“Or,” Giro countered. “He was a good person deep down, and that’s what you saw. Not his forced actions.”
“It does not work like that,” Peter said. “People’s actions tie into their aura, too.”
“I doubt they knew of your abilities, brother,” I said, hoping to calm his nerves. He did not like others knowing what he could do, fearing it could be used against him. But he did not seem to mind our allies around us knowing. I liked that he was trusting them with this.
“I doubt that, too,” Dina said, smiling kindly at Peter.
The weather chose that moment to grant us the pleasure of rain, so we headed inside, glad to have the answer to some of our questions.
Whispering so Alec could hear, I invited him to one of our sitting rooms, figuring a chat was in order between us. Felix, Giro, and Peter came along, too, pleased to see if Alec had more information for us.
Cole had led Dina back to her room, likely to comfort her after we heard about Joel.
While I shut the curtains, Peter closed the door, making the room safe for Alec to turn visible in. He soon stood in the middle of the room, smiling smugly before he sat in one of the armchairs. I would have been smug, too, had I been the one to kill one of the leaders myself.
“Nice to see you again,” Peter said, sitting down on the couch next to Alec’s chair. Giro was glued to Peter’s side, sitting as close as possible without being in his lap.
“Likewise,” Alec grinned. “Always a pleasure to shock people.”
I laughed at that. “I had believed you to be deep in the jungle. Had I known you were reachable, I would have tried contacting you myself.” I knew several people that could have surely granted me his phone number.
He waved me off. “I left the jungle less than a century ago. No way you could’ve known. Reminia didn’t even know of my whereabouts. It was actually a human who called me, telling me Reminia had askedfor his help. I tend to help out where I can, as you know, so I agreed to use my ability.”
Alec had been one of those vampires we would see every so often whenever chaos was involved, he was a good guy, one who sought out the thrill of battle, but still a kind person.
“Had it not been for you, we likely would not have made it,” Peter admitted. “We were outmatched by their numbers alone.”
“But not outsmarted,” Alec reminded us. “They weren’t ready for a strategic battle, only a fight where they cornered you and simply killed. And trust me, from what I overheard, they expected you all to fall quickly. They told their witches to fight for their loyalties, implying they could die by their branded tattoos if they didn’t.”
Felix gasped. “They would kill them if they refused to fight?!”
Alec shrugged. “Maybe, or maybe they just said it as a threat.”
“Sick bastards,” Felix muttered next to me. We had taken the couch facing the others, allowing us the room to speak freely while still having some room to breathe in.
Alec smiled at Felix, I did not know if I liked it or not. Not that I did not trust Alec around my greatest treasure, but simply the reasonwhyhe was smiling.
“You were the witch whose sister was taken, other than Joel?” Alec asked Felix, who nodded. “I overheard them talking about her,Astrea. They wanted to find her after killing all of you, and take her back to them.”
Felix stiffened. “Did they say why?”
Alec’s smile was kind when he answered, “According to them, she held a great amount of healing power. They hoped she would pass that power on to a child.”
“That’s what they did,” Giro muttered angrily. “They would take witches and force them to join, then urge them to get pregnant with the male witches, who were rare in number so many fathered numerous children. It was disgusting, and the men were just as forced as the women.”
“Was that why they had tried to force you to marry Astrea?” Felix asked, knowing Giro would not have wanted to marry her.
“I told them I was gay, hoping they would leave me alone when they heard I wouldn’t like having sex with women, even without the issue of not wanting to be a father at such a young age as they wanted me to. My grandpa told them I was old-school, that I wanted just one witch. I still have no idea if he did it for my benefit or not, it did buyme more time and I was left to do what I wanted until they found someone.”
“Astrea,” I said, already knowing what happened after that.
“It’s worse than that,” Giro admitted. Alec just seemed content to listen to all of this, so we continued now that Giro could finally tell us his story. “They didn’t want to wake her, afraid that if they did, she would escape before branding her, and she needed to be awake to consent to the branding. I was asked to…”
“They wanted you to force yourself on her?!” Felix screeched in disbelief. “While she was stillasleep?!”
Giro nodded, then swallowed before continuing. “That was why they took her from the hospital. I was branded, and couldn’t refuse them. My grandpa—he always refused to be branded, telling them it would ruin his ability to see into the future, and they believed him—He took Astrea into our home and told the leaders he would make sure I did my duty to the coven. But before I could fight him on it, I was put into the same coma as Astrea. Then I woke up here.”
“It suddenly makes sense why you were so angry,” Felix said, a touch of humor in his voice.
