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Why were they here? And why did they keep staring at me like predatory birds?
“Viktor Kaska,” the oldest woman croaked. Her withered skin hid the power I could feel wafting off of her. “I am surprised to see you here.” Her tone insinuated that she wasn’t surprised at all and in fact enjoyed seeing Viktor in the middle of this turmoil.
Brandt stepped forward, finally coming out of the sunroom and taking over the conversation. “Welcome to our club, Miranda. Although I must say we weren’t expecting you.” Brandt glanced at the whole group of powerful people in the Order and added, “Any of you.”
Miranda’s wrinkled lips twisted into a smirk. “We never announce our presence.” As though that ended the conversation, she walked over to the pile of ashes that had once been Sebastian. With the pointed toe of her boot, she brushed at the remains until she had sketched a symbol into the middle of it. Speaking in a series of clicks and moans, Miranda spit on the pile and then pushed the symbol away.
I glanced up at Viktor but he only stared at her. Miranda shuffled over to me and grabbed my chin. I had almost a foot of height on her but her fierce grip warned me not to fight her. Turing my head side to side, she studied my neck. Then she lifted a finger and wiped at the blood still covering my face. She tasted it and hummed. With eyes closed and body swaying, I wondered exactly what she was trying to do.
“You killed Sebastian Braziano.”
I nodded as much as I could under her grip.
“And you turned this one on your own.” She spat the words at Viktor who sucked in a breath and hung his head in admission.
Miranda snapped her fingers and one of the gentlemen with a long, gray beard walked toward us. “Is she functional?” Miranda asked the man. He held out his hands and ran them all over my body without actually touching me. And even though he held his palms at least an inch away, I felt the magic pulsing between us.
Viktor shifted beside me, eyes wide and filled with fear. Fear that I’d never seen in him before. I worried that he knew more than he was telling me and I tried to communicate with him again. Why are you so scared? I directed the question to him in my head but he didn’t make any sign of acknowledgement. Viktor, can you hear me? Again, I was met with silence.
The old man stepped away from me and nodded to Miranda. “She is whole.”
Miranda pursed her lips while Viktor grabbed my hand and smiled. Miranda watched us closely, waving the man away and turning to face Viktor directly. “You have succeeded this time,” she said with a clipped tone.
Viktor squeezed my fingers but didn’t reply. So I did. “This time?”
He tensed beside me as Miranda’s scowl turned into a look of pity. “You haven’t told her, have you?” she asked Viktor.
“Told me what?”
I wasn’t sure if she was going to answer me or not as she stayed silent for far too long. “This is not the first time Viktor Kaska has tried to turn another.” My head snapped around to look at his reaction but Miranda continued spilling his secrets. “I thought you would have learned your lesson after killing your wife.”
Wife? “Viktor?” I asked with a trembling voice.
“Yes,” Miranda said. “What was it? Three centuries ago?” She grabbed my chin again. “He ignored our rules and tried to turn her without our help. Needless to say, it didn’t quite work and his wife needed to be...how do you say it...put down.”
I swallowed and tried to hide my emotions. Viktor wasn’t doing as well with that part. “Sophia is fine,” he growled. “The transformation worked well enough that she was able to kill Sebastian.”
“Yes,” Miranda cooed, “but what happens in another month? A year? We don’t know how long she’ll be stable. You didn’t have the necromancer’s blood. Without it, the transformations never fully work.”
“Sophia will be fine.” Silas stepped forward much to Ashby’s dismay. “You aren’t needed here anymore.”
Miranda directed her glare first to Silas and then at Ashby. “It would seem you have also made some very bad choices.”
Ashby lifted her chin. “My decisions aren’t yours to judge.”
With a smile, Miranda chilled the air. “No, they most certainly are not. And I have no doubt that your father will be a much harsher judge than I.”
I swear Ashby’s faced paled and I suddenly worried for Silas’ life as well as my own. He didn’t look scared though. In fact, he looked more confident than anyone else standing in this room, aside from Miranda of course.
“Damian and Delilah, come.” Miranda commanded the two youngest members of the Order to join us. With their dark, short hair, and purple eyes, I was surer than ever that they must be twins. Miranda waved at me and started to walk away. “You know what to do with her.”
They nodded and immediately conjured a fire ball between their hands. “No!” Viktor shouted, knocking the male to the ground and reaching for the female. But he never made it. With one word, Miranda slammed him with an invisible force and Viktor crashed into the couch in the sunroom. She then snapped her fingers and the twins turned their sights on me again. I knew that I was about to die a horrible death.
“Miranda, wait.” I turned to see Ezra struggling to his feet with the help of Broch and Graham. “This isn’t necessary.”
