Chapter 10
Rachel
E arly the following day, Darius sent out a text message to everyone in the villa to meet in the conference room within the hour. I groaned, irritated by the fact I couldn’t sleep in again. So, I quickly showered and threw on a pair of jean shorts and a black-and-white T-shirt before heading to the main house.
Since Darius ran his art restoration business from home, he renovated the house’s east wing into an office. Two smaller rooms were a studio and a lounge; the largest room had a projection screen and a table at least twelve feet long. Some nights, Darius would host a “family dinner” in that conference room since it could accommodate all of us.
When I walked in, Ava, Luka, and Gio had already taken a seat at the far end, closest to the wall. The moment I plopped down in my chair, Ava slid a mug of coffee over to me. I was half tempted to kiss her for it, taking a slow sip.
“What’s going on?” I asked, my eyes fixed on Alessandro and Tati, the pure-blood vampires, as they walked into the room and settled into their chairs. Tati greeted us with a cheerful wave, her pink lips curving into a smile. Beside her, Alessandro looked much different; his bloodshot eyes and dark circles made him look like he hadn’t fed in days. Despite their hunt to feed last night, it was clear it wasn’t enough.
“Darius wanted to speak with us … all of us,” Valentina said as she walked into the room. The vampires and dhampirs rose to their feet and bowed to her.
I stayed seated.
Darius rarely gathered the family in the house outside of the dinners and had been too busy over the last month with “business,” as he’d explained. I shifted uncomfortably.
“Yeah, something’s going on. He never does this,” Ava whispered, tucking her black hair behind her ear. Her curvy frame was tense, her shoulders rigid, like she was bracing for something.
Avaline Jean-Claire was originally from Versailles, France. Her mother, Juliette, was one of the first to undergo the fertility spell. Unfortunately, when the coven attacked the academy, she and Ava’s father died protecting her, leaving Darius and his witch allies to help her develop her Fire magic after they moved into the villa.
Ava was an exceptional magic wielder, and her ability to manipulate flames into animals was the most incredible gift I had ever seen. My personal favorite was when she crafted a giant wolf from red fire. She lovingly named the beast “Guillaume” after her favorite romance.
Luka opened his mouth to speak, but the door swung open, and Darius strode in, the murmurs dying off. He was wearing a suit, which was unusual for him—a sleek black suit with a light-blue shirt underneath.
He had even trimmed his beard.
“Sorry, guys. I know meeting on a Saturday morning is inconvenient, especially for the humans. But a lot has happened in the last twenty-four hours.”
Darius sat at the head of the table, and everyone fell silent. As he clicked on the projector, Valentina took a seat on his left, placing her hand on his arm. She and Darius had become so close the past few months, and I didn’t know how to feel about that. Valentina seemed to agree with everything he said, no matter how unethical it sounded and demanded that we follow suit. It was so fucking aggravating.
Now that Darius had everyone’s attention, he pulled a small remote from his pocket and opened a slide on the white projection screen behind him. The image of an old oil painting appeared. It was of a female angel with blindingly white wings spread wide, and her golden hair flowed down to her hips. An aura behind the angel shimmered like fallen snow in the twilight. The painting was beautiful, but I could tell that it couldn’t fully capture that woman’s radiance.
“We’re going to be reviewing a bit of history today,” Darius started. There were a few teasing groans between everyone, and Darius rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on. It’s the history teacher in me. You know I miss it.” He turned back to the screen. “We reviewed some information four months ago when Valentina and Rachel arrived, but our plans going forward make it crucial to understand where we all come from.” His voice was serious now, glancing at Valentina, who smiled and squeezed his arm again. “Now, this is obviously an artist’s rendering from the library archives, but given the features, who can tell me who the woman is?”
Alessandro quickly raised his hand, and Darius pointed to him.
“Tatyana,” he replied. “She was the angel who created the Chosen Coven, the witches who embodied Earth’s sacred elements and bound all magic together. She also created Purgatory, where a vampire’s soul dwells in limbo until the second death.”
“Correct,” Darius replied. He clicked on another image. It was Tatyana standing with a male demon, their gazes locked in some sort of fervor.
Whether it was hatred or love, I couldn’t tell.
