by Rain Oxford
Maseré gave us a blue Ford Explorer. Once we got on the road, I asked, “What is a kengalt?”
“A braided hand tether that we will wear throughout the ceremony.”
“What do you know about Jillian?” Henry asked me.
“Not much. Her mind was blocked and I can’t think of a single time when my intuition worked right while she was near.”
“That’s suspicious.”
“What do you know about Clara’s mother?” I asked Darwin.
“Her name was Jillian, which the imposter could easily have found out. Her father, Marcel, disapproved of Stephen Yocum because he was small potatoes compared to her coven in Cachtice, Slovakia. The joke’s on him, though.
“Stephen was the youngest of many children in the Yocum coven in Whitby, England. He wasn’t supposed to take over a coven of his own. Instead, his parents used him and some of his siblings as servants. His parents were cruel and ruthless, and they were the most powerful vampires in Europe. Of course, you can’t blame vampires for being monsters in those days; they were hated by most paranormals.”
“Even in other countries?”
Darwin nodded. “Worldwide. Anyway, they tried to take over all of Europe and pushed Marcel’s coven too far. Marcel wasn’t as powerful as them, but he played even dirtier. He sent several of his human servants as a ‘peace offering.’ Only he added a little silver to their diet first. Stephen’s parents were too smart to fall for it, so he made a pact with a neighboring wolf pack, and they burned down the Yocum mansion with the vampire family inside. The only one to make it out was Stephen, because he was asleep in the horse stables. Actually, he had two older sisters who slept in the stables, but they chose to run out into the daylight and rescue their parents. They made it to the house and died with their family.”
“That sucks. If they were so powerful, why didn’t they have an escape route?”
Darwin laughed. “They did, but the non-Yocum servants were so afraid of the Yocum wrath that they fled and destroyed the escape route behind them before the Yocum family could finish gathering their valuables.”
“That makes sense.”
“Well, Stephen was still loyal to his family after the way they treated him. That’s just how vampires were in that day. Blood was everything. He was also smart and observant. He knew who was behind the fire. He slowly made his way to Cachtice, changing his appearance and altering his story. No one recognized him as a member of the Yocum coven because his parents had never introduced him to anyone. Once he reached Cachtice, he pretended to be a poor orphaned boy. He knew how to work and could follow orders, so he blended in perfectly. Back then, kids were ideal labor workers because they didn’t eat as much and couldn’t complain or they would get beaten.”
“Even vampire kids?”
“There weren’t vampire labor laws, no. Marcel saw potential in him. Stephen was about eight or nine. No one really knows because his parents never bothered to tell Stephen how old he was. Anyway, Marcel took him in and Stephen worked his juvenile butt off to gain trust. Soon, everyone in the coven adored him, especially Marcel’s youngest daughter.”
“Jillian.”
“Actually, it was Katarina. She changed it to Jillian when she married Stephen. They grew very close. They were each other’s first love and last love. After a few years, Stephen lost interest in revenge and became completely devoted to Katarina, who treated him with respect and kindness.”
“Did Marcel catch them together?”
“Yes, he did. Right after he came across one of the old servants of the Yocum family who told him who Stephen really was. He caught Stephen and Katarina kissing and just about killed Stephen. However, Stephen’s parents had been the most powerful vampires in Europe, as I said. Once he started fighting back, Marcel didn’t stand a chance. Stephen wasn’t a killer, but he crippled Marcel. Katarina begged Stephen to take her with him, so they ran. They fled to America, Katarina changed her name to Jillian, and Stephen changed his name to James. They married, but I don’t know if it was out of love or in an effort to hide.”
“How old were they?”
“Stephen was around sixteen or seventeen, and Katarina was fifteen. They lived for centuries, building their own coven with fairness and sternness. They weren’t cruel like their parents. They didn’t kill humans or punish their coven members for entertainment. Their enemies were never allowed to get away with crossing them, however. No one walked all over them.”
