“A few feet down still,” Takashi replied. He honed into his sense of her. “She’s fallen into a rhythm. Shouldn’t be long.”
Anton slipped his phone back into his pocket. “I’ll research later.”
About ten minutes passed, and then Katie broke through the layer of dirt, her fingertips squirming as she groped the air. Her next movement brought her other hand up.
The bound man at the end of her grave began to scream again. His muffled cries didn’t matter.
Katie emerged bit by bit, yanking herself forward along the cold ground, and her wandering gaze quickly focused on the nearby human. Anton had insisted on braiding her hair, a small claim that he didn’t want the dirt to mess with her curls too drastically. Her olive skin was paler, looking a lot like Roger’s skin tone in that way, and her face had the fierce quality of marble. She was a gemstone of youth without any of the polish she’d gain in the years to come.
Takashi hadn’t known what he’d feel when he saw her again. He had never thought of his sirelings as children before. But as Katie pulled herself free, something within him stirred. Zack had a point. Unless he opened himself, the loneliness would never end. Katie could be a daughter, a companion to him and those he loved, and he could draw her into his trust.
I don’t know her. But then, what parent ever truly knew their child before their birth?
But she wasn’t to be his daughter, was she? Not entirely. Anton wanted her.Will he keep his promise to let me be part of her life?
“You should have the honor,” Anton said quietly and seriously.
“Thank you,” Takashi replied. He walked around her grave, careful not to step on the dirt, and knelt beside the man. After ripping the rope off the man’s ankles, he hauled him upward, making him stand.
Katie growled and snapped as he drew the man two steps away. She started to push herself up to standing. Her white dress was streaked with dirt. Eyes blazing red, she hissed at him and bared her fangs.
“Run,” Takashi whispered into the man’s ear. Then he released him.
The mortal man remained frozen in place, and the awful scent of piss tainted the air. Katie reached for him all the same.
Takashi could let her have him this easily, but the first chase was part of the tradition for Great Lakes Coven risings. When the man stayed locked in his fear, Takashi reached into his desires and found his flight response. He yanked that need to the forefront.
The man took off like a shot. With his hands bound behind his back, his running was clumsy.
Katie ran after him, and Anton and Takashi followed her at a respectable distance. At first, her steps were jagged, lurching movements. Then she caught her balance. The man was still ahead of her. She picked up speed, not quite to the point where mortals would only see a blur.
Suddenly, the man tripped. He began to plummet headfirst toward a headstone.
If he died before Katie drank from him, then his blood wouldn’t finish her transformation. She might run for her next victim, but that would be someone randomly on the streets in the middle of a winter night.
Takashi started to move to catch the man, but Anton grabbed his wrist and halted him.
The fractions of a second were sliding away. The man was going to cave his head in. There wasn’t time. Takashi snarled and tugged on his arm. Only Anton hung on tightly. His ruby eyes brightened, and his grin was wide.
Just before the man made impact, a jolt pierced Takashi’s chest. Never had anything run through him like the burst of energy, and he put a hand over his heart.
The man was flung backward into the air and slammed into Katie’s open arms. She wrapped him into her embrace and sank her fangs into his neck.
The jolt was gone. An echo of the tingling buzz remained long enough for Takashi to locate his bond to Katie as the source. Her arcane power had touched him when she called on it. Had she siphoned strength from him? Takashi had heard of practitioners who could channel other creatures in that fashion, but he was fine. Not an ounce changed.I felt it like I can her emotions, that’s all.
Anton clapped his hands together and then shook Takashi by the shoulders. “She’s marvelous!”
“Hold off on your awe until we learn if she’s feral,” Takashi replied quietly.
“Oh, poo on that. Even a feral arcanist would beamazing,” Anton said cheerily.
“You can’t raise a feral.”
“Well, not with that attitude.”
Katie dropped the corpse. She stumbled back from him until she brushed up against a statue of a young girl. With a trembling hand, she touched her own mouth and drew away blood-covered fingers. After staring at them for a long moment, she stuck them in her mouth.
Takashi looked to Anton. Was he to have this moment? Or would he be robbed of it with this sireling like he and Roger had lost the chance to turn Zack? He tried to remain his stoic self. Cool professionalism had served him for decades upon decades.
