by Laken Cane
I could feel his struggle.
Even with the silver, he’d managed to move. To undulate through the ground, trying to find Willow-Wisp, because the graveyard earth would have made him stronger.
Trying to find his way to the top. To me.
I slept.
In the blink of an eye the sun was gone and I awakened. I had not moved in my sleep. My wrist still lay against his lips, and my arm was still around him.
He’d nearly drained me.
I was too empty to be helped by a supernatural. I needed the magic of human blood.
That was the first thing I felt.
The second thing was Amias’s lips against mine. Unmoving, cold, but there.
I was dying.
I’d given myself to the master, and there was nothing left of me.
Then Shane wrapped us up in his embrace and propelled us to the surface. We broke through and lay like weighted, half-dead slugs.
“Hang on,” Shane murmured.
He left us, but was back in minutes. He brought food.
It was contained in a mesmerized human woman, warm and strong and alive.
As I drank, the spark of life inside me flared, and when the human died, then almost immediately began to turn, I was touched by something I’d never felt before.
I was a mother, and she was my child. I was her maker, and she was my rifter.
She was mine. Mine.
I would tend her. I’d put her in the ground and grow her, take care of her, teach her. Together we would—
Shane yanked her from me, ripped her heart from her chest, and took the pieces of her into the ground. He was back before I’d stopped moaning.
“You can’t have kids, baby hunter,” he murmured. “Stop it.”
And Amias lay silent and unmoving upon the ground. Pain ripped through me—the pain of realization.
I’d murdered a human woman.
To deal with it, I shut my emotions right the fuck down.
I shoved the memory of what I’d done into the earth with the human, and I left it there as I crawled to Amias and once again fed him the blood inside me.
We would survive. No matter what.
And someday, the earth would be inundated with the strong, the supernatural, the vampire. No, that was wrong.
The rifter.
For us, it was the beginning.
A brand new beginning.
Chapter Thirty-Two
PUNISHMENT
“This is what the elders fight against,” Himself said. “This is what we all fight against. The humans cannot end. If they end, we end. Can you not understand?”
“I do understand,” I said, and sank a little further into my guilt. “But human blood was the only thing that would bring me back. Shane saved my life.”
Shane and I had been getting a lecture from Himself and the elder since we’d made it back to the way station. I was high on the dead human’s blood, worried about Amias, and terrified that the elders would hurt Shane for grabbing the human.
The elder pointed a long, bony finger at Shane. “He should not have killed a human to save you.”
I dropped my gaze. He was right. We shouldn’t have killed a human so I could live. There were no excuses.
I should have felt worse about it than I did.
Fucking rifter heart.
“This is your fault,” the elder told Shane. “You, a vampire, have murdered an innocent.”
“You will be punished and punished severely,” Himself added.
I didn’t move, but I looked at the King of Everything, and I could almost feel something dark inside me click into place. “He’s not yours to punish.”
“Then whose is he to punish, girl? Yours?” The elder stared at me, contempt in his little black eyes. “You cannot punish him. You cannot control him.”
“He is mine,” Amias said, stepping in through the open kitchen door. “And I will tend him.”
It had only been a couple of hours since his rescue, and he had yet to tell me who’d put him in the ground—but I was nearly certain I knew who had done it. I just didn’t know why.
No one but the elders would be powerful enough to neutralize and silver the master, then bury him so deep we couldn’t feel him.
He looked good, though. He’d cleaned up and fed, and he was the very picture of glowing health.
Except for his eyes. They held only darkness.
“But you belong to me,” the elder said, angry. “And all that is yours belongs to me. It is the council’s responsibility to control the vampires.”
“It won’t happen again,” I said. “We never meant for it to happen in the first place. Shane was thinking only of saving my life—not killing a human. I took too much.”
Himself and the elder stared at me, silent. But I could see their revulsion. They no longer thought of me as a vampire. I was the rifter. The girl’s murder had snuffed out the vampire. I knew what I was, and I accepted it, even if I didn’t quite embrace it. My guilt wouldn’t let me.
That was good enough. I needed a conscience to separate me from the monsters. And I had one.
So fuck them.
“Would it have been different if the human we’d killed had been a…” I waved my hand. “A bad human?”
“Of course,” the elder answered, his eyes bright with pain. “You must not kill innocence. You must not kill good. What would remain to fight the evil?”
“The vampires?” I suggested.
He could only stare at me.
“It is the rifter,” Himself said, finally. He put his fingers to his mouth, overcome, and turned away. “The elders are right. We made a mistake. You…”
But he could say nothing else.
“It was a fucking accident,” Shane said, glaring. “The human was turning. I had to kill her. We went too far, took too much. We know that. What the fuck else do you want us to say?”
I reached out to take his arm and when his automatic reaction was to pull away, I squeezed hard and refused to let him. “No more of that,” I told him.
“I will handle my house,” Amias told the two ancient men. “Please. Leave me to my business.”
The elder curled his fists. “Your disobedience will not be tolerated. That is why you were punished. I will see you replaced as master of this city.”
