’t decided anything yet, but they don’t want you in too deep if they have to pull the plug. You’re upset, I understand—”
“But you don’t understand. I can’t let them hurt Henry or Leopold or Gaea or Liza or Karen or Tig or even that pompous mayor. None of them deserve to die for being what they are—or for loving who they love.” She ruffled her feathers as the words fell rapidly from her mouth. “No—no, I won’t let the Protectors do anything to my community.”
“Your community? Just because you slept with Henry doesn’t make you one of them.”
True. Except the feeling ran deeper than that, and not just to her root chakra; the feeling ran straight to her heart chakra.
“Are you listening to me?” Ari demanded. “You need to take a step back.”
“It’s a little late for that.”
“Kid, I’m sorry, but you can’t get in deeper.”
She turned her back on him, looking out over the Hill’s valley again. A tree branch creaked—or was it the sound of her heart breaking?
“I…I won’t stop seeing Henry,” she finally said.
“Of course you’ll stop.”
She flittered the tips of her wings and turned to face Ari.
“I love him.”
Ari shook his head. “Pathetic. First vampire you screw, you think it’s true love.”
“But I do love him.”
“Kid, you need to ease up on the stabilization fluid. You’re staying in human form too long. You’re starting to sound like one.” He raised the back of his ivory-colored wings and fanned them out, signaling his impatience. “For now, stop everything with Henry until we fix this with the Protectors.”
“We can’t ‘fix’ it with them—if you tell them now, they’ll take my wings.” She clutched her wings around her, her eyes wide open as it all sank in. “This is so much worse—why did you ever convince me to seduce him? Why did I listen? The Protectors are going to kill me.”
“I’ll do what I can to convince them otherwise, kid.”
“No, you won’t.”
“Now, Ciss—”
She released her wings, spreading them out. If she wanted freedom to choose her own path, she had to make her own decisions, even at the risk of being wrong. “You’ll keep this a tight secret until I decide what to do. The Protectors will know nothing—they can’t, not yet.”
“Kid, I can’t keep editing your vids.”
She pointed a finger at him. “You’d better, not unless you want them taking your wings, too.”
“What are you talking about?”
“If my wings are on the chopping block, you’ll be there right next to me. You screwed up my orders, not to mention your cover-up. You’ve been lying to them. What will they do when I tell them?”
“That’s blackmail!” he shouted.
“You bet it is.”
A sly grin formed on his pale blue face, a look of respect. “We’re going to make a great team, kid.”
“We don’t have a choice now. Once I’m established on the Hill, maybe then we can find a way to convince the Protectors vampires aren’t a threat, and get their blessing.”
“I never did like following orders anyway,” he said with a shrug. He reached for the watch on his blue arm, tapping it twice. “I’ll see you later.”
“Wait—what did you find out about Blanche?” She’d almost forgotten about her mission. Henry’s house arrest had blocked everything else from her mind. She had to get back on track to protect her community from the vampire dominance movement.
“Still searching,” he said. “I’m having trouble getting a handle on her, aside from the stuff Leopold gave you. She lost most of her money when the derivatives market crashed. But I’m not seeing anything in her electronic records that’s suspicious. She’s sort of a wanderer. Nothing stands out.”
“Did she make it to San Diego?”
“Last I checked. Her cell phone signal pinged there last night.”
“Keep working it.”
“You got it, kiddo.”
Once he blinked out of sight, she took a deep breath and let it out. She may have convinced Ari, but whatever leniency she expected from the Protectors would vanish if she let Henry take her blood. She fluttered the tips of her wings again. Could she persuade the Protectors to change their minds? Surely Henry would understand a small delay while she worked things out. And the town council—how would they react if she let Henry have her blood now? It might be better if they waited the two weeks until the council decided Henry’s punishment.
Her chest constricted. It felt like someone had wrapped a tight metal band around her and was slowly twisting it tighter. She didn’t want any delay. She imagined losing him, and her chest tightened even more, tears welling in her eyes.
She’d been crazy to think she could follow orders and still have her freedom. Freedom—a private code word she used for a much more heretical concept: free will.
She held up her hand to the stars, spreading her six fingers to filter their light, finding Mars and the Nort
h Star in the spaces in between. The Protectors claimed no member of the Lux had free will. About that they were wrong, she was sure of it.
But they had been right about one thing. Raising her with her human parent had changed her.
Pita. She’d briefly known her father’s love. He had believed in the cycle of lives, of death and rebirth, of the journey to self-perfection and self-knowledge as a way to end the cycles. But she remembered foremost his belief in free will. We have control over our lives and our choices can change the cycles.
The truth showed through as brightly as the stars arrayed between her splayed fingers—the cycles had to change. She could no longer be a slave to her people, trading her obedience for their approval. Funny, how revealing herself to Henry had first caused her to acknowledge her human side. Well, it was time to claim the human part of her birthright and determine her own path in life. Her choices wouldn’t be perfect, but they would be hers.
Her breath caught in her throat. Was that why her amma left? The Protectors had ordered Amma to live with Pita and raise her child among humans. I wasn’t her choice. She closed her eyes as the truth sank in.
Love has to be freely given.
She closed her fingers, blocking out the starlight. She couldn’t live without Henry’s light, his love. If he was willing to take the risk, he could have her blood. The Protectors be damned.
The red flash of her lenses, followed by a distant crunch of someone walking through dry brush, alerted her. More footsteps? Too early to be Henry, and no flutter of wings, so Ari hadn’t returned. She stretched her wings and, in one short hop, perched in one of the pine trees. She pulled her wings in tight around her. In the distance, a figure dressed in a black hoodie stopped on a higher ridge, a rifle slung over its shoulder, a backpack in the other hand.
She sniffed the air, but the person was too far away to smell. The figure crouched down behind a rocky outcropping—a vantage point from which both trail entrances to the plateau could be observed.
