“Also, there are hunters who were changed at the same time during the Black Death and their offspring. They don’t have a craving for blood like we do. They’re stronger like us, and it had been their goal to destroy vampires,” Levka said. “Then things changed over the centuries and hunters began to realize not all vampires are bad. That some hunters are evil, killing machines. We try to police our own rogue vampires, though hunters are also hired to take care of the rogues.”

  “What about rogue hunters?” Fiona asked. “Who takes care of them?”

  “The hunters,” Ruric said. “The vampires have to report them to a hunter council in the jurisdiction. Vampires aren’t allowed to take down rogue hunters without being called rogues themselves.”

  “Wow, that doesn’t sound fair,” Fiona asked.

  “No, it isn’t,” Arman said.

  “Okay, so if hunters were also turned by the Black Death, did they live long lives also?” Fiona asked.

  “Yeah, if they were turned by the plague. But their offspring didn’t have that ability,” Arman said.

  “There’s so much to remember. So what happens when I turn eighteen during the blood moon?” Fiona asked.

  Stasio said, “Between my researching historical documents…”

  “And my help with unraveling data online…,” Ruric said.

  “And me analyzing the dreams I’ve been having of you…,” Arman said.

  Levka cleared his throat. “We’ve learned you will have the ability to manipulate dreams—giving a targeted individual pleasant slumber, torment someone with nightmares, or even cause the person to sleepwalk and act out in some way.”

  “Like killing someone?”

  Arman glanced at the others, and then back at Fiona. “Yeah. And Tobias and Regina and their clan want your ability to control others in their dream state.”

  “And you?”

  Arman shook his head. “I only want what’s best for you. If we can break the curse, then Tobias and Regina and their minions will no longer have any need to take you into the fold.”

  10

  Fiona had finally found freedom from her crazy homelife and thought going to Moody Gardens would be fun before she left the States. But was she nuts to want to do this now? With Regina and Tobias probably trying to track them down?

  Ruric was working his vampiric magic to pay for the expensive tickets, Arman was beside Fiona as they got their tickets, Levka and Caitlin were behind them, and Stasio and Jasmine beside them.

  She wanted to ask Caitlin what powers a witch had but didn’t want to sound too nosey. She figured she would learn about them soon enough. Then they headed into one of the glass pyramids featuring the rainforest. They saw beautiful orchids perched on trees and brilliantly colored macaws gathered together in pairs of blues, reds, and greens. Fish swam in the ponds and skates, similar to manta rays, glided across the water in the shadows. Alligators were in one area, fruit bats clung to manmade caves in another exhibit. Monkeys roamed free in the jungle of trees and vines. Other brightly colored tropical flowers that Fiona didn’t know the name of filled pockets here and there.

  Her next favorite thing was the butterfly exhibit and she reached into her pocket to grab her phone to take pictures of them, realizing at once she didn’t have her phone. Arman, seeing her distress at being cut off from the world, pulled out his phone and handed it to her. “We’ll get you one.”

  Tears filled her eyes. She didn’t know why she’d suddenly become overcome with sadness. She was supposed to be enjoying herself for the moment, but it just hit her all at once. Here she was again, her whole world turned upside down from living with one dysfunctional foster family to another so to speak, and now? She was with a group of vampires who were probably just as dysfunctional, yet Arman’s gesture to give her his phone, to show he was watching her, understanding how she felt, it just…well, it just had overwhelmed her all in that moment.

  He reached over and pulled her into a hug then and she needed that. She’d needed it ever since she’d learned her parents, or foster parents, had died in the car crash. She’d needed to feel like she’d belonged somewhere with someone, not like how she’d lived with Regina for the last few months.

  Then she realized another thing. She didn’t have to go to school any longer! No more extra credit classes for social studies or attending dumb Halloween parties, no expectations of going to the prom when she probably wouldn’t have been asked anyway. Though she wanted to graduate. But on her own terms. In her own way.

  “Thank you,” she belatedly said and took a picture of Arman, wondering if she could even take a picture of him.

