Julian doesn’t answer me back. I wring my hands and walk further into the house. “Julian?”
“If you lied to us, siren, we’ll eat you first and then your vampire.”
I block them out and reach for the power I let loose before. I wasn’t even trying when I made the Varcolacus stop earlier. It just happened. “Come on, you fucker, where are you?” I keep searching, poking around inside of my head until I feel something.
There it is.
I grab it and yank. The only way to describe it is like pulling the thread of an unraveling sweater. The more I pull, the faster it comes apart and fills the space around me.
“Julian! Answer me, now!” My voice echoes through the house and this time there’s an answer. It’s the sound of cracking wood….above me? No, not above me. It’s coming from the second floor. “Fuck, the guardians. Right.”
Shadows start to swirl and move across the walls and stairs. “One tiny thing I forgot to tell you is that she has those things guarding her.”
“What are they?” The female vampire gives them a curious look.
“She calls them her guardians. I don’t know what they do but I would keep your distance. They control this entire house and-” I’m cut off when Julian and Isla come tumbling down the stairs. She’s first because he’s thrown her but she manages to hold on to him.
“Stop! I command you to stop. I am your master!”
Julian slows but he doesn’t stop. He rips free of her and throws her from the top of the stairs.
“I have no master but Maris.”
Isla doesn’t hit the floor. Her guardians rush up to catch her. They move together in a living shadow and slow her fall before they gently put her on her feet.
“You’re going to regret this, vampire! You’ll die screaming with my granddaughter's name in your mouth,” Isla screams at him.
I step forward and Julian sees me. Isla doesn’t exist to him anymore, I can see it on his handsome face. His face falls the second he does. “Maris. Maris, no. What are you doing here?”
Isla turns to look at me and smiles. “I knew you’d come back.”
I point. “There’s your siren,” I tell the Varcolacus. “Eat her.”
Fifty-Six
JULIAN
Maris came back.
My beautiful stubborn wife came back. Why would she do this? I know why she did. She did it to save me from her fiend of a relative. She doesn’t know that Isla was never a match for me. Her hold lasted long enough for her to direct me to Maris’ room.
“This is mine. Just like you,” she said, putting a hand on the side of the seashell bed I’d held Maris in. “Now come here.”
I’d taken one step. One single step with Maris’ scent around me. Everywhere I looked I saw her. It made breaking free of the Siren’s Call simple. I’d thrown her through Maris’ bedroom door. We’ve been fighting since then. Her blood guardians are an annoyance. They help her any way they can, but it isn’t much. They can’t touch me.
Anne’s magic on me holds, even now centuries later. Isla’s power can’t compare to the power spelled into me. I thought I’d end her and burn this house down before I went to find my wife. At least convincing her to leave wouldn’t be an issue with the house destroyed but here Maris is.
She came back for me.
“Julian!” Maris steps forward. The blood guardians move towards her but my attention isn’t on them. It’s not on Maris either. It’s on the five vampires standing around her.
The Varcolacus.
I know each of them by name: Marcus, Ethan, Delilah, Anders, and Hugo. They might not know me but I’ve kept a careful record of them and their abilities. Marcus and Ethan have telekinesis, Delilah controls emotions, Anders is a shapeshifter, and Hugo, the oldest, reads minds.
I watch as one of them moves too close. He looks like he’s going to touch Maris. The fucking council is here now. No doubt the town turning called them. Whatever deal Maris struck with them was a foolish one. The Varcolacus have no oath they hold to. No honor or promise that binds them to keep their word.
What did they promise her?
