The tension in his face eased. “Can’t be too thrilled about it, I bet,” he followed. His tone was sympathetic. I started to admit that I hadn’t been thrilled about his father being chosen either, but I stopped myself. We were all on the same side now. The losing side.

  “Hey!” called Darren’s voice. “What are you doing out here? They’re waiting for you. Didn’t you hear me say that on the phone?”

  I hadn’t. I’d dropped it. I’d been too shaken to think of calling back.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  He put his arm around me and guided me toward the house. Word of my being an angel, of being Merline, had spread. I could tell by the wide-eyed stares I was getting, and the people pointing from the other side.

  “So are you really okay with seeing Duncan again?” Darren asked.

  “I don’t think I have much of a choice, do I?”

  He bit his lip. “Listen, I don’t like it any more than you do. It’s just that Chief Guardian Dent doesn’t have the experience to take on something like this. We can’t afford to take unnecessary risks. Not right now. We can’t let the haven fall.”

  “Couldn’t we just evacuate?” I suggested softly.

  He gave me a disbelieving stare as we entered the ballroom. “Evacuate? Ana, this is our home. Where would we go?”

  “Anywhere…” I replied. I swallowed hard before attempting to speak again. “What if I told you that there’s no way we can win? That I knew for a fact that we were going to lose.”

  His disbelief grew into incredulity. “What are you saying? Is this about Duncan? You and Aspen, the things you guys can do, you’ll help, right?”

  I grabbed Darren’s arm with both hands, forcing him to come to a stop. When he turned to face me completely, his eyes searched mine.

  “I’ve seen the future,” I whispered. “We don’t win, Darren.” My voice sounded pitiful, and it was all I could do not to burst into tears. I didn’t want him to get hurt, and the only way I knew to change the future was to change the present. We couldn’t stay and fight, we just couldn’t.

  Darren’s eyes had never left mine. “I know you’re something beyond what the rest of us are. And I trust you, Ana. I love you. But I can’t let myself believe that. Too many people are counting on me.”

  He turned and continued on toward the other side of the empty ballroom. Unsure of what else I could possibly say to him, I followed in silence.

  Our destination, I discovered, was my bedroom. My balcony overlooked the crowd gathered below and made for the ideal speaking platform. Duncan, my mother, my grandmother, the Elder Witches and few guardians (including Guardian Dent) were all gathered inside. Hurt that Darren had just brushed aside my revealing to him the secret that had been eating me up inside all day, I wanted to scream for them to get out. To give me the privacy to let out the tears I was trying so desperately to hold back. Darren wanted to fight to protect his haven, and if he did that, then he was going to die.

  Whatever was being discussed immediately ceased being discussed upon our entrance. My mother moved quickly to me, gauging with her eyes how ready I was for the reunion with the man who’d nearly ended my life. I still hated disappointing my mother for any reason, probably a remnant from our days as trainer and trainee, so I did my best to look brave now.

  But that was hardly the reality of the situation. My stomach was twisting inside me, and goose bumps had begun to spring up from my arms. I gave her a reassuring nod anyway.

  When she stepped aside, everyone in the room bowed or curtsied. It was a strange feeling that washed over me in that moment. Other than events (like last night’s coronation), no one ever bowed to me. My grandmother didn’t even then. It wasn’t until it was over and I saw that same wonder in their eyes that I knew the answer. They weren’t bowing to me, necessarily, but rather who I used to be. The first of their kind, Merline. Admittedly, that version of myself felt the least like the current me. Maybe that was a good thing. She was the one who’d created vampires in the first place.

  There wasn’t exactly wonder in everyone’s eyes. My grandmother refused to look at me. It occurred to me then that she hadn’t come to check on me while I was recovering from that vampire bite either. The urge to dip into her mind tempted me, but I resisted. I had a pretty good guess why she was keeping her distance—I was Lexy too.

  Duncan spoke up first. “Would it be alright if I had a word in private with our heir?”

