Chapter 34
Chapter
Thirty-Four
“I’ll make coffee.” Antonio drops his dagger on the small, round kitchen table. We’re back at the compound, and much to my chagrin, Leo puts out a call and a few Order members who have been questioning things are coming over.
Ryder is one of them.
I can put my differences aside and focus on what’s important: saving my own life.
While I’m not in love with Ryder anymore, I will always care for him in some way, and the anger I used to feel when I even heard his name is gone, replaced by empathy.
The last time we spoke—really spoke—he confessed that he wanted to still be with me.
Still, it’s going to be awkward as fuck.
Especially knowing that the female hunter Ryder had with him at the bar the night he called me about Leo is coming, too.
Her name is Christine, and I have nothing against her.
I suppose it’s something I should work on—not assuming everybody hates me.
Though it’s easier to just believe that from the start than get disappointed later.
“Can I order another pizza?” Mabel asks hopefully.
“I don’t think any place is open right now,” I say with a yawn.
I don’t know what time it is, but we can’t be far from sunrise.
Which reminds me…we need to lightproof this house.
It shouldn’t be too difficult. Keeping our lives secret and private is important to hunters.
There are a lot of Order members in Asheville, but there are even more civilians.
The compound is in a more populated area, and the last thing we want is for someone to walk by and see… well, whatever.
You never know what kind of crazy shit you can get into when you deal with monster hunting.
I take off my muddy shoes and wander around the house while we wait for the rest of the hunters to arrive.
I go upstairs, pausing in the doorway of Gia’s room.
Having a decorated room isn’t the be-all and end-all of a good childhood, but I hate how temporary everything feels, even though we’ve lived in this house our whole lives.
This isn’t the way I wanted Gia to grow up. And maybe—just maybe—she has a chance at a normal life.
She’s already seen too much. I don’t want to take away her knowledge of monsters, because it could literally be the difference between life and death. But the thought of having Xavier alter her memories into something softer, something safer, crosses my mind.
It’s wrong. I know it is.
To falsify someone’s memories, even with good intentions…no. I can’t. And I won’t.
There are plenty of things I wish I could forget, and if Xavier could hold me spellbound, I would tell him to do it without hesitation.
“This reminds me of my room,” Mabel says, appearing silently behind me.
I glance back at her. She steps into the doorway, looking around.
“No toys. No personality,” she adds. “Like I said before, some things never change.”
“They will,” I tell her, more confidently than I feel.
“Want to give me a house tour?” she asks. “Since we have nothing else to do.”
“Sure.”
We take our time walking through the house.
When we get to Larissa’s room, I hesitate for a second before going in.
Mabel pokes through a few things, more out of curiosity than anything else.
There’s nothing of real interest. If she wasn’t in jail, I might be tempted to mess with her stuff just a little—but that feels like taking it one step too far.
Not that I haven’t crossed worse lines.
The group of hunters shows up all at once. In addition to Ryder and Christine, there are two others I don’t recognize—but they definitely seem to know who I am. Of course, they do.
I have no idea how much they’ve been told about why I suddenly moved in with a bunch of vampires, but I’m sure they’re aware. It’s been all over the news. Leo gave them a heads-up as well so they wouldn’t be completely blindsided walking into a house with five vampires in it.
And with the rumors that Antonio is also a vampire…yeah. That’s a lot to process.
We all move into the large dining room and gather around the table. I pour myself a cup of coffee and add a disgusting amount of creamer to it.
“I see you still take your coffee the same way,” Ryder says with a smile. It’s casual. Too casual.
And I don’t think he’s trying to make small talk but is wanting Xavier to know we have history. Only, he’s not the only one who picks up on it and suddenly, I kind of feel bad for Christine.
“Vivian Russo has something we need,” Xavier starts. “And we have no time to waste retrieving it. She’s not working alone, and anyone who is seen aiding her, is to be brought to me.”
The hunters bristle, not wanting to take orders from a vampire.
“We don’t know who she’s working with,” Antonio says, pushing his shoulders back. He’s the most senior hunter here and, naturally, would take on the role of our leader. “Nor do we know what anyone helping her has been told.”
