“Your tree?” Arthur stood beside me, looking at my face, then the tree sitting centre field, its branches reaching out like welcoming arms.
“Yes. My tree.” I almost folded over and started crying, feeling so close to a part of my past—a part with a boy I was made to love—that, in that breath, I couldn’t stand the fact of his death. “Jason showed me this place—in my dreams. But he said I chose it, except, I’ve never been here before.”
“Perhaps he lied.” Arthur walked ahead.
“Why?” I bolted forward, Lilithian-style, stopping only once the cool shade of the tree covered my skin from the sun, closing me in, showing me home once more. I touched its trunk, feeling him there—feeling Jason within its spirit—and let the urge to cry trickle away with each panting breath. “Why would he lie?”
“I'm not sure.” Arthur appeared beside me. “Perhaps he didn't wish to explain why this place was special to him.”
I slid down the bark of the tree, feeling each ridge, then each blade of grass under my knees, touching my skin. It felt just like the dream—like reality, and when I looked up at the man beside me, I half expected to see Jason. “This is the field Jason and David played in as boys?”
Arthur nodded, looking upon the scene as if the children might be running there once more, then sat down carefully beside me. “Jason loved Loslilian. When he became a vampire and was forced to move to the castle, it nearly broke his heart.”
“Forced?”
“Yes. That was where our Set resided.”
“How come Drake lived there then? Didn't he have his own Set?”
“No. Drake lived wherever he wanted. The castle was merely where he chose to be for the last decade or so.”
“Why? I mean, was there a reason?”
He shrugged. “I was not privy to such information.”
“So, you never talked as friends?”
“We did.” He nodded. “I just never asked him what reasons he had for coming or going. He was always a wanderer.”
“But he made everyone else stay in one place?”
“No. We moved on—had opportunity to see the world.”
“By moving each winter?”
“Yes.”
I thought about poor Emily—how she lost Jason to that tradition. “Why did you move all the time?”
“Well—” Arthur folded his hands in his lap, crossing his legs at the ankles. “It began as a tradition—one we started in a time where food became scarce as the days grew colder.”
“Scarce? Why?”
“Farmers would have no crops to tend, markets would close when it snowed and travellers would lodge until spring broke. And since it is our strong belief it’s bad form to kill a man in his own bed, we travelled to warmer parts of the world, returning to our original homes when the snow melted.”
“But, not if you were a Set leader—then you could stay?”
“If on your two years’ leave, yes. But we were required to check in weekly, meet with other Set leaders on occasion to keep updated.”
I nodded. “Eric told me once that he had to ‘check-in’ daily. What’s with that?”
Arthur’s eyes narrowed. “Why so many questions, my dear?”
I shrugged. “Guess I'm just trying to get an idea of how the Sets worked—you know, since I’ll be disbanding them soon.”
He grinned at my teasing tone. “The check-ins were vital to keep tabs on all vampires. Each person had a different time, and would be hunted down by the Warriors if they failed to check-in on time.”
“Hunted?”
“Yes. And brought to trial.”
“Punished?”
“Yes.”
I nodded. “So, the Warriors were like vampire cops?”
“Yes.” Arthur laughed lightly. “Exactly.”
“And that’s what Jason was?”
“Yes.” His voice became small.
I exhaled and looked around the field then; it felt strange to be sitting here, knowing I was awake. “So, why did Jason love this place so much?”
“He always felt safe here, like he belonged.” He slid down a little, leaning on his elbow, his face in line with my shoulder. “After their aunt died, the boys lived here until they became vampires. This was home.”
“And Drake let you live away from the Set while you raised them?”
“No, we simply moved the Set here.”
“Oh, yeah. Mike told me you were Lord of Loslilian. So, that was when the boys were human?”
“Yes.”
“Wow. And…you just up and moved the entire Set here?”
“Yes.”
“How did everyone else feel about that—about moving just so you could raise the boys?”
“We had some resistance.” He looked up at me, his brilliant blue eyes shocking me for a second. “Drake quickly put a stop to it.”
I toyed with the hem of my dress. “Why was he so accommodating?”
“I was an old friend of his.” Arthur sat up a little more and dusted the grass off his palms. “I had always given the best of myself to the throne—not to mention, one of my conditions of becoming a vampire was that I always watch over my brother’s bloodline. I couldn’t let the boys end up in an orphanage, possibly never to know what became of them, so Drake and I came to an arrangement.”
“Arrangement? The way you say that makes it sound like there was crux.”
He nodded. “Smart girl.”
“So, what was it—the catch?”
He reached across and picked a yellow daisy from beside my knee. “Drake let us live here on the condition that, when the boys came of age, I would turn them both.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Wow, David never told me that part.”
“He never knew that.”
I sat back against the tree, feeling superior for knowing more than David did—for once. “So, if Drake was such a good friend, so good he changed laws and moved an entire Set just because he knew what the boys meant to you, why did he order David killed?”
Arthur let out a long breath, his chest sinking. “There are laws, my dear, even I cannot protect someone from. That is why I told Jason to warn you—and to run.”
“But he gave David up instead.”
“Yes,” he said, his tone deep. “I know he thought it would give you time to escape. After all, it was you they were truly after. Without you, they could never have killed David.”