“That sounds like the Stephen I know.”
Darwin nodded. “They couldn’t have children, though. They tried for so many years without success that Jillian had bouts of depression where she couldn’t get out of bed for days.”
“Vampires have a difficult time conceiving, right?” Henry asked.
“Yes. It was even more difficult for them, and they didn’t know why. They adopted some vampire children over the years, but Jillian was adamant that she wanted to be a mother. She wanted to create a child that was part her, part Stephen. It’s an immortal thing, I think.”
“They had Clara, though.”
“Yep. After centuries of trying, Jillian finally got pregnant with Clara. Their little girl was born happy and healthy, their coven was thriving, and they were as in love as the day they ran away together. And two years later, Jillian got pregnant again, with a boy. There wasn’t a happier vampire couple in the world. At least until Marcel found out.”
“This doesn’t sound like it’s going to end well.”
“And it was partially Stephen’s fault. He was so happy for Jillian that when a new vampire in his coven turned out to be a spy, he showed mercy. He let the vampire live. The vampire escaped, ran to Marcel, and told him all about Jillian and the unborn baby.”
“I don’t want to hear anymore.”
Darwin ignored me. “Stephen doesn’t know how Marcel laced their food with silver. Clara was fussing, so Stephen comforted her instead of eating the food immediately. Being eight and a half months pregnant, Jillian did eat it.”
“How do you know this?”
“I read. That’s what I do.”
We were silent for a long time. There were times when I really couldn’t understand something without seeing it for myself. I was never more glad to be told something rather than have a vision of it in my life. After the previous vision, I couldn’t handle experiencing another person’s loss.
* * *
Fortunately, it seemed our hex bags were working, because Veronica didn’t throw any more curveballs at us. We reached Stephen’s home an hour before sunset.
Jasko met us at the door and led us inside. “I smell six of Darwin’s packmates,” Henry said quietly to me.”
“I take it the hunters are still a problem?” I asked Jasko.
“Yes. They’re getting worse. You’ve returned to help us, right?”
“Of course,” I lied. Fortunately, although shifters have superior senses to humans, they couldn’t smell lies like vampires could.
Henry and Darwin didn’t contradict me.
We were led inside and to one of the studies. “Stephen will be with you shortly.” Darwin wasn’t even listening; he immediately grabbed three books off the shelf and sat on the couch. We no longer existed in his world.
Henry and I discussed the advanced weapons the hunters had and if we should return to their old lair. “It wouldn’t take much for hunters to prove our existence when we have rules against killing them.”
“If paranormals killed humans, it would expose us to humans.”
Darwin scoffed. “Paranormals have been killing humans for eternity. Not every serial killer ever caught was human. Most of them were, though, because we’re good at covering our tracks. Not perfect, but good. How do you think Hollywood found out about us? Do you think humans made up paranormals in their mind and we just happened to already exist?”
“So the hunters can’t expose us?” I asked.
“No, they easily could. At least, they could expose vampires. They
have that pesky sun weakness. However, they also have the thrall to make up for it. What stops them from destroying these hunters is their morality. Stephen has the patience of a saint for not decimating them. It’s also a mistake. He’s jeopardizing the lives of all vampires to avoid killing a few hundred humans. The humans are developing ways to wipe the vampires off the planet. They’re not afraid of vampires because they somehow know Stephen won’t fight back.”
Stephen opened the door, and I knew by his expression that he’d heard Darwin. “You would kill hundreds of humans if they were threatening your pack?” Stephen asked.
“Absolutely,” Darwin said easily.
“What about Victor?” I asked.
He opened his mouth before he remembered his horror when he thought he’d killed the enemy shifter. With resignation, he said, “I would do anything to protect my pack. That’s what we do.”
“A lot of my people were once human. We need humans to survive,” Stephen said. “I remember vampires being outcasts; you just read about our struggles. You don’t understand the prey drive we have. We don’t have two separate minds like you and your wolf do. We are constantly surrounded by prey and can’t shut off the instinct to kill humans, paranormals, and weaker vampires.”
