Chapter 32
CHAPTER 32
The moon provided little light in the graveyard. The stars glimmered in their distance, with the rare cloud passing silently to obscure them. Only the general light pollution of the city kept them from true darkness. Takashi stood beside the granite headstone with his hands inside his coat pockets. The coat was as new as the grave before him and as bespoke as the calligraphy for Katie’s name was beautiful. Anton had gifted it and the tailored black suit he was wearing to him. He hadn’t asked how Anton knew his measurements. Perhaps he was observant; maybe he simply hired the same tailors that Takashi had already used during his stay in Chicago.
Midnight was swiftly approaching. Katie had been in the ground for three nights. This cold, beautiful evening would be her first opportunity to rise.
The mortal man at the other end of her grave had finally given up shouting into his gag. Takashi wouldn’t have had sympathy for him—a fledgling had to feed—but Anton had allowed him to assist in finding the offering. They’d dug up a pissant who had messaged Katie inappropriately on a semi-frequent basis. He’d thought he was meeting her to “show her what being a grown-up was like.” The world needed fewer of his kind, and Katie would be rid of one potential stalker.
Anton sat atop Katie’s gravestone like he was a statue of a gentleman. He was dressed in black as well, and his gaze was fixed on the dirt. “Can you feel her yet?”
“I promised you that I would mention when she stirred,” Takashi replied. The silence, both within the grave and around them, was excruciating. The night might prove fruitless. Though Takashi was finally out of the mansion, waiting in a graveyard wasn’t much of a change of venue. “Will we have any problems with the mages?”
“Zack did us no favors by releasing the other two girls,” Anton said. “Luckily, Magus Coldwell is an old prick who doesn’t care for much besides prestige. Should Katie show that she has kept even an ounce of her arcane powers, then he may actually be ecstatic. She’s on an ‘errant’ branch of the family tree, apparently. Not a Coldwell in name, her mother and grandmother both having married mundane men.”
“He cares more about reputation than her well-being?” Takashi asked.
“That was the impression I received. His son has a soul bond to a warlock. He seemed more upset that another scandal was about to drop on him after finally managing to mitigate the last.” Anton tapped his fingers on Katie’s headstone. “How did Zack take the news?”
The slightest hint of mist formed close to the ground. A spark lighted below, but it caught and bloomed in the ground. The spark twisted and grew into an invisible rope, tugging Takashi toward his new fledgling. “She’s awake.”
“Fantastic!” After a long moment of quiet, Anton said, “Convenient escape from my question, however.”
Takashi could feel Katie’s fear as she realized she was trapped in the coffin. Swallowing that and allowing her to continue without interference was the tricky part. He could reach through their bond and settle her fears, but she needed to emerge on her own strength, mental and physical.
“We came to an understanding,” Takashi said.
“I have been attempting to figure out what she will be to him. Do you think sister or cousin would fit better?” Anton said.
“You could let them figure it out.”
“Oh, don’t be dull. We’ll be a family, the five of us, and I want them to get along.” Anton nudged Takashi’s shoulder. “What do you think would work best?”
The last few nights had been odd, even compared to what had been going on in the mansion beforehand. Zack was more pensive than ever before, rarely speaking. He didn’t withhold touch; in fact, he often dragged Takashi close to cuddle. But unless Seamus whisked him away, he was always reading, always thinking, always writing notes in his notebook.
Seamus had spent much of the evenings out of the mansion without any of them. “A war chest to rebuild,” he had said.
And Anton, for his part, had been caught up in preparations for Katie. He’d consulted with Takashi, asked his opinion far more than Takashi had thought he would, and had seemed to settle from his manic games into the genuine role of vampire-father-to-be.
At a glance, Takashi would have to admit that Anton had a point. They were a vampire family. Seamus’s pets should have been considered a part of the household, but they were shadows rarely seen. Zack had mentioned that two of them were dead, bringing down the number in Seamus’s collection. Yet in all of Takashi’s wanderings around the mansion, he hadn’t discovered where the mortals actually lived. Nell’s mansion hummed with life; Seamus’s remained a freezing tomb.
It wasn’t the home Takashi wanted. Walking on a tightrope was easier than a conversation with Seamus or Anton, but something close to kinship was forming. I’m merely making the best of the situation. Or perhaps that was simply the effect of growing closer to Zack. Maybe he wasn’t comfortable with the house or Anton or Seamus at all, only with him.
Except talking with Anton was becoming almost pleasant.
Could they be a family with a monster at the head of the table? How long until Zack is strong enough to chop that head off?
“I think you should give them time to bond,” Takashi said.
The crack of wood was distinct despite the heavy earth on top of Katie’s casket.
