Chapter 6 #2
Seeing Rath lying in a bed, sleeping, is more unsettling than it should be. I’ve never seen him sleep. I’ve never heard him talk of sleeping. Up until now, I wasn’t sure he even did. But there he is, laying half out of his blankets.
The most shocking thing about the entire scene is the mess of scars that cover his bare torso, stretching around his side, and extending onto his back.
“Sorry,” I say, everything momentarily throwing me off of my angry rampage.
He slides off the bed and reaches for a t-shirt. When he does so, I get a full view of his back. Angry scars lace in every direction. His skin is a mess of scar tissue.
I try not to stare, but the look Rath allows for just a brief second after he pulls the shirt down over his head and looks at me says I was.
“Now, what are you bursting into my room for?” he says quietly as he also pulls a robe on over his boxers.
I stutter and struggle for words. Everything I’m seeing has my mind reeling. Rath sleeping, wearing boxers and t-shirts, is so human, normal, and mundane for him. But those scars and his instinct upon being woken so suddenly—that doesn’t come without a dark, dark story.
“Um, here, you should look at this,” I hand him the newspaper as we both walk out of his room. When we get out into the hallway, I hear noises from the kitchen, signs that Katina has arrived for her duties this morning.
Rath takes the paper and begins reading.
“What’s going on?”
I look up to see Ian standing just outside the dining room.
“I heard you from upstairs,” he offers. “Could hear you cursing clear down the driveway.”
“For good reason,” I growl.
We all head into the dining room. It’s still dark out. Christmas is just days away and we’re in the dead of winter. The chill throughout the house is palpable.
“Jasmine is making some kind of move,” I say, too keyed up to sit. I stand with my hands on the back of one of the chairs. The table is huge. It is currently set up to seat eighteen people and the split across the middle makes me think it can be expanded to fit more.
Rath hands the newspaper to Ian. “The timing of the article is peculiar.”
“It’s nothing more than a power move!” I nearly shout. “I’d expect something like this if it were the hundred year anniversary, but that was like, forty-five years ago. It’s not even a one hundred and fifty year anniversary. Besides, this is December. That happened in October.”
“I don’t think you are mistaken in this, Alivia,” Rath says. “She has something up her sleeve with this.
“She’s trying to make the town remember how much they hate the Conraths, how much they’re afraid of your family,” Ian says as he finishes reading the article. “She’s trying to turn the town against you.”
“Like they needed any more effort put into that,” I growl. “They’re already afraid of me.”
“It may be true, and that might be Jasmine’s objective,” Rath says as he folds his hands on the table.
It doesn’t have quite the normal regal effect since he’s wearing that robe.
“But it isn’t a particularly logical move.
By doing this, she is essentially declaring war against you, Alivia.
But she still needs you if she wants to return honor to the House. Without you, she gains no connections.”
“Rath is right,” Ian agrees. Beth suddenly appears, bringing mugs and a pot of coffee. “What does she have to gain by isolating you from the rest of the town?”
And suddenly, it clicks.
“The night I went to the House to die,” I start.
“I talked to Anna, one of the House members. She used to be a rouge, off on her own. She said it was the loneliness she couldn’t stand.
She told me that she had a theory that I’d only keep myself apart from the House for so long.
That eventually, I would need someone who understood what it was like to be a Born. ”
“Jasmine is isolating you from other humans,” Rath says.
“So that you’ll turn to the House for companionship.” Ian says it with spite.
Suddenly, there’s a knock on the door.
“I’ll get it,” Beth offers as she finishes pouring all the coffee. Really, it seems like an escape route to get away from us.
Ian’s eyes flash red for a brief moment as all our attention is turned toward the door. Rath’s shoulders tense, Ian stands. Even I grab for a stake that I hid in the potted plant on the buffet table.
Beth lets out a little noise of fear, and we hear her scuttle off.
A collective breath is let out when it’s Lillian who steps through the door.
