Chapter 31 | Sephania #2
Iron Sister Keffa comes out of Old Endolf’s alchemical room behind my mother, shuffling toward us. “We’ve tested the newest concoction on a Chained Sister. Lyroan.” She lifts her wrinkled face to Vallan, giving him a wry smile. “You know of the dhampiress, yes, Master Stellos?”
If vampires could blush, Vallan would be. He stiffens, grunting out a rushed, “Aye.”
“Then come see for yourself. It’s been an hour since she imbibed the potion.”
Our trio follows Jinneth and Keffa into the alchemical room.
Vallan stands in the doorway, taking up the entire frame and then some.
Lyroan, the small lass, sits on the edge of a table.
Her face rises as Vall’s shadow falls on her.
Then she looks over at me and Garro on either side of him, and finally to Keffa.
“Why’s everyone staring at me, Iron Sister? ”
Jinneth smiles. My eyes widen, because I see it too.
Her passing glance at Vallan . . . that was it.
No glimmer in her eye or hurried breath from the sight of him.
No reaction at all. In the past, Lyroan could not stop herself from fumbling her words and falling all over herself anytime Vallan made an appearance.
She was deeply, deeply enamored with him, and I had to tell her to back off, eventually.
Which led to her hating me and wishing I was dead.
Jinneth says, “Sister Lyroan, do you still wish to harm my daughter, Sephania, for stealing Vallan Stellos from you?”
I cringe. She says it so bluntly.
Lyroan tilts her head, brow threading. “Why would I want to do that, Mother Jinneth? Your daughter has only ever been kind to me.”
Well, except that one time I threatened her if she got too close to Vallan and kept on this hopeless trajectory . . .
This is a breakthrough. Either she’s playing an act—which I doubt, because those reactions of the past were visceral and impossible to hide—or she’s clearly lost her love for the vampiric giant beside me.
I step outside with Jinneth and Garroway, leaving Vall in there to awkwardly stand like a specimen.
“What changed?” I hiss silently. “In the formula.”
Jinneth shrugs. “Better Loreblood because it’s fresher and straight from your veins, I suspect. A greater quantity of silver used in the tincture, but nothing overwhelming. I believe it’s simply a better balance of the numerous ingredients.”
Garroway paces in front of us along a small incline. “Lyroan is a grayskin though. Like me. She was not born with a bloodbond because she was not turned, she was birthed. Does she have a bond with another vampire, like I do with Master Skar, do you know?”
My mother’s cheeks wobble as she shakes her head. “Not that I am aware of.”
“Then how can we know this will work on vampires, rather than just erasing a half-blood’s desires, as it seems to have done with Sister Lyroan?”
“We test it on them,” Jinneth says simply, like it’s the easiest thing to convince a vampire to do.
Turn against their master or mistress and drink this unknown substance. The person they’ve been mentally and spiritually connected with since becoming a vampire. Surely that’s a great sales strategy.
We can decide the mode of initiation later. Right now, we need to make sure the fucking thing works.
Jinneth’s eyes haven’t moved from Garro’s face.
“What is it, Mother?” I chirp.
A sly grin builds. “There’s one person I can think of we could test it on to make sure.”
My brow threads. I look to Garro, back to Jinneth. “Wait.” My eyes flip to Garroway.
He recognizes it at the same time.
Jinneth shrugs. “You just mentioned your bloodbond with Skartovius Ashfen, baldy. You’re a dhampir who has been thralled to a fullblood—the most powerful bond of all. The solution seems simple.”
A sheen of worry crowds Garro’s face. He takes a step back, eyeing Jinneth and then me, like we’re strangers or mad scientists eager to pick at his bones.
My heart hurts for him, seeing the war of wills playing across his flitting eyes, his flexing jaw.
Garro’s connection with Skar is already tenuous at best from drinking my Loreblood straight from the tap.
We’ve seen its power. Now my mother wants to convince him to sever that bond to Skar fully, while also not becoming thralled to me because the blood isn’t directly from my veins.
In theory, he would lose any connection with anyone.
It’s a hard sell. I know that. I hate that my mother has put it on my mate’s shoulders.
“. . . No . . .” Garroway croaks, shaking his head wildly while backing up another step down the slope. “I’m n-not ready for that.” He clears his throat loudly. “Not yet. I’m—I’m sorry, little honey badger. You can’t ask me to lose myself to Master Skar completely.”
My eyebrows arch with sadness. I stumble down the slope and rest a hand on his arm before he can run away.
Then I cup his cheek and press a small kiss to his lips.
Into the shell of his ear, I whisper, “I would never ask you to do something like that, my love. Not if it goes against your wishes and needs.”