  Every eye turned to him in shock. It was a bold request, but one that I was suddenly eager to grant. The way he was looking at me... He believed. Surely then, he’d listen to me. Surely, Duncan would put protecting the haven above everything else, right?

  “That’s perfect,” I replied loudly.

  My grandmother was the first to leave. She didn’t so much as offer me a parting glance. The Elder Witches followed her (and though clearly preoccupied, Darren’s grandmother smiled at Darren and I), and then the guardians exited the room. Finally, Darren gave my hand a comforting squeeze before leaving. My mother remained.

  “I suppose it’s best if you both hear this—“

  “Actually,” I interrupted. “I had something to tell you too. Except, the two of us need to be alone.” I cast a nervous glance to my mother. I knew that she’d only stayed so that I wouldn’t be alone with him, but what I had to say was much easier to tell one person than it was two. Darren’s dismissal of my vision had toppled what confidence I had.

  My mom didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure about this?”

  “One hundred percent,” I replied.

  She took another look at Duncan. “Very well, then.” She cast her eyes to Duncan now. “If you attempt to hurt my daughter again, words will not be necessary the next time we meet Duncan. I am being deadly serious right now.”

  Duncan nodded. “I understand.”

  She eyed him for another tense couple of seconds before returning her attention to me. “I will be just outside the door. If you need me for any reason, just yell and I will be here, okay?”

  “Okay,” I said.

  She pulled my forehead forward for a kiss, and then stepped out of the room. I had to take a deep breath before I was able to turn around and look at Duncan in the face.

  “As I was saying,” he continued. “I am not sorry for the actions I took during our last encounter. Based on the information available to me at the time, it was the best possible decision.” He let the words linger for a moment before he continued. “That said, I was visited by London last night. She touched my mind somehow, explained things in a way that I could understand. She instructed me to help you protect the haven. And then she had to leave, she said that she needed to speak to you next. It’s why I came back.”

  My heart soared. “If you’re going to help me protect the haven then you have to order an evacuation—”

  “Evacuation?” he scoffed. “Why would we do that?”

  “Because I know what the future holds, I’ve seen it. Everyone dies in the attack.”

  “But that doesn’t make sense? Why would she ask me to come back if it wasn’t to lead the guardians to victory?”

  It only took a second before the answer popped into my head. “Because coming from the two of us, theyeighd have no choice but to take it seriously. Don’t you see? Each of us can reach members of the community that the other can’t. Protecting the haven means the people in it, not the land, and that’s what we’d be doing.”

  Duncan thought on this for a moment. “We should address them together then.”

  Relief washed over me. The weight of the world had been lifted. I hadn’t yet discovered a way to get to Daemon, or to prevent Tristan from trying to kill me, but I’d at least managed to find a way to save the people here.

  It felt totally surreal to walk out onto my balcony and see hundreds gathered below me, staring up at me with awestruck eyes. I’d experienced adoration and more recently hatred, but this was something more than I could describe. Duncan reached out his hand and I took it, and shouts went up in the crowd.

  Duncan raised his hand for silence.

  “To all those who’ve remained loyal to me throughout these last nine weeks, let me say that I am back, and will be returning to my post as Chief Guardian.” About a third of the crowd cheered for that announcement. Duncan continued. “In case there are any among you who still do not believe, let me confirm to you that our heir is indeed a creature from beyond our natural world.”

  “We have gotten past our misunderstanding and unite today to publically announce that there is a grave threat to our haven. The vampires have declared war on our peaceful community. I will not lie to you now. The situation looks bleak. Because of this, the princess and I have conferred about what should be done. I said that we should defend our home, AND SHE HAS GUARANTEED VICTORY!”

  All the air left me at once.

  Did that just happen? I snatched my hand away from Duncan’s and backed away from the balcony. I doubt anyone even noticed with all the cheers sounding in my ears.

