Leo
I might be the worst brother ever.
I’d known that Aleks would be sympathetic to what Altair had been through, because they had both been used by the witches in somewhat similar ways. I’d known, and I’d used it anyway, because I’d known it would make him sympathetic.
I was using my own brother’s trauma against him.
But Altair deserved that sympathy. He’d been through hell, over and over, and somehow he’d come away from that without the ability to make demands.
Yes, sure, he’d tried to take my blood by force initially, but he’d been starving and frightened.
Scared people were inclined to violence, and that was something every wolf I knew understood.
He had never demanded a single thing since we’d started talking.
He’d been entirely prepared to walk away by himself, going off into the unknown, maybe just dying in the sun.
He knew almost nothing about the area or the modern world, had no money, no friends, and multiple enemies who were trying to track him down and keep him prisoner again.
If anyone in the world needed a pack, it was Altair.
The problem was that he was barely willing to advocate for himself. He’d been prepared to wander off into the woods alone, with no plan and no way to defend himself.
So if he wasn’t going to do it, then I had to do it for him. Everyone deserved that, didn’t they?
Okay fine, maybe not everyone. But I thought Altair did.
He’d given me no indication so far that he was evil or trying to hurt anyone.
He’d been trying to manipulate me, sure, but that was about survival.
Since he didn’t seem to be able to simply state what he needed and ask for it, he had to try another route, and manipulation was it.
Mama did the same all the time, smiling at people and pretending she wasn’t the smartest person in every room, trying to get them to underestimate her so that she could take advantage.
It didn’t make her bad or wrong; it made her a survivor.
I’d watched dozens, if not hundreds, of people disappear from my life over the years because they hadn’t been as clever as Mama, hadn’t known how to change situations to their advantage. I wasn’t going to hold it against Altair that he was trying the same.
Just . . . well, I wasn’t sure anyone else was going to agree with me.
My family could be damnably honorable, putting honesty and integrity before simple survival, and that was .
. . well, it was nice if you had the privilege necessary to be able to do that.
Altair had been held prisoner in one way or another for most of his life—maybe over two hundred years at this point—so he of all people knew that honor was a luxury not everyone could afford.
And if he wasn’t willing to say it aloud, well dammit, I would.
We marched through the woods in near-silence, the only sound the crunch of leaves beneath our feet and Aleks’s and my breathing.
Altair looked almost like a man headed to execution, and I wasn’t entirely comfortable reassuring him in front of my brother.
I’d already told him I had fed Altair, and that was on a line.
I had no idea how much attachment I could show to a near-stranger before I crossed that line.
Hell, maybe I’d already left it behind in the dust.
Halfway to the new square, Evie came running up to us.
Aleks stiffened a bit, clearly concerned. I understood it, because protecting Evie was . . . well, it was everything. We’d changed our whole pack to protect Evie. Aleks sure wasn’t going to let her be hurt now. I just needed him to see that Altair wasn’t going to hurt her.
I . . . hoped that Altair wouldn’t.
I wasn’t as featherbrained as I was sure some people in the pack thought I was.
I knew Altair was a vampire, someone who needed to consume blood to survive.
I knew that my actual experience with him was minimal, and maybe I was entirely wrong about him.
Maybe the manipulation I saw was a manipulation in itself, and he was playing a longer game, trying to bring me to his side so he got access to the whole pack.
It seemed excessive, though. Unless he was working with the witches, and the conversation I’d overheard made that quite unlikely. They hadn’t known I was there, hearing them, and they’d been talking about recapturing or killing Altair.
No, I didn’t think I was actually being manipulated.
Evie didn’t seem to notice that Aleks was stiff and I was distracted, just walked straight up to us, smiling, and joined us walking toward home. “Hi,” she said to Altair after a moment. “Are you the vampire they were talking about?”
He blinked at her a moment, hesitating, and if this was an act, the man was a master of the craft. “They?” he asked, the word soft and nervous.
“Those witches,” she said, waving off in the direction we’d sent them.
“Ugh, they suck so much.” Immediately after, though, and without getting her first answer, she leaned in toward Altair and looked at him hard, then perked up.
“I knew Leo wouldn’t want one of my books!
No offense, Leo, but you’ve never read a book in my life.
What did you think? I mean, if you’ve read it.
It’s not, like, my absolute favorite, and they got werewolves all wrong, but books always do. ”
I watched in real time as the magic of Evie worked on Altair, and his heart melted.
At first, he looked confused and cornered, but as she continued, the expression melted into charmed bemusement.
“It wasn’t bad,” he finally said. “A little melodramatic, and the main character seemed like she was backed into a corner, but it was interesting.” He glanced around, not letting his gaze fall too long on Aleks, then back to Evie. “Do you have any about vampires?”
Her whole face lit up, and she grinned, then pushed herself in between Aleks and Altair, hooking her arm into the crook of his elbow.
“Do I have vampire books? So many. I guess a lot of people really like vampires, at least to write about. Weird question—are you allergic to the sun, or, um . . . ” She leaned in to look at his arm, like she was trying to figure something out.
Aleks, who apparently knew what she was trying to decide, sighed. “He doesn’t sparkle, Evie.”
Altair looked up at him, confused and mildly alarmed, and Aleks rolled his eyes.
“Vampires sparkle?” I asked. “Like they’re wearing glitter or something?”
Evie looked at me like I’d just said the cleverest thing ever, grinning and drawing her shoulders up. “That’s perfect. Glitter.” Then she turned back to Altair. “It’s totally time for you to learn about vampires sparkling.”
He was still watching her, confusion in his eyes, but he smiled anyway and shrugged. “That sounds delightful. I always thought I was a gem in the rough.”
Evie’s laughter filled the woods, and even Aleks in his concern couldn’t ignore that. He smiled, almost against his will, and met my eye behind Altair’s head. He gave me a little nod. Just a tiny concession. He understood what I’d seen that made me think Altair was worth saving.
We came in the back door of the main house, right into the kitchen, where Mama was bustling around, pulling fresh bread out of the oven, and Viktor sat, motionless and silent at the table, watching.
Mama smiled brightly. “Oh, I didn’t know we were having company. Who is this?”
Aleks took a deep breath and stepped forward, holding a hand out toward Altair. “This is Altair, Mama. The witches were holding him prisoner for a very long time, and he escaped. Leo found him and hid him from them.”
Mama frowned at Altair, not as though he were a problem, but like maybe he was a new son who needed fattening up. She stepped in front of him, looking his face over, then reaching up to pat his cheek. “Those witches are a menace,” she said. “Someone needs to stop them entirely.”
Aleks cleared his throat, ducking his head, and fidgeted like he very much didn’t want to continue speaking, so I did it for him.
“He’s a vampire, Mama,” I told her.
She scoffed, waving me off. “You think I can’t tell when a man doesn’t breathe or have a heartbeat, solnyshko?” Then she turned back to Altair and motioned toward the seat closest to the oven. “You sit there. Warmest seat in the house. It helps when the blood doesn’t run on its own.”
Was she suggesting that vampirism was just like being a lizard, and he needed to keep warm?
Unbidden, the image of Altair sunning himself on a rock came to mind, which reminded me that no, the sun would very quickly burn him to death.
Still, if his heart didn’t beat, I supposed that might be rather cold.
Me? I ran hot.
Maybe he’d let me warm him up.
I shook the idea off and went over to pull out the chair for him.
That, of course, was when Viktor decided to pipe up. “So we’re going to ignore that Leo has brought home a blood-sucking parasite?”
Dammit. I knew it had been going too well.