Chapter 23
“You won’t have to decide anything tonight,” came a female voice.
We both turned to the blonde woman I’d seen earlier giving Vander her blood. She held a tall, sapphire-tipped staff in hand, tapping it on the floor along with her heeled shoes. Seeing her made me think of Murial—did she know what Vander was, too? She’d looked into his future...
“Sorry to interrupt. I was giving you both space while you worked through the issue, but this young man won’t remember what he saw here tonight when I’m through with him. If you decide to dispose of him later, you can, but I can’t allow you to do it in front of me. Mages take a vow to save life, not end it.” She whisked past us and put the tip of her white staff to his temple and chanted an unfamiliar language. The sapphire glowed a brilliant blue light. A few breaths later she righted the staff and leaned on it. “He’ll forget this night entirely and will wake up feeling like he drank one too many glasses of alcohol. I say we remove his binds and leave him in the center of an aisle. Whoever finds him will think he stumbled in drunk.”
She strode forward with her hand out to me. “Hi, I’m Jaeda, by the way.”
I shook her hand, a little dazed by the entire situation. “Hello, I’m Aesira.”
She smiled. “I know. I’ve heard so much about you. Vander and I have known each other since we were seven. Or were we eight?” She looked to him for the answer.
“Seven. Our first year of school,” he explained.
“Right. Well, don’t just stand there, Vander. Get this young man down the aisle.”
He let out a quick breath, gave me a wary look, but pulled the knots binding Beast and handed me the rope. I grabbed my sword and followed behind him and Jaeda, while he dragged Beast to the aisle where Beast and I had fought and books were scattered. I snatched up my dagger so this couldn’t come back on me. Vander stood tall, the sadness and shame in his eyes was a buried knife in my chest.
Jaeda lightly tapped the end of her staff on the floor. “Shall we go back to the room for a chat? I want to make sure neither of you does something you’ll regret tonight.”
With a groan, Vander left Beast in the center of the mess, then Jaeda and I trailed him through the many doors to that obscure back room I’d originally found them in. There wasn’t much in here. An empty desk, a candle, and a single painting on the wall of Drakthar.
Jaeda settled into the wide chair behind the desk and set her staff against it. “This big lug came crying to me one night at my house, begging for my help. I’m sure you’ve noticed he can go into the sun. We can all thank me for that.”
“I wasn’t crying.” He emphasized with an eyeroll.
“There were tears. He’s lucky I didn’t blast him with a sun spell and turn him to dust right then.” She snickered behind her hand and Vander shook his head.
I was still in shock from learning what Vander was. I certainly wasn’t ready to joke about it. Even though I’d seen him drink her blood and he’d confessed, it didn’t feel real to me. Every vampire I’d encountered was ruled by their blood lust. Even the supposedly sophisticated ones were known to be sadistic and cruel.
And yet here was Vander, a contradiction to his vampire nature. I found myself more fascinated than wary. My dead grandparents—and my mother—were probably screaming at me from the other side:Don’t trust him. He could be a spy. He could be a trickster sent to gain trust. His beauty is a lure to take young women.My father would lose his mind if he knew I’d been living with a vampire for nearly a year.
I stared at Vander and my father’s old familiar line repeated in my head.We’re the feed. We’re the feed. We’re the feed.
A sliver of doubt pierced the veil in my mind. What if Vander was playing me, and everyone else?
“But the spell for daywalkers was destroyed,” I said. “I don’t understand.”
“And so far as anyone knows, it will stay that way,” Jaeda remarked. “You can never tell anyone what I’ve done.”
“How?”
“I can’t say and neither can Vander because he doesn’t remember it.”
I blinked in surprise. “Doesn’t remember?”
“I wiped his memory of it.”
I’d seen her perform that magic on Beast only minutes ago. I had a feeling she was one of those rare mages that were talked about. Maybe powerful and savvy enough to have figured it out without the archmage or the Avakki teaching her.
I turned to Vander, but he wouldn’t look at me. His arms were crossed, and he seemed to find his boots more interesting than usual.
“If you’re the first new daywalker in over eighty years, do the vampires know?”
Jaeda spoke for him, “They have to know, and I’m sure they’d love to have him on their side, but he’s loyal to us. He won’t tell them and couldn’t even if he wanted to. I bound him not to be able to speak or write my name or tell anyone what I’ve done for him, like I will to you before you leave. Call it trust issues, but I don’t take chances.”
“Um, alright.” I would do the same if I was in her shoes. It was dangerous information to know.