“That’s what we’ve been missing. Bonding activities,” Anton said brightly as he took out his phone. “What a fantastic idea. She’s not close to the surface yet, is she? I don’t want to miss her emergence.”
“A few feet down still,” Takashi replied. He honed into his sense of her. “She’s fallen into a rhythm. Shouldn’t be long.”
Anton slipped his phone back into his pocket. “I’ll research later.”
About ten minutes passed, and then Katie broke through the layer of dirt, her fingertips squirming as she groped the air. Her next movement brought her other hand up.
The bound man at the end of her grave began to scream again. His muffled cries didn’t matter.
Katie emerged bit by bit, yanking herself forward along the cold ground, and her wandering gaze quickly focused on the nearby human. Anton had insisted on braiding her hair, a small claim that he didn’t want the dirt to mess with her curls too drastically. Her olive skin was paler, looking a lot like Roger’s skin tone in that way, and her face had the fierce quality of marble. She was a gemstone of youth without any of the polish she’d gain in the years to come.
Takashi hadn’t known what he’d feel when he saw her again. He had never thought of his sirelings as children before. But as Katie pulled herself free, something within him stirred. Zack had a point. Unless he opened himself, the loneliness would never end. Katie could be a daughter, a companion to him and those he loved, and he could draw her into his trust.
I don’t know her . But then, what parent ever truly knew their child before their birth?
But she wasn’t to be his daughter, was she? Not entirely. Anton wanted her. Will he keep his promise to let me be part of her life ?
“You should have the honor,” Anton said quietly and seriously.
“Thank you,” Takashi replied. He walked around her grave, careful not to step on the dirt, and knelt beside the man. After ripping the rope off the man’s ankles, he hauled him upward, making him stand.
Katie growled and snapped as he drew the man two steps away. She started to push herself up to standing. Her white dress was streaked with dirt. Eyes blazing red, she hissed at him and bared her fangs.
“Run,” Takashi whispered into the man’s ear. Then he released him.
The mortal man remained frozen in place, and the awful scent of piss tainted the air. Katie reached for him all the same.
Takashi could let her have him this easily, but the first chase was part of the tradition for Great Lakes Coven risings. When the man stayed locked in his fear, Takashi reached into his desires and found his flight response. He yanked that need to the forefront.
The man took off like a shot. With his hands bound behind his back, his running was clumsy.
Katie ran after him, and Anton and Takashi followed her at a respectable distance. At first, her steps were jagged, lurching movements. Then she caught her balance. The man was still ahead of her. She picked up speed, not quite to the point where mortals would only see a blur.
Suddenly, the man tripped. He began to plummet headfirst toward a headstone.
If he died before Katie drank from him, then his blood wouldn’t finish her transformation. She might run for her next victim, but that would be someone randomly on the streets in the middle of a winter night.
Takashi started to move to catch the man, but Anton grabbed his wrist and halted him.
The fractions of a second were sliding away. The man was going to cave his head in. There wasn’t time. Takashi snarled and tugged on his arm. Only Anton hung on tightly. His ruby eyes brightened, and his grin was wide.
Just before the man made impact, a jolt pierced Takashi’s chest. Never had anything run through him like the burst of energy, and he put a hand over his heart.
The man was flung backward into the air and slammed into Katie’s open arms. She wrapped him into her embrace and sank her fangs into his neck.
The jolt was gone. An echo of the tingling buzz remained long enough for Takashi to locate his bond to Katie as the source. Her arcane power had touched him when she called on it. Had she siphoned strength from him? Takashi had heard of practitioners who could channel other creatures in that fashion, but he was fine. Not an ounce changed. I felt it like I can her emotions, that’s all .
Anton clapped his hands together and then shook Takashi by the shoulders. “She’s marvelous!”
“Hold off on your awe until we learn if she’s feral,” Takashi replied quietly.
“Oh, poo on that. Even a feral arcanist would be amazing ,” Anton said cheerily.
“You can’t raise a feral.”
“Well, not with that attitude.”
Katie dropped the corpse. She stumbled back from him until she brushed up against a statue of a young girl. With a trembling hand, she touched her own mouth and drew away blood-covered fingers. After staring at them for a long moment, she stuck them in her mouth.
Takashi looked to Anton. Was he to have this moment? Or would he be robbed of it with this sireling like he and Roger had lost the chance to turn Zack? He tried to remain his stoic self. Cool professionalism had served him for decades upon decades.
Anton put his hand on his shoulder and murmured, “Together?”
“All right.” Takashi waited, but Anton nodded for him to go first. He approached Katie cautiously, and Anton mimicked him, slipping away from him to approach her from her other side. “Hello, there.”