  “Why?” I shouted at Duncan.

  “Because we have no place to go,” he responded over his shoulder. “There is no place that they wouldn’t be able to find us, Ana. We can’t run from them forever. From this point on, we’re making our own destiny.”

  He turned and raised his hands to the crowd and their shouts made me nauseous. I ran to my bedroom door, shouting for my mother.

  She snatched it open, asking me again and again what had happened. But I was too hysterical for the words to come out clearly, so I connected with her mind, letting my glimpse of the future play out in her head.

  Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

  “Mom,” I was finally able to say, “we’re all going to die…”

  She pulled me into a hug, and I finally let loose the tears I’d been fighting. What could I possibly do now?

  Chapter Seven

  Leia

  As I sobbed in her arms, my mother brought me down to her room. Given all the excitement outside, I could only imagine what the people we’d passed in the halls must have thought. I was an emotional wreck. I kept thinking how strong I should have been. I’d run off, when I should have stood there and denounced Duncan’s lie. Those people know what I am, they were awed by me. That was my moment to tell them exactly what the situation was. I’d acted like a panicked teenager—but that seemed to be the root of so many of my problems. I had memories that were eternal, but emotions still ruled my actions like the sixteen-year-old that I always was.

  My mother left to do some damage control, while I buried my head under her pillows in attempt to calm myself down. In previous lives I’d have Tristan by my side at this point in my life. He’d be holding me in these times when my problems felt like they were swallowing me whole. It was out of this need that I again broke our promise not to contact one another. I needed to escape the haven for a while. I couldn’t have the physical Tristan with me, but I could have the purely mental version.

  Tristan was, of all places, in an elevator. He’d dropped off the young girl at the Emergency Room and then quickly disappeared. There had been a reason for his sudden departure; he could hear the nurses speaking behind a closed door about calling the police. They’d pegged him as an abusive boyfriend despite the injured girl’s repeated denials.

  He hadn’t left the hospital entirely, however. There was one more stop to make.

  He’d made a quick visit to the blood bank where he’d forced open a previously locked door, stuffed the inside pocket his trench coat with a bag of B positive blood, and then performed his second disappearing act of the day.

  In another five minutes he’d reappeared at the SUV, mildly surprised to see the teenage vampire he’d rescued still sitting in the passenger seat. Through the window, he could see that she had her head down and that her hands were folded neatly in her lap. Once he’d stepped into the driver’s seat, she hurriedly wiped her eyes.

  “I won’t be any trouble,” she said softly.

  Tristan didn’t respond—not because he didn’t want to but because her voice still sent his mind spinning. It was so similar to mine.

  Tristan twisted the key in the ignition, and the truck fired to life. He backed out into the hospital’s main drive and carefully maneuvered the SUV past the police cruisers slipping onto the hospital campus.

  “What’s your name?” he asked quietly. He’d practiced that simple question a dozen times in his head, so as not to come off as threatening. It wasn’t hard to tell that the girl was terrified of him.

  “Mr. Dashkov said that master’s get to name their pets, that we didn’t get to decide. Whatever you want it to be is fine with me.”

  Tristan’s blood boiled once his fears were confirmed. He’d suspected as much after seeing that human girl for the first time; she was drugged out of her mind. Now, he was one hundred percent certain that Dashkov had used this girl for sex. He knew what “pets” were in the vampire world. That sick bastard deserved the death he’d been given. To feed upon humans was to be a vampire, but to do that to a girl so young was beyond even the most wicked days of his own past.

  “I am not your master,” he corrected her, “and you are no one’s pet. The days of you being treated like one are over. Consider me a friend.”

  The girl’s head turned slowly upwards, her light brown eyes taking in Tristan skeptically. After the way she’d been treated I supposed it would be hard to trust anyone. She dropped her head again before speaking. “Is that blood I smell on you?”

  Tristan nodded, “It’s—”

  The girl’s eyes lit up. “Did you steal it? Could I have some?”

