The VC has always welcomed humans, but it’s pretty clear no one expected me—let alone wants me—here.
“Hello, Counselor,” Xavier says to a vampire I’ve only ever seen on TV. I’m pretty sure his name is Colin Garcia, and he’spretty high-ranking in the VC circuit. “I’d like to introduce you to my wife, Florence.”
Colin smiles, revealing that his fangs are drawn, and offers a hand for me to shake. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Good things, I hope,” I say with a playful smile.
He laughs. “All good things. And I must say it’s great to have an ally like yourself on our side.”
“Yes, of course,” I agree, not really sure what he means other than the fact that I’m a witch. But I’m a witch with no coven connections, sorry to disappoint.
“Congratulations on the secret wedding,” Colin tells Xavier. “You picked a pretty bride.”
I literally have to bite my tongue to keep from saying something. Xavier knows me well and puts his hand on my waist.
“I am very lucky,” he agrees. “She’s the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.”
“That’s saying something,” Colin laughs. “You’ve been quite the womanizer over the last few centuries.”
“Hmm.” Xavier looks bored and turns to Theo. “Didn’t you have an idea for this year’s Assimilation Day you wanted to bring to the senate?”
Theo’s eyes narrow, knowing Xavier is passing Colin off on him, but he doesn’t miss a beat. Xavier and I are able to sneak away, with Devon trailing behind us. We make it halfway across the room when another vampire flags Xavier down.
“I will handle this, darling,” he tells me, lips close to his ear. “Not everyone deserves to be in your presence.”
Taking it as a nice way of saying not everyone can handle being around a witch, I nod. He lets go of my hand and looks Devon in the eyes. “Do not harm her,” he says through gritted teeth before kissing me and walking off.
“So, this is what VC meetings look like,” Devon says, pulling his arms close to his body. He’s dressed in a suit, with his hair swept back. He used to have a slight flush to his cheeks that I never noticed until it was gone.
“Yeah. It’s kinda boring.”
He chuckles. “And this whole time I thought I was missing out.”
A young vampire who I met at my last VC meeting comes over to say hi and wants to take a picture for her Instagram stories. We make awkward small talk for a few minutes before she leaves. Exhaling, I move over to a window overlooking the city. We don’t have as good of a view as last time, but I welcome the distraction of watching cars drive by beneath us.
Devon, not knowing what else to do, follows me. He’s looking around and steps back, elbow knocking into my side.
“Sorry,” he says, realizing he bumped into me.
“It’s okay,” I automatically reply.
“Really, Wren, I am sorry.” His eyes meet mine and I know he’s not talking about accidentally nudging me.
“I am too,” I say slowly. “I told them you didn’t want…you didn’t want things to go the way they did...that it was your last request not to…to be changed.”
“It was? Why would I say that?” His brows push together and he shakes his head. “I don’t remember the last couple hours before, uh, the event.”
“You don’t?” My eyes widen as a bad feeling runs down my spine. I look around, knowing we need to find a quiet place to talk, which is going to be hard in a room full of vampires with supernatural hearing. “You came to see me at work,” I press and wait a beat to see if he’s following.
“I know what happened as far as the excitement in the parking lot. Xavier filled me in.”
“But you don’t remember why you were there?”
“No. The last thing I remember was being told Mabel was missing and you came home and had a plan to find her and you were holding a sweater or something.”
The trauma from being shot and almost dying could be responsible for his memory lapse. Maybe? Or could it be from being turned? I don’t know, and I suppose it doesn’t matterwhyDevon can’t remember.
Whatever he was going to tell me was bad—like get out of townnowbad. Pair that with Marcus Henry’s weird offer to alsoget me out of town… My intuition has been one of my most powerful tools, and also one I’ve been discouraged from using. But right now, there’s no denying that something terrible is going to happen.
