Sharp claws tapped against the tile behind me. “Stay away from me, Max!” I screeched as tears burned my cheeks. The tapping slowed and then stopped altogether.
I kept running and no one followed me and I was happy. When I found myself in the hall overlooking the courtyard, the urge to venture outside slowed my feet. Coatless, bootless, gloveless—I opened the door and stepped into the frigid night without an ounce of hesitation. The crisp winter chill seized my bare skin, its icy fingers curling around my limbs. It was balmy compared to the mountain temperatures, but it froze my tears in seconds nonetheless. The mountains … in that moment, trudging through the deep snow in striped pink and gray socks and slippers, I pictured a possessed Valentina stomping in from the cold wearing nothing but a sweater. I was now the crazy one. I was worse! Leo wouldn’t approve of this, I thought, smiling sadly, thinking about my grandfatherly guardian. It had only been days since I’d seen him last, but it already felt like a lifetime ago.
I trudged through the snow, one step in front of the other in a straight march, feeling the snow’s damp chill as it formed an uncomfortable cushion in my slippers. Though my actions felt wayward, I knew exactly where I was headed.
When I finally reached the great oak tree, I spent a moment dreamily marveling at its grandeur, even in the dead of a winter’s night. It towered over me, its branches spreading out at least thirty feet. It had to be hundreds of years old. I closed my eyes for a moment and imagined a summer afternoon relaxing under its generous shade, a book in hand. Enjoying life. Enjoying Paris. Would that even happen? Where would I be next summer? Would I be alive? Would I be deadly to those I loved?
I wrapped my arms tightly around my body as the effects of the cold began to wear on me. Why had Sofie been out here last night? I focused my attention to the base of the tree. At my feet lay a single white pillar candle, nestled next to a bunch of frozen pale white roses. The wick had long since burnt down. Beneath it, a flat bronze object caught my attention. Kneeling, I brushed away the freshly fallen snow to reveal a bronze plaque embedded in a concrete rectangle: Nathan 1237-1889.
Nathan was buried right here, under this tree.
It made perfect sense and yet my heartbeat sped up all the same. Of course he was buried here. It explained Sofie’s desire to sit out here alone. My heart instantly ached for the woman. And for Mortimer, and Amelie, and Bishop. Love seemed to be a damning condition for all vampires.
Next to Nathan’s tombstone, I noticed another glimmer of bronze. I brushed away the snow to find a second tombstone with another inscribed plaque. This time, my heart did a full stop. It read Sofie Girard 1862 - 1889.
Sofie had buried herself—her spiritual self, her humanity, her heart—alongside the man she killed so many years ago. I leaned back and wrapped my arms tightly around my chest as numbness seeped into my body, picturing Sofie in this spot over a hundred and twenty years ago, lowering the man she loved, who trusted her unequivocally, into the ground. Because she put him there. She too died that day, both through her physical transition but also her core.
My fingers were red and stiff. I need to go inside, I scolded myself. I’m not proving anything by being out here, like an idiot. Except that I’m an idiot. Struggling to stand, fists tucked under my armpits, I let my eyes wander over the grounds for a second. A massive octagonal gazebo-like structure stood in the center of the space, its wooden trellis walls obscured by a web of frozen, leafless vines. I wandered over. Inside, three partially snow-covered concrete benches faced each other. Further back, surrounding the entire area including the massive oak, was a cedar hedge border, at least forty feet high and so thick, a squirrel would have trouble tunneling through. A few wooden archways and statues peppered various paths, lined by small shrubbery. It was a royal garden. No doubt a spectacular one in any other season. Now, though, it lay asleep, catering to a dead vampire and a crazy girl.
I was about to head back inside when hobbled steps crunching toward me announced someone’s approach. I half turned to see a dark-haired figure moving forward. Julian, picking his steps carefully, with a heavy black jacket thrown on haphazardly, a long, white coat slung over his arm.
“I thought you were smarter than to come out here without at least a coat, Evie,” he lectured.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Julian. It’s like summer,” I grumbled indignantly. For some reason, a renewed streak of stubbornness forced my back to him. I knew this Bishop decision had nothing to do with him, but I couldn’t help it.
I felt his presence behind me. After a few moments, when I didn’t acknowledge him, he silently spread the jacket over my shoulders. He didn’t leave, though. We remained like that until I silently acknowledged that I was, in fact, an idiot. I gave up my stubborn front and slid my arms into the coat, allowing the duck feather down fill to envelop my half-frozen body. I took a seat on one of the benches.
“You know I’ve heard sitting on cold concrete will give you hemorrhoids,” Julian joked softly.
I snorted, annoyed. I knew he was trying to skirt the subject. “It’s easy for you to joke, Julian,” I said. “He’s not your friend. You despised all vampires until two days ago, remember? Now you’re in love.” I sounded petty. I immediately hated myself for it.
“I agree. He’s not my friend and I don’t know him at all,” Julian answered, easing himself down beside me. “But he’s your friend, and he’s Amelie’s friend. I don’t want to see either of you suffer. That will happen if he’s not bound up because he’ll die. Everyone seems to agree on that point but you.”
“It’s not that I don’t agree,” I finally admitted, the words acrid on my tongue. “We do need to keep him safe. I get it. Of course I get it. I’m not stupid.”
“No one said you were, Eve,” Julian said, putting his arm around my shoulder and squeezing me to his body.
I stiffened. Back in the mountains, the gesture had been comforting and welcomed, as close as we were. Now, it made my body turn in on itself like a turtle struggling to hide in its shell. And yet, I had no idea why. Perhaps it was because of his insane new girlfriend.
“It’s just that everyone is so willing to do it. It’s like they don’t care!”
“Oh, they care, believe me. Well,” he added with a sneer, “except maybe Viggo.”