“You silvered and buried him,” I said, abruptly cold.
“He is not above punishment,” the elder told me. “And this is not your concern. You have no knowledge of vampire ways. You are not really a vampire, are you?”
I shrugged. “I am not really your vampire. I am his.” I jerked my thumb at Amias. “So what happens to him is my concern.” I took a step toward him. “What did he do to deserve it?”
“You cannot understand.”
“I understand that you can’t suddenly reappear after deserting him for so very long and expect things to go back to how you left them. You should be punished. You abandoned the vampires. So lay the fuck off my master, asshole.”
“Trinity,” Himself roared, thumping his staff on the floor. “They sacrificed, they did not abandon! I will not allow such disrespect.” He actually pointed the tip of his staff at me, and for a second, I thought he was going to kill me on the spot.
The elder nodded. “It is as we said. This one is beyond our help.” He leveled a cold look at Himself. “You see, don’t you?” Then he put his stare on Amias. “If you continue to refuse to consider our orders, we will have no choice but to end you both.”
“What orders?” I asked. “Tell me.”
“No,” Amias said, but the elder ignored him.
“The rifter can be excised,” he said. “Amias can kill you, then put you in the ground and regrow you. It is then possible that you will reemerge as a vampire—not the vampires’ enemy.”
There was silence all around.
I looked at Himself. “You agreed with that?”
He sighed. “No, child. For you would return as something less than what you are fated
to be.”
“Only the elders agree that such a thing should occur,” Amias said. “But it is a risk I am not willing to take.”
“So they punished you for it.”
“He is harming vampires because of his regard for you,” the elder said. “He is willing to risk his people because of his love for you.”
“It’s all tangled up together,” I realized. “Fate and rules and love and hate.” I was suddenly tired. I wanted nothing to do with their politics or worries. But I would not let them harm Amias again.
I drew my sword and she lit up, causing the elder to throw an arm up to shield his face from her silver light.
“You threaten my master, you threaten me. And I will destroy you.”
They could only gape.
“My love,” Amias said, his voice so utterly empty that I knew he was as stunned as the elder and Himself. “No.”
But I wasn’t backing down. “Go rule your vampires,” I told the elder. “And leave me and mine alone. We understand what needs to be done with the humans, the city, and the future. Amias and I and our little circle—we are, as of this moment, liberated from you, your council, and your rules. You aren’t required to protect us, and you aren’t permitted to discipline us. You will not rule us.” I pointed at Amias, who stood like a statue, empty, blank, dark. “You will not rule him. Do you understand my words?”
The elder was as still as Amias. “You are going rogue. You wish to take the master with you.”
I shrugged. “Call it what you want, but we are…” I shook my head, searching for the words. “We are apart.”
The elder looked at Amias. “She will cause the rift,” he said. “The rifter will rift. That is predicted. And you will let her.”
Amias finally moved. He came to stand at my side. “What she says is right. We are meant for other things. He knows.” He gestured at Himself. “He understands. Now the council will, as well. It will be as she says.”
“You will cause separation amongst the vampires,” the elder whispered. He looked like his world was ending.
“Not if we aren’t forced to,” Amias said. “Do not force us to.”
“The elders rule the vampires,” the elder said.
“Not us,” Amias replied. “Not anymore.”
“You will allow a rifter to rule you.” The elder trembled, and for a second, I felt sorry for him.
“I will allow a rifter to rule with me,” Amias corrected, gently. “She is my queen, and that is how it was always meant to be.”
I looked at Himself, remembering the words he’d spoken when he’d invaded my mind. “Your king will be the one with whom you rule.”
I gave him a nod, which he returned.
“You must agree,” the King of Everything said to the elder, softly. “There can be peace. We know your power, and we respect it. But Trinity is right. They are apart.” And he came to stand with us. Together, we faced the elder. “And you shall not hurt them.”
“We will not kill humans.” The elder’s voice shook with frustration. “We cannot interfere with their battles. It is not the right thing to do. Who will police this…this rogue group, if not the council?”
“We will police ourselves. And Safin isn’t human.” I lifted an eyebrow. “Will you kill him?”
“It would be an abuse of their power,” Himself told me. “There are rules they must not break.” His stare was soft even as he rebuked me. “They cannot use their power to wipe out everyone they do not agree with.”
“Power,” I said. “What power? They disappeared and allowed their vampires to be hunted and killed. They let vampires be silvered and buried and staked. Angus’s daughter was just beaten and terrorized and lies in the Deluge attempting to heal because of Safin. The elders don’t protect us. Power?” I snorted. “I don’t see any fucking power. I just see a desire to rule, to be blindly followed, to be unquestionably obeyed. I don’t see any power.”
And by the end, my voice was full of tears and despair, and the old elder softened, at last.
“Trinity,” he said, gently. “You must have faith.”
Himself nodded. “As must you, my dear friend,” he told the elder. “As must you.”