  He was smiling so brightly at her, she thought she’d made his day. Probably no one ever took his picture. She smiled back, the lighthearted feeling contagious. Then she began taking pictures of the butterflies, closeup, sitting on flowers, lingering on fruit. She made everyone go back through the rainforest so she could take pictures of the monkeys, macaws, and flowers and then they went to see the aquarium.

  An octopus moved around coral, trying to hide from her. She knew the feeling, but she managed to capture a couple of good photos. An electric eel, a neon green, appeared just in time for a photo. Penguins were getting a meal of fish in the exhibit. Puffins were swimming in another area. Seals were likewise diving into the water in an exhibit. Walking through a glass tunnel surrounded by sharks and fish while divers were cleaning the glass was the coolest. Even seeing the different varieties of jellyfish was really fun. Or the sea stars and other sea life that she enjoyed capturing on the cell phone. Then she wondered what pictures Arman might have taken. She would check the first chance she got, when he wasn’t aware of it, just in case he had taken some selfies with a cute girl.

  She assumed everyone would have been annoyed with her for wanting to take so many pictures, but they had seemed glad to do whatever she wanted to do. Maybe because by doing so, she would agree to stay with them. Even though Jasmine said it was her choice, Fiona suspected that they wouldn’t want to give her the freedom to decide to stay behind. Still, she appreciated that they were letting her do whatever she wanted to and seemed to be enjoying the time they spent with her. Unlike Regina who had never wanted to let her out of her sight except to go to school, normally. Until that Halloween high school party. Boy did Regina make a mistake then.

  At the cafeteria, they all ordered pizzas and then sat down to eat them.

  “I hope everyone is enjoying being here and it’s not just me that is,” Fiona said, thinking they were, but maybe they were just pretending.

  “Oh, yeah, I’ve never been here either and I’ve had a ball. At least five morpho butterflies were traveling on the back of Levka’s shirt. He really was attracting them. It was hilarious,” Caitlin said.

  Levka smiled at Caitlin.

  Fiona knew then Caitlin was being honest with her and Levka seemed to enjoy anything that made Caitlin happy.

  “I loved the monkeys too. And the macaws,” Jasmine said. “With the kind of work I do, I never just take the time to sightsee, and I’ve never been to Texas before. So this was fun for me.”

  Jasmine sounded sincere also, and Fiona really liked both of them.

  None of the guys said anything, so Fiona suspected they were worried about hanging around here for too long.

  They had missed the ferry, which was probably just as well. Arman had told her they couldn’t fly over big bodies of water, so if they’d had to leave in a hurry, they wouldn’t have been able to.

  Stasio handed Jasmine his phone and said, “I’ve been trying to learn anything I can about your foster brother, but I thought this was interesting. The news report should have mentioned he was survived by a sister, but there’s no mention of you like you didn’t even exist.”

  “Because…because like you wiped out Emma’s memory of me, Regina made sure no one knew I had existed?” Fiona asked, astonished. Why worry about her ability to work some magic on people’s dreams when they could wipe out people’s memories all on their own?

  “Right,” Arman said, then took another bite of his pizza.

  “But if I’m a hunter, then shouldn’t they be afraid of me because I could eliminate them for being rogue vampires?” Fiona asked, trying to wrap her mind around this whole new world she’d found herself in.

  “You haven’t been raised as a hunter and trained as one, killing rogue vampires from an early age,” Levka said.

  “But I’m a black belt in several forms of martial arts, and I can wield a sword.”

  “Why?” Stasio asked. “How come you went into martial arts training?”

  “My mother said I would love it. Ohmigod, because my real parents told her I should be trained in it? To eventually fight vampires? Rogue ones, I mean?” Fiona just couldn’t come to grips with all this. She had done several sword demonstrations, but the idea of actually using one on someone to terminate him or her? She shuddered.

  “Well, it’s good to hear that you can wield a sword and you know martial arts. You’ll be much better trained than Caitlin was,” Jasmine said. “No offense to Caitlin. She was thrown into this business so all of a sudden, but like she says, she has her own witchy talents.”

