Chapter 24

Scarlett had spent enough time with Kova over the years to know that his sour expression and snappy tone had nothing to do with the situation and everything to do with the fact that it was past ten in the morning and the sun was burning bright beyond the tinted windows. She and Olivia didn't mind, but the three male vampires crowded into the big conference room were in an informal contest for the worst attitude.

It certainly hadn't helped that their drive out to the suburbs had been a shitshow. Upon leaving the parking garage under Infinity, they had to take a detour to avoid the burst water main that was flooding the nearby streets.

After a late-night drive to the sprawling, dated compound in the suburbs, Julian had whisked her into the administrative building, which made her feel like she was back at school. A brief argument over security ensued, after which Julian finally told the others if Armina was going to find them, she was going to find them either way.

At Paris's insistence, Julian had gone to bed to sleep off the residual impact of Armina's magic. Dominic had eyed Scarlett and Kova warily over a cup of coffee, apparently refusing to leave Olivia alone with them.

They'd gone through Kova's list of four safehouses. Scarlett vaguely remembered traveling to one of them after leaving Atlanta the first time, but had never been to the other three. Together, they'd used online maps to look at the surrounding areas to plan reconnaissance missions. While looking at a small townhouse in Charlotte, Scarlett asked, "Why don't we just go now?"

"Because we will be at a severe disadvantage," Paris said, furrowing his brow.

"Well, you will. Not me," she said.

"We're not letting you go alone."

"Because you don't trust me?"

"Because I don't trust the witch," Paris said flatly. "And Julian would never allow it."

Her chest tightened. "I'm not a possession, you know."

The vampire scowled at her. "Unlike Armina Voss, he doesn't see you as a convenient tool to carry out his narcissistic desires. He wants to keep you safe from the woman who is trying to kill you and has successfully done so multiple times. And he loves you enough to keep you from dying before you have the dubious honor of turning thirty."

Her breath hitched, and her cheeks flushed. The truth didn't quite hurt, but it certainly carried a sting.

Olivia cleared her throat to break the silence and said, "Can we move on?"

"We'll prepare to leave approximately ninety minutes before sunset. Three of the locations are within a four-hour drive of Atlanta, which will be sufficient time for us to feed and be back at full strength by the time we arrive," Paris said. He glanced at Kova. "If you had to guess, where would she most likely go?"

"If we'd gone two days ago, I would say one of the locations in Charlotte. If her apprentices were panicking, they'd probably have gone to the closest safe place. But if I was with them, I would have told them to keep moving in case we were being watched," Kova said. "I'll go with the team traveling to Charlotte just in case."

"I can go with you. With your protection," Scarlett said pointedly.

Paris shook his head. "I don't want to risk her getting her hands on you. Besides, Shoshanna needs to figure out your curse."

Right. There it was again, the reminder that the sand was pouring through the hourglass. She swallowed hard and nodded. "Okay. What will you do if you find her?"

Paris met her eyes. "We won't kill her right away, though not for any sense of mercy. We need to be sure she's not going to unleash another curse on us for taking her out. Heavy drugs until we can figure out what to do. Do you object?"

"Does it matter if I do?" she asked.

A faint smile tugged at his lips, a smile that said he knew he'd been caught out. "It really doesn't. If it matters to you, I'll let you talk to her. But I'm not letting her walk free any longer. Even if she wasn't coming for you, she's coming for Shoshanna, and she happens to be my favorite human. And I cannot allow that." He caught Olivia's eye. "You're a very close second."

"I'm not offended," the dark-haired woman said with a chuckle.

"And this has nothing to do with vengeance?" Scarlett asked.

Another coy smile. "Vengeance is a nice bonus, but I'm not hellbent on making her pay. I only want to stop her from destroying anything else that I cherish."

She nodded, and found herself drifting in thought as they planned their incursions. At Kova's prompting, she perked up to tell them about how Armina typically used several simple protective wards when she traveled, all of which reacted to vampires. The safehouses likely had permanent protection, but none of it would be nearly as powerful as the spells at the old house. That kind of magic took time and repetition, like wearing ruts in a dirt road.

Shortly after eleven, the vampires disbanded, and Olivia bustled off to her office, then returned with a paper shopping bag filled with more clothes. The dark-haired woman smiled and said, "I know you didn't have much. When things get a little calmer, my sister would probably love to take you shopping."

Her heart thumped as she peered into the bag. "I don't want to inconvenience you."

