“Stop, Helina,” Erik muttered.
I breathed out in frustration, brushing her away. There was no point trying to hide it any more. Erik knew and of course he would tell his sister.
I walked over to the bathroom and pointed to Anna crouched down on the floor.
Helina gasped. “This human… you stole her from the back of that dungeon.” Tears of fear and panic welled in her eyes. “No. No, Kiev. I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all. Please. We need to return her. If we do it now, Isolde might still—”
“No,” I growled, pushing her back.
“There are so many other girls on this island, why do you have to—”
“Shut your mouth and listen for once,” I snarled. I towered over her, glaring from her to my brother. “What’s going to happen now is very simple. You two are going to leave this room and pretend you never saw her.”
“But Kiev—”
“If either of you so much as breathe a word about this human or harm her in any way, I swear—it’s over. I’ll find a way to leave this island and you’ll never see me again.”
That shut my sister up. She chewed on her lower lip.
“I’ve been lenient enough to still talk to you after what you did to Matteo. But this is your last chance. You need to stop trying to judge what’s best for me and just do what I tell you to do. Now, you’re either with me or against me.”
There was a silence, interrupted only by more retching from Anna. It irritated me that I was wasting all this time trying to keep my siblings in check when Anna was in need of me.
“You do realize what will happen if we get caught?” Erik said. His face had almost healed by now.
I grunted. I didn’t know what punishment we would face. But it wouldn’t make a difference.
Helina sank down on the bed. Her eyes glazed over as she stared at the wall.
“So are you with me, or against me?”
I glared down at both of my siblings.
“Of course we’re not against you,” Erik said.
Helina nodded, gulping.
“We’re not against you,” she repeated.
“But are you with me?”
They both nodded.
Truth be told, a part of me had expected them to refuse.
“And I’m sorry, Kiev,” Erik said, still sitting on the floor, now holding his head in his hands. “Julisse has been a sore spot for me recently.”
I stared at Erik. “What do you mean?”
He heaved a sigh, rubbing a palm against his forehead. “She’s started cheating on me. I know it. But I can’t prove it. And, of course, she won’t admit to it.”
I was at a loss for what to say. I’d never had had much conviction about their relationship—Julisse had a way about her that made me distrust her. But I was surprised that she would cheat on my brother. He was certainly one of the best-looking men on the island and also appeared to be several years younger than her.
But with Anna half dying on my bathroom floor, now was not the time for me to be a relationship counsellor to my brother.
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that,” I said curtly.
Erik got up and walked toward me. He held out his hand and shook mine, patting me on the shoulder.
“I’m sorry for accusing you. I guess I didn’t believe you would do something like that to me. I was just venting.”
I nodded.
Helina stood up and gripped my arm.
“I’m sorry too,” she said softly. “And now, I promise, we’re on your side. I don’t know why you want this pregnant woman so much, or what you plan to do with her—to be honest, I’d rather not know. But whatever insane plan you have going through your mind, we’ll not say a word.”
She would have been even more horrified to learn that I had not even an insane plan. I had no plan at all.
They headed for the front door and stepped out into the corridor outside.
“Wait,” I hissed, just before they left. “Helina. Bring me down the rest of your perfume, will you?”
Chapter 25: Mona
I’d thought that I would feel more shaken after murdering the ruler of The Sanctuary and her lover in their sleep. But I just felt numb. Perhaps it was Rhys’ influence on me finally working. I’d done what I had to do. Now that I’d done it, it felt almost no different than any other mundane task he might ask me to do.
When I resurfaced, I was back in Lilith’s cave. Gasping, I climbed out of the pool and pulled out the rolls of parchment beneath my cloak. They were soaked. Before they could disintegrate, I dried them with my magic, thankful to see that they were still readable. I turned back to face the Ancient, who was now floating in the pool. I held out the leather binder to her.
She crawled out of the pool and towered over me, snatching it from me. She flipped through the pages with her bony fingers. Seemingly satisfied, she handed it back to me. I was confused. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with them. Hell, I didn’t even know what they were.
I looked around the cavernous chamber. Rhys hadn’t arrived yet.
“Rhys?” I said, looking up at her.
She pointed toward the door. I assumed that meant I was to go and fetch him. Tucking the binder beneath my arm, I hurried out of the chamber and along the tunnels.
I ran out toward the entrance of the cave and saw Rhys sitting on a boulder, staring out at the ocean.
“Rhys!” I shouted.
He jumped to his feet, a look of relief on his face, and climbed up toward me.
He held my hand and pulled me close to him.
“She wants to see you now,” I said.
He gripped my hand and we walked back to the chamber.
The Ancient was still standing beside the pool, her thin arms crossed over her chest. She spoke up. Rhys looked at me. “She says you have a bundle of maps.”
I withdrew them from my cloak and handed them to him.
He flipped through the pages.
“What are they?” I asked.
“Not now,” he said, turning back to the Ancient. He continued talking to her.