“They still made the decision to try and help her free a demon.”
“They might not know that,” Antonio counters, shifting his gaze to me as the tension between the two of them increases.
“So you know that, uh, weird fire-slash-earthquake that happened in Charlotte?” I quickly interject.
“That was because of Marcus Henry and my parents.” It kills me to say that word, but it’s how everyone sees us.
“You’re all here because you’ve been realizing certain things don’t add up.
They don’t. At all. And I know you’ve all wondered how the hell did a witch really end up in the Order?
Was I taken in out of the kindness of Vivian’s heart?
” I pause, taking in a breath as I look at everyone’s face.
“I wasn’t. What’s happening has been planned for years and I’ve only just discovered the truth myself. ”
“What are you getting at?” Christine asks and I’m glad I don’t have the ability to sense her emotions or intentions right now because I’m pretty sure she’d want to stab me because even Zeke could notice the way Ryder is looking at me.
“I wasn’t rescued as a baby. My family was murdered by Vivian and Marco Russo and I was kidnapped.”
“Why would they do that?” one of the other hunters ask.
“Because my family, the Blackwoods, used their powers to kill or trap powerful demons. Only someone of that same bloodline can free those demons.” I smile awkwardly.
“And the Order has had a demon on a leash for years now. Somehow, they figured out that you need a key engraved with the demon’s sigil to open the door to the prison, and in order to activate the key, you need Blackwood blood.
Marcus intended to crack the door just enough to syphon more power without the demon escaping.
We think Vivian is trying to bust it out. ”
“I just have to play devil’s advocate here,” the other hunter starts. “Is there a chance the Order is trying to keep this demon behind bars?”
“Not a chance,” Antonio answers and I catch Christine looking at the scars on his wrists.
“Why would Vivian and Marco free a demon?” Ryder asks, but not in a challenging way. He’s genuinely curious.
“We’re not sure,” Xavier replies. “But we are assuming it is because she thinks she’ll have some sort of control over it.”
“Okay,” Ryder says, nodding. “Let’s not be hasty here.”
“Funny,” Devon says with a snort of laughter. “But yeah, definitely don’t jump to conclusions and shoot first and ask questions later.”
Ryder leans forward. “I’m not the one—”
“We are not doing this now,” Xavier interrupts, calm, cool but in control and damn, that man can command a room.
I didn’t even notice his fangs coming down, and he doesn’t flash them when he talks the way some vampires do, but instead lets you catch a glimpse of them, reminding everyone that he is the apex predator here.
I take in a shaky breath and Xavier puts his hand on top of mine, curling his long, cool fingers around mine. I turn, looking up into his eyes, and feel my body relax just a bit.
“I was able to cast a locator spell to find her location,” I tell everyone. “We tracked her to the Seely Castle and then I lost the trail because she did something to block my magic. We need to come up with something to draw her out.”
“Everyone thinks Antonio is a vampire,” Christine says with a shrug. She’s angled her body away from Ryder, probably a little turned off by seeing him pine all over me without saying a word. “What if we tell them he’s been spotted or something?”
“I’m not important enough,” Antonio says so matter of factly it’s like a punch to the gut. “That alone won’t work. We need something more…something that would draw her out into the open so we can—”
“Kill her,” Theo says suddenly, startling the hunters. Xavier gives him a shut the fuck up look I’ve seen mothers give their children when they’re misbehaving in public. “Fine. We won’t kill her,” Theo goes on, sounding bored. “We’ll get the key from her and send her on her merry way.”
“She’s in hiding,” Leo goes on. “And is taking great measures to be hard to find.”
“I don’t want to state the obvious,” one of the hunters says. “But have you tried just calling her?”
“Her phone is off and the location settings disabled,” Leo tells him. “My dad’s, too. They moved Gia to a safe place in Florida. Whatever they’re doing, they’re serious about it.”
“If they need your blood,” Christine says, “why not use yourself as bait?”
“They’d have to be quite dumb to come after Wren,” Xavier answers.
“Not if they do during the day,” Ryder says, words landing a little too harshly as he tries to get a reaction out of Xavier. Instead of taking the bait, Xavier leans back.
