Altair
Aleks had the presence of mind to calm everyone down. Much of the pack who hadn’t already been busy building with Leo and the others had come out of their homes to see what was going on.
No one from the pack had been hurt, and I’d been the only one to kill somebody—well, unless the witch that Henry bit died. It could still happen, but Henry seemed remarkably at peace with the whole business.
It reminded me a little of a very old vampire, for whom killing had become rote. Only Henry wasn’t that old, or that cold-blooded.
A pragmatist then.
Viktor was right: I ate a person.
I hadn’t even hesitated to consider what was appropriate within the social expectations of this pack. For all that Leo had told me about their past, nothing made me think they wouldn’t flinch at me killing someone, even a witch who’d come to attack them.
As discreetly as I could, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and hid it beneath the oversized arm of Leo’s sweatshirt.
Heavens, I relied on him for even that. If I wanted clothes of my own, I’d have to steal them, or they’d come at his expense. Even just in glimpses of modernity I’d seen with the witches or since coming here, I knew I’d be lost on my own out in the wider world.
And they were going to turn me out.
It was going to be hard enough to convince them to let me stay if I’d just told them about Ivan outright. Now, with witches attacking them in the heart of their territory, I didn’t think it’d be so simple.
If the witches already thought I was here, they’d tell Ivan just to try and save their own skins. The witch Henry had bitten, Tristan, was right; it was a wonder that Ivan hadn’t killed any of them yet.
But Ivan wouldn’t start a fight until he thought he could win it, and in one way or another, he thought the witches’ involvement kept him safer, or his hands cleaner.
It wasn’t me he was afraid of, but I suspected it was more than just the inconvenience of being unable to move freely in daylight.
Leo kept his arm around me while Aleks spoke to the pack. He assured himself and them that everyone was safe and unharmed. He convinced them that the danger had passed for now, and they ought to go back to what they were doing, but more than one set of eyes landed on the bitten witch.
It was kind of Henry to speak up for me, and kinder still when he and his brother offered to take care of the corpse I’d left behind.
I hadn’t yet figured out how to disentangle myself from Leo to do anything about the witch I’d killed.
Quite frankly, I wasn’t sure I could function well enough to see it done, which meant I was fairly useless as a vampire.
The look Henry sent Leo registered as kind, but I felt separated from it, like I was watching all this through a cloud. It took the pressure of Leo’s arm around me to lead me back to Katya’s house.
He tucked me onto the couch where I could see the pile of books that Evie had brought before I’d dragged us out into that nightmare.
Leo, still shirtless, which I was unfortunately too dazed to appreciate, sat beside me. His arm wrapped around the back of the couch and with his far hand, he held onto mine. Without thinking better of it, I clung to his hand with both of mine.
Having him close felt safe, and I needed the steadiness of his hand.
Katya came back inside too, and Evie padded on four paws across the living area. She hopped up onto the couch and, after a moment, huffed through her wet nose and set her chin in my lap.
Carefully, I unwound my vise grip from Leo’s hand and ran my fingers across her forehead. “Thank you for sticking by my side.”
She looked up at me with wide, glistening green eyes and made a sound in her throat, not quite a bark but a little huff of confirmation.
Even if I only had two firm allies, it was more than I’d had in so long that having them beside me made my chest ache.
Then Viktor stormed in, his nose flared. “When were you going to tell us that Ivan is your sire?”
I scowled at him, confused. “Tonight. I . . . wasn’t going to mention it, but I thought it might come up and if—if I told you ahead of time, perhaps we could work together on a plan in case he came looking for me.”
Viktor huffed. He crossed his arms tightly and stood just outside the living area, like he’d rather die than relax in proximity to a vampire.
Maybe he was just on edge. He ought to be.
“Right,” he snapped. “That’s convenient. You were going to tell us, but you didn’t have the chance before there were witches flinging spells around our kids. Sure.”
I shrugged, too drained of energy to bother arguing with him. “Yes.”
“Why do you know Ivan?” Leo demanded of his brother.
“How was Altair—how were any of us supposed to realize his name would mean anything to you when you haven’t said why you hate vampires.
” Leo sucked in a sharp breath, closed his eyes, and the rigidity of his grip loosened on my hand.
“You know Ivan.” He was calmer when he opened his eyes again.
Viktor nodded. “We’ve crossed paths. I’ve seen the carnage he leaves behind.”
“Are you sure it’s the same person?” Aleks asked when he came in, bringing up the rear with a nervous-looking Cash who had Tristram’s arm over his shoulder.
Cash lowered him into a seat, and Aleks looked around the room.
“Ivan’s a pretty common name in Russia. Maybe there aren’t a ton of vampires, but there’s got to be more than one vampire Ivan in all of Russia. ”
Viktor’s brows inched higher, and he looked at me like I might have the answer.
I sighed. “I suppose we don’t know for certain, but . . . you were held by the Russian government at the time you met Ivan?”
Viktor nodded, a muscle working in his jaw.
All I could do was shrug. “It makes sense. I don’t think there are many of us.
In the years I was free and roaming the Americas, I only came across a pair of my kind, traveling together.
Outside of a coven, we give each other a wide berth.
Humans are more likely to notice us when we’re in the same territory so we .
. . aren’t. When I was with Ivan, he was .
. . politically aligned. He worked with the tsar often, and he had .
. . some use for werewolves. He isn’t one to leave a powerful weapon on the shelf if he can bend it.
Perhaps he changed, but changing is harder for us.
When I left, I thought he wouldn’t cross the ocean to follow me. That voyage is easier now, isn’t it?”