“Well,” she says, looking perplexed when she steps through. “We’re all just a little on edge today.” She literally takes a step back when she sees Ian. “And alive?”
He doesn’t say anything in return, but his eyes are glowing and fading like embers at the bottom of the fire. He’s ready for a fight if that’s what is needed.
But this is Lillian.
“Now, this is a surprise,” she says, raising an eyebrow at him and then turning to me. “Interesting turn of events.”
I offer her a small smile, but I’m really not sure what to be right now. I’m on edge, angry, but also extremely happy to see her. “You’re here.”
“I am,” she offers as she takes a seat at the table. “I feel the world beginning to shift and I slide to who I think holds the most weight and right.”
“I appreciate you coming here,” I say. My head is spinning. There are a million things going on, a million landmines to carefully toe around. My first move to gain my first House member must be made with caution. “I’m really happy to see you, Lillian.”
A warm smile pulls at her lips. “Well, it certainly has been an interesting couple of days. Jasmine has told us some disquieting news—that you’ve declared war on her.”
None of us says anything. We hold our breath, waiting to see what her reaction is going to be to me saying I will take the House from Jasmine.
“My car is out front and I’m hoping you have a room for me in this big house.” The smile on her face grows as mischief brightens her eyes.
A relieved and slightly disbelieving chuckle escapes my lips. I cross the space and wrap my arms around her shoulders in a hug. “Thank you,” I say.
“I told you before that I thought you were born to do this,” she says as she squeezes me back.
I smile again, but when I open my eyes, they meet Ian’s.
And all I see there is trepidation and disappointment.
“Before you decide to join me,” I begin as a cement ball starts to form in my stomach, “there’s something you need to first know. I think the King has sent a spy to watch me. This means it won’t be long until the King arrives.”
Lillian’s face blanches slightly, and I see her swallow once. The gears are turning in her head, over and over, evaluating the implications of what I just said.
“The King was going to come one way or another,” she answers. “Better he comes with you already in leadership, with your own allies, than come with you being used as Jasmine’s pawn.”
“Do you know anything about the article in the paper this morning?” Ian asks. There’s a sharp edge to his voice. He’s talking to a House member, face to face, and he has to be nice about it—for my sake.
Rath slides the paper across the table and Lillian takes it.
“She never said anything to us,” Lillian says as she scans the article. “But it seems like a move Jasmine would make.”
I’m about to comment, when Ian and Lillian both perk up at the same time. They both turn to face the window and their eyes flash red.
“What is it?” I ask in a whisper. Without thinking, my knees have bent and my hand clasps around the stake tighter. I gaze out the window, but I can’t see anything through the darkness.
Ian is suddenly gone and I hear the front door open.
Rath is on his feet, retrieving a crossbow from the buffet table I didn’t know was there. Lillian is on her feet, and she backs up toward me, as if guarding me.
“What’s going on?” I demand.
“I heard someone out there,” she says. Her voice hisses just slightly. “Breathing, quiet and low, like they were trying to hide. I know I saw a silhouette.”
“The spy,” Rath says as he crouches beside the window, pulling back the Gaussian curtains.
I step out from behind Lillian and start for the front door. My insides quiver slightly. I’m just a girl still, just a human woman from Colorado who likes to bake and watch bad nineties teen comedies. But right now, I have to be a ruler. A leader of Born vampires.
“What are you doing?” Rath growls as he watches me go.
“I’m not hiding.” My voice holds confidence, and as I say it, I feel it grow inside of me.
I step out onto the front step, feeling the brisk morning air seep into my clothes and snake up my back.
“My name is Alivia Ryan,” I say loudly into the dark as Lillian and Rath step up behind me. “I am the daughter of Henry Conrath. A Born Royal. You can tell your King he doesn’t need to spy on me. Tell him to come and talk to me face to face.”
Only darkness answers me back.
There’s no sign of the spy. No traces of Ian.
But here I am. Not hiding from my destiny.
I will not hide who I am.