*Lena*
Xander planted a rough, hungry kiss on my lips and any shyness or apprehension vanished in an instant.
“I missed you,” he said into my neck as I continued to clutch him against , my fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt.
“How long have you been in Mirage?” I asked when I finally pulled away to look up at him. He was clean-shaven and dressed in casual trousers and a button-down shirt, with a white undershirt beneath. He looked more like a random resident of Mirage than an Alpha King, but I was more than okay with that. I reached up involuntarily and ran my fingers through his black curls, which were brushed back away from his face. He’d gotten a haircut since the last ti I saw him. He looked.... Well, he looked so much healthier, and happier, since we’d parted ways after the war.
“Only a few hours,” he replied, leaning down to press a kiss to my forehead. “I’m on my way to et with soone, actually–”
“et with soone?” I laughed, pushing away from him. “Was that soone not ?”
“Well, I had to et with them first, and they’re on my way to the castle,” he smiled with a shrug. “I didn’t expect to run into you, but I’m glad I did. I think you should go with .”
He took my hand and began to lead away, drinking deeply from the lemonade I’d bought for Mom.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“The ambassador for the vampires who are settling in the east,” he replied. I halted, an uneasy feeling settling in my stomach.
“What?”
He turned to face again, and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he totally understood my hesitation.
“There are a lot of them,” he began, “and so, especially the families with children, have expressed the desire to spread out. There were four kingdoms of lower vampires, and they don’t all get along, as well as those who had been enslaved by the king for... centuries. There’s just not enough room in Crimson Creek for all of them, and your dad is planning on relocating so of the families to Mirage.”
“My dad? You saw him?”
“I did,” he said, blowing out his breath. “He doesn’t like very much, but I told him I’d check in on the ambassador. The vampires will start arriving at the end of the sumr, from what I’ve been told. Winter Forest has also offered to accept at least three dozen families...”
He continued to talk as we started walking again. How hadn’t I known this was happening? Mom knew, surely. She had to have known.
It wasn’t that I was unaccepting of the idea that vampires would be living close by. The lower vampires were a totally different type of people compared to the Death Walkers who had battled against the allied forces for weeks. They were... good, at least the ones I’d t and grown to love.
But sothing was nagging at as we walked through Old Town.
We stopped in front of an unassuming stone cottage along a cobblestone road. It had white-washed window fras and baskets of flowers hanging near the doorfra. A bistro table and chairs sat outside, basking in the shade that was filtering through the shade of several magnolia trees.
But thick curtains were drawn behind the windows, to keep the light out.
My heart was in my throat when Xander knocked on the door. It opened a crack, and whoever was behind it paused for a mont before opening the door wide enough for us to see who was behind it.
My mouth popped open, and I closed it imdiately, raising my eyebrows at the tall vampire male who stood in the doorway.
“Lincoln,” I said, and he nodded at , a ghost of a smile touching his lips.
***
I could hear Xander and Lincoln speaking in low tones around the corner. They were sitting in the snug kitchen at a breakfast table, and every once in a while I heard the sound of paper rustling.
Carly stretched her arms over her head then snuggled deeper into the floral couch were sitting on. I looked down at the baby she’d placed in my arms, his cheek resting against the curve of my stomach as he made little suckling motions with his mouth in his sleep. He was beautiful, fat and healthy with a healthy head of dark hair. Carly sighed as she looked down at him, a soft smile touching her lips.
“Caleb was my father’s na,” she smiled weakly, eting my eyes. “My mom says he looks just like when I was a baby.”
Carly had recently been reunited with her mother, who was living with them in the cottage but was out running errands. I could see the sadness behind Carly’s eyes when she ntioned her father, and my heart squeezed with regret. If we’d found her sooner....
“You want to know what happened, right?” she said, eting my eye.
I nodded, unable to form a vocal reply. I adjusted little Caleb’s weight in my arms and settled into a comfortable position on the couch. I had a feeling this was going to be a long story.
“Oliver said you were also a Morhan student,” she began, a soft sigh leaving her lips. “So I assu you know why I was in Crimson Creek in the first place.”
I nodded, wondering if she could read the conflicting emotions playing across my face.
“I was rooming with three other Morhan students in the village. We went out to the bar one night, and a man approached us, telling us about a party at one of the estates. They wanted to go, and I was too afraid to stay in our apartnt alone at night–”
“Why?”
“Just that... well, strange things had been happening since I arrived. I felt like I was being watched. We were testing the soil in the village one day and had traveled out past the village to the hills, and found, uhm–”
“Blood root,” I said, and her eyes shot to mine as she nodded.
