His eyes go wide. “You saved that bit to tell me now instead of the minute I walked in the fucking door?”
I shrug. “Thought I’d just ease into it. I know how close you two were and what a huge betrayal it was to you along with the others from the warriors. I hoped it would ease your mind.”
Descallia rocks back and forth slightly on the edge of his chair. “It would make sense, except that he basically told us how long he had been planning on taking over the purebloods, wanting to turn us back into the bloodsucking beasts of our olden days. He thirsted for the time when humans were taken for their blood and left as empty vessels out on the street, Corvinus.”
“Yeah, it took us all by surprise. I don’t know what the answer is, but as you can imagine it’s got Embry shook. She won’t admit it, but I know it’s bothering her. How can it not?”
Descallia is as no nonsense as always. “No matter what happened, the Lucas we know is passed. We all saw the changes. Whether gradual or sudden, we saw them in our own way, and whether it was from a betraying heart or a witch’s curse, the damage done is water under the bridge. The vampires look onward.”
“Even if the spell could be reversed?”
His eyes grow dim. “How many times have we been down this road with the witches, hoping we could make a difference, convince them to reverse a spell, or find a reversal of our own, only to learn that we were looking for something that didn’t exist. They play games with our minds, Corvinus. You know that I know that. Regardless, after what happened, Lucas would want to be left to rest in peace.”
I can’t argue with that and don’t feel the need to. If Descallia as his best friend and closest confidant for so many years feels that way, it’s good enough for me. “Let’s hope this perspective gives Embry some peace of mind.”
Descallia nods his agreement. “Lucianna’s powers are strong and when she was with Embry, she said she felt a calm within her that she hadn’t felt for a very long time in her friend. Good work, Corvinus. It put Lucianna’s mind at ease and that’s all I care about right now. I want our new queen safe and happy, so we can focus on getting the warriors back in place again and important work that needs to be done. I need you here in Chicago, running the helm on that.”
My eyes meet his. “And the special ops team? Where are we going with that?” I ask, knowing the decision he makes on the team Embry loved and was very much a part of will impact my future far more than he knows.
And the fact that he doesn’t answer the question causes me even greater concern.
16
EMBRY
No matter how hard I try to keep Lucas from my mind the same things keep floating in my brain. The very vampire who helped Descallia build a world where pureblooded vampires are now respected and powerful in their own right may still be alive. Gramma didn’t say that, but she didn’t say he’s not either, which can only lead one to believe.
And that is a scary thought because no matter what she said about the curse, he was different. So different at the end from when I first met him, but it wasn’t like it happened overnight. It was a gradual change, so slow in fact that I didn’t even know it until bam, it hit me right in the face.
So slow, like not allowing me to go with him to places. Me naively thinking it was that he was trying to protect me. Even taking offence at the fact that he wanted to leave me behind without a clue back then that he actually may have been protecting me from something much darker than any of us knew. But I do recall the dark eyes. “This isn’t something I want you in the middle of, Embry. For once, can you just do as I ask, stay put and safe so that I don’t have to worry about you too?”
Recalling my immature reply causes me to look back with regret. “I didn’t realize I was such a big pain in the ass to you!Sometimes I think you’re just like the rest. You want to keep me at home, safe and protected. Does my skill and ability as a special op intimidate you or embarrass you with your buddies? No one feels that way except you, Lucas.”
All the fucking signs were there all along, and I should have seen them. Why the hell couldn’t I have seen them before it was far too late?
We knew the witches put a spell on him, but we found out about that one and it was reversed. That can’t be the one Gramma was talking about. She must mean after that. My thoughts go back to that time when Raven tried everything she could to break the spell, but in the end needed the head witch to reverse it. “Can you remove it?” I had asked Raven. She shook her head, looking at Lucas. “I’m afraid not. The spell that was put on him was made by a head witch. I don’t have enough power to change it.” But we did it. We got them to reverse it. Maybe it could be done again.
But they are a bunch of witches. Or, did they really reverse it though or just add to their evil curse? No matter how much I want to put it out of my mind, it just persists.
I wasn’t about to let him take off my head when things progressively got worse and evil had won. And just like in all of my dreams it’s always the look in his eyes that I remember when I think about what he’s done and said. “Do you know what we do to traitors of the rogues, Embry? We kill them. Burn them alive or run them through with a stake to the heart.” His eyes flare red. “But that’s not what I’m going to do with you. No, we’re going to wait until the masters arrive, and then I’ll kill you right before their very eyes. They will see what their actions have caused.”
I try to run but he transports across the cavern sealing me into the cave. His hand grabs my neck and squeezes so tight thatI’m losing air fast. “No,” I yell as loudly as I can, knowing that in minutes my voice will be completely gone.
The look of confusion on his face when I yelled at him, distracting him from his efforts to kill me just long enough to send his sword flying from his hand and to get the tip of my own placed exactly at his chest.
Lucas saved me from certain death at first. Transitioned me to a life of eternity, promised to keep me safe and protected from all that was evil and wrong in the world, especially the rogues. Lied right to my face and I bought every single word of it, because I was in love. I allowed it to blind me though. Allowed him to suck the life out of me and drain me of all ability to see through the lies and deception. But maybe none of it was real. Just a spell the witches are known for.
And all the vampires who kept whispering my name after all I did to save them. I don’t need them, the ones that don’t trust me, but I do need this world and those who do, because it’s my fucking world and they’re not taking it away.
I always wondered where the loyalty was instead of thinking I’d strayed. It felt like all they cared about was catching the rogue vamp, and of course the infamous Lucas who back then I hoped was lying in a pile of ashes in the bowels of hell. While now, I simply hope that whatever happened, he is at peace, because my gramma is protecting him from the violence of the rogues.
I feel it, without her saying a word. She protected the vampires, he protected me until I was grown, and now she is protecting him in the afterlife, as it should be. No matter that I don’t understand all the pieces just yet. I believe that.
Corvinus is right. The majority of the vampires weren’t whispering my name, even talking to me at the ceremony on the night Lucianna was crowned. Yet my insecurities and self-doubt allowed them to pierce my normally heavy armor. I swallow through the emotion remembering exactly how I felt hearing therumors and whispers as people said my name. But those weren’t my friends. My friends were there all the time, and heartbroken when they learned that I had gone.
Maybe I just needed time to process. Either way, those windbags aren’t going to find a quiet little Embry willing to take their bullshit anymore. No, let them say what they want but this time say it to my face. I’ll show them just what a dedicated and committed vampire looks like. I’ll shove their names right back in their faces.
After all that I’ve done, my grandmother has done for the vampires, none of the real ones could have thought me a traitor, just the ones who didn’t really know me. What else were they supposed to think? Corvinus is right, I never said a word in my defense. And now I realize I don’t need to. I have absolutely nothing to explain to anyone. The ones who matter know and the ones who don’t are of no concern of mine.