  Seeing Tristan’s eyes widen at her sudden forwardness must have embarrassed her because she went back into her shell.

  Her voice was low when she spoke again. “My name is Leia—like Princess Leia from Star Wars. My dad was a big fan—toys and costumes and all that stuff.”

  Tristan had been observing her carefully. Her human side was still in control. No wonder. She’d been Dashkov’s “pet,” entirely dependent on him for blood. She’d never needed to cast off her emotions because she’d never needed to become a hunter to survive. She’d never had to take a human life to sustain her own.

  “Your father was a big fan, or is a big fan?” Tristan asked.

  “Was,” she answered.

  For a moment Tristan thought that Dashkov might have been responsible for that too, but Leia continued, unprompted.

  “My parents died last year. Car crash. I’ve been in foster care until about a month ago. I just got tired of people pretending to care about me, using me for a free check. So I left.”

  “How long have you been a vampire?” he asked next. Judging from her excitement over prospect of tasting human blood, he was sure that she was aware of what she was. Still, her body shuttered at the word.

  “I don’t know exactly,” she answered, shaking her head. “I was staying with some friends I knew and we’d gone out to this party. Some guy was passing out beers so I took one. I started to get this massive headache so I went to sit down on the couch. The next thing I can remember is being in this black SUV and pulling up to Dashkov’s place. Everything’s a blur again after that.”

  Tristan pulled the truck off the road and deep into some trees. He was satisfied that they were secluded enough that they wouldn’t be disturbed.

  Leia had begun to remove her shirt when Tristan grabbed her arm. “I told you, I’m not interested in that.”

  Disbelief shone out from Leia’s face. “You’re gonna give it to me for nothing?”

  Tristan nodded. “You’re with a friend now. That said, I’m going to have to teach you to rely on animal blood. It tastes as awful as it sounds but it will be enough to keep you going without poisoning your mind. You don’t want to become a monster like Dashkov was.”

  Leia cringed. “But that’s human blood you have in your coat, right?”

  “It is. For healing purposes, it’s going to be necessary.”

  Leia thought on that for a moment. “Why do we need it? What does the blood do?”

  Tristan debated on how honest he should be with her. He settled on complete honesty after recalling something I’d said to him once. “Your human life is over, Leia. The only thing keeping your body from rotting away is the vampire venom in your veins. That venom preserves your body tissues and your organs while improving your body’s senses, strength, speed…”

  “So I’m basically just a super-powered corpse?”

  Tristan cringed at the description, but admitted that it was accurate.

  “Do I have a soul then? Can I still go to heaven?”

  Tristan resisted the impulse to say “no” to both questions outright. Truthfully, he didn’t know, and with the recent deaths of Aiden and Surya, he found himself hoping more than he ever had that he was wrong. His own end loomed in front of him once I figured out how to destroy Daemon. As did Leia’s.

  “I’m not sure,” he said.

  Leia swallowed hard. “I hope so.”

  Tristan got out of the truck and fiddled with buttons and switches until he was able let down the rear seats and open the back door. He called for Leia to join him behind the vehicle.

  “Get in and lie down,” he said.

  She looked up at him nervously, that same skepticism haunting her facial features, but she obeyed. He followed her into the truck, positioning himself beside her as she stared up at the truck’s ceiling.

  He pulled off the trench coat and sat the blood bag next to him. Fire flashed in Leia’s eyes and her canines stretched downward out of her gums.

  “You’ve probably never had as much blood as I’m about to give you. Dashkov only gave you enough to keep you alive it seems. He wanted to keep you weak enough that you couldn’t fight him off. It’s going to draw out your animal side. It’s the part of being a vampire you’ve avoided thus far and the part that I’m successfully keeping suppressed at the moment.”

  “I need for you to fight it,” he continued. “Concentrate on something that brings up strong feelings. Emotions are the key to maintaining our connection with our human side. Do you understand?”