“You know them better than I do. Come up with something.” He raises his eyebrows and waits.
“They don’t know how to use the key,” Mabel says, filling the awkward silence. “What if Antonio really was turned because Wren selfishly wanted to build her own vampire army and he has the missing piece to complete the ritual?”
“That’s…uh…that’s…” I look at Mabel and then at Xavier, making sure he’s thinking it, too. “That’s actually a really good idea.”
“It is,” Antonio agrees. “We have to be really careful in how we deliver it, but that could work.”
I keep a steady hold of Xavier’s hand while everyone talks, ironing out the details of the plan, not telling anyone that I have my own plan, too…which is to put the key in a safe place after we get it.
And not let Vaelric out.
“We should all try and get some sleep,” Antonio says, standing up and stretching his arms out in front of him.
For the last few hours, we’ve been going over plan after plan, running through every scenario we could until we came up with the best one to lure the Russos out of hiding.
The two hunters—Jay and Ramon—left a bit ago, leaving Ryder and Christine to awkwardly hang back with us.
“I’m too wired to sleep,” Leo replies.
“You drank like an entire pot of coffee,” I tell him, knowing I’ll fall asleep right away the second I lay down next to Xavier.
Or at least I hope so. There’s a good chance I’ll lay down and be haunted by anxious thoughts of impending doom and not be able to sleep at all.
And then knowing I’ll be tired if I don’t fall asleep right now will put me into a spiral and I’ll lay awake for hours.
Xavier’s phone rings for the third time in a row and he silences the call again. It’s Victoria from the VC and nothing she has to say can be that urgent right now.
“Bloody hell,” Theo huffs when his phone rings. “Now she’s pestering me.” He picks his phone up from the table and lets out a snort of amused laughter when he reads the text. “Victoria wants to know why two goth guys on Tiktok are insisting you are a Jedi with—and I quote—Jedi mind powers.”
I look at Leo and shake my head. “Man, I wish you could remember.”
“If this has something to do with that night I got piss-ass drunk and started fights…yeah. I got nothing. I don’t remember a thing.”
“I telekinetically stopped a drunk guy from punching my even drunker brother in the face and then said I was a Jedi when he asked how I did it.”
Theo leans forward. “You told a drunk man you were a Jedi?”
“I mean, it seemed more plausible than saying I’m a witch.” I shrug. “Oh come on, like it’s not a little believable I could be a Jedi?”
“You’d be a Sith Lord,” Theo shoots back, slowly shaking his head.
“Take that back!” I exclaim, exaggerating my offense. “I do what is right for the good of the people, like a Jedi.”
“Do you?” Theo sits back, amused. “You know, the Siths think they’re right and I’m doubting if you’re even a real fan. I saw all three original movies on release day, by the way. I’m as OG as they get.”
Ryder watches our exchange, not saying a word but the judgement is there, written all over his face.
“You guys should just stay,” Antonio tells Ryder and Christine as he heads out of the room. “It’s late. Or early, depending on how you look at it.”
“Good idea,” Ryder says and gets up. Christine moves slowly, looking half asleep.
Same, girl. Xavier helps me to my feet and then we go into my old bedroom.
It’s been completely transformed, and there are two twin beds in here now instead of my old double.
Not a single one of my left behind possessions can be found, and the photographs I had printed and framed are off the walls.
They were just photos of nature—the same ones I had posted on Instagram—yet I suppose seeing them reminded everyone of me.
I change into PJs and crawl into bed, eyes heavy. We draped blankets and curtains over most of the windows, but the house isn’t fully accessible to vampires during the day. Xavier had to walk through a few streams of muted light just to get here with me.
“I love you,” I tell him as I settle into his arms.
“And I love you,” he whispers back, kissing the top of my head. My eyes fall shut and exhaustion takes over, lulling me to sleep. I only make it a few minutes before I wake up, sucking in a breath and wincing from pain radiating up my right arm.
Xavier sits up and I extend my hand. By the look on his face, there’s no denying it or telling myself that maybe I’m dreaming, because he sees it too: a red line going from the center of my palm right up my arm. It burns as it travels up, not stopping until it hits me in the chest.