“Thousands of years ago, when humanity was new, Lucifer sent a demon child named Misha to Earth. He had planned for his general to live among the humans and learn their weaknesses so that he would destroy all that was good and enslave the people. Once Misha grew into a man, he had a dream where Lucifer instructed him to create more like him. He used his blood to create vampires, except they weren’t like us; they were like him. The vampires were uncontrolled and demonic-looking. He had no choice but to kill them and start over. It would be much harder to manipulate and conquer the humans when they were afraid. Lucifer warned him that the high God, who watched over the humans, was sending an angel, Tatyana, to stop him. However, instead of completing her mission, she allegedly fell in love with Misha.”
Darius looked around the room. “Does anyone know what happened next?” Ava raised her hand. “Avaline?”
“She and Misha had a son, Kylan, the first true-born vampire and Madame Vasile’s maker.”
Darius nodded in approval. “Correct. Kylan was the first and only being born of angelic and demonic blood. He created immortality by turning his first human into a vampire—Valentina Vasile.” He glanced at my mother and winked. “If Kylan is the Father of Vampirism, then Valentina is the Mother.”
Gross.
Luka shot me a look, and I chewed my lower lip anxiously.
Why the hell is he rehashing a well-known story? What’s the point?
Darius stood and moved from his chair to where Alessandro and Tati were sitting to his right. He raised his hands from his sides. “Whatever horror the Devil may weave, we must overcome the threads of his evil and alter the course of history. We erase the chapters he writes. We deny the darkness.”
When he looked over at me, I averted my gaze to look at Valentina instead, who gave me a subtle smile.
He continued. “Aside from Enzo and Charles, who are very much valued, we are vampires and dhampirs in this house. Let me tell you that despite what the humans and witches may believe, you are not demons. We may carry darkness within us, but we still have a choice to deny it. We choose who we become. In that, we are the same as everyone else.” Darius clicked the remote again, and an all-too-familiar picture filled the screen. An icy shiver ran down my spine. It was the church I was born in—the same church where my friend-turned-enemy, Hailee, died. My heart kicked up its pace, and I swallowed hard.
I leaned toward Luka and whispered, “Where the fuck is Darius going with this? Why the church?”
“I have no clue,” Luka replied under his breath. Ava and Gio looked equally confused as me. They also knew my story.
“Two hundred years ago,” Darius started, “inside that church, Valentina and her human mate, Cyrus, confronted the vampire Maurice Tomassi. Many of you know who he was. She came to retrieve a ring that he had stolen from her. Now, what was so special about a ring? Well, this ring allowed Valentina to access the magic she had as a witch eons ago. That ring would protect her and her unborn baby—a child who would one day walk this world with great strength and power.”
Everyone turned to look at me. My cheeks burned, and my entire face reddened as I sank into my chair. I took another gulp of coffee and intensely examined the table’s wood grain.
Darius returned to the front and turned off the projector before leaning against the table. “After the confrontation, the Black Onyx Coven attacked, killing my best friend, sealing Valentina away, and stealing her child. Maurice escaped and later tried to create an army to enslave Earth. You all are familiar with the Battle of the Devil’s Uprising over ten years ago. That man unleashed Hell onto the world, all for the goal of taking over the world himself. The Chosen defeated the demonic armies, driving them back to the Underworld, and killed Maurice,” he explained. “Maurice wanted to uphold the vampire legend, depicting us as the embodiment of soulless monsters who wanted dominance over the ‘inferior humans.’ He believed all life needed to bend to his will as the apex predator—to destroy everything in the vampires’ path to self-assured victory. Without realizing it, he almost succeeded where Misha failed.”
I leaned back, rocking the chair slightly with my feet. Where was Darius going with this? Everyone knew about Maurice and the war. Others seemed to share my sentiment by the looks they were giving him.
“Since that day,” Darius said, his voice commanding the room again, “they forced us to come out of hiding, sign peace treaties with every human government, and assimilate into human society. Despite most vampires agreeing with the treaties, Lemurian Quartz and Black Onyx still persecuted us. They disregard innocent lives for an old bias that fuels their need to kill us all, and it extended to the dhampirs, resulting in more slaughter. I say that it’s time to put a stop to these self-righteous witches. It’s time we wage war against these covens and their supporters.”
My jaw dropped, and I glanced at Luka again. “What the hell?”
I raised my hand, and Darius nodded. “Uh, what happened to no 'reckless war?'” I asked.
