“We need to stop this before it gets out of hand.” Michael’s gaze drifted across the mist churning across the graveyard, turning the tombstones into moving bodies, the fog into spirits. “I’m not entirely sure this makes sense. There’s no way someone as arrogant as Sarah wouldn’t have thought her plan to kill Amy would fail. Why would she think to turn them in advance?”
Karson blew out a breath and followed Michael’s gaze. “She knows from centuries of experience to always have a plan B and C.”
Michael shoved his hands in his trouser pockets. “I’m confident we can put a stop to the witches and vampire issue before it escalates any further, which covers plan B.” He glanced at Karson. “But the question is, what is plan C?”
Chapter 18
Bodies Like Shredded Sardines
Afull day and night passed without incident. I had not allowed myself a moment to enjoy the beauty of the house or the gardens since I woke here. I had been too wrapped up with my own internal battle, trying to hold it together in front of everyone. Worried about Georgie, Sarah, witches, and the grimoire. I needed a reprieve from all that.
The sun peeking through the rolling clouds was warm on my face, but the air was cold. The fresh scent of damp earth and forest that surrounded the expansive manicured lawns filled my nostrils. I craved going for a run through the forest, but if I asked Karson to go the response wouldn’t be favorable.
Bleary-eyed, I wandered along the wall, not far from the black iron gates that kept the world locked out. The rosebushes were mostly stripped of flowers from the cold wind of pre-winter. But I could see one solitary yellow rose. Some of its petals were bruised, but they were full and beautiful. I leaned over, gripping the thorny stem carefully, breathing in the sweet floral scent.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Leon appeared at my shoulder, his brown hair ruffling in the cold breeze.
I straightened. “I thought you would have gone home by now?”
He shuffled his feet and stuck his hands in his jacket pockets. “Karson asked us to stay.”
“Why?”
A slight shrug of his shoulders. “He was pissed we let you leave the other night. I think making some of us stay might be punishment and probably to keep an extra eye on you.”
Guilt tugged at me. They spent hours out here in the cold as it was. “I’m sorry, Leon.”
He gave me a small smile. “It’s alright, we have plenty to … eat … I’ve hung out in worse places.” His eyes grazed the grounds then fell back on me. “There are worse things to look at too.” He winked. It wasn’t like he was flirting, it was more teasing, like he was trying to make me feel better.
Still, I flushed at the compliment as I turned back to the flower.
“My girlfriend loves them too. She loves all flowers, actually. She always has a bunch of something on the table and incense reeking out the house.”
A rush of nostalgia fluttered through my heart. “Yellow roses were my mother’s favorite flowers.” We covered her casket in them. I breathed in until the sweet floral scent washed away the flare of grief … of guilt. “When I see them, I always think of her.”
His expression softened. “I’m sorry for your loss.” He turned and looked at the sun pinching through the clouds, his breath foaming in the air. “It’s never easy losing someone you love.”
“Does it get any easier? Do you learn to deal with death easier?” I prodded carefully.
“After two hundred and twenty-one years of living and losing more people I loved than I can count, I can officially say each death of someone you love is as hard as the last. Sometimes it seems … harder.”
No matter the years that had passed since I lost my mother, no matter how well I was doing, or how happy I was, sometimes grief seemed to rush up out of nowhere, catching me off guard, and I would find myself devastated all over again.
My fingers trailed over the soft petals of the flower. “I couldn’t imagine carrying all the loss in my heart for an eternity.”
“It is not an easy life being a vampire. People think immortality would be amazing, but very few would have the strength to go on living when just about everyone they love dies.” He drew another breath, and his tone brightened. “But the way I figure it, you have two choices, you either learn to live with loss, or you choose never to love at all and miss out on all the joy and wonder having someone to love brings.”
“That’s a good way to look at it.”
Leon said nothing. We both just looked at the solitary rose as if it was symbolic of how sad life would be to live alone. After a while he said, “I better get back to it, before Karson catches me with you and thinks I’m slacking off.” I watched as he walked across the yard, around the corner of the house, his hands shoved in his pockets, his long-legged strides graceful.
I bent back down and drew in a deep breath of the rose again. There was a flash of movement, a cold rush of wind that was on my skin and deeper, through my blood. Startled, I jerked up, and as I did a thorn ripped my index finger. Leon was back, his eyes peeled toward the road.
Something akin to panic filled my chest. I snapped my hand back, blood beading on the side. Normally the wound wouldn’t bother me, but with a vampire standing beside me …
“Shit.” I jammed my finger into my mouth.
Leon stepped in front of me as a black car pulled into the driveway. “I’m sure it’s fine, but stay behind me,” he said quietly.