  “No offense taken,” Caitlin said, smiling.

  Fiona saw Jasmine as a take-charge person who had goals in mind and accomplished them. Fiona couldn’t even imagine how brave she had to be to confront and take down rogue vampires. That would be a scary business. Caitlin was more—sweet and cheerful and…human. Even though she was a vampire now like the rest. But she also had this fun witch’s side to her that made her less human and more capable of handling trouble. Fiona was kind of like her in that she hadn’t had the experience of fighting bad guys with her abilities. But her abilities weren’t magical in the least. Well, except for the dream powers she might have, though she wasn’t sure everyone knew what they were talking about.

  “So what do you all think about the possibility of me having this dream persuasion power?” Fiona wanted to know if they thought she should get rid of it, or could she maybe use it for good? That’s what she was thinking of. If she chose which way for a character to go in a book she was reading that had choices, she always chose the right path. Well, except when she wanted to see what would happen if she made wrong choices just for fun. She handed Stasio’s phone back to him.

  She had taken martial arts classes from the age of three on. In school, she had always stuck up for kids who couldn’t or wouldn’t defend themselves. She wasn’t afraid of bullies, though she had to make sure she didn’t look like one in return.

  No one said anything. They probably didn’t know what to think of her having such a power.

  “Okay, so, Stasio, the historical genius…,” she said.

  Stasio smiled.

  Fiona smiled and continued. “What have you learned about my dealing with the power? A way of ending the curse? Or a way to control it for the benefit of others, not using it for bad?”

  Then Stasio sat up taller and finished his slice of pizza. He drank some of his soda and said, “You have to find your dream mate.”

  She raised her brows.

  Stasio shrugged. “That’s what the ancient book said. The one afflicted with the ability must find his or her dream mate and that will end the curse.”

  “There are others who have this ability?” Fiona was surprised. She had the notion she was the only one. That she was special. She felt deflated all at once.

  “We’ve never known anybody that has that ability,” Levka said, “but you and Arman have had the dreams connecting the two of you, right?”

  She nodded.

  “That’s not to say he’s your dream mate,” Levka quickly said. “But that’s what made us research your existence and learn all we could about you. That’s how we learned you have this curse.”

  “Isn’t it illegal for a vampire to turn a hunter?” Fiona asked, suddenly thinking that it should be if it wasn’t already.

  “Aye,” Levka said. “But rogues will do whatever they want to gain any power they want. That’s what makes them rogues and dangerous.”

  That’s what Fiona was afraid of. “So about my question, do you think it would be better to end the curse or not?”

  “It depends on the person who has the power,” Levka said. “If you can control it and only use it to help others, then it would be a gift. If it becomes a tool to terrorize people, then it could be a curse.”

  “It could be,” Fiona said.

  “Right. Unless the people you are terrorizing are…,” Levka said.

  “Rogues.” Now Fiona liked that idea.

  Levka smiled.

  “Like Tobias and Regina. Clarissa even. I mean, could I even slip into their dreams and give them nightmares?” Fiona couldn’t even imagine being able to do it to just plain humans. Look at her thinking of people in that way when that’s all she had ever been. Human, through and through. Or so she had thought. But to be able to control the powerful vampires’ dreams? She didn’t think she would be capable of that.

  “If what is written is true, yes,” Stasio said.

  “Okay, so if I wanted to get rid of the curse, how would I go about it?” Fiona asked. If she had to die, she wasn’t going for it. She liked the idea of having some special power all her own, but not if people wanted to use her for her abilities, or wanted her dead if she wouldn’t go along with the plan.

  They all looked at Arman to explain.

  “It has something to do with us,” Arman said. “You and I both have been sharing dreams.”

  She tilted her chin down and gave him a look. “You better not say that you have to turn me into a vampire and that will get rid of the ability.”

