26. Rose
Rose
“R ose and I will go to the industrial area,” Valtu says.
I slap him across the chest with the back of my hand. “I’m going to the spice bazaar. You don’t get to make my decisions.”
“That’s my girl,” I hear my mom say under her breath.
Valtu balks, staring down at me. “I’m not letting you out of my sight and they don’t know where the location is.”
“And I need to lay my eyes on the bazaar to see if it’s the same one I had seen through Bellamy’s eyes,” I counter.
“How about we go to the industrial area later?” Van Helsing says, attempting a compromise. “That way we can all go together.”
“Nah,” Wolf says. “I feel like we’re running out of time here. Amethyst and I will go to the industrial area. I’m sure you both can tell us exactly where to go and how to get there. That is the last place you saw Leif, so I’m going with that.”
“You shouldn’t go without a witch,” Lenore says. “I’ll go with you.” She looks to me. “You okay with that?”
I shrug. “Guess it’s hard when there’s only one witch to go around.”
“You’re a witch, my dove,” Valtu says, giving my hand a squeeze. “Whatever magic Dahlia had in her veins runs in yours now. Just believe in it.”
I sigh tiredly. I wish I could. Aside from the lightning, I feel totally lost. If only the spells I had memorized from the book still worked, but I guess those spells were tied to that book and that book alone.
“I’ll give you some pointers before we split up, okay?” Lenore assures me.
I give her a grateful smile. “First I borrow your clothes, then I borrow your magic?”
“What’s mine is yours,” she says, and I know she still feels guilty for her hand in Dahlia’s death.
You’ve been wearing her clothes this whole time? Valtu asks in my head. That explains so much.
I glance down. Even now, Lenore’s shirt I’m wearing is stretched across the chest and a little tight across the stomach. God damn boobs , I grumble.
Don’t you dare ever speak that way about your breasts, he rebukes me.
“I’ll stay with Valtu and Rose,” Solon announces. “I don’t have a witch’s arsenal, but my magic might come in handy.”
I breathe out a sigh of relief. Going anywhere with both Valtu and Solon would make any vampire feel protected.
I’d say the same about my dad, but I’m glad he and my mom won’t be with me.
Things get so complicated when they’re around as it is, and they hate the idea that I’m taking part in this to begin with.
“Then I’ll go with the others,” Van Helsing says. “And so it’s settled.” He takes out his phone and gets Valtu to show him exactly where to go on the map.
Shit. I’m nervous. I’m really nervous. I don’t actually think my parents will be in any danger because I just can’t imagine Bellamy hanging around, but if that building really is their headquarters or something, they might not leave so hastily.
I feel a lot better with Lenore going with them, especially if Solon is with us.
But still, it’s just going to be the three of us in the spice market.
I both want to see Bellamy and also hope it’s a fool’s errand.
We say our goodbyes quickly.
“If you get hurt, you’re grounded,” my dad says, giving me a tight hug. He gives the best hugs. He looks over at Valtu. “And you’re a dead man.”
Valtu nods gravely, taking it in stride. “You have complete permission to kill me.”
My mom hugs me, crying again, and I have to pat her on the head to reassure her. How the hell is she going to do any fighting? Does my mom even know how to fight anyone, let alone immortal witches?
“Are you going to be okay?” I ask her as she pulls away. “You’re not the fighting type.”
She balks at that with a sniff, straightening her shoulders, and steeling her gaze. “Of course I am. I used to manage the bar at Dark Eyes as a human . You think I don’t know how to put assholes in their place?”
“Your mother can take care of herself just fine,” my dad says but over her head he gives me a look like, don’t worry, I’ve got her.
I give him a relieved look, while she goes over to Valtu and pokes her nail into his chest. “Don’t you fuck this up.”
Valtu throws his arms out. “What the hell?” he says gruffly. “You know Solon will be with us too, go and threaten him.”
My mom smiles at Solon. “Oh, we trust Solon. We just don’t trust you.”
Solon looks at Valtu like the cat that just swallowed the canary.
“Mom,” I warn her. “Come on. How about you get going?”
She takes the hint and they head toward the door with Abe, while Lenore comes over to me, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me to the side.
“You want some magic?” she asks, her hazel eyes gleaming. “You just have to ask yourself for it. You’re a witch, Rose. I can smell it on you.”
“The others don’t seem to notice,” I say glumly.
