He kissed her again, his fingers lingering on the back of her neck. “I’m good.”
She squeezed his hand tightly, wishing that they could go somewhere, wishing that they could be alone for just a few moments to recoup. Unfortunately, that was not possible right now. He turned away from her, and though he did not try and block her from everyone again, he kept his hand on the wall by her head, and his other hand lightly on her waist. She was well aware of the fact that he had kept himself in a better position to stop her if she tried to jump forward again.
She wanted to chafe against the invisible restraints he had placed on her, wanted to chafe against his protective urges (she could take care of herself after all), but she knew that it would only irritate him more. Braith had to think that he was in control right now, even if he wasn’t. Max was still in the grip of Ashby and Jack, but he wasn’t trying to fight them anymore. He was simply staring at her and Braith as if they had just sprouted two heads, jumped on a table, and started dancing a jig while singing at the top of their lungs. Aria understood his reaction, if it had been anyone else from their camp, she would have felt the same way. But it wasn’t anyone else, it was her, and she knew that what she felt for Braith was real, it was genuine, and it was so good and pure that it made them both stronger and better.
“It appears that we have a lot to discuss.”
Aria looked across the room, trying hard to keep up the appearance of strength and courage, but her father was staring at her in a way that made her feel like a child all over again. She wanted to go to him, she wanted to hug him, she wanted to be his little girl for just one more minute, but she knew she could never be his little girl again. She wanted to apologize, wanted to tell her father that she had never wanted any of this, but she couldn’t. It was true that the last thing she had wanted was to fall in love with a vampire, but she wouldn’t change any of it. Not one damn thing about what had happened between her and Braith.
“Yes,” she agreed softly.
Chapter 17
“Our mother’s family was nearly as powerful as our father’s. They were married over a thousand years ago, the world was different then. Just as it was different a hundred years ago, before the war started. At the time of their marriage, superstition ruled, witches were burned, and our kind was relegated to the shadows. Our father always chafed against that, but he knew that to try and come out during those times would only result in death. So he waited. He bided his time, and he married our mother so that he would have more power, and more allies, for when the war broke out.
“And yes, I think that he planned on starting it even back then,” Jack said swiftly, cutting off Braith’s question before he could ask it. “I think he planned it for even longer than that. He stayed with our mother, continued to have children with her. He had to keep up the pretense that he cared for her a little more than the rest of the nobles cared for their spouses, had to treat her well if he was going to keep her family as an ally.
“There was no king at this time, but a conglomerate of nobles that ran the underworld, dealt out the rules, and meted out punishments rapidly, and with imaginative, disgusting flare. The nobles had grouped together to wrest control, and murder, the previous king. Before then the underworld had been nothing but a series of civil wars that had started to decimate the more powerful families as each king was swiftly brought down. Upon ousting the last king, it was decided to rule as group in order to keep the inner slaughter somewhat under control.
“Our father had to find a way to wrest control from them if he was going to become the single, most powerful figure again.”
“Damn!” Braith hissed.
Aria was staring wide eyed at Jack as he spoke. Though Braith seemed to have figured out where this was going, she still wasn’t quite sure. Her hand shook in Braith’s as he enfolded both of his around hers. She could feel an awful trembling working its way through her, but she could not stop it. “If you remember father was never cruel to mother, at least not publicly, and I have no idea what went on behind closed doors. He did take you from her, but no one blamed him for not wanting his son to go soft by staying with his mother. They all understood that. So when he did turn on her, when he did accuse her of unfaithfulness no one questioned it, everyone believed him.”
Aria was beginning to shake; she could feel it all the way down to the tips of her toes. She knew little of what the world had been like before the war. She’d heard stories of a world where humans ruled, there were libraries and schools, and homes and buildings that reached the sky. She had thought that most of it was a myth, stories filtered through the generations to entertain children, and to give people something to fight for. But listening to Jack, she had a feeling that there was so much more that she didn’t know, and that she would never see.
No one seemed to know what had really started the war that left the human population decimated, starving, and just barely clinging to survival but she was beginning to realize that it was something that she had never even begun to fathom. Braith’s fingers stroked over her hand, trying to soothe her, but she didn’t think she would ever be soothed again.
“For hundreds of years he bided his time, until he felt that the situation was becoming one that he could control, manipulate, and use to his advantage.”
“And then he exiled her,” Braith said softly.
“Yes.”
“And then he had her killed in order to light the spark that started the war.”
“Her family wanted revenge; they blamed the humans who had been set up to take the fall for her murder. Father was able to take control of the situation, manipulating everyone to his way. He may have exiled her under the pretenses of faithlessness, but it was still his wife, and it was still his daughter that had been so ruthlessly slaughtered.”
Arai gasped softly, her gaze turned slowly toward Melinda. The beautiful woman was standing proudly, her chin raised defiantly. She showed no sign that the fact her father had expected her to be killed in the raid hurt her, but Aria knew it did. No matter how much time had passed, no matter how much she despised the father that had helped create her, Aria knew that it still hurt her. The small flicker in her dove colored eyes revealed this.
“They allowed him to seize the power and rule that father had always wanted,” Braith said softly.
“And once he took it there was no stopping him,” Melinda murmured.
Aria shuddered, the night was warm, but she was suddenly freezing cold. Her bones were numb; she was barely able to stand anymore. She could feel the shock radiating from Braith; feel the dawning realization at the depths of his father’s treachery. “How long have you known this?” he inquired softly.