Olivia laughed. "It's not an inconvenience at all. I have plenty. Safira and Phoebe brought you some things as well. All hunting appropriate, according to them," she said with a laugh.

Scarlett clutched the bag tightly. She didn't know what to make of this strange vampire court; a place that she'd been told was rife with evil, but instead was packed with a messy, but kind family. "Thank you," she managed.

Olivia smiled brightly and said, "Any time. We also have a proper kitchen since some of us don't drink the red stuff. If you're going to stay here a while, we can stock up on anything you like. And since Shoshanna's staying here, maybe we can justify ordering some takeout since I'm not the only one here eating real food."

Like real friends, Scarlett thought.

Before they left the office, Scarlett gently caught Olivia's arm. The pale skin of her throat was marked with faint scars, some of them jagged as if teeth had been torn away. "Did one of them do this to you?"

Olivia's hand drifted to her neck. The sound of her accelerating heart thrummed against Scarlett's hearing, and there was a shift in her scent. "You have to be more specific. You say them, and I don't know if you mean this court or vampires in general. I hope you understand that the distinction matters," she said. Despite her racing heart, the woman's voice was calm. "You understand that Julian and Paris and the others aren't like Carrigan Shea, don't you?"

"I want to believe that," Scarlett said quietly.

Olivia nodded and tugged up the sleeves of her light sweater, exposing more faint scars on her forearms. "People who served Carrigan Shea did this to me. They kidnapped my sister, forced her to call me, and took me too. Sold tickets to bite us and got paid more because we're twins," she said, still holding Scarlett's gaze. "And if you wanted to kill every last one of those vampires, I wouldn't object. We both would have died if not for this court. They've protected us, and they've protected this whole city from dangers it doesn't even know exist."

"For as long as I've known about vampires, all I wanted was to protect people like you," Scarlett said.

As she covered her scarred arms again, Olivia's expression softened. "I believe you. I've met other hunters, and some of them are good people, just like some vampires are good people." Then she reached out and squeezed Scarlett's shoulder. "I know you're not asking for advice, but I'm told that being bossy is sort of my thing. There's so much going on right now that trying to figure it all out is going to make you crazy. We need to survive the next few days. I promise that you can trust us, and you can trust Julian. Once we're past this—past your curse—then there will be time to breathe."

Scarlett forced a smile. "I appreciate it, but I'm not sure you understand."

"I think I do, better than you know," Olivia said with a faint smile. "Maybe when we get a chance, I'll tell you about it."

With a sigh, Scarlett nodded to her and headed out of the office. When she reached the lobby, she found Kova alone, clutching a black umbrella in his still-marked hands. His eyes cut back to her, and his shoulders slumped. "Hi," he said quietly. The look of pain in his eyes was enough to break her heart. Wasn't the witch's work supposed to fix him?

She stared up at him, then threw her arms around him. He stiffened, but then he embraced her tightly, his strong arms warm and solid around her. Even his scent had changed; he'd always carried a faint odor of Armina's magic, but now he smelled clean and strong. Though it was new, it felt right.

When she pulled back, he lightly stroked her cheek. His eyes were ringed in shadow, and he looked beyond exhausted. "I'm so sorry for everything. For lying, for everything."

She shook her head. "You don't have to be sorry for what she made you do. I didn't get it until she brought me back and just put an enchanted shackle on me. Even that little bit of magic kept me from trying to escape. I can't imagine what it was like for you," she said. Her brow furrowed. "And now that it's broken, you don't want to murder and kill people?"

He laughed. "No, I do not. Maybe Armina Voss and Lux, but that has nothing to do with me being a vampire." Then he glanced at his watch. "Do you know where to find Julian? I know where the others are, so he?—"

"I want to talk to you first if you don't mind," she said. His brows arched. "I haven't been able to talk to you without her holding you back. Will you talk to me while I get something to eat?"

"Of course," he said. "This way."

Down the hall and up a set of stairs, they found a small kitchen with dingy tile and a small round table. A vase with fresh pink flowers made a token effort to cheer up the place, which was at least sparkling clean and smelled like citrus. She peered through the contents of the refrigerator and helped herself to a container of yogurt. Reaching past her, Kova took out a bag of blood and wrinkled his nose as he put it in the microwave over her head.

"Now that I can speak freely, you should know I absolutely prefer to drink from the vein and I intend to do so as soon as possible," he said.

"With consent?"

"Of course," he said. "Does that bother you?"

"Do you need my approval?"

