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My pulse starts to thump furiously as I listen to his description. Alexander’s pale, gaunt face and too-thin skin flash before my eyes.
Is that what he is? Is my father working with one of these Severed?
“How did they get that way?” I hope to the Fates he doesn’t hear the tremor in my voice.
”Black magic,” he answers with a grimace. “Dark magic. They took what they already had and used unnatural ways to make it bigger, stronger, better. Whatever it is that’s inside of us, magic, or DNA, or whatever, it rebelled. Twisted them into something fucked up. They have all the same instincts as normal Vampires but they’re changed.”
He shakes his head. “Some are mindless. Sometimes the magic lashes out and turns them into nothing but primal instinct-driven beasts. Those are the soldiers. Fodder for their army. The ones who run things, who can still think, will send nests of them to ambush us. They lay in wait to try and take us down.”
Shifting, he crosses his arms and stretches his legs out in front of him. I listen raptly, curiousity about these Severed getting the best of me.
It makes so much more sense if that’s what Alexander is. I knew there was something wrong with him from the moment we met.
But what in the world is my father doing working with him?
“A few weeks ago, right before you arrived, Gav and I got ambushed in a warehouse. Damn near almost took us out because they’d figured out a way to mask themselves from Dax’s tech. He had no idea they were there. His sensors picked up nothing.”
“How’d you get out?” I shouldn’t care, but for some reason, I do.
No matter how often he and Daxen are cruel toward me, I feel a strange and unwelcome connection to them both. It has to be because of Caelan’s pack Bond. Or maybe I’m just an idiot who cares too much about people who don’t care about me. Some kind of fatal flaw in my DNA.
Terrible survival instincts, if that’s the case.
A strange flicker crosses Vae’s face, and he hesitates before answering. “Same as we always do. We fought our way out.”
I have the feeling he’s lying to me, or at least not telling me the whole truth, but I let it go.
He won’t tell me even if I push.
“So that’s what this place is, then? You’re all… what? An army of vampires who fight the bad vampires?”
”Something like that,” he answers, with a half smile.
“You protect people from the Severed.”
His head tilts to the side, and he looks at me curiously. A few seconds pass, and his expression shifts into something that looks a lot like confusion.
“What?” I squirm self-consciously. The look on his face makes me uncomfortable. It makes me feel exposed.
“You really don’t know what we are?”
I snort a laugh. “Besides vampires? No, Vaelenor, I don’t. I’ve told you all so many times. My father cut me off from most of the world once my designation was revealed. Outside of books and general gossip, I heard from our staff…”
I shrug, and the movement feels heavy. “I don’t know how to convince you all that I’m telling the truth.”
“It’s hard, Idril.” He says, after a beat. “We pulled our packmate out of your basement. Hundreds of years together, and I’ve never seen him so close to death. Dax heard your father thanking you for bringing Caelan to him. Not just once,” he adds. “You admitted to Gav and Silas when they found you that Caelan getting hurt was your fault.”
His tone’s becoming harsher, like the more he talks, the more he reminds himself how much he hates me.
“I didn’t do anything on purpose.” I try—again—to explain. “I wasn’t even near my father until he came back that night. I was in my room when I felt Caelan on the other side of the house—”
“See, now that’s where you lose me, Omega.” Vae interrupts. “Tell me the truth. Have you ever scented Caelan?”
“I—”
“Don’t lie to me. I know my brother’s scent. I’ll know if you’re lying.”
“No. I’ve never scented him. But—”
