“So why are you letting me live?” I held tighter onto the stake, just in case she did try to attack. “Why not kill me on sight?”
If it hadn’t been for the blood oath she’d made with me to promise me safety, I would have thought I was as good as dead where I was sitting.
“You haven’t been brainwashed by the Society,” she said. “That’s what they called themselves back in the day—the Society.”
“They can’t have turned everyone bad,” I said. “There had to be some good ones in the Society—some who saw that a person’s race doesn’t make them good or evil.”
At the same time, I had yet to meet a supernatural who had proven themselves completely trustworthy. The only one who I somewhat trusted was Jacen, but that was so complicated that I couldn’t even fully think about it right now. And Mary seemed trustworthy—especially since she’d started a kingdom that thrived on peace and prohibited violence of any kind—but who knew?
The only person I could truly trust right now was myself.
“Very rarely, a Nephilim would defect from the Society,” she said. “Those who did were seen as traitors. They were hunted down by their own kind and killed.”
I shuddered at the realization that I was descended from such a harsh, cruel race. Angels were supposed to be kind and loving, but the way Mary described Nephilim made them sound evil.
“You don’t like what you’re hearing?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “What you’re explaining to me—I’m nothing like that.”
Or was I? Hadn’t I hated all the vampires while I’d been a blood slave in the Vale? Hadn’t I thought that as a human, I would always be hunted by supernaturals unless I became one myself so I could have the strength to fight and kill them?
I wasn’t sure what scared me more—the fact that my ancestors were so cruel, or the chance that I might end up just like them.
“I know you’re not like that,” Mary said simply.
Her assurance allowed me to breathe again—but it didn’t placate me completely. “How?” I asked. “You just met me today. You don’t know anything about me.”
“I might not know you, but I’ve known you would arrive here for a long time,” she said, and then she stood up, looking at me to do the same. “Coming here is, and always has been, your destiny. You’re more important to the fate of the world than you could ever imagine.”
“What do you mean?” I stood up as well, still holding tightly to my stake.
Despite Mary’s promise of safety, I was in enemy territory. I needed to be prepared for whatever might come my way.
“That isn’t my part to tell.” She headed to the door, her back to me, only turning to face me once her hand was on the doorknob. “Come with me. There’s someone I need you to meet.”
Jacen
I paced in my quarters, thinking about the blood oath I’d made with Scott.
Once I get custody of Geneva’s sapphire ring, I’m to kill Annika and immediately return to the Vale to give the ring to Scott.
Making the promise ensured that my vampire brothers and sisters trusted me. The magic of the oath made it so that if I didn’t follow through, my blood would turn on me and poison me to death.
But I didn’t intend on it getting to that point. Because blood oaths were precise to their wording, and this oath depended on one main factor—that I got custody of Geneva’s sapphire ring.
The solution was simple—I wouldn’t touch that ring. If I never got custody of the ring, then I wouldn’t be bound to follow through with the rest of the oath. Annika would live, and I’d never have to set foot in the Vale again.
If only it could be that easy. It would be that easy, if it weren’t for the wolves declaring war against the Vale.
I couldn’t abandon the vampires and humans who would be slaughtered in that war. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try to save them.
Luckily, Noah had promised that he’d give me a heads up before the wolves launched their attack on the Vale. Which gave me exactly what I needed right now—time. Time to go to the Haven, find Annika, and convince her to use her command over Geneva to save the innocent citizens of the Vale—both the vampires and the blood slaves.
After that… well, I wasn’t sure what would happen after that. The royal vampires of the Vale would never forgive Annika for killing Queen Laila, even if Annika used the ring to save the Vale. They would hunt her forever.
But I was getting ahead of myself. There was no saying what Annika would do, since I still wasn’t sure exactly where she stood in everything. Right now, I had to focus on the task at hand. I could figure out how to keep Annika alive—if I still wanted to keep her alive—after this war was over.
And so, I picked up my phone and called Shivani.
The witch picked up after the first ring, and we exchanged the typical pleasantries.
“I need to come to the Haven,” I told her, unable to skirt around my purpose for calling her any longer. “Can you bring me there now?”
“Transporting halfway around the world and back requires a significant amount of energy,” she said. “Before I come to you, I must know—why do you want to come to the Haven?”
“Someone named Annika may have recently arrived to the Haven.” I didn’t want to give too much away in case Annika hadn’t made her arrival to the Haven public. “Do you know if she’s there, and if she is, is she safe?”
“An interesting question,” Shivani said. “But one I must answer with one of my own.”
“Go ahead.” I continued my pacing, growing more and more impatient with each passing second.
“If Annika is here, do you intend to hurt her?”
“No,” I spoke without a second’s thought. “I just need to talk to her. No violence—I swear it.”
The line clicked off, and Shivani appeared in my quarters a second later. She wore the same thing she’d had on when I’d met her—loose fitting white pants with a matching tunic. She seemed relaxed and calm, as if casually popping by after a yoga session.