“I don’t need to hear this, considering how many years I spent believing it,” I said, trying to politely remind him that I used to want all of his kind dead.
He didn’t get the message. “It’s not even hunger for blood that drives our bloodlust; we are driven to kill weaker beings. If we didn’t have strict civility rules, we would be animals. We would be less than human, and that’s unacceptable.”
“You only have to kill a few humans for the remaining members to run scared,” Darwin said. “The trick is hitting the right people.”
“You know nothing about killing,” Stephen said.
“I know about strategy.”
“Darwin, people aren’t statistics,” I argued. “There are repercussions for killing people. It’s not just the emotional damage you do to yourself. Those people you kill are loved. They’re missed. They provoke revenge.”
“I’m not saying that Stephen’s men should go on a rampage. He’s letting ants kill his people. I’m saying he needs to take a stand.”
“That’s your fae side showing itself. I understand and agree completely. However, Stephen is saying that taking a stance can result in a rampage.”
“Did you and Darwin switch personalities?” Stephen asked.
“Devon is always wisest when someone is being unreasonable,” Henry explained. “While Darwin’s fae side makes him peaceful under normal circumstances, the exception is when it comes to someone messing with his family.”
“Let’s focus on dealing with the hunters,” I said.
“I would appreciate that,” Stephen agreed.
“Can we talk to Jillian alone?” I asked.
“My wife? Why?”
“Because mums always notice things,” Darwin lied easily.
Stephen bought it. “I’ll send her in.” Despite his high morals, he wanted the hunters to be gone.
A few minutes later, Jillian entered. My intuition didn’t react. “Stephen said you had some questions for me.” She didn’t sound suspicious and her eyes were normal. She was probably lying and definitely deadly, but she didn’t strike me as the person we were after.
“Actually, I’d like to read your mind.”
She frowned. “You don’t trust me?”
“It’s not that,” Darwin lied.
“I see things in people’s mind that they don’t think to tell me,” I said. “I can delve deeper into memories than a person normally can.”
She smelled the truth on me and nodded. “Very well. What do I have to do?”
“Nothing. I’m going to break through the mental wall you have around you. You’ll feel it, but it won’t hurt. Don’t fight me if you can help it; I don’t know how my power compares to a vampire’s thrall.”
“You should,” she said, disapproval in her tone. “You’re going to have to fight vampires over the years, so you need to test your power on friends.”
“Thanks for the advice. I’m still touchy on the subject and I don’t want to accidentally hurt one.”
“You’ll stay the day when the hunters are dead, and I will send Clara to your room. You will challenge her, and if you can defeat her, you will challenge me. If you can defeat me, you can defeat any vampire.”
I didn’t know what to say, because she was issuing a command rather than offering assistance. My magic encountered her mental wall and was trained by me not to fight them. Since I had permission, I directed it to break the wall. It took a moment before my magic realized what I wanted, but then it broke through the wall like wet paper.
Jillian gasped and I felt her magic well up. It wasn’t like a wizard’s magic, but she did have energy inside her that gave her vampire abilities. This told me three things: She was undoubtedly a vampire, my mind control was very similar to their thrall, and Stephen hadn’t been exaggerating about the predator drive.
“I’m sorry. I’m trying to be gentle.” I focused on her past memories of Clara. I hit another wall, but this was a memory wall. She couldn’t remember anything more than two months ago, when she decided to return “home” and visit her husband and daughter. The knowledge in her mind of everything previous was just like the memory of my siblings in the minds of the teachers and students.
In other words, they were fake.
Benny must have gotten to her. She truly believed she was Clara’s mother and Stephen’s wife. She couldn’t remember anything more than two months previous, but she thought she could. I felt her trying to push me out and changed my focus to the hunters.