“Because it’s altered. It’s mixed with you being a vampire. I’m almost the same way, but you can tell I’m a witch because I was born a witch. Your witch powers come from reincarnation. It’s a different ball game but in the end, they are still powers, Rose.”
She makes a move to leave but now I’m grabbing her hand. “That’s it? Aren’t you going to tell me how to walk through walls or shoot fireballs or something?”
She gives her head a shake. “I don’t need to. Whatever was in Dahlia is still in you. That’s the most important thing to remember. All her magic, all her knowledge, you have that inside. Just ask for it when you need it and I promise it will show up.”
Then Lenore walks over to Solon, kisses him goodbye, and she leaves with my parents and Van Helsing.
“So…” I say, turning to Solon and Valtu. “What’s next?”
Seeing the two of them standing together, both tall, dark-haired and breathtakingly handsome gives me a boost of adrenaline. I may doubt my capabilities at the moment, but I know that the two of them are the most dangerous creatures on the planet.
Or, they were. Fuck. Atlas was able to disappear into thin air.
Who knows what the hell Bellamy is able to do now?
I considered him all-powerful back in the day and with all these added years, he might be unstoppable.
Add in the fact that they’re immortal, and all of us might be in over our heads, no matter how much magic or ferocity we possess.
Valtu seems to pick up on my thoughts because he looks at Solon and says, “You remember that time we got captured by Skarde’s army and were chained up in that hut in Finland, left there for eternity?”
Solon gives him a tepid look. “Yes.”
“Are you still able to turn into that beast?”
He sighs. “Unfortunately not. But I think that’s a good thing.”
“I don’t know, I think a beast might really come in handy right about now.”
“In the middle of a spice market?”
“There’s a big chance that it’s not the place I saw through the vision,” I tell them. “We might end up finding nothing but heaps of cheap tarragon.”
I can see the relief in Valtu’s eyes when I say that. Poor guy. I know he really doesn’t want me doing this, but I’m thankful he’s keeping his opinion to himself. I know he can be really controlling but there’s no way in hell I’d listen to him after all this.
“One more coffee before we hit the road?” Valtu says, going over to the machine. As if caffeine will add extra fuel to the fight.
While he does that, I go to the bathroom and change into leggings that are a little more fight appropriate than jeans.
I slip on my combat boots and then remember the blade of mordernes .
I had put it in the bathroom, in the cloth bag that the hair dryer is usually stored in.
I take the knife and slip it into my boot and the moment I do that, it’s like I’m brought back in time.
I close my eyes and Dahlia’s life comes rushing back through me.
I had remembered everything before but now it feels like I’m living through it again, years flipping through me like pages of a book.
And while this whirlwind is happening inside me, I feel a raw power building in my core, like an electrical fire.
I feel like a vampire slayer again, which doesn’t do me much good if we’re battling witches, but the power I felt as a slayer, that unmistaken sense of confidence and skill, of knowing exactly what to do, is something I grasp onto.
I know I made a lot of mistakes as Dahlia, but those mistakes came from my emotions getting the best of me.
When it comes to Bellamy, there will be no mistakes, no second guessing, no feelings getting in the way.
Just the feeling of wanting him to pay for all that he’s done to me, to Leif, and to everyone else whose life he’s royally fucked up.
“Rose?” I hear Valtu say from the other side of the bathroom door and for a moment I’m almost confused, because my name is Dahlia, and then I remember—it is and it isn’t. “Are you okay?” he asks.
“Yeah, I’m coming,” I tell him, giving myself one last look in the mirror.
I see all the versions of myself staring back but Dahlia is coming through most of all.
It’s all in her eyes. That look of never belonging, never fitting in, knowing I was inherently different and that people would treat me as such.
Bellamy took that aspect of me and he used it to manipulate me, gave me a focus and made me feel like I was among others that understood me.
He used what made me different, preyed on my feelings of loneliness, and molded me into a murderer.
And now, I would take that part of me and use it to murder him.
“I’m ready,” I say, opening the door and seeing Valtu on the other side.
“We don’t need to do this,” he says, looking at me warily. Perhaps I do look a little wild and unhinged at the moment.
“Yes, we do,” I tell him. “And I’m ready.”
Solon comes over, sipping from his small cup of coffee. He pauses and sniffs the air, then frowns sharply. “You smell like a witch.”
I put my hand on my hip and thrust it to the side with flourish. “Ta-da.”
He nods, appraising me. “Alright. There you are. Let’s get going.”