“I didn’t expect to see you again so soon,” she said with a warm smile.
“Thank you for coming,” I said. “I take it that your arrivals means you’re willing to transport me to the Haven?”
“I am,” she said. “Although I cannot promise that Annika will agree to speak with you.”
“Just bring me there and tell her I’m there,” I said. “That’s all I ask.”
“Very well,” she said. “I believe you meant it when you said you meant her no harm. But I must warn you that if you were lying and you do attempt any violence toward Annika—or to anyone in the Haven, for that matter—you’ll no longer qualify for our protection, and you’ll be at the mercy of the tiger shifters.”
“I understand.”
I held out my hand to Shivani, and she transported me to the Haven.
Annika
Thanks to the protective bubble I’d commanded Geneva to place around me upon my arrival to the Haven, none of the vampires or shifters that we passed on our way to wherever we were going tried to attack me again. Most people looked at me curiously from their windows, but then they got on their way.
Still, I held my stake to my side, ready to defend myself if necessary.
Mary eventually stopped at a cabin as far away from the others as possible. The same size as all the others, it sat at the border of the Haven, looking out to the mountainous jungle beyond. Whoever lived here had clearly lucked out with his or her view.
The door to the cabin opened before we could make our way onto the porch.
A beautiful girl who looked no older than sixteen stood in the arch. Her blood had a metallic smell that I was coming to associate with vampires—it was very distinct from the flowery scent of the witches or the woodsy one of the shifters. She wore the white uniform of the Haven, and her full, wavy hair blew around her as if she were some kind of goddess.
But she didn’t look at us. She stared straight ahead, as if we were
invisible.
Her eyes had a milky haze over them—she must be blind.
“Annika,” she said my name, still staring blankly ahead. “I’ve been expecting you.”
I swallowed, unsure how to respond. Mary hadn’t let this girl know we were on our way, yet she’d opened the door before we had a chance to knock. And she knew my name.
Despite the humidity of the jungle, I couldn’t help shivering at the strangeness of it all. However, an undeniable feeling—perhaps that “angel instinct” Mary had mentioned earlier—told me I wasn’t in danger.
“Are either of you planning on telling me what’s going on here?” I asked, looking back and forth between Mary and the blind girl. “Or are you going to leave me in the dark for the hell of it?”
“This is Rosella,” Mary said, tilting her head toward the blind girl. “She’s a psychic vampire, and nineteen years ago, she prophesied your arrival to the Haven.”
“What?” I said, so dumbfounded that I couldn’t think to craft a better response.
“Come in.” Rosella opened the door further and stepped aside for us to enter. “I can tell we have much to discuss.”
Rosella’s cabin was decorated in the same stark style as Mary’s. But unlike Mary’s cabin, which had a handful of paintings on the walls, Rosella’s walls were empty.
My stomach growled at the delicious smell coming from the kitchen—pizza. Her table was set for three, as if she knew we’d arrive at that exact moment.
If what Mary had said was true and Rosella was psychic, I supposed she also knew I’d be hungry. I’d been snatched by the vampire guards on my way to breakfast, so I hadn’t had anything to eat since last night. Everything had been so crazy since then that I hadn’t even thought about food, but now that my favorite food was in front of me, the hunger pains hit so strongly that I wrapped my arms around my stomach to stop it from growling again.
“Please sit down.” Rosella walked over to the table and placed slices of pizza on all three plates. “And don’t worry—there’s a second pizza in the oven. I’ve heard that Nephilim have quite the voracious appetite.”
Annika
I could never say no to pizza, even if I wasn’t hungry. So as starving as I was, the offer was impossible to resist. There was even soda for me and blood for the vampires.
As I wolfed down my food, Rosella told me about her past.
She’d been born to nomadic Romani parents in the early fourteen hundreds who practiced fortune telling and palm reading. They’d been good to her—fostering her natural psychic gifts—but had died from the plague when Rosella was a teen. Rosella came down with the plague soon after her parents. She got worse and worse, the disease eventually progressing and taking her sight. Afraid she would contaminate them all, her people abandoned her on the side of the road, leaving her for dead.
“Little did they know that I’d had my eye on Rosella for years.” Mary glanced at Rosella with a motherly smile. “You see, the majority of humans who claim to be psychic are merely good at reading others. They use common tricks of the trade, like making vague statements that can apply to anyone, and looking for minor clues that reveal important information about the person they’re speaking with. But not Rosella. I listened as she did readings for others, always surprised by how spot on she was—down to the most specific, smallest details. She was the real deal.”
As she told me the story, I recalled a conversation I’d had with one of the other vampire princesses who’d come to the palace for Jacen’s selection—Isabella. Isabella had also been a psychic, with the gift of empathy. When she’d been turned into a vampire, her psychic gifts had strengthened.
“You were following Rosella because you wanted to turn her into a vampire,” I guessed. “To strengthen her psychic gift.”
