Vincent
The Grigori elders were gathered in a room I’d never seen before, with stone masonry and a large wooden table that looked as though it had been carved wholly from a hundred-year-old tree. This must be a dreamscape known only to them, somewhere sacred and ancient. Had they been holding these secret meetings all along?
Presenting as my cat, I stood in the open archway and attempted to listen in on their hushed conversation. Around the table sat the Grigori Council members, including one being I’d never seen before with hair graying at his temple and eyes that were black as coal—no irises at all. Azrael, I presumed, because even though I didn’t recognize his face, his energy was disturbingly familiar.
“We want what we’ve always wanted,” Mater said in response to some question he’d posed. She was utterly calm with the queenly air she’d been tempering in my presence. “We want our ancestral lands restored and our sons and daughters freed from bondage.”
The throne only seats one, she’d said to me months ago at the very start of this campaign. What a liar she was. She’d never had any intention of letting me lead. It was only a ruse, all of it, a way to use me to appease the other tribes while she plotted her own maneuver.
“And what do you propose?” asked the Angel of Death. His blackened eyes were rimmed with a fiery red. Hunger and greed emanated from his person, the rot of sin.
“An exchange. Our lands for the locations of the warborn bases,” Mater said.
“I know them already,” Azrael said arrogantly.
“Not these ones, you don’t,” Mater said coyly. “And who better to fill your depleted ranks than Nephilim and human soldiers trained by the warborn elite?”
“You would give up another tribe to restore your lands?” the angel asked, curious.
“The warborn will betray us. We all know they are too many and too powerful.”
“Is their betrayal so certain?” Azrael asked, a predator playing with its prey.
“Orcus has foreseen it.”
“You’re sharing your visions now?” Azrael asked snidely, turning to the washed-out shadowborn, who was as solemn faced as ever. “You were not very forthcoming with me.”
“I do not serve you, and I never will.”
“And what about the Parousia?” Azrael asked, turning again to Mater. I froze at the mention of my name. “He’s gained quite the following among your kind.”
“He’s young and headstrong, but he will bend to my will. Or be made to suffer for his defiance.”
“And your firstborn savage?”
“You will take him. And break him. We must keep them apart. That is the only way.”
Whatever lingering affection I’d felt toward our mother evaporated right then. That she could treat you so callously after all she’d done already to hurt you… she was truly a monster, willing to cannibalize her young in order to advance her own agenda.
“Lena, he is your son,” said the Grigori hearthborn, and I appreciated that she had a sliver of the motherly instinct our own mother lacked.
“They are not loyal to our tribe but to each other, and they’ll see this as a defeat. One or both will seek revenge, and they’ll tempt Lucian into joining them.”
“It is settled then,” Azrael said, cutting off any further speculation. “All we must do now—”
Before any more dark deals could be made, I sprung onto the table and swiped at Mater’s face, clawing at her cheek viciously. She drew back in horror and wore the same expression when we awoke in the bowels of the catacombs, her own killing chambers. Her snakes were similarly incensed.
“Vincent,” she gasped.
I drew my blade and aimed it at her throat. The rest of our party had their weapons drawn already, except Lucian, who stood off to my side, watching.
“Tell them,” I demanded.
“Darling,” she purred with the full force of her seduction. “You’re overreacting.”
“Tell them what you were discussing in dreams, ten feet underground, surrounded by the bones of the people you’ve murdered.”
This wasn’t only about her most recent betrayal but her whole sordid history. She had no conscience and no sense of loyalty. She loved nothing and no one, save for herself. How could I have ever believed that she would act honorably?
