34. Chapter Thirty-Four - Desiree
Vane and I walk side by side toward Vyvyan’s chambers, our footsteps echoing against the stone floors.
Everyone in the Nest is asleep, but Vyvyan requires a check-up before Vane tries once again to turn her back into a vampire.
I plan to use our time together to plead my case to find the killer by raising the Balam.
It is a surefire way to apprehend the killer and keep living here.
My fingers trace the silver necklace hanging around my neck.
“Will you stop fidgeting? You are making me nervous,” Vane chastises, his voice tight with an emotion I can’t place.
It is the most he’s talked to me since my date with Jaxson.
As we approach Vyvyan’s bedroom door, I adjust my attire, pulling up the neckline to avoid showing too much cleavage—Vyvyan always comments on my appearance.
Just as I smooth my skirt, Vane grabs my hand.
“Relax, you look fine,” he orders.
I yank my hand from his, my skin tingling where he touched me.
“I don’t get you,” I reply.
The words hang between us like a challenge.
Vane’s grin widens.
“What’s not to get?” he asks.
“This.” I gesture between us, the movement sharp.
“You say you want nothing to do with me, yet every time I turn around, there you are.”
Is it because he senses I’m about to uncover his secret?
Alden might not have been in Borealis the night of the attack, but perhaps Vane planted the prints to cast blame on the wolf.
It was sheer misfortune that Alden came to visit right after.
“Do I bother you, Desiree?” he asks.
I put some distance between us, my fingers twitch betraying my unease at his presence.
My evening with Jax was enjoyable, and I refuse to let Vane ruin it by playing mind games with me.
“We should go inside.”
I raise my hand to knock, but he says, “Wait.”
My hand falls to my side.
Vane steps forward, pushing open Vyvyan’s ajar door.
The hinges creak.
We exchange wary glances.
Vyvyan always keeps this door locked.
“Vyvyan?” Vane’s voice rings through the unsettling quiet as he pushes the door wider and steps inside.
I follow and collide with his rigid form as he stops beyond the threshold.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, but Vane doesn’t answer.
Instead, he rushes to where Vyvyan lies sprawled on the floor.
I gasp, the sound sharp in the silence.
Vyvyan’s room is a catastrophe, strewn with clothing and shattered furniture.
The torn curtains surrounding her four-poster bed mirror the disarray of her attire, the fabric hanging in tattered shreds off her shoulders.
The air stinks of spilled liquor and the metallic tang of blood.
All the smells threaten my upchuck reflex.
I rush to Vane’s side—my shoes crunching broken glass—as he pulls Vyvyan’s limp body into his arms.
She is a small, fragile figure amid the wreckage, a bloody mark on her lip stark against her ebony skin.
“Is she . . .”
Vane shakes his head grimly.
“She’s alive but unconscious.”
A huge breath escapes me.
“What the hell happened? Was she attacked?”
I search the room for daemon tracks.
Nothing.
“The scent of her blood is fresh.” Vane’s tone hardens with a hint of malice.
“M-maybe I can catch them?”
I shift to rush out the door, determined to find the assailant once and for all, but Vane grabs my wrist.
His grip is firm yet gentle.
“Don’t go. I may need your medical knowledge. I’m sure they’re long gone by now.”
I nod, swallowing hard.
What else am I good for?
“Vyvyan,” Vane murmurs, his voice laced with a tender affection that sends a flush of warmth through me despite the grim circumstances.
He handles her with such gentleness it is a wonder that I suspected he could ever raise a hand to her in hate.
“Wake up.” With tender encouragement, Vyvyan stirs, cracking open an eyelid with a pained groan.
Vane releases a choked sob, his relief tangible.
“Thank the heavens.”
Vyvyan weakly licks her bloodied lips and then winces.
I search the nearby bar for an intact glass among the shattered stemware.
Once I find one, I fill it with water from a pitcher and hand it to Vane.
“Drink,” he instructs.
She complies, her throat moving as she swallows the water, droplets escaping the corners of her mouth.
Once she’s finished, Vane lifts her effortlessly into her expansive bed, which is large enough to accommodate half a dozen people.
“Who did this to you?” I ask.
Vyvyan flinches at the sound of my voice.
Vane’s muscles are tense as he releases Vyvyan, who manages to sit up alone, her movements stiff.
As he steps back, I cautiously move closer, but Vyvyan watches me with narrowed eyes, her gaze accusatory.
She’s scared of me.
“Vyv,” Vane prompts.