"No, but I'd like to know that you don't think I'm a monster," he said.

"I don't," she said, though the thought of Kova sinking his teeth into someone was still slightly unsettling. After he took out his snack, they settled into the plastic chairs around the table. A single beam of sunlight broke between heavy curtains, and Kova shifted his chair until he was far from the beam. He took a delicate sip, sighed with relief, then raised an eyebrow. "What do you want to talk about?"

While Kova sipped at the bag of blood, she lightly scraped at the yogurt, barely catching a hint of it on the spoon. "I want to ask you some questions, and I want you to be honest. Don't spare my feelings," she said. His eyes widened as she continued, "Did you really care about me? Or did Armina order you to pretend?"

"I cared very much about you, and I still do," he said without hesitating.

"Was that because you felt like you owed it to Julian or Brigitte, or because you actually cared about me?"

He sat back like she'd shoved him, brows knitting together. The pause was long enough to be its own answer, but he finally spoke. "You want honesty, right? At the beginning, it was loyalty to Julian. When I realized how she was manipulating magic to keep finding you, I wanted to protect you because I cared about Julian, and I stupidly thought that I could save him some grief. But this time, getting to watch you grow up…I cared about you. Regardless of her magic or the past, you are my family. Armina may have controlled me, but that is mine. I still love you dearly."

Tears pricked at her eyes. "And you tried to tell me to run, more than once. But you couldn't tell me why." He nodded, a sad expression on his face. She let out a single hitching sob, then clapped her hand over her mouth. "I feel like my entire world has been shattered."

"It has," he said calmly. "I know that it's complicated for you. Armina treated you like a daughter, and you saw a good side of her."

"There is no good side. It was all a lie," she said.

"That's oversimplifying it, zaika. I think that some part of her did and still does care for you. And you shouldn't feel stupid because you care for her, too. But you should also be realistic. No matter how much Armina Voss cares for you, she cares far moreabout herself and her vengeance. And what she has done is not a mistake made due to grief or a grim necessity of war. It is carefully calculated and protracted cruelty.And if she has her way, she'll do it again and again until she dies," he said. He fiddled with the plastic bag in his hands, shifting the crimson liquid back and forth.

"But I didn't do anything to her," Scarlett said, then shook her head. "God, that sounds so childish."

He took a long drink from the bag, eyes closed with pleasure. "I know, and she knows that too. She doesn't care. Her pain took over everything, and it rotted her from the inside. A long time ago, I think she was probably a decent person through and through, even if she was helping the Shieldsmen kill us. Now she's just cruel and angry. It's all she has left."

She slowly ate from the yogurt, though it tasted bland and unpleasant with her emotions running wild. "You were with her for a long time. Did you see it happen before?"

"Are you asking if I saw you die before?" She nodded. "Yes. Not every time. I…" He shook his head. "You don't want to hear about this."

"I do. I need to know the truth so that I can see who she is. I need to know how I fight back so it doesn't happen again," she said.

His eyes widened. "She trapped me a little over a hundred and twenty years ago. That would have been after…the third time you—Brigitte—died. The first time, I was with Julian, but I didn't see you. And when it happened again, we still didn't understand that it was Armina's curse. It wasn't until she tricked me that I realized what she was doing. She imprisoned me for a long time just to amuse herself, and I think it would have been the fourth time when I had to see it for myself."

"Did she always take care of me? Of her…" Scarlett shook her head. "Pretend to be family, I mean?"

He shook his head. "That was only this time. Before, she just let fate run its course for about twenty-eight years, and then she'd start circling until she found you. One time you—" His face paled. "One time she had a child. Not hers by blood, but the son of a friend who had died."

"How did she find me—find her?" she asked. She had to stop thinking of those women as herself, even as a strange image tore through her mind, holding the hand of a little boy with black curls as they watched a mound of dirt rising over a freshly buried coffin.

"That I don't know," he said. "It's tied to the spell on you."

"And does she…did she kill her every time?"

He shook his head. "No. I think that's how she convinces herself that she's still got the moral high ground. Shoshanna understands much more about magic than I do, but Armina has somehow twisted fate around you. When it's time, the magic brings calamity to you, and she never gets her hands dirty." His eyes were downcast as he took a long drink from the bag of blood. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter."She got even more cruel over time. The last time… You had a boyfriend, and she made me attack him," he said. His jaw ticked, and he met her eyes with an anguished gaze. "She made me kill him. And you found him dead."

It was strange to see his anguish, