Chapter 7 | Shadows

Blade

I lurk in the shadows watching Raya Locke’s room. I got here too late, my brother is already in there. But I do not disturb, more curious than anything to see what will happen.

Luther has always been the most charming brother, rarely using his powers of compulsion to win people over and instead just flirting with them and persuading them with his body language. I can’t help but wonder if Raya is immune to all of our powers with compulsion or if it is just Adam.

Luther walks out of her room and a drop of blood falls from his arm to the floor. Anger fills my body as I step out from the shadows and demand, “What did you do?”

He scoffs in response, he even has the audacity to roll his eyes as he responds, “Relax, Blade, it didn’t work anyway. She didn’t drink my blood. Hence why it’s dripping on the floor.”

I growl stepping in front of him to block his path. I glare down at him as I say, “Don’t tell me to relax. You know we cannot fuck with her.”

Luther rolls his eyes, “It doesn’t matter what I do, Blade. Father will never notice the difference with me anyways. With you and Adam though, oh yeah, it’s best for you to stay away from the half-blood.”

I squeeze my eyes together and Luther moves to walk past me, but I grab his arm and pull him back to the office where Adam is. I can sense his annoyance with me, but he doesn’t even try to fight back because he knows there’s no use. He’s not stronger than me.

I kick the door open and shove Luther in as I demand, “Tell us what you were trying to do with her.”

He brushes himself off before looking back between me and Adam and Adam looks at us curiously. Luther huffs as he plops down in a seat and says, “I wanted Raya to taste my blood. I wanted to see if she would become bonded the way the others do and then have to obey me.” He gestures to Adam as he adds, “Because we know that compulsion doesn’t work on her!”

Adam clenches his jaw tightly, he wants to explode and yell at Luther, but we both know that yelling at him doesn’t ever help anything. If anything, it just makes Luther more determined to do the things that he wants to do just to spite us.

Adam’s voice is stern, just like our father’s is as he says, “You have no idea what the fuck we’re dealing with here, Luther. None of us do! We can’t afford for you to be so damn reckless!”

The door opens behind me, a cool breeze wafting in as it does. Only one man can demand that type of attention. Our father, Julian Ambrose.

His shoes make a clacking sound as he walks in. His eyebrows are pinched together and he looks to Adam as he says, “Elaborate, son. What are we dealing with?”

Adam tries his best not to react, but I notice the slightest bob from his Adam’s apple. He says, “We have a new guest in the home.”

“Ah,” Father says as he walks over and takes a seat beside Luther. Luther has now straightened in his seat and looks proper, but father seems to give a much more regal presence. His gaze roams over each of us before he asks Adam, “And who is this guest that we now have?”

Adam’s eyes flicker to me and I suppress my sigh as I step forward and answer the question, “Her name is Raya. Arthur Locke gave her to us to cover his debt.”

Julian’s face scrunches up, it’s rare for us to accept deals like that and he knows it. He asks, “What’s special about her?”

Luther answers nonchalantly, “She’s his daughter.”

Our father’s eyebrows raise and he asks, “Julian had a child.”

“Apparently.” Adam mumbles.

“Huh,” our father murmurs. He asks, “Where is she?”

“Getting rest.” Adam responded and Luther added, “She turned 18 tonight. As we all remember, that is a hectic night.”

“Ah, very true son.” Our father nods in approval and says, “I suppose I’ll have to meet her tomorrow night. Let’s see if she’s worth the debt that Julian had with us.”

He walks out the door, leaving nothing up for debate as he leaves the room. I close the door behind him and Adam rubs his temples as he asks, “What are we going to do?”

I shrug, “Talk to her. Make her act like one of us so dad doesn’t kill her on the spot.”

Adam gives me a dead-panned look and says, “Because it’s so easy to act like a vampire when you’ve lived your whole life as a human.”

Luther says, “She’s half vampire, how hard will it be for her to lean into those mannerisms?”

Adam grumbles softly to himself and I walk out of the room without saying anything as I dismiss myself. I find that I’m having some odd pull to our new guest. I feel like I have a responsibility to keep her safe.

I’ve always trusted my gut feelings in the past and it’s always been best that I did, but for the first time in my life, I’m second guessing them. Should I really allow myself to get so close to a half-blood that we know nothing about?

But the only way we’ll learn more is by watching her and potentially creating a relationship with her. Yes, my gut is right, I need to stay close to her. It’s the only way to learn more.

I watch her door, I think of going inside but resist the temptation. Does she sleep? Humans normally do, we do too but we normally do it in the day. How does she function sleeping at night?

I huff softly to myself. A thousand questions fill my mind about her and it annoys me because I know that they will all go unanswered.