Chapter 20 #2
The after-party happened once Peter finally killed the woman, just like always, in the private back room of the attached club.
I waited vigilantly by the door while Selena flitted about on some mission of her own.
When Santos entered, he was surrounded by an entourage.
I stepped in front of him, blocking his most direct path, and his eyes met mine.
I couldn’t read him, but it was only two fretful seconds before he dismissed the others so we could have a private word.
“Father,” I said. He searched the room, and I wasn’t sure if he’d even heard me. “Can we make some time soon to talk? Your office?”
“Mm.”
I put a hand on his shoulder and moved in closer. “There are things we need to discuss.”
“Soon,” he said with no conviction. He didn’t meet my eyes as he moved past me, back to his group of vampire associates.
I nodded to Ernest, who’d been observing the whole time.
He was as paranoid as I was since being released from his stint in jail.
The family attorneys had worked their usual magic and gotten him out when his charges hadn’t stuck.
He was meeker now, as if the looming possibility of punishment from the Reyes family for being caught by human law enforcement might have been worse than going to prison.
The cracks in the foundation of our entire world were appearing beneath my feet, but I had no idea yet what was causing them.
“How would you feel,” Selena asked, tugging my arm to get my attention, “about bringing home one of those girls?” Her dark eyes guided me to the vampire groupies. Fenton had invited most of them, though some had procured standing invitations to events at the arena.
“What, to drain dry?” I asked, pulling her into my arms. Selena could be bloodthirsty as any vampire. She had a dark fascination with live feeding.
She shrugged her bare shoulders. “I want to observe. Take notes.” She stood on her toes, holding my chest for balance. “I can get us a place for just the night.”
I brushed the longer pieces of her bangs that hung over her temple. “Is this to do with your turning? You want to see it?”
She pouted and didn’t answer. I wanted to refuse her request. I didn’t care for draining any of these girls, vapid and foolish as they were, lambs prancing around a room of wolves. I was responsible for guiding Selena through her change, though. I was in no place to refuse her curiosity.
“Take your pick, mi amor.” I kissed her forehead and savored her dark silk smile.
This was love, to give her everything she ever could want.
I’d give her even the Hunter to kill and drink, if she asked.
This was my path to repairing the cracks beneath my feet.
I just had to get past Selena’s turning, please my father with this eternal connection to her witch family, and my life would return to what it was always promised to be.
* * *
Sleep deprivation was going to catch up to me fast at this rate.
The sun wasn’t yet up when Cora opened the shed door.
I wasn’t sure if I’d even been asleep, or if I’d slept at all that night.
She ordered me to fold away the cot, and I didn’t bother to remove the bedding, even if it made it harder for the frame to collapse again.
I rested it against the wall, out of the way, and sat in the metal chair.
I blinked against the sleepiness that dried my eyes and found that dark circle painted on the back wall.
“Your next Blessing, dear.” She cleared her throat. Soft steps shuffled behind me, but I kept my focus straight ahead, tracing the edge of the circle in slow, clockwise sweeps. “The first bolstering of your strength and speed.”
The first? I wasn’t receiving it all at once.
I’d had no idea that Mary the Mother’s Blessings came in pieces like this.
More questions came to mind. What happened if I failed when half-Blessed?
Were the powers taken back? I wasn’t sure I’d get the chance to ask, and my mind was ripped from such thoughts as a jolt hit my body, like a strike of lightning that left my muscles twitching in the aftermath.
“Ah!” I cried, then stood so fast I knocked the metal chair to the shed’s wooden floor with a clatter. I took several long strides, stretching my legs out until the static charge worked its way out. I squeezed the tingles out of my fingers.
“You feel it?” Cora asked through a wry smile. “And that’s only the half of it.”
“Why only half?” I asked, rubbing my forearm. This was what I imagined it felt like to touch the electric fence on the ranch, like the Hope brothers had shown off to me once, stealing quick touches then jumping away with delighted, masochistic laughs. That same adrenaline joy turned my lips upward.
“You can see why, can’t you? The Blessing is overwhelming in whole. You’d likely go mad if you received it all at once.” Cora tucked whatever was in her hand into her bag, blocking my line of sight with her body. Whether Blessed or not, the process was still a secret from me.
I shook out my arms, and I felt better than ever, like I could take on a horde of vampires.
Like I could take on Fenton, or even Lazaro.
Jo and Cora were watching me, though, and if there was anything I understood about being a Hunter, it was that pleasure had no part in it.
I stilled my body and let the muscles of my face fall to neutral.
“What’s next?” I asked.
“You made it out of the cave faster than we anticipated,” Jo answered. I searched my mother for pride, but she delivered it like simple fact. “Once the girls are finished with their dinner tonight and the mothers are free of their responsibilities, we’ll be testing your fighting prowess.”
“Get your rest and adjust to your new strength in the meantime,” Cora said. “You’ll remain out here until we return. When the girls leave the house, you can wash up and eat.”
“I’ll be here.” I didn’t mind the alone time, after all. My mind practically screamed at the two women to go away so I could test out my newfound power. Cora was quick to go back inside, but Jo didn’t move. My mouth started before my mind could catch up. “Mother?”
“Yes, Fallon?” She took a few slow steps away, as if fearful of what I might ask.
“If I fail…” I took deep breaths through my tightened throat. “Do I give this power back?”
“You give it back, one way or another. It goes to someone worthy.”
“Has that happened?”
“Yes. Rarely.”
“Thank you.”
She’d already turned away, and this time, she wasted no more time going back to her day.
I was alone, and it gave me room to breathe.
I dashed into the nearby woods, far away from the home and the training grounds, and I danced and leaped between trees, testing my new strength and speed.
With no one to judge me, I enjoyed my new power freely.
* * *
I spent the day clean, fed, and antsy from my new powers.
I’d hardly been able to sit still with the deep, annoying buzz rolling through my muscles.
I was changing so much, more than I’d anticipated, and I hadn’t expected the mental state that the Blessings would push me towards.
As my body became stronger, my mind quieted, growing smaller, like the world beyond what was in front of me was dimming.
The Hopes, Lily, Fenton, my entire city all became more like concepts than reality.
I couldn’t even focus long enough on the impersonal feeling to be sad about the sudden loss.
Was this why Hunters always seemed so cold?
Part of it was peaceful, but part of me was hoping that my usual emotions would come back to me once this was over.
Surely this had to be a side effect of the trials and finding myself in survival mode.
I was pacing outside the shed near sunset when Jo came to me. She didn’t even have to speak. I followed her to the training grounds, where Sarah Jane and Carolina waited with wooden weapons, and Cora observed from nearby.