Leo nodded. “Yeah. He could even get a private flight if he had enough money. Keep the windows shut. Might not be a comfortable journey, but it wouldn’t take more than a day or two at worst.”
My mouth went dry at that. I’d tried so hard to get away, and now he could find me in a handful of days.
“He had plenty of money,” I croaked.
And Ivan had been here the whole time. Maybe he’d come as soon as I’d escaped the witches. All the presumptions that I’d been safe slipped away. I shut my eyes and focused on keeping my breathing steady.
It’d been foolish, to leave my cell.
The thing was, if the witches had offered protection and concealment from Ivan in exchange for blood or anything else they wanted from me, I would have agreed to it.
But they were never going to trust or negotiate with a vampire, much the same as they struggled to treat werewolves with a modicum of respect.
Instead, I had two allies, and I didn’t want either Leo or Evie anywhere near Ivan. None of the rest of them either. Not Henry, who’d bitten someone to protect me, or Cash, who was bringing a cup of tea to Tristan.
Even Viktor. We weren’t friends, but he was Leo’s brother. There was love there, and I’d upended their lives.
I allowed myself a pitiful moment to consider returning to Ivan’s home in the Caucasus Mountains. I’d never escape again. If I was lucky, it’d just be chains that held me in place, but I suspected it’d be worse. Ivan had two centuries’ disobedience to repay me for.
I shivered, and Leo shifted closer to me on the couch. His hand traced my arm.
I forced a dry swallow. “I should go,” I whispered.
“No!” he clutched me closer.
I’d expected his refusal, but it was Viktor’s annoyed eyeroll that caught my attention.
“There’s no sense in that,” he snipped. “You leaving won’t guarantee Ivan leaves us alone, especially if he thinks we helped you.
He’s a fucking sadist.” The way Viktor’s gaze darted to his brother made my stomach clench.
“If he thinks coming here has the slightest chance of hurting you, we’ll be seeing him. ”
Katya had pulled over a stool and was sitting beside Tristan, bandaging his bite, but Tristan was blinking at me. “You really have them fooled, don’t you?” He looked up at Viktor and Aleks. “They don’t have feelings. You know that, right?”
I sucked in my cheeks and stared down at Leo’s hand around mine. He wasn’t exactly wrong. It was easier to get by, when you didn’t feel.
Aleks scoffed. “Coming from a guy who’d call us beasts? Forgive me if I don’t take you as an authority on anything.”
“You saw how fast he killed Kate. You don’t watch him, and he’ll do the same to any of you.”
My lap was rumbling, and I didn’t know why at first, but then I saw Evie’s lips pull back from her fangs.
Cash snorted. “Fuck what you and your disgusting coven think you know. You had a vampire locked against his will for decades and you’re shocked he didn’t let you in as a confidant? You’re just a bunch of users, and you’re lucky we haven’t rolled over your pathetic group and wiped you out already.”
Until that moment, Cash had struck me as someone meek and afraid, but there was a seething fury in him beneath all that. He was indignant, and whether or not he liked me, I ranked well above the witches.
“If it comes down to my life or some witch who is attacking me,” I admitted. “I’m going to protect myself.”
“And if it came down to choosing between your life and Leo’s?” Viktor shot back, glaring my way again.
I bristled. I didn’t want to think about that.
“Back off, Viktor,” Leo said. “We haven’t known each other that long. That’s an insane thing to ask.”
“You put your life on the line for him,” Viktor said, “regularly.”
I nodded. He did. Even when I attacked him, he offered to let me bite him. “He’s right. I—I don’t want to hurt you. Or for you to get hurt because of me.”
Leo’s expression went soft, and he squeezed my hand. “That’s enough for me.”
Aleks rubbed both his palms over his face for a second. When he dropped his arms, he looked exhausted. “I get why you didn’t tell us about Ivan before, but Altair, if we’re going to work together, you have to let us in. Is there anything else you’re not telling us that might affect the pack?”
I shook my head. “Not that I can think of. I didn’t know Ivan would come here. I didn’t know he was thinking about me at all until I heard the witches in the woods, and I didn’t think—” I swallowed. “I didn’t think you’d let me stay if you knew I might bring more trouble.”
Viktor’s next breath escaped through his teeth, hissing. “We shouldn’t have.”
“Vitya,” Katya said, a warning note in her voice.
He shrugged. “The witch is right—next to Ivan, Altair’s harmless.”
I couldn’t argue that. Guilt rolling through me, I stared down at my lap, at Leo’s steady hand curled around mine.
“Ivan’s ancient. The older a vampire is, the more powerful they tend to be, but Ivan was .
. . particularly skilled. I know why he killed me, but I don’t know why he decided to keep me. ”
“Why did he kill you?” Leo asked, choked.
My lips twisted into a sad smile. “I was willing. Not to die, but . . . Ivan sets his traps with honey. I was young and naive. I thought it was just a tryst, but he—I didn’t make it out of his bed alive.”
“But you drank his blood,” Viktor said.
“I did. He said I’d live forever, stay beautiful, and I—” I hadn’t let myself think about this in so long.
It was hard to go back and hold onto the way I’d felt that night.
I’d spent years building up layers of defenses.
“I was afraid. There was so much blood, and I didn’t want to die.
I thought if I did what he said he’d . . . I thought he’d stop.”
Viktor stared at me. “But Ivan never stops.”
His eyes were flat. He was struggling to tamp down something, just as I was. And that, more than anything, convinced me that we weren’t lucky enough for this to be a different vampire.
Viktor knew my sire precisely as he was.
“No,” I agreed, “he doesn’t.”