I saw them chased out of several rooms as hunters threw grenades through bedroom windows. I heard them shoot the wolves with silver bullets. They were all going hungry because they couldn’t trust their synthetic blood supply and their human donors couldn’t feed them all full time. I also heard them discussing their newest bomb, which was some kind of liquid silver spray.
Shit. I pulled out of her mind.
“What was that?” Jillian asked.
I didn’t even know what her real name was. She was a victim, which was a clue. More importantly, she and the coven wouldn’t last long enough to defeat Veronica if we didn’t stop the hunters. Fortunately, I had Darwin and Henry with me this time, so I didn’t even have to let the hunters get close to the vampires again. “I have a plan on how to stop the hunters.”
* * *
The easiest way to defeat them was to burn down their compound, but that had more negative consequences than we could justify. Although I had seen their compound through their mind, the people they sent out weren’t high-ranking enough to get me any real information.
Their guards and traps made it impossible to get close enough to overhear others, and I couldn’t stay in someone’s mind long enough to track them without risking serious mental damage.
I explained this to Darwin and Henry. “They’ve seen me, and I wasn’t able to wipe myself from their mind in time. They’ll recognize me if I show up.”
“I can break in,” Henry said.
“The dogs would probably bark at you because you’re a jaguar shifter.”
Darwin nodded. “They would. Then they would test his reaction to silver.”
“I can be invisible.”
“Yeah, that would go over well. If they think their enemy can be invisible, they’re going to amp up their attack a hundred-fold.”
“And I would be recognized, so I can’t do it,” I said. “Plus, we don’t want them learning about wizards on top of shifters and vampires.”
“They probably already suspect.”
“The dogs might bark at you, but they would test you with silver. According to Ascelin, you might be immune to silver. Are you willing to test that?”
He scoffed. “I’m looking forward to it. Silver burn is nothing compared to phy
sical contact with someone, and I’m all for experimenting on myself. Where are we going to find silver at a vampire coven, though?”
I pulled a small knife out of my boot and they both frowned at me with disapproval. “It wasn’t for the vampires, it was for Ace if she refused to let Darwin go.”
Darwin rolled his eyes and stuck out his arm. “You don’t mind if I smoke, do you?” he asked as I hovered the blade an inch from his skin.
“That’s not funny,” I scolded. When his eyes met mine, I saw that he wasn’t as confident as he pretended to be. He had experienced a lot of pain in a short amount of time. I pressed the blade to his skin and we both looked at it.
No reaction.
Darwin’s jaw dropped. “Hand it over.” I did, careful not to touch his skin. He wasn’t bothered; he nicked himself with the edge and pressed the silver into his wound. Henry shuddered, but Darwin was ecstatic. “I’m cured of silver! We have to go back to Ascelin after this. Maybe he can cure me of my curse.”
“So the plan is to send Darwin into the compound?” Henry asked, clearly not on board with the idea.
“I know he’s been through a lot lately. Rocky will watch over him. All he has to do is get in and find a safe, private room inside. Once he does, we’ll use the shadow pass to get to him. At that point, Henry, you’ll go invisible. I’ll listen in on people’s minds. We need to get to their records, whether they’re on computers or files. They’re going to have written information on the weaknesses and strengths of vampires and shifters, who they’ve attacked, and if they have any allies.”
Henry wasn’t happy about the idea of putting Darwin in danger again, but he deferred to my plan.
“I don’t think we should be prioritizing the hunters over stopping Veronica,” Darwin said.
“We’ll multitask. Veronica is fucking with us and our friends, but at the moment, the school is safer than Stephen’s coven is.” I pulled out the note from Ahz. “Speaking of multitasking… can you read this by any chance?”
“It’s pictographic, but it predates vernacular Middle Egyptian. Hell, this looked older than Sumerian, which is ridiculous. The formation of the symbols are clearly ancient, designed for stonework instead of paper, yet even those that look slightly familiar could just be by chance. This is from Ahz, yeah?”