Katie jumped as though he’d broken a trance. She took her fingers from her mouth and wiped her hand on her dress. Then she became distracted by the stained white cloth. Frowning at it, she said, “What the fuck?”
“Stunning first words,” Anton said with a chuckle in his breath.
Katie snapped her attention up to him. “You!” She started to step away but stopped when she noticed Takashi. “And you!”
“You remember us?” Takashi asked.
“I—I do.” She put a hand to her forehead. “You’re my … technically not my anything, are you? He—” She pointed at Anton. “—he tricked me.”
“I did,” Anton said unapologetically. Rather than continuing to move toward her, he sat on another gravestone. “What about yourself, girl? Do you know your name?”
“Kathleen. My friends call me Katie.” She glared at Anton. Her glowing red eyes settled to a shade of dark brown. “Friends you killed.”
“He didn’t,” Takashi said. “They were freed.”
“I’m supposed to believe that?” Katie snapped.
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Anton replied happily. “I would have killed them. Actually, I probably would have let you kill them.”
“You—I … oh shit, I killed someone.” Katie turned toward the corpse. “Wait, I know him. He’s been trolling me for weeks. He’s a total perv.”
“Now he’s nothing,” Takashi said.
Katie tilted her head as she regarded Takashi. With her hand, she gestured at Anton. “I’d think you were some sort of vigilante vampire, but you’re working with that evil spawn of the night.”
Were Zack and Roger with him instead, Takashi would have let her remark slide. But Anton wanted a daughter, and Takashi had promised to deliver. Eventually, he hoped to have a chance to sit down and explain everything to her, but he had no opportunity for that at the moment.
Besides, not everything Anton did was wrong, and the care he’d put into Katie’s first night gave Takashi an odd hope. It would likely all blow back in his face, but he had to keep pushing his pieces further across the board if he was ever going to succeed. To trust Anton, though? He would be a powerful ally, if he could be brought to our side .
“Morality is an ever-shifting philosophical argument,” Takashi said slowly. “There are those that would call any murder wrong. There are those who would have seen this man suffer far worse fates. Evil is a judgment that we need not overthink.”
“Okay, but he straight up catfished me, kidnapped me and my friends, and talked you into turning me into a vampire,” Katie replied. “That’s evil .”
“Do you hate it?” Anton asked lightly.
“Excuse you?” Katie demanded.
Anton slipped off the gravestone and slowly strode toward her. “Has the confusion of death made you forget how you begged to become something greater than you were? Did you not notice that you cast magic without effort when you have struggled in your studies for years?”
“How do you …” Katie closed her eyes and shook her head. “Duh. I wasn’t talking to Takashi. I was oversharing with you.”
“I treasure what you revealed to me,” Anton said. “Out of the three of you, I was most interested in meeting you.”
“Me?” Katie widened her eyes. “Seriously?”
“I know you believed my interest was romantic, but that wasn’t my true intent.” Anton lowered his voice to a gentle whisper as he reached out to touch her cheek. “Over a century has passed since I’ve found anyone who might make a worthy apprentice to my arcane studies. Longer since I discovered a kindred spirit like yours.”
“So you kidnapped me.”
“To offer you everything you’ve ever wanted. Eternal youth. Immense wealth. Arcane knowledge beyond your wildest dreams. The opportunity to become what everyone at your school will forever envy,” Anton replied. He circled around Katie, lightly placing his hands on either of her shoulders. While speaking to her, he caught and held Takashi’s gaze. “Imagine what possibilities lie ahead of you. Power. Respect. Anything and everything. All you have to do is learn how to grasp it and make it yours.”
Anton’s ruby-red eyes had a simmering, molten heat to them. His smile had a coaxing twist, like he was preparing to ask Takashi for a kiss.
Those words weren’t just for her. He sees something in me that he likes . Were Anton anyone else, Takashi might consider bringing him close. But he couldn’t. Anton played games and ruined lives and— And how much of that is to survive Seamus ? Roger had shown a few of the traits Anton displayed regularly. He flirted too often, smiled and teased when he was hurt to bluff his way through difficult situations. He distracted anyone growing close to him with whatever version of himself he thought the other person wanted.
Was this some role for Anton? Had the abuse Seamus put him through twisted Anton so that he was a creature who enacted his hurt on others to retain some semblance of sanity after eight hundred years? Or was the torture he inflicted on others part of who he’d always been?
Was he truly a monster?
Takashi couldn’t say for certain, at least not to himself. I need more time to gather information .
“Shall we go home?” Takashi asked.
Anton grinned wider. He squeezed Katie’s shoulders. “Yes. Our daughter should change before I take her hunting.”
Our . That was becoming a heavier and heavier word. Takashi had never thought to include Anton in the vision of the future he hoped to build.
He couldn’t help wondering if he should.