“Well, Rachel,” Valentina said, gently squeezing Darius's arm. “Things have changed. What must be done has to be on a larger scale than what we discussed.”
Oh shit.
When Darius showed us the gem he’d kept hidden in the basement, I knew their plan. To live peacefully, the covens had to go. But the more I watched Valentina and Darius plan the impending attack, the more it became clear they were ready for a bloodbath. I wasn’t ever on board with removing magic from the world, not even temporarily, to have the upper hand.
But I understood it would be a quiet, swift attack to finally bring peace to the dhampirs, so they would no longer have to hide. The two covens were the only ones who knew vampires could procreate, and since they operated in secret, no other witches knew about it. If we could take down the witches hunting us, dhampirs could finally live like everyone else, and no one would try to kill us. To kill a witch meant war, not just between the species but also with the human government. Non-supernatural society didn’t consider vampires human, as they did werewolves and witches. We would be the first to go.
It could drag us into the public and not on our terms.
The vampires didn’t have to worry about how the government would respond if caught waging war against another supernatural creature. The world was familiar with them. While hunters might want to capture them and dole out punishments, the clan’s vampires were clever. Each one could escape when necessary, and society would view them like any other creature that the human government was trying to force the public to accept.
It was the dhampirs that concerned me. Ever since the government became aware of the supernatural, they had approached each creature on a case-by-case basis. The dhampirs would eventually have to come forward, and there was a real possibility that we could be subjected to experiments, just as I was during my childhood.
Others would determine if we could exist. They would round us all up because vampires weren’t supposed to procreate. We would have to disclose our powers and vulnerability and then sign a treaty with them.
Or be killed.
If not by them, then Black Onyx or Lemurian Quartz. They would know where to find the place where I had finally found peace. Was I ready for all this to change?
Valentina rose from her seat, and all eyes followed her with rapt attention. She was the vampires’ true maker and still held power and reverence among them. Her story was inspirational to them. Valentina Vasile represented the journey of falling into darkness, of being so lost in pain and death that you’d never be able to escape. To be perceived as evil with no redemption. But she did. Valentina regained the tether to her humanity and soul, fell in love with a human, and had a child—me. She was the epitome of finding your way back from the abyss and pushing toward a better future, a chance to be more than a monster.
“According to Darius’s sources,” Valentina started, “the Black Onyx now lives in New Orleans and is working on expanding their numbers, recruiting witches to join their forces so they can come find me, Rachel, and all of you. But we know our numbers aren’t enough. They know we are stronger. The dhampirs in the academy killed thirty members of the Lemurian Quartz within minutes, but we have learned that it will no longer be enough. They are building armies … and so shall we.”
“We will end their reign of death,” Darius added.
Having recovered from his shock, Luka raised his hand and cleared his throat. Darius nodded to him. “Is it correct to assume that you want us to recruit other vampire clans to help?”
“We don’t have a choice,” Darius answered. “They would overrun us without more help, even if the stone can disable magic. Going to the Five-Point Order in America won’t do anything. They comply with the Black Onyx’s misdeeds, and no European government body has reined Lemurian in. The corruption runs deep.”
“What about the dhampirs in hiding right now?” Gio asked. “Will they return after what happened?”
“That’s something I’ll take care of. For now, we will continue to work and live as normal,” Valentina added. “However, we will gather here in a few days to discuss departures. Ava and Gio, Darius would like you to remain here and work on recruiting clans. Luka, Alessandro, and Tati will travel to the States. Any clan willing to help us is the best chance to combat the witches’ army. It’s the only way.”
“Darius,” I started, my stomach twisting into knots, “there’s no way to know if any clan will want to help. Believe me, the one Andrei forced me to join is full of selfish assholes who only care about money and control. You can’t assume anyone will come. It’s too risky.”
“I understand your hesitancy. I do,” Darius replied dryly. “But without vampires to help, it would only be a matter of time before those murderers come here again and execute us. This is the best course of action for you and your mother. You’re all excused.”
As Alessandro and Tati rose from their chairs and walked out, Luka, Ava, Gio, and I remained seated.
I turned to my friends. “Why do I have the sinking feeling that this is too dangerous?”
Gio swallowed and looked at me, his eyes full of worry and fear that I’d never seen him have before. “Because, mi amica, it is.”