Chapter 30
Raven
Inky shadows filled my temporary bedroom when I woke. Kai had walked me back here after our pool session where he swam and I pretended I was too tired to move a muscle. He’d offered to stay in the room with me, but I’d declined, needing some space to collect my thoughts.
I was still processing everything that had happened at the laboratory, not least my new designation as a mass murderer.
Each time I pictured all those dead bodies, a wave of nausea hit me. If only Glynda were here. I missed her matter-of-fact advice and ability to cut through my bullshit. When I’d asked Maverick where she was, he said she was safe and changed the subject.
He’d better not be lying to me. If anything happened to my bestie, my shadow magic might go on another murder spree, and nobody needed a second one of those.
The news was full of reports of mass killings these days, thanks to daddy dearest and his demonic army.
I rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling. Without a phone or clock, I had no clue what time it was, but snow continued to fall outside.
The door clicked open as I tried to decide whether I needed food. A tall figure glided over to the bed and sat down.
“How are you feeling, my darling?” Rasmus’s voice always reminded me of melted chocolate: decadent and smooth. Cool fingers brushed a tangle of hair away from my cheek.
“Great.” Kenji’s sarcasm was catching.
The mattress dipped as Rasmus moved to lie down next to me. I turned and buried my face in his chest. He smelled divine. Unlike me, who probably stank of sulfur and death. No joke.
“My sister Florica would like to meet you, mea amica.” That got my attention. Goddess, what a terrible, selfish mate I was. Not once had I asked him about his poor sister.
“Is she…well?” After the indignities I’d endured in the few days I’d been stuck in that vile place, I couldn’t begin to imagine what Florica had been through.
“She will recover. We live long lives, mea amica, and these few years are but a blip to her, albeit an unpleasant one.” Rasmus didn’t need to spell it out.
“I’d love to meet her.”
I snuggled closer, not ready to leave the warm comfort of my bed. Darkness had fallen outside, and from the sound of the wind howling around the mountain, another storm raged.
For a second I wondered if the appalling weather was Alaric’s doing, but then I remembered he’d abandoned me. Again.
Was he safe?
Even though his leaving felt like a betrayal, part of me understood. Tiberius had used dark magic to force Alaric to bring me to him. For all any of us knew, Alaric was a ticking time bomb. One Tiberius could trigger at any second.
As much as I hated the distance between us, there was no denying it was safer if he stayed away.
For now, at least.
Once Tiberius fucking Vane got what was coming to him, Alaric was mine. Whether he liked it or not.
Rasmus led me by the hand down a steep set of stairs. Glowing wall sconces lit the way, but I still stumbled over the rough stone.
“How old is this place?” I whispered.
“The dragon clans are among the oldest magicals on earth,” Rasmus told me. “Even older than the original vampires.”
I resolved to research the dragon clans the minute we returned to Starfall Academy before remembering I had a bounty on my head and return was not an option. We all did. While Zane seemed proud of the fact, I was not.
In my humble opinion, being wanted for mass murder was not a great life achievement.
We reached a thick oak door. The rooms down here were windowless, which made them perfect for a light-averse vampire. Rasmus had explained that Florica had been underground for so long daylight now hurt her eyes. She would adapt, but it was going to take time.
I shuffled nervously as Rasmus pushed open the door. What if Florica hated me? Rasmus was an ancient vampire, a crown prince, no less, whereas I was a magically incompetent witch.
Before I could finish mentally listing all the reasons why Rasmus’s sister would almost certainly hate me, she flew across the room and pulled me into her arms for a hug.
“My sweet girl, I am so happy to see you again,” she cooed before releasing me from her punishing grip.
“You are?” I blinked up at her. The last time we’d seen each other, she’d been strapped to a table with plastic tubes in her arms, her skin ghostly pale, every bone in her body prominent.
I barely recognized the female standing before me. Lustrous chestnut hair hung down her back in thick, shiny waves, and despite her ordeal, a hint of color had returned to her cheeks.
The family resemblance was obvious. Both siblings had chiseled cheekbones, strong noses, and full lips, and both were tall and stunningly beautiful.
I could barely drag my eyes away from Florica. Was this a vampire thing?
“Your mate is breathtaking, brother.”
