“Does that distinction matter?” I ask.
“Yes,” he answers simply.
“Okay, correction, I like to drink your blood. What else can you do?”
“Well, aside from speed and strength, we can heal relatively quickly, we can feed off of others’ magic. Some lamia can use different aspects of magic after they feed, but it doesn’t last long, and it’s pretty rare. We all possess the ability on some level to compel. There is the whole fangs and claws thing.” Siah looks up like he’s going through a mental checklist. “Yeah, that’s pretty much it.”
“The compulsion thing could come in handy,” Knox admits. He runs his hand over Bastien’s face and makes his eyes huge. “It’s my night with Vinna; you feel the need to make cupcakes and do my laundry,” he monotones and waves his hand as if he’s attempting to hypnotize Bastien. I chuckle and immediately start jonesing for a cupcake.
“Should we test the new runes out?” I ask no one in particular, but sudden pounding on the door demands everyone’s attention. Torrez jogs over to save the door from the assault it’s under, and Kallan, Enoch and Becket come pouring into the room, their various magical weapons ready.
“You okay?” Enoch demands, his eyes roaming over the room and everyone in it.
“Yeah, what’s wrong?” I demand, worry rising inside of me at their intensity and obvious concern.
“We all lit up like fucking glow worms; did that not happen to you, too?” Kallan asks, his throwing knives disappearing from his grasp.
“Shit, sorry, I figured it would just be my Chosen that lit up like a Christmas tree. Did you guys get new runes, too?” I ask, as I raise up my palm and display the circle of six diamonds.
Enoch and the others quickly look at their own hands and then back up to me. “No, nothing new that we know of.”
“Oh you’d know it,” Valen tells them. “There’s no mistaking when a new rune shows up.”
Everyone in the room gives a simultaneous shudder, and for some reason, it makes me smile. “I guess the Shields lucked out in the pain department on this one,” I tease.
Everyone except for Becket gives me a confused look.
“Fuck, I can’t believe I forgot to tell you guys about this,” I apologize, and I move off the bed and over to Enoch and the others.
“Adriel told me what your runes are. Apparently, Sentinels can mark what Adriel called Shields. He said that they’re like guards, and that’s why each of you has weapons and is connected to me through my magic. Shit, that reminds me too, we need to search this place. He said he had a book about Sentinels. That it had a bunch of information in it about all of this,” I say and gesture to Kallan and the others. “He knew a hell of a lot more than the fucking readers knew, and they supposedly have a whole archive on Sentinels,” I add.
“Hold on, wait, so he said they’re some kind of bodyguard runes, and you’re just taking his word for it?” Enoch questions and takes a step toward me. “Why would you believe anything he said?”
I pause for a minute, a little taken aback. It’s a valid question, and I think back to the exchange and to why I didn’t doubt at all what he told me. “He thought I already knew when he brought it up. He seemed shocked that I didn’t know,” I tell Enoch, and I look to Becket for backup. “He was a psycho, so I get why you wouldn’t want to accept anything he said at face value, but he didn’t have any reason to lie,” I explain.
“That you know of,” Enoch counters.
“Enoch, what he said made sense. There’s the fact that you have only a couple of weapons, your runes are different, and I told you from the beginning that you didn’t feel like Chosen to me.” My eyes soften, and I try to be easy in how I say all of this to him, but it’s obvious Enoch doesn’t want to hear any of it.
“Or he was manipulating you, and our connection is incomplete just like Torrez’s was and now isn’t,” Enoch argues, and I release an exasperated huff.
“She’s telling you that’s not how it is, and you’re not listening,” Valen asserts, and Enoch gets even more irritated.
“No, she’s telling me what some serial killer lamia told her, and nothing about that is definitive.”
“Enoch, just stop,” Kallan interjects, and everyone goes quiet. “We’ll look for the book Vinna is talking about and see what it says. I’m tired of all this fucking fighting. What purpose does it serve? Guards or Shields or whatever we are, it’s fine. If Vinna wanted us that way, she’d be with us in that way,” Kallan tells him and then gestures to Siah. “She doesn’t hold back when she wants something,” he adds, and the air in the room grows heavy with what Kallan isn’t saying out loud.
Enoch runs his gaze over the Sentinel runes that Siah is now sporting, and I see the flash of hurt in his eyes. I fucking hate that he and Kallan look so fucking crushed, and I wish there was something I could do to make it better, but I stay quiet. They won’t want my pity or to feel like consolation prizes. They’re not Chosen, but they’re still marked and important to me. I hope someday sooner rather than later they’ll see the truth in that and realize that I was never the one for them. We’re meant to be connected the way that we are; I don’t know why, but like Sabin said, I trust the magic.
A phone in the room chirps with a reminder, and Knox moves to grab it and turn it off. “Ryker, you’ve got about ten minutes before you need to go relieve Nash,” he calls out, and the phone in Knox’s hands reminds me of something I made a mental note to do.
“Do you think Aydin or anyone has called the sisters?” I ask. “Do you think they know…” I trail off, and Ryker gives my shoulder a squeeze.
“I don’t know,” he admits, and no one else says anything.
I reach out my palm toward Knox, and he gives me a sad smile and places the phone in my palm. I take a deep breath and click on Birdie’s contact and then put the phone on speaker. The line rings a couple of times, and then I’m greeted by a voice that makes my heart squeeze and longing swell up inside of me.
“Vinna, my love, you have the most perfect timing,” Birdie announces, and I can’t help but laugh. The sisters say they’re nulls and don’t have more than a thimbleful of magic, but I don’t know how accurate that really is when they always seem to just know things, like it’s me calling from Knox’s phone and not him.