“I started the Haven to take vampires in and offer them safety—not to turn them, and certainly not to turn them against their will,” Mary said. “The only exception is for psychics, as they have gifts that can help further our cause of peace. Once Rosella was fully-grown, I’d intended on giving her a choice. But when her people abandoned her, she was so close to death that not even vampire blood could heal her. Turning her should have killed her—she was too weak to realistically survive the change—but she was so near death that I tried anyway.”
“As you can see, I survived,” Rosella said with a smile. “My sight, on the other hand, wasn’t as lucky.”
“Would you have chosen to become a vampire?” I asked her. “If you were given the choice?”
“I was never meant to have a choice,” she said calmly. “Being turned into a vampire and coming to the Haven was always my destiny.”
I was about to argue that we always had a choice, but I stopped myself. It seemed pointless to argue with a psychic.
Instead, I finished off my final piece of pizza. Mary had already finished, and had moved onto starting to clean up the dirty dishes. Rosella was right that we’d needed two pies—I’d eaten an entire one myself. I also felt strangely comfortable with Rosella. Perhaps she was right, and us meeting here today truly was fate.
“Now that we’ve shared a meal, are you comfortable speaking alone?” Rosella asked once I was done.
Unlike Mary, Rosella hadn’t made a blood oath that she wouldn’t attack me, and Nephilim weren’t protected in the Haven. But I trusted her.
It must have been that angel instinct Mary had mentioned earlier.
“I am,” I said.
“Good.” Mary smiled and cleared my plate, cleaning it before I had a chance to tell her that I could do it myself. “I’ll be waiting outside to escort you back to my cabin once you’re done.”
She finished washing my plate, and then she made her way out the door, leaving me and Rosella alone.
An awkward silence descended upon the cabin the moment Mary left. I just stared at Rosella—I didn’t feel bad about staring, since it wasn’t like she could see me to know I was doing it—unsure what to say. She looked so young that it was hard to believe she was hundreds of years old.
“So.” I poured myself another glass of soda to give myself something to do with my hands. “I guess you wanted to talk to me so you could read my fortune?”
“I already know your fate.” Rosella got up and made her way to the living room, and I followed her, since staying at the table would be rude. “I’ve known your fate since the moment you were born.” She turned to face me, her milky eyes staring eerily ahead. “The great destiny of the Nephilim who would kill the Queen.”
“Oh.” I took a sip of my soda, hoping it would calm my nerves. Because truthfully, whatever “great” destiny was in store for me—I didn’t want it. The only thing I wanted was my normal life back. I wanted to fill the gaping hole that had made a home in my chest since my parents and brother had been murdered in front of my eyes.
But I would never have what I wanted, because getting them back was impossible.
“I won’t tell you your fate against your will.” Rosella took a seat on the couch, never stumbling in the slightest. “You can choose if you want to learn your destiny or not. If you leave right now, I won’t force the knowledge upon you. But if you sit down and join me, I’ll tell you everything. It’s up to you. So show me, young Nephilim—what path do you choose?”
Annika
I glanced at the door, contemplating Rosella’s question.
What if I could go back to the way things used to be? I couldn’t have my family back, of course. But Geneva was a strong witch, and despite how much she hated me after I’d killed Laila, I still had command of the sapphire ring. I could command her to create memory potions for everyone who’d been in the throne room that morning and make them forget everything. No one would know I was a Nephilim—no one would even know I was alive.
I could move someplace new and start over.
I imagined myself living in small European town—maybe one in Italy or Greece—and getting a job at a restaurant. I’d take some online classes on the side
to get my college degree. Perhaps I would even fall in love.
Life would be easy and simple. It would be normal.
But I would never be happy. There would always be that question lingering in the back of my mind—what if I’d stayed and listened to Rosella? What if I’d followed my so-called destiny and truly did end up doing something great—something that helped people all over the world?
Although, from what Mary had told me about Nephilim, when they’d roamed the Earth they’d done more harm than good.
“Before I choose, I have a question,” I said.
Rosella raised an eyebrow, but she didn’t seem surprised. “Go ahead,” she said with a small tilt of her head.
“From what Mary told me of the Nephilim, they sounded terrible,” I started. “They sounded evil. Are all Nephilim like that? Will I be like that, too?”
“No.” She smiled, as if my question amused her. “You can have a great destiny, but the future isn’t set in stone. You decide if you want to follow that destiny or if you want to walk away. Likewise, you choose the person you turn out to be. Good, or evil… it’s up to you.”
I nodded, taking in her words. Her answer was exactly what I’d needed to hear. Because ever since being taken as a blood slave in the Vale, I’d wanted to be able to defend myself. Since coming into my powers as a Nephilim, my angel instinct gave me that ability. Now, I wanted to do more.
I wanted to help the humans—like myself—who’d had their lives ripped away from them by the supernaturals. At the same time, I understood that not all supernaturals were bad, just as not all humans were good.
I refused to follow my ancestors’ paths of killing supernaturals simply because they belonged to a different race.
The Vampire Wish: The Complete Series (Dark World) Page 51