When there was a gap in their conversation I asked anxiously, “So what now? Did I pass her test?”
He looked down at me and nodded.
I didn’t know whether to be relieved or terrified. At least now I would have Rhys by my side for the rest of the way. It just unnerved me that I still had no idea what this involved.
He pulled me down closer to the witch. Lilith was so freakishly tall she even towered over Rhys. I sat down on the floor beside the pool as they finished their conversation.
Finally the witch turned to me and, looking me directly in the eye, rasped, “Mo-na.”
The sound of my name coming out of her decaying lips sent chills running down my spine. I stood up again and walked closer to her, gripping Rhys’ arm as I did.
Then she said something else to me.
I looked at Rhys, my eyebrows raised. Even he looked reluctant to translate for me, hardly making me feel better about the situation. “She is asking, ‘Are you ready to become a Channeler?’”
I nodded, even as my stomach churned.
She hissed at me again.
“She wants you to say yes,” Rhys said.
I looked her.
“Yes,” I said clearly.
She chewed on her lower lip and then gripped my hand. She forced me down on to the floor and hissed at me again.
“Sit cross-legged,” Rhys said.
I did as I was told.
Rhys bent down next to me and sat opposite me on the floor. He placed a hand on my knee. It wasn’t often that Rhys betrayed fear, but looking at me beneath the Ancient’s grip, now he did.
The Ancient’s hands closed around my skull, her sharp fingers digging into my scalp.
An excruciating pain erupted from where she was touching me and ran down my neck to the base of my spine. I cried out. Rhys’ grip on my knee tightened.
She spoke again, and then let out a ha
rsh cackle.
I looked at Rhys through squinted eyes, tears of pain dripping down my cheeks.
“She says now is the time that you need to trust me more than ever.’”
Chapter 26: Kiev
Now that I’d dealt with my siblings, it felt like a heavy weight had been lifted off my chest. I wasn’t completely alone in this madness. Although they were hardly enthusiastic, I trusted that they wouldn’t betray me.
As soon as they left, I hurried back into the bathroom. Anna’s head rested against the wall, her eyes closed, mouth hanging open.
I feared for a moment that I’d already lost her. I gripped her jaw and made her face me.
She was breathing lightly. She had passed out.
“Hang on, Anna,” I whispered.
I picked her up in my arms and hurried back into the bedroom to place her down on the mattress.
I grabbed a towel from the bathroom and wet it with cold water before proceeding to wipe her face with it. I rested it on her forehead, and sat by her bed, holding her hand. Willing her to come to consciousness.
I kept changing the towel when it became warm. Helina came in briefly to hand me her perfume, but didn’t stay.
After about an hour Anna came to. I breathed out in relief.
Her eyelids flickered open and she started coughing.
“How are you feeling?”
She laid her head back down on the pillow and looked up at me weakly. I wasn’t sure if she could understand me. Although her eyes were open, they looked unfocussed.
“I’m going to go down and find some more food,” I said.
She muttered incoherently.
I pulled the blanket higher over her, then left the room, sure to double-lock it behind me.
Of course, the lock would be useless if a vampire really wanted to come in. But I hoped nobody had any reason to. It was just there as a mild deterrent. If somebody knocked, they couldn’t come in without breaking the door of a Novalic down. And few people on this island would dare do that.
I hurried back down to the kitchen for the second time within the space of a few hours. Relieved to see that it was still empty, I raced around trying to figure out what the hell I should bring up for her this time that her stomach could handle.
Soup was one of the most easy things to digest. But perhaps the soup I’d given her had been too rich. Or perhaps it had contained too many spices for her fragile stomach. Whatever the case, I had to try again.
Baby food is what she needs.
Unsure of what I was even doing—for I had always been a useless cook even as a human—I found a sack of vegetables and hurled them onto the counter. I dipped my hands into the sack and pulled out a handful of what resembled potatoes and carrots. These should do. I washed them, then I boiled a large pot of water and dropped them in.
I waited impatiently by the boiling pot, sticking a knife into the vegetables every few minutes.
These things take so damn long to get soft.
Finally, I decided that they were soft enough to not cause Anna more stomach upset. I dropped them into a bowl and began to mash them up together with a spoon. Once they’d formed a thick paste, I found some milk in the cold cellar and warmed a few cupfuls. I poured the warm milk into the bowl of vegetable paste. I grabbed some salt from the counter and added a few pinches. Then I blended it all together furiously until it formed a smooth consistency.
I poured the liquid into a large bowl and placed it on another tray. I also added to it another jug of water.
No bread this time. Let’s just try this.
I cleaned up after myself, then rushed out of the kitchen and began walking up the staircase.
I thought that I might have once again gotten lucky by not bumping into anyone on the way up, but just as I was about to turn the last corridor to my room, Efren appeared round the corner.
He stopped short, a look of surprise on his face as he saw me. Then his eyes narrowed on me. He looked at the towel-covered tray I was holding. I was relieved when he let me pass in silence.