  Arman smiled, and he had the most devilishly wicked smile of any guy she’d ever known. Instead of sending chills through her, his expression gave her a little thrill. But she did not want to be turned into a vampire. Drink blood? Yuck.

  “We don’t know,” Arman said, losing the smile. “It’s just that we are connected in some way and my dreams indicate I’m supposed to save you.”

  “How do you remember them? I have vague recollections of you, but I can’t remember most of the details for the life of me when I wake up.” Maybe he could remember his because of having a vampire condition.

  “They wake me, and I write them down.”

  “Oh.” So it wasn’t something magical he could do. She was a little disappointed. “So tell me what all you can do as vampires so I know more what to expect.”

  “We can fly places, as you have learned. We can transport ourselves into places,” Arman said.

  “You have to be invited in, right?”

  “No,” Ruric said. “We have advanced beyond that.”

  Wow, so all the stuff she thought would help, wouldn’t? “Holy ground is off limits, right? I could go to a church and be safe or throw holy water on a vampire and they would sizzle and die a grotesque death.” There had to be some way to protect herself. What if these vampires decided she wasn’t worth the trouble and left her to face her demons on her own? She had to be ready to fight Tobias and Regina without their help.

  “No, and strings of garlic won’t do anything either. Those are all myths. We regularly eat garlic in our meals,” Jasmine said.

  “Wooden stakes to the heart?” Fiona worried that even that was a myth.

  Everyone smiled at her. Levka said, “Anything striking the heart—a sword, wooden stake, an arrow—could kill vampires and humans alike. So yeah, it works.”

  “Or…” Ruric started to speak and then looked as though he thought better of what he was going to say.

  “Or, what?” Fiona asked. There wasn’t any time like the present to learn how she could take down a vampire.

  “Cut off their head,” Jasmine said. “But like with a stake or sword to the heart, cutting off the head for anyone is a permanent solution.”

  “Aww. Of course.” Why didn’t Fiona think of that? “What about drowning?”

  “We can drown, just like anyone else,” Arman said. “Being buried alive in soil?” He shook his head. “If the vampire is powerful enough, he’ll make his way out of it.”

  “The sun!”

  “On days where the sun is really intense, we burn badly. So we avoid going out or cover up well. But during the day if it’s overcast? We don’t have any issues,” Stasio said.

  “Yeah, I was worried about that,” Caitlin said. “Not that I was into suntanning. I always just burned. But that I would have to live a life only at night? Or that the sun could make me disintegrate? That was not an appealing way to live.”

  “The only ones who disintegrate are the old ones,” Arman said.

  Fiona frowned. “Aren’t you old ones?”

  “Yeah. So if someone kills us, we would turn to ash,” Arman said.

  “But if you’re more…uhm, newly turned like Caitlin?” Fiona hated to even bring it up, but she had to know how this all worked.

  “She would look like a regular person if she died,” Jasmine said.

  “Okay, so let’s say you protect me through the blood moon, then what? They leave me alone? They can’t steal my power? What?”

  “Tobias wanted to turn you to gain your power, but he can’t do it until the night of the blood moon,” Arman said. “If he turned you, then you can’t kill the one who makes you.”

  “Ohmigod, so you’re like a puppet? Playing to their whim?”

  “Essentially,” Levka said.

  Fiona looked at Caitlin.

  Caitlin shrugged. “I would have died if Levka hadn’t saved my life. I have no regrets. And he in no way controls me.”

  Levka gave Caitlin a smug smile.

  “Not that he doesn’t try sometimes.” Caitlin gave him a hug and he kissed her back.

  “It’s truly a condition of the princes having been princes,” Jasmine said, smiling at Stasio.

  He pulled her onto his lap and kissed her. “I was just lucky I changed your mind about eliminating us.”

  “Ha! You left me no other alternative.” Jasmine turned to Fiona. “I had to go on the run with them because of association. I had made the mistake of telling hunters that I was Stasio’s girlfriend. I thought he was a vampire hunter like me. Not a rogue. The princes had tried to overthrow the ruling League in Wales. They lost the battle and were branded rogues.”