CHAPTER TWELVE
Davien
SHE CAN’T BE,” I muttered, the words slipping out under my breath as I stepped into the weapons room, Marlette close behind me.
The door sealed shut, shutting out the rest of the safe house and leaving us in the cold ordered space I knew too well.
It was functional. Racks of weapons lined the walls—blades of varying lengths, firearms meticulously arranged, everything within reach, ready to be used.
A steel table sat at the centre, its surface scarred faintly from years of use.
I pressed my palm into it, trying to calm the storm building in my head.
Fuck.
I flexed my hands, the sharp click of my knuckles cracking echoed faintly as I began to pace the room, the need to move rising within me. I knew that logically I should hand her over—that was my job after all. Report it. Hand her over. Walk away.
But there was something about her.
What if it really was her.
After a century of chasing shadows and half-truths, what if she’d been the one I’d been looking for. Waiting for.
The one prophesied about.
Most vampires liked to believe it would be a male, but a small number of us had always believed it had to be a woman. Because only a woman could break the chain of cruelty under which vampire society currently existed under.
Valerius clearly knew something was adrift, perhaps he felt the change in energy at her awakening—I’d heard that some powerful true borns were capable of it—and he was looking for her. Who knew what he knew—secrets ran deep in that family.
“Fuck!” My boot connected sharply with the leg of the table, the impact running out through the room, metal vibrating faintly in response.
“You need to calm down,” Marlette said, her voice steady, as she moved to lean her hands against the edge of the table, grounding herself in a way I clearly couldn’t. “And we need to get rid of her.”
“No.” The word came out too quickly. Too certain.
She stilled. “No?”
I turned to face her. “Don’t you see it?” I said, my voice lower. “The black hair, the blue eyes, the fucking aura she gives off—”
I stopped myself short, but it didn’t matter. She was already looking at me differently, the pieces shifting into place as recognition dawned.
Slowly, her expression changed, and I knew then that she too saw it. I wasn’t imagining it.
“She can’t be,” she said.
The same words.
“But what if she is?”
Silence fell between us, thick and immediate. Marlette and I looked at each other, the truth weighing on us.
She was a true born, not turned, not made.
Born. Rare didn’t begin to cover it. Not to mention it was obvious where her lineage lay, meaning there was no doubt Valerius’s motive for finding her wasn’t good.
If one of them had been hidden for all this time, there had to be a reason for it.
Someone else had believed in her too and made sure she wouldn’t be found until she came of age.
That alone was enough for me to believe she could change everything.
But it wasn’t lost on me that if she was who I believed her to be, then she was a blood daughter of my literal enemies. Though I had to admit, it made sense, that family had been in charge for centuries for a reason—they were the strongest. Perhaps the fight really needed to come from within.
None of what came next would be easy.
Marlette’s expression tightened. “I don’t like this, Davien.”
“We don’t have any other choice. If she really is who we think she is then she could change everything."
“I don’t know, if what she says is true, then she thought she was human just days ago. She’s unprepared, untrained and we don’t even know if she holds any power. She doesn’t even understand what she is.”
“Not yet.”
I hated how easily I believed in her, she was so naive, innocent even.
Yet at the same time, she was alive in a way others could only long for.
Her aura was undeniable, I’d been alive long enough now to know what dormant power felt like.
It was there, I was sure of it, just beneath the surface.
She just needed to access it, and who knew how powerful she’d truly be.
“And if she never does?” she pressed. “If what she is now is all she'll ever be?”
I shook my head once, sharp, dismissive. “It isn’t.”
It couldn’t be.
“And what if,” she began, her voice more hushed. “What if she is exactly who you think she is, except that they’ve had her this whole time and she’s a spy.”
I shook my head. “No,” I said. “No, that doesn’t make sense.
What would be her purpose here? She’d be far more likely married off to some high lord.
What reason would they have had to keep her birth a secret in the first place.
Besides, her reactions are too natural, too na?ve.
She’s so unlike any other vampire I’ve ever met, there’s no way she was brought up around them. ”
Marlette exhaled quietly, but she didn’t argue.
“I know someone,” I said, already moving again, my thoughts racing ahead of me. “Someone not tied to the Ninth. Discrete. They can test her blood—confirm it.”
Marlette shook her head “I don’t know.”
“We don’t have a choice,” I said. “If she is who we think she is—”
“She could change everything,” Marlette finished quietly.
“Yes.”
“Her appearance now can’t be random,” I went on. “Think about it. Those attacks are probably linked too.”
It’s too much of a coincidence.
Marlette’s brows pulled together. “You think she’s our unsub?”
“No,” I said, exhaling sharply. “Not directly.”
I dragged a hand down my face, trying to steady the thread of thought before it slipped away entirely.
“I mean something is stirring, don’t you feel it?
We’re on the cusp of change. He always said this would happen someday, and that I’d feel it and know it to be true.
I think this is that. It’s all tied together. ”
She didn’t answer.
“We’re on the edge of something,” I continued, quieter now, the certainty settling in a way I couldn’t ignore. Cathal’s voice echoed in the back of my mind, distant but as persistent as ever, reminding me of my purpose here. “I think this is it. It’s all connected.”
“You’re not making sense, Davien,” she said carefully. “You’re worrying me. I still think we should hand her over to the Ninth. They’ll handle it.”
“No,” I said, because it wasn’t up for debate. If there was any chance that she was the woman Cathal had always talked about, then I couldn’t take the chance. “You’re either with me or against me. Decide now.”
“You’re asking me to go against the Ninth?”
“I’ve done worse for you.”
This time there was no hesitation. “With you. I’m always with you, you know that.”
I held her gaze for a moment longer, then gave a single sharp nod.
“Good.”
Because there was no turning back from this.
This would likely expose me.
There’d be no coming back from that, and it would get dangerous.
But I really had no other option. If Valerius got his hands on Ailsa, it could be the end of everything.
We’d never get back to the old ways.
Back to the way things should be.