By the time I reentered my bedroom, Anna was taking deep breaths. I walked over to her and placed the tray beside her on the bed.
I felt her forehead. It was still hot. But at least she seemed to be slightly more conscious than when I’d left her.
Seeing that she was clearly still in no state to feed herself, I lifted her up to sit against the cushions. Taking the bowl and spoon, I began to feed her. She coughed at first, but to my relief she started lapping up the food I was feeding her.
I watched her closely as she swallowed each spoonful. I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination, but by the time she’d finished the bowl, I could have sworn that her eyes appeared less distant. She appeared calmer, more aware.
“Are you feeling better?” I dared ask.
There was a pause.
Then she looked up at my face and breathed, “You’re my angel.”
She’s still delirious.
Chapter 27: Mona
I stared at myself in the mirror.
Apart from my eyes having turned a few shades darker, and my skin looking a bit more sallow, there wasn’t much difference. But internally, it felt like something had shifted.
Although I was aware of why I had set out on this path—to break free from my life with Rhys—I couldn’t connect with that motivation any more now that the Ancient had bestowed on me such a gift and responsibility. I couldn’t even conceive of betraying her and Rhys. And I had no desire to leave Rhys any more. Rather, it felt painful when I wasn’t in his presence. I wanted him. I wondered if his being there for me while Lilith inducted me had strengthened our bond.
It had been a few days since we left the Ancient’s cave, and I was still getting used to my newfound powers. Rhys was helping tame me. He said we couldn’t return to The Shade until I’d got a handle on them. I’d already almost burnt our bed to ashes and made a huge crack in the wall.
Only once he was confident enough that I wouldn’t wreck the place did we return to The Shade.
I looked around as we walked through the courtyard up the steps into the castle. There was nobody around. It seemed to be late. I’d lost track of how long we’d been away by now, although it felt like an eternity.
We reached our room. My bones and muscles were aching from exercising my powers with Rhys earlier that morning. I wanted nothing more than to lie down and fall asleep.
As I moved toward the bed, Rhys said, “Wait. We need to attend the ritual first. It starts in an hour. We’re just in time for it. If you want you can rest until then, but I’ll have to wake you—”
There was a knock on the door. Rhys went to answer it. His aunt stood in the doorway. Her dark hair was tied up in a tight bun. She stepped inside and closed the door behind her.
“I sensed your return,” she said, eyeing me as I sat down on the edge of the bed. “How did it go?”
“Mona’s one of us now,” Rhys said, placing a hand on my shoulder and squeezing it.
Although Isolde looked shocked that I’d returned in one piece, she didn’t voice her surprise.
“Hm. Good.” Her mouth formed a hard line as she looked me over.
“How have things been since we left?” Rhys asked.
“We’ve kept up the rituals, if that’s what you mean. But there’s something that I must talk to you about.”
“Oh?”
“I just heard from Annora. The immune is missing.”
“The immune?”
Isolde nodded, her eyes darkening. “While you were gone, and since Efren was in no mood to help me, I decided to take the Novalics to collect some more humans from Annora. Well, a day after our visit she discovered the immune missing.”
Rhys’ lips parted in disbelief.
“Of course,” she continued, “we don’t know for sure that the Novalics are behind it. It could have been one of Annora’s vampires. But even if they did, I think it’s best not to ask them outright. I’d rather we find the proof on
our own before confronting them. If they have done this then we have a very serious situation indeed.”
Rhys rubbed a hand against his forehead and stared back at Isolde.
“You really think they’d betray us like this? After all they’ve seen of us?”
Isolde shrugged. “I’m just saying that this is an unfortunate coincidence.”
“Hm,” he grunted. “Well, we ought to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible.”
“Yes,” Isolde said. “Because we can’t afford for something to happen to that immune. It would be a huge setback. We have to hope wherever she is, she’s still alive.”
“Have you told anyone else about this?”
She shook her head.
“Not even Efren. I’d rather keep this between the three of us for now. In case they are innocent, I don’t want to place unnecessary doubt in people’s minds. Annora is conducting an investigation of her own. There is one vampire she already suspects could be behind this, but she’ll get back to me about this.”
“All right,” Rhys said, his voice low. “I agree. It’s best to keep this between the three of us until we know for sure.”
“Well, I’ll see you at the ritual,” Isolde said. “The Novalics will all be there as usual, of course.” She turned on her heels and left the room.
Whereas previously I’d been feeling tired, now, at the mention of the immune being missing, I was as far away from sleep as I could be. I knew the importance of the immune.
“We need to start investigating this right away,” I said, walking over to Rhys. “There’s no time to lose. We can’t afford for anything to happen to that immune.”
He looked at me and a small smile formed on his lips. He placed his hands on my waist and drew me in toward him, kissing me tenderly on either cheek.
“You really have changed,” he said, his voice husky. “You’re finally aligned with us. With me.”
I stared at him.
“Of course I’ve changed. You think I could have survived what the witch put my mind through without changing?”