“Yes... but I didn’t know it then. I thought it was a moss of so kind, so during one of my breaks I went back to Morhan and tried to research it, but I couldn’t find anything about it in the texts available in the library. But I found one ntion of sothing matching its description in the archives, but the book itself wasn’t available to check out from the library. I had to get approval from the administration.”
“I tried to check it out as well,” I added, “but it was gone. We found it with your things in Maxwell Radcliffe’s attic.”
Her eyes darkened at the ntion of his na.
“Did you read the book?” she asked. I sighed and nodded, a look of understanding passing between us. “Useless, right? That’s why I began to ask questions. Our soil samples and the samples of blood root we’d sent back to Morhan for testing were lost, and when my partners and I asked about it, the university had no idea what we were talking about.”
Caleb let out a long, drawn-out sigh as he snuggled deeper into my chest. Carly smiled weakly at him, her eyes glistening for a mont as she continued, “My roommates went to that party. I went back to our apartnt and gathered my books in my backpack to go study in the foyer of the hotel, which felt like a safer place than where we were staying. But when I stepped out onto the street I felt this... pull. I can’t explain it. I rember turning to hills and hearing... voices. It sounded like my parents, and then like my boyfriend back at Morhan, like they were calling out to , growing more and more frantic.”
Tears welled in her eyes as she sucked in her breath. I could sense Lincoln staring at us, and I turned my head to look through the doorway to the sitting room and across the hall into the kitchen. Lincoln’s face was grave, but he turned back to Xander.
“I went out into the hills. And I... I don’t rember what happened. I rember getting disoriented, and then feeling like I couldn’t breathe. I used to get panic attacks, and I think that’s what happened. I passed out, and woke up... I woke up in the attic.” She paused before continuing, “I wasn’t the only person there. There were two others, two other won. One of the won was dragged away shortly after I woke up. I can still hear her–hear her screaming. She didn’t co back, but the other... she had more freedom.”
“What do you an?”
“Maxwell liked her–a lot. She did whatever he wanted as long as she had access to the rest of the house. I think she was doing it to keep him from... he, uh... he was interested in . He liked that I was afraid of him. I couldn’t help it. I didn’t understand what he was doing to the woman he kept at that house but when I finally did, it was too late for . The woman ca back to the attic one morning with a bite mark on her shoulder. It was grueso, worse than I’d ever seen. I knew Maxwell was biting her, feeding from her, but this was different. She got really sick, fast. Maxwell told to heal her, but I didn’t know how. I asked him for bandages and he grabbed my arm and cut open my hand. He made her... he made her drink my blood. He was so angry when... when she didn’t get better. I didn’t understand what he was wanting from . She started to get aggressive with and Maxwell removed her from the attic, and I never saw her again. He brought another woman a day later. Her na was Jen, but she was different. She was... looking forward to whatever Maxwell was planning for her. She wanted it.”
“Jen?” I breathed, shock coursing through my veins. I hadn’t noticed Xander in the doorway until he shifted his weight, and the floorboards creaked beneath him. I looked over my shoulder to where he was standing next to Lincoln, who nodded at Carly to continue, pain lingering behind his eyes.
“I don’t know what happened to her–”
“We do,” Xander said flatly. “We can talk about that later.”
Carly swallowed and nodded her head, tears trailing down her cheeks.
“Maxwell ca to get one night and took out into the hills. He was angry. I thought he was letting go, but we ca to this old temple in the hills and I rember him pulling a red stone from his pocket and mumbling sothing before he tossed it towards the temple. I felt the ground tremble and suddenly I was... soone appeared, dressed in a black cloak. I couldn’t see their face. Maxwell said I wasn’t the one, but he had no more use for . The cloaked person grabbed in an instant and the world just went dark–” Carly began to cry.
I heard Lincoln whisper sothing to Xander as I rose from the couch and gently placed Caleb in Carly’s arms. She cald down almost imdiately, hiccuping as she wrapped her arms around the sleeping baby.
“I live nearby,” I whispered. “We can talk again so other ti.”
Carly looked up at and nodded, but I could still see the fear in her eyes. She’d been through a nightmare.
But she was here. She was safe.
I walked out of the cottage with Xander. He took my hand as we walked back toward the trail leading to the castle. Neither of us spoke until we reached the sprawling front garden where everything was a rich green dampled with flowers in full bloom. He squeezed my hand as we neared the castle.
“That was terrible,” I said, my voice cracking around the words.
“I know. She’s safe now,” he replied, but his voice wavered. “We all have scars from this war, so deeper than others.”
I caught a flash of red in the garden and turned, my eyes going wide.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
#
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