Leo
I couldn’t stop grinning.
It was because I was happy.
Ivan was gone, the threat of him evaporated like morning dew and blown away with his very ashes on the wind after we burned him up.
Something inside Altair had gone with him.
Not a good something, but the constant fear he’d lived in for centuries.
The fear that had him attacking me on our first meeting, and shying away from strangers every time someone looked at him.
It was just gone, and I could have sworn he was suddenly taller, not desperate to fold into himself. To make himself small in hopes that he wouldn’t get attention.
Altair had a permanent mark on his neck from my teeth, and he wore it on display every single day, constantly reaching up to press his fingers into the lacy silver of it.
A reminder, for any time he might worry, that yes, he had regular emotions just like the rest of us.
Because he loved me, and that scar was solid proof of it.
Even Viktor didn’t glare at him after that night.
In fact, when he’d seen the silver scar the evening after the fight with Ivan, he’d stared at it with a bemused expression for a moment, then shaken his head and kept his mouth shut.
After he returned to us nearly mute, I had never imagined I’d be grateful for him shutting the hell up again, but in this case, I very much was.
Evie came careening into the house just as we were about to sit down to dinner that evening, holding a box over her head, like she was a successful hunter and it was her caught prey. “It came!” she shouted, at Altair, oddly enough.
And somehow, he seemed to have a clue what she was talking about.
His eyes lit up, and a moment later the two of them were rooting through a box of .
. . bath products? Evie pulled out a spray bottle and squirted it on her hand, then beamed and showed it to Altair, who stared at her hand with fascination.
“Incredible,” he murmured, taking her hand and turning it different ways in the light of the kitchen.
Glitter, I realized as her hand sparkled in the flickering lamplight. The spray was glitter.
Seriously? He was that impressed with glitter body spray that smelled like artificial peaches and made my nose itch? I’d get him all the darn glitter he could possibly want, I decided. I wasn’t sure how exactly, since the pack wasn’t exactly overflowing with cash, but I would find a way.
It wasn’t like he wanted diamonds or something that would be far out of my reach.
Hopefully I could find some that wasn’t scented with something that made me want to sneeze.
Either way, though, the sheer joy of him and Evie and some kind of inside joke about sparkling vampires was something else. I didn’t think I’d ever been so happy about two people bonding in my life.
“This is for you, too,” Evie said, pulling out a box that looked like .
. . was that a phone? “Maia said it’s already connected to their plan, and you can charge it on the solar panel she sent me, but you’ve got to get on social media.
You’re going to make the best videos ever.
I’ll bet you could make a fortune on just reaction videos. ”
Make? Was she saying Altair could make money?
For a moment, I was unreasonably put out by the idea that he’d buy his own glitter, and I wouldn’t be able to give it to him.
But also, he’d had enough agency taken away from him during his life.
If he could make his own money and buy things that made him happy, well, I wasn’t going to complain.
Even if I wanted to buy him the whole world.
We ate, and Evie explained to the table, something about one of her books and sparkling vampires, and how it was a “trope,” whatever the heck that meant.
While I had unfortunate experience that real vampires turned to ash in the sun rather than sparkling, I was the last person who would ever take away someone’s joy in a sweet idea.
Besides, as far as I was concerned, Altair always sparkled, covered in glitter or not.
After that, we settled into a routine, and it did involve Evie spending a lot of time with Altair on his phone, showing him how to navigate the modern world, and the two of them taking videos of his reactions to new things.
His sheer joy at simple things like that glitter body spray was something I’d watch a hundred times a day, so I figured Evie was right, and if people paid to watch things like that, Altair was about to become pretty fucking rich.
But nothing could stay that good in the Wildwood for long, could it?
Less than a week after Ivan’s ignominious death, I woke and came downstairs for food, only to find the kitchen empty and nothing on the stove. Instead, Mama was pacing in the living room, and Aleks and Cash were there with her.
“But where would he have gone?” she demanded, and Aleks looked at a loss, so clearly he didn’t have her answers.
I cocked my head at him, but he only pressed his lips together hard and glanced over at Cash. Cash, who slipped around behind Mama and pulled me into the kitchen, whispering urgently.
“Did Viktor talk to you last night?” he asked, trying to keep his tone low enough that Mama couldn’t hear it in the next room.
And . . . he hadn’t, particularly. Well, he’d talked in the way of a normal night.
Pass the bread, you should be more careful, you’re going to get hurt if you don’t start wearing your protective goggles while using the chainsaw, that sort of thing.
My twin was nothing if not a worrier, but nothing about any of it had seemed out of the ordinary.
So I just shook my head, helpless and suddenly as worried as Mama.
Cash held up a piece of paper, and on it was handwriting I instantly recognized as my brother’s, in our native Russian.
The witches have him, and I have to get him back. I can be no use to the pack without him.
-Viktor.