Miranda stopped and slowly rotated on her heel. “Ezra, she is an abomination. She was not created by us and therefore will not exist.”
“She saved me. She saved all of us.”
I looked at Ezra’s bloody stump at the end of his arm and really wondered how much I’d actually saved him. Regardless, I still appreciated his support and love.
“She must be destroyed.”
“But what if I promise to watch over her. Both Viktor and I will look for any signs of decaying mental capacity and I vow to you that I will kill her myself if she starts to go unstable.”
Not quite sure how I felt about that or the fact that they worried about me becoming one of those zombie-like vampires, I tried not to react to their plan.
“There has been enough death in our circles for now. Let Sophia live and grow into her new form. She was the best hunter I’ve ever trained and I don’t doubt that Viktor will watch over her closely.” Ezra coughed for several seconds, Broch and Graham doing their best to keep him steady.
Miranda studied all of us a little too closely, like she knew how to read our souls. Ashby pulled Silas next to her and Viktor grabbed my hand again. Brandt, Brennan, and Portia huddled together on the other side of me standing as a united front in support of my survival.
When Miranda sighed, I knew she’d reached a decision. “Very well, Kaska. You may keep her. For now.”
I tensed at the word “keep” but stayed calm.
“I warn you that we will be watching closely,” Miranda spoke to Viktor. “And your reputation is in jeopardy if something goes wrong.” This comment was directed to Ezra who simply nodded.
She didn’t say anything else to us as the seven members of the Order crunched through the broken glass in the entryway and disappeared into the darkness. Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief when we realized they were gone for good.
I faced Ezra. “Thank you.” I wanted to hug him but with his pale skin and bloodied body, I didn’t want to make his pain any worse.
“Come visit me soon,” he said with a smile that turned into a grimace when he tried to move.
“Take care of him,” I told Broch and Graham and watched them practically carry Ezra outside.
“Where are they going to take him?” I asked Viktor.
“I gave them the name of someone who can help.”
“A vampire?”
Viktor shrugged. “Kind of.”
“You know, this secrecy crap has to stop. Now.” I crossed my arms and raised my brows, waiting for him to explain the dead wife among other things.
He hung his head. “She was targeted because of me,” he began. “It’s a long story that I will share with you soon, I promise. But I wasn’t ready to let her go and I thought the Order had it all wrong.”
A part of me sparked with jealously over a woman long gone. And then the rest of me acknowledged that Viktor and I still had a lot to learn about each other. But we had time. A lot of time.
“Sophia?” Silas’ voice interrupted my thoughts.
I didn’t hesitate. Jumping forward, I wrapped my arms around Silas’s waist. I didn’t care that Ashby was giving me the glare of death or that Viktor cleared his throat. I needed to have this moment with Silas. “Where will you go?” I asked.
He held me tight. “With Ashby for now, I guess. But I’m going to watch over Ezra tonight. I don’t trust that someone won’t still come after him.”
“I hope you’re wrong, but thank you for doing that. I’ll stop by to see him in the morning when we can talk about everything.” I dreaded having that conversation with Ezra. I was the reason he’d been tortured and forever changed. And although I knew he wouldn’t see it like that, I was now a vampire, and I feared our relationship would change forever.”
Silas kissed the top of my forehead. “We should talk sometime, too.”
“I know.”
We stayed like that, the two of us wrapped in each other’s arms for several minutes. The world around us continued to move as we remained still, contemplating what would happen between us now. I was a vampire. Silas was part demon. Would that ultimately help us repair our friendship? Maybe. But only time would tell.
“We should go,” Ashby said, grabbing Silas’ arm.
I looked up at him and smiled, pulling myself away and fighting back any human emotion that tried to come to the surface. “Talk soon?”
He nodded. “Of course.”
Ashby said nothing as she looked at me and then blinked out of existence with Silas. A small pop sounded in the empty air and I wondered how traveling like that must feel. Brandt walked up to us next, with Portia and Brennan fully clothed again.
“I need to make some calls to get this all cleaned up by the morning.”
Viktor held out his hand. “Thank you for your help. We are indebted to you.”
Brandt laughed when he saw my face. “Don’t worry, Sophia. I hope that our world remains calm for quite some time.”
The three of them walked past us, Portia giving me a quick hug before jogging off to join the other two. I watched them leave, wondering what kind of life they had when not involved in vampire politics.
“Shall we?” Viktor held out his arm, waiting for me to grab on.
“Where are we going?”
“Home.”
I loved the sound of that and willfully took his arm. Home. We had a home and life to start and I couldn’t wait to make that happen.
*