She points directly at me and declares, “You.”
The word knocks the air from my lungs.
“This is your fault,” Vyvyan states, each word a sharp slap.
I grip my chest as if I could calm my pounding heart.
“Mine? I just got here.”
“Vyvyan, Desiree didn’t do this,” Vane says.
Vyvyan shakes her head.
“He’s right,” I blurt.
But a chilling thought occurs to me.
Did Jaxson tell someone that Vyvyan was vulnerable?
He promised he wouldn’t.
Bile rises in my throat.
“Vyvyan, tell us what happened,” Vane urges as he drapes a blanket over her shoulders.
“Someone broke into my room,” Vyvyan replies, her voice husky with exhaustion, each word seeming to take immense effort.
“I didn’t get a good look at their face before they used me as a human punching bag.”
“Was it a witch or a vamp—” I ask, but Vyvyan’s frosty glare stops me.
“They weren’t as strong as a vampire, so I’m guessing it was a witch, but the whole thing is a blur. They hit me in the head. I think they wanted to kill me.”
Vane and I exchange a tense look.
How did a witch infiltrate the Nest?
“Are you sure it was a witch? Could it have been a wolf?” I ask.
Alden breached these tunnels before.
Perhaps while we were all sleeping .
.
.
Vyvyan shakes her head.
“You’d smell him if a wolf were here.”
I shake my head, my thoughts racing.
“That Ravi guy is always with him. He’s a witch? They could be working together.”
“That’s a fair point,” Vane declares.
“I will sound the alarm. See if the other vampires saw anything.”
Vyvyan grabs his hand.
“Get rid of her.”
I blink, taken aback.
“But, Vyvyan, you shouldn’t be alone.”
Vyvyan’s menacing laughter interrupts.
“You don’t understand. I want you gone—out of sight for good. I wish I were a vampire so I could have the strength to dispose of you myself. I am in this vulnerable position because of you and your toxic blood.”
“I am trying to help you,” I plead.
Vyvyan snarls.
“Help me? Look where your help has gotten me. I am human . You are a waste of space and a threat to our kind. You are behind this. Did you do this as a revenge stunt after outing you to Misty?”
“No—”
“Then you must want me out of the way,” she screeches, “so you can have Vane!”
My breath sputters as I search for the right words.
“That’s absurd,” Vane says.
“Is it?”
“Vane hates me. You told me yourself,” I say.
“You pathetic girl, when are you going to wake up? You aren’t wanted,” Vyvyan declares, backing me into a corner with her words.
“I want you gone—dead and buried!”
“Please, don’t. My family will wonder what happened to me. They’ll?—”
“I thought we were your family?” Vyvyan sneers.
“Vyvyan, you’re being unreasonable,” Vane cuts in, his voice tight with tension.
“What happened here has nothing to do with Desiree. She’s trying to help you by solving the case.”
I gasp, not needing him to defend me.
“I know how we can find your attacker. We can summon the Balam and ask who controlled it that night. We?—”
“You want to put more of us in jeopardy by raising the daemon powerful enough to almost kill me?” Vyvyan screeches.
“You’d put the rest of the coven in jeopardy, all for what? My approval?”
I resist the urge to shrink beneath the mountain of clothes strewn across the floor.
“It’s dangerous, but if —”
“You selfish girl,” Vyvyan snarls.
“You only think about yourself.”
I step back.
No matter what I say, Vyvyan wants me gone.
My only option is to accept her decision and hope I can someday regain her favor.
Even if it means packing up everything I own and leaving the only place I call home.
Vane raises his hands placatingly.
“Vyvyan, let’s stop pretending this is about Desiree —”
“I’ll go,” I say.
They both look at me.
“I’ll leave tonight. I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused, but I promise I’ll do everything possible to make it up to you.”
I turn on my heel to go, my vision blurring with unshed tears.
Vyvyan’s door slams behind me like a final judgment.
A moment later, a hand grasps my arm.
The coolness of the grip sends a shiver through me.
“Desiree,” Vane says, his voice tight.
“Where will you go?”
I shrug, trying to appear nonchalant despite the turmoil inside.
“My brother’s loft. He’s out of town, so it’ll be empty.”
Vane nods, his eyes searching mine.
“And the Balam? You aren’t thinking of summoning it, are you?”
If it means finding out who wants to kill Vyvyan so I can regain her favor, then yes.
But I lie.
“No.”
Vane’s shoulders relax.
“Good.”
Before he can say another word, I turn and leave him and the Nest behind.