“She is.” I blushed under the weight of their combined stares. Pretty, sure, but I didn’t consider myself beautiful. Nowhere near as stunning as Florica anyway.
“Little mate, you are the most beautiful female in the entire realm,” Maverick assured me, apparently listening to my internal trash-talking.
“Lovelier than all the stars in the sky,” Zane added.
“You are perfect,” Kai agreed.
Okay, so none of my mates thought I was ugly like the sea witch. Good to know.
“Are you, um, feeling better?”
Florica smiled. “I am, thank you. Now leave us, brother. I’d like to get to know my new sister.”
Florica brushed away all my questions about her experiences at the hands of Tiberius and Brianna Vane but was more than happy to spill the dirt on her brother.
“He had a terrible reputation back in the 1700s,” she said with a throaty laugh. “It was a wonder he survived!”
“That must have been stressful for your parents.” Florica’s smile faded, and she stared into space for a few seconds.
“Yes. Luckily Rasmus calmed down when Radimir came along.”
I cleared my throat awkwardly. “He told me about Radimir and Ysabella. I’m so sorry for what happened to them.”
“It’s not your fault, darling,” she said, patting my knee.
“The New Orleans covens under Ramona Du Boix’s leadership were extremely prejudiced against other species, especially vampires.
Sadly, such narrow-minded thinking has been a common source of conflict over the centuries.
” Her gaze hardened. “And with mages like Tiberius Vane in power, it seems history will continue to repeat itself.”
“I’m curious about what happened to Ysabella and her baby,” I mused. None of the history books I’d read while researching the Blood Wars had any concrete information on her fate.
“You bear some resemblance to Ysabella,” Florica said as she studied me. “I wonder if you are descended from the Du Boix bloodline.”
“I have no idea. My mother died when I was a child and my father…” My voice trailed off. Had Rasmus told his sister about my shady family tree? The one with branches steeped in sulfur and brimstone?
Goddess, she’d probably regret embracing me as her new sister from another mister when she learned who my dad was. I cringed at the thought of being rejected by my newly minted sister-in-law.
“Rasmus mentioned who your father is.” To my surprise, Florica didn’t seem bothered. “While demons rarely procreate with non-demons, it does sometimes happen.”
“It does?” Wow, this was news to me.
“Yes. Incubi and succubi originate from the demon realm but evolved to live in the human world.”
“You’re a demon?!”
Zane huffed in my head. “The vampire is correct. Does that bother you, pet?”
“No, of course not! That would be hypocritical given who my father is.”
“You have an incubus as a mate, yes?”
Zane pinged into view and promptly popped me onto his lap because acting like a possessive idiot was second nature to my harem mates. “She does!”
Florica studied him and then smirked. “I can see why you like this one,” she told me with a wink.
The smile I gave her was more of a grimace, which made her chuckle. “No need for jealousy, darling.”
Zane’s arms tightened around me. “I detect no lust, pet, although I do enjoy it when you get all jealous and shit,” he said in my head before speaking aloud. “It’s time to eat, little pet. The bear has summoned us for dinner.”
My stomach grumbled in response.
“Do you have enough, um, food?”
Florica laughed. “Yes, darling. I have several bags of synthetic blood. That will do until I can find a blood source.”
“But won’t that be too dangerous?”
“A bonus of being a guinea pig for the last few years is that I am now immune to the virus that killed most of my kind. The mages used me as a test subject for their vaccines.”
“So if there are other vampires still out there, they’ll no longer be at risk?” This was huge!
I was about to cheer until I realized the mages must have been developing a vaccine from the beginning but had said nothing about it.
Tears pricked my eyes. Maybe killing all the mages wasn’t such a crime after all. If they’d been a part of the cover-up, they deserved to fucking die.
“Possibly, but Tiberius Vane will pay,” Florica said with a grim smile. “I’ll make sure of it. Brianna Vane too. That bitch deserves a special place in hell for what she’s done to me and mine.”
A flood of emotion hit me hard. I pulled away from Zane and hugged my new sister from another mister. It was amazing that she and I had a similar life goal.
“She does, but I get dibs on Tibs,” I told her. “That fucker is mine.”
“Done.” We fist-bumped each other and grinned like serial killers in the making.
Oh wait…