I couldn’t remember much. I felt hot thought, like my blood had turned to fire while I was unconscious and I was adrift in an ocean of fire. I turned reaching out, trying to get my bearings but I couldn’t.Candido.Where was Candido?I didn’t know.I remembered that I had seen him recently.An image of him bound and glaring at me flashed through my mind, but I couldn’t hold onto it.Slowly, the world seemed to come back to me. I smelled stone, but the air was warmer. I could smell Candido near me. Someone’s hand was on my head, stroking my head softly.I grunted, trying to speak, but all I heard was a low growl. The hand stopped briefly and pressed firmly before I could try to lift my head.“Sleep,” Candido said, his voice soft and low. “You’re too weak to try to get up right now.”I tried to speak, but all I heard was a low whine. An animal whine. Then I realiz
I growled, but I couldn’t do much else. Candido grunted, putting the shirt on, and standing. He wrapped me up in a blanket and lifted me. His arms trembled. I could see the sweat breaking out on his forehead.The man laughed. “Pride before the fall, I guess. Don’t fall down the stairs. I’m not saving you.”Candido grunted. I whined, wanting him to do something. To get rid of this man. I knew he had the power to do it. Why wasn’t he doing anything? He hadn’t even looked like he cared that Troy had hit me.Candido carried me downstairs slowly. By the time we reached the bottom, the man looked irritated.“Would have been faster to make her walk, honestly.” He rolled his eyes and pushed the heavy door open. I expected the darkness of the caves and the cold, but there was none of that.The light of the silver moon made the sky glow like it was day time. In the distance, there was a dark sky that looked like a regular night. In the other direction, the sky melted into the familiar blue of t
“Artemis, wait—”“Go to hell,” she hissed. Gilgamesh lunged for her. Three members of New Moon surged to block him off.Members of Moon Shadow seemed to back Gilgamesh up.Then, the door opened.“As useful as it would be for you to all die in a fight, I would hate to waste my people’s time by having them clean up the carnage,” Ian’s voice cut through the hall. “But do go on and quicken yourself to your deaths.”Vanessa turned, glaring at him. “And what the hell does that mean?”“Moon Shadow and New Moon, while in opposition, are after the same thing,” he said. “And you’re doomed to fail.”Francia gasped as she turned to look at Ian. I turned as Ian swept through the room. He glanced at me and rolled his eyes.“What a waste of time,” he said and flicked his hand in my direction. A burst of light shot towards me.Candido turned sharply but he didn’t move fast enough. The light hit me and tossed me off the table. I shrieked, tumbling through the air and landing in my perfectly human form
He paused and looked back at me. His gaze was as cold as it always was.He blinked.“Well?” I hissed. “Aren’t you going to answer me?”“I hope your current vagueness is not an attempt at effecting some sense of mystery...” He cocked an eyebrow.“What--?”“Precisely,” he said. “What are you talking about?”I growled at him. “In the forest! You attacked me.”He scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Hardly.”“You made me drink something. What was it?” I glared at him. “Did you turn me? Did you—”“I would not have wasted the effort,” he said. “Nor would I have needed to. It doesn’t matter what I gave you, only that it saved your life and stopped Damian from taking your power.”The fact that he wouldn’t answer made me even more suspicious. It did matter. Whatever he’d given me had changed me somehow. It was probably the reason why I couldn’t feel Candido any longer, the reason that I felt so different.“What does that even mean?” I shrieked. “I’m so sick of you not telling me anything and acting l
He looked back at me then to Candido before shaking his head. “I’ll come with you.”Claire went still. “But Francium, you heard—”“She is my mother, Claire,” Francium said, meeting her gaze. “There are very few people I can still trust and she is at the top of the list… Not trusting her got me into all of this mess in the first place.”Claire said nothing. She turned away from him stiffly. He took her hand gently and turned her back towards him, cupping her cheek.“We’ll talk more later.” He pressed a kiss to her lips and turned to leave, following Francia.The sight of them made my heart clench with longing. I looked up at Candido wanting him to kiss me too, but he didn’t even look at me. He steered me back to the table and pushed me down onto the bench before making me a plate. He leaned against the table with a shudder as I ate. Claire sat across from us; her eyes focused on the phone she had been given. Candido was typing on his screen and the entire hall was silent.I ate, but ev
We parted at the door of my room. I heard him walking away and looked over at the white dress Raven had left me. I dug through the room and found a bag full of the things that I had been carried when I’d been taken from the compound. I crossed the room and found the closet full of clothes. They were mostly white or light colors, and a little bigger than me.I held up the dress Raven had given me in the mess hall. It would be big on me, but not too big. A belt would be enough to make it look okay.There were new boots in the closet, cute boots, and a little bag with gold coins in it and the compact mirror that Raven had given me.I thought back to the look on her face in the mess hall. Why would she look like that? I set my jaw and scowled. What difference did it make? She was on Ian’s side. Even if we were sisters, we were never going to have much of a relationship, if any. My place was with Candido. I was a werewolf. She was a vampire. There was no way that we could ever really get a
Candido was headed back to the barracks we were staying in. No one seemed bothered by the scent of smoke. Some of them watched us run past with curiosity. The man that had been following us, trotted behind us, keeping up easily. I smelled smoke the closer we drew. Suddenly, he stopped and glared back at me. “I told you to stay there.” “I want to help.” He was about to say something when something cracked in the air. It was like lightning had struck nearby. He turned back, and I looked in the direction, and I saw a tall man, broad-shouldered with dark hair blowing in the wind that swirled around the area. He was dressed much like Ian was but with less metallic trim on his clothing. His boots were scuffed. He was wearing armor and there was a sword on his hip. He was really handsome. He looked about as old as Candido was and furious. His eyes glowed. A glimmering wall surrounded the barracks as other vampire darted inside. Ian and Raven were nearby along with Shiloh and Messiah. Non
Cillian traded a single gold coin for a bag of apples, smiling at the man who manned the little shop as I approached him. He turned and I froze, captured in his gaze. We said nothing for a long time.His smile warmed and he offered an apple to me.“Would you like one?”I looked down at it. It was shiny and orange and red. I didn’t know if it was the same type of apple that I liked, but it looked similar enough. I took it slowly and shivered as our fingers brushed. A jolt of electricity zipped up my arm.“A pleasure to meet you, Hedy,” he said and inclined his head. “My name is Cillian Hargrave, Duke of the Western Mountains.”I blinked. “Mountains...?”He smiled and stepped closer. He turned me gentle and pointed into the distance where I could just barely see the faintest outline of mountains.“There,” he said. “Lush with forests, beautiful waterfalls and clean air…”He pulled back. I felt his body heat and felt a bit cold as he put distance between us.“It is a shame that you did no