I scowled. “They didn’t even fight. They didn’t argue. They just went along with it.”
Julian was shaking his head before I’d even finished speaking. “You weren’t there earlier, Eve,” Julian said, his tone now scolding. “I thought Amelie and Caden were going to tear Sofie to pieces when she told them what she needed to do. Why put him through more pain when he’s already suffering so much?” Julian’s heavy dark brows furrowed deeply. “Man, does Amelie have a temper … Luckily, it only lasted for ten minutes before they came around but … damn, those ten minutes! I seriously thought they were going to kill each other. Bloody vampires …”
Vicious Amelie. I wouldn’t have believed it before. Even when dealing with Rachel and Jethro, she’d always been calm and collected, delivering biting blows with grace. But the incident I’d seen earlier with the innocent servant girl had shown me a new side of Amelie. An uncontrolled one I’d prefer never to see again and hoped not to be the target of. At the same time, hearing that they put up a fight on Bishop’s account made me feel a little better.
Julian continued. “Vampires are pragmatic. You know as well as I do. Amelie would rather see Bishop bound up and feeling a hundred razor blades than be dead. It’s the lesser of two evils, though it may not sound like it. It’s the right thing to do.” Julian zipped his jacket and hunched into himself, no doubt freezing by now. “Whatever is about to enter these gates—this Lilly—I don’t know about you, but I want Sofie’s full power to protect us. She sounds pretty scary if Viggo doesn’t want her around. Amelie and you need to be protected. You two mean everything to me.” His voice dropped to a low whisper as he leaned in, squeezing more tightly, his forehead resting against the side of my head. “You might hate me but you’re all I have left.
Hate. Such a wicked word. I sighed, shifting to look over at Julian, those chocolate-brown irises only inches away, pleading with me. I stared silently at my fellow captive, my fellow orphan, my fellow everything. My friend. Tattoo or not, he had saved my life and my sanity.
“I don’t hate you, Julian,” I whispered.
He snorted. “Really? Because you haven’t exactly been friendly since—”
“Shhh!” I warned, checking the shadows.
“Since … you know.” Julian finished vaguely.
“Yeah … well … it caught me off guard. I trusted you and then … bam! Surprise! But that doesn’t bother me anymore. What I care about is what it will do to Amelie if she finds out. I’m afraid this will be more than she can deal with.”
“I know,” Julian groaned, dropping his forehead into his palms, reddened from the cold. “God, I know, Evangeline! Do you think I planned this? I don’t know what happened. I just remember waking up in the hut and there she was, like an angel, hovering over me and then …” He paused, searching for words, a crooked smile curving his mouth in a cute way. “I can’t get her out of my head! It’s like I crave her! I’ve never met anyone like her before, Eve. If I knew back then what I know now, I never would have let … you know what … happen. I never expected to fall in love with a vampire.”
In love … I smiled, despite everything. “I know what you mean.” I remembered that first moment, waking up in the cave after knocking my head to see Caden standing over me with an armload of wood for the fire. Of course, I didn’t know it then, but that was the second I fell in love with him. Everything after that was merely supporting evidence. He didn’t have to speak; he didn’t have to do anything. It was like some inner connection pulled us together, firmly lodging him into my soul so that he could never leave without me losing a part of myself. Was that what true love was like for everyone? Or just when your heart was tied to the devastating predicament of being in love with a vampire?
I looked back at Julian, watching me silently. Again, another level in which our fates were linked. How could I be angry with him for the very thing I was guilty of? I felt my shoulders sag, the chip I harbored against him dissolving.
“I just don’t want to see you get hurt, that’s all. Or get dead! Or Amelie get hurt. Or Caden get hurt, for that matter.” Hurt because I’m hiding such a huge secret from him.
Julian grimaced. “That guy already hates my guts.”
I frowned, recalling the strange reaction to Julian’s hand on my arm earlier. “I don’t know about hate but …”
Julian shrugged. “Oh, I do. I caught him staring at me a few times today like he wanted to take me out back and break every bone in my body.” His eyebrow quirked up. “Do you think he knows?”
I shook my head. If Caden knew, there’s no way Julian would still be alive. “He’s being overprotective of Amelie. That has to be it. He is her big brother, and you’re … well, you’re doing whatever with his sister.”
Julian shrugged, unconvinced.
“At least, let’s hope that’s what it is. He doesn’t need to know any of this because it doesn’t matter anymore, right?”
Julian nodded and then hesitated as if afraid to bring something up. “They told me what’s happening to you because of the Tribe magic. What could end up happening to me too …”
I didn’t say anything as a giant lump formed in my throat. The Bishop drama had helped temporarily push that issue out of my mind. Now, though, it was back with a vengeance.
“Sofie will figure it out,” Julian assured me, patting my knee. “She has to.”
“And what if she doesn’t, Julian?” I whispered, turning to take in his friendly face, begging for a solution.
Julian answered by reaching out to grab hold of my hand. “Then it’s you and me, babe,” he said. “We can go back and live in the mountains. Or to the motherland, with our people.” Then he winked. “But only if you wear that little outfit.”
“Julian!” I smacked his chest but burst into giggles. It felt good. I hadn’t laughed in a while.
I opened my mouth, a thank-you on my lips, when a deep, feral growl in the shadows stopped me cold. An inhuman sound. My body, already frozen from the cold, now solid with terror. Grasping at Julian’s arm, I slowly leaned forward and hazarded a peek around the edge of the gazebo wall, searching the source, preparing to scream like a banshee for Max.
Behind a thorny bush, I caught sight of a wolf at least twice the size that I expected a wolf to be. Its white fur sparkled with snowflakes, shining under the moonlight, while its peculiar humanlike eyes peered back at us.