She couldn’t just stay in hiding while Iro went to Cassia’s, but she also didn’t know where Cassia’s house was exactly. She just knew it couldn’t be too far from here because her regular café was nearby, and she remembered the short drive from there with Gigi, who hadn’t revealed her name or said anything to her, really, except that Cassia would love her now or something to that effect. Arwen knew this city well, though, and as she exited the house, she breathed in the air and was able to still smell Iro, which was both frightening and amazing. Taking off in the direction of the scent, she tried to recall what she could about the drive, too, until not that long after she had started walking,she was standing in front of the house that she’d been taken to earlier that day. She listened again and was able to pick up Iro and Cassia talking inside. Cassia said something about wanting Iro, and Iro replied that she wasn’t going to sleep with her. Arwen felt bile rise inside her just at the thought. Then, Iro said something she hadn’t expected to hear.
“I don’t want to kill you, Cassia.”
“Oh, God,” she said to herself and moved quickly up the stairs, expecting Cassia and Iro to fight.
“Of course, you don’t. I made you. It’s in your nature toprotectme, not kill me.”
“Then, I have no choice but to try something else,” Iro said just as Arwen got to the door and pulled it open.
She watched Cassia, who was standing there in a silver robe, turn her head to the side.
“Cassia, listen to me. Listen to the sound of my voice,” Iro said.
“What are you doing to me?” Cassia asked.
“What I should have done a long time ago,” Iro replied.
Cassia fell backward and landed on the floor.
“You will not do this,” Iro continued. “You will leave Arwen alone. You will leave Zara alone. And you will leave me alone. In fact, you will forget you ever met me. Cassia, listen to me. I want you to go back to Florence. Forget about your plans. You never made them. Open your eyes, Cassia.”
Arwen watched as Cassia’s eyes opened, and they were all white. Her irises and pupils were gone. Arwen gasped, and Iro turned around and held her finger to her lips before she turned back to Cassia.
“Cassia, you will go home to Florence. You’ll take your friends here with you. You will never kill again. Say that to me, Cassia.”
“I will never kill again.”
“You will forget about Iro and Arwen.”
“I will forget about Iro and Arwen.”
“You will forget about your plans.”
“I will forget about my plans.”
“Now, when I tell you to, you’ll go to sleep, and when you wake up, you’ll get on a plane and go directly home to Florence.”
“I’ll get on a plane and go home to Florence.”
“Good. Now, sleep.”
Arwen stood there, dumbfounded, as Cassia closed her eyes and fell asleep on the floor of her living room. Iro turned quickly, grabbed her by the hand, and pulled her outside and then into the car. She said nothing as Iro drove them home, and Iro said nothing, either. It felt to Arwen as if neither of them knewwhatto say at all. She didn’t know what had happened and how Iro had gotten Cassia to agree to everything she’d said. She didn’t know how they’d made it out of there with neither of them getting hurt. Iro either didn’t want to talk on the drive back or couldn’t. Arwen wasn’t sure which, but something inside her told her not to ask.
Iro steered them down the streets, sometimes running red lights and other times, just making it through yellow ones, but clearly, she was in a hurry to get them far away from Cassia and the vampires in that house. When they arrived at her house, Iro let them inside, and when Arwen sat on the sofa, Iro slowly moved to sit down next to her as if delaying the inevitable could be done by not sitting down at all.
“What do you want to know?” Iro asked her softly.
“Everything,” Arwen replied.
Iro nodded slowly and said, “First, why did you leave the house, Arwen? I told you to hide.”
“Because I was worried about you.”
“You haven’t eaten since the blood bag I tore out of your arm, which still had some in it, and that is not enough. I knowyou don’t know this stuff, which is what makes what you did so dangerous. I told you her people could be here.”
“They weren’t. They werethere. I could hear them.”
“And had Cassia ordered them downstairs, they would have done whatever she asked, including kill you. She would have loved that, Arwen. She has no real reason to keep you alive if I keep assuring her that I don’t–”