Then they both looked at me, and something changed. Something was understood, and balance, it seemed, was restored.
They left without another word.
“My love,” Amias said, and pulled me into his arms. “Oh, my love.”
“What just happened?” Shane asked.
“The council will allow us our freedom,” the master said thickly. “And they will allow her to live.”
“Allow?” I asked. “We took our freedom.”
A spark of anger lit Amias’s eyes. “He could have turned Shane to ash with a look, Trinity. He could have commanded it and I would have burned as though the sun had touched me. He could have done that to punish you. So yes, he is allowing us our freedom.”
I began to tremble with the sudden realization of what I had risked. Himself would have fought the elder, and the elder had known that, but still, it could have cost Shane and Amias their lives. And that would have cost me mine.
“Amias,” I whispered. “I…” But there was nothing to say. It had ended well, even though it could just as easily have gone to hell.
“I must punish you for killing the human girl,” Amias told Shane. “These are different times. New beginnings. Once the executioners have been dealt with, the ground will be waiting. You are a vampire now. It is time you began to live like it.”
“What about me?” I asked. “I’m the one who drained her. You’re not punishing me?”
His smile was tiny. “Am I not, Trinity?”
He turned on his heel and left, and we stayed frozen in place.
“Oh,” I said.
Yes, he would punish me.
He would put Shane in the ground.
What would hurt me more than Shane’s agony?
“You can refuse your punishment,” I said, woodenly. “I will stand with you.”
He shook his head. “You might rule with him, Trinity, but I don’t. He’s my maker. I can’t do anything but obey him.”
“I won’t allow it,” I murmured.
“You won’t have a choice.”
Jin stuck his head through the doorway, his eyes like big black holes in his face.
“You can come in,” I said. “They’re gone.”
He swept the kitchen with that black stare, making sure I wasn’t lying to him.
My cell rang and I jumped, then pulled it from my pocket. “Crawford?”
He was running as he talked—his voice was jerky. “Trinity, Safin just called me. They attacked the tunnels. Get there now.”
Then he was gone.
“No,” I cried, as rage began to rise inside me. Rage, not fear. There should have been fear.
Shane grabbed my shoulders. “What happened?”
Leo jogged into the kitchen, his hair still wet from the shower, smelling like power and strength. “Trinity?”
“Safin found the tunnels,” I said. “He’s going after the children.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
TAKEN
Apparently, Safin healed quickly. With the damage he’d sustained from the battle, he should have been in bed, attempting to heal.
Instead, he was at the tunnels, attacking helpless supernatural kids.
I sped through the doorway, Shane at my back, screaming silently for Amias. If Safin stayed to fight, we were going to need the master.
The tunnels were covered with dozens of spells, protection and otherwise. One of the spells made it nearly impossible for humans—or outsiders—to find the entrances and exits.
Yet somehow, Safin had.
When we arrived at the tunnel entrance, no enemy was there.
“They’re at one of the exits,” Shane said.
The tunnels came out on the other side of Bay Town, deep in the woods. It wouldn’t take us long to find which exit—once we were in the
woods the sounds of battle would likely tip us off—but it was a delay we couldn’t afford.
Supernaturals began to come out in force as the news spread. I tasted their panic, immediate and sharp, as they rushed to defend the most vulnerable among us.
Someone would hurry to the Deluge to tell Angus that as he sat at the bedside of one of his children, the others were under attack.
That would push him over the edge.
Exactly as Mikhail Safin wanted.
But there were no executioners. Not at the tunnels.
Dead bodies—I counted five of them—littered the ground.
A few wolves milled the area, and when word spread that help had arrived, children began spilling from the exit.
Crawford had arrived at very nearly the same time I had, and he strode toward me, his stare moving over the area, assessing the situation. I stared at him, feeling almost as if he were the only familiar thing—the only calm thing—in the jumble of confusion and discord.
For a second I felt the need to go to him. To stand with him so he wouldn’t have to be alone. Because he seemed alone. He always seemed alone.
He met my gaze, and for maybe the first time since I’d come back, his eyes didn’t waver or flinch or fill with pity over my circumstances or fear that I might mesmerize him. The guilt had also melted away. And what remained was the one thing that had lurked there since the beginning.
And I was the one to look away.
I took a deep breath, then another, and finally, the black rage began to weaken.
“How did he get in?” Crawford asked.
I shook my head. “I just arrived so I know nothing.” I lifted a hand and gestured at a wolf, but as he began to jog toward me, Crawford pointed at something behind me.
“Angus had Jade and her crew guarding the tunnels,” he said. “Those killed must have been her men.”
I turned and spotted Amias crouching before a battered woman. I recognized Jade Noel even beneath the blood covering her face.
Alejandro knelt behind her and she reclined against him, her hands in her lap. I stepped on something as I neared her, and when I glanced down, I found her wand.
It hadn’t done her any good—at least I thought it hadn’t, until I spotted a dead executioner lying a few yards from her. Somehow, she’d managed to break through Safin’s protection spell and had killed at least one of his men.
