Without remorse, Callum has Stella back in his arms, slicing a nail through the lycans throat. Blood pours from the wound as I stare in disbelief, not sure if I’m seeing reality or if my mind is playing tricks on me. Her eyes are wide as she realizes what’s happened. She shifts into human form, collapsing to the floor in a pool of blood.
Gideon and Simon leap toward the ancient vampire in unison. Callum swipes the giant wolves aside, likethey’re nothing more than flies at a picnic. Dread fills me as reality sinks in. We’re all going to die.
I stare at the spectacle in front of me in disbelief. Simon and Gideon shift back into human form as soon as they hit the brick wall. All three lycan are unconscious on the wooden floors. I hear three heartbeats, telling me they’re alive.
“Shall we try again?” Callum says with a sickening smile. “The boy is close. Bring him to me.” He kneels next to Stella, licking her blood from the floor. “The lycan are still alive. They won’t stay that way long.”
My brain reels through all possible scenarios to end this situation. None of which work. “I need help,” I whisper.
Callum smiles. “I have just the woman.” He claps his hands grandly, and a woman steps from the shadows. The moment she comes into view, her energy rushes me. Aurora. What the actual fuck?
“I don’t needherhelp,” I spew.
“I’m afraid she’ll have to do,” Callum retorts. He looks around the attic, taking a needless breath. “This was once filled with young female vampires much like yourself. I secured their passage from France myself.”
Girls? History and reality collide at the realization that he’s talking about the casket girls. Young women brought from France in the 16thcentury to marry French settlers. “Oh, my God. You were a casket girl?” I ask Aurora.
Aurora laughs. “You’re not the smartest, are you?I’m much too old to be a casket girl.” She moves closer to Callum. “No, dear.Iam not a casket girl. However, I helped Callum with his quest.” She scoffs. “The nameCasket Girlwas always so absurd. They were nothing more than suitcases,” she answers. “Humans and their half-truths.”
“The legend is true?” I ask, feeling more human than vampire.
“Of course,” Callum answers. “Most legends stem from a bit of reality.” He reaches his arm toward Aurora, and she moves toward him quickly.
“Hello, Father,” she says, bowing her head slightly.
Placing his finger under her chin, he lifts her eyes even with his. “Hello, my child.”
“Callum was your maker?” I ask, stating the obvious.
“I made them all,” he answers. “Rescued from a life of poverty and abuse, they were my gift to the city of New Orleans. To America, really.” He pauses. “It’s what I do…rescue the innocent and offer them an eternity.”
“He has Cyrus,” I announce, hoping to break through the trance Callum holds over Aurora.
“I am aware,” she answers with a shrug. “Cyrus is one of many. Everyone dies.”
“You are a bitch.”
Her laugh fills the room once more as long fingers cover her heart. “Oh, how you wound me.”
“Find the boy,” Callum reminds. He pulls an antiquewatch from his waistcoat. “Tick-tock…time is wasting.” My stomach curls as he licks a smear of Stella’s blood from his finger dramatically. “You have until the lycan awaken to bring him to me.”
TWENTY-THREE
an attic full of chaos
Aurora ison my heels as we exit the attic back into the narrow hallway. “Find him,” she warns. “Callum will not wait.”
I turn on my heels, facing her. “You are not in charge here.”
“You’re right. Callum is. I suggest that, unless you want to watch your lycan friends drained of their blood, you do what he’s asked. This is not a game, young one.”
“Whose side are you on?”
“My own,” she answers quickly. “Find him.”
I don’t know what to do. I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t. Finding Terrin will result in his death, while not finding Terrin will result in the lycan’s death. I fight the tears threatening to fall. I long for the time when my biggest concern was what color shoes to wear with my dress for the day.
“Violet,”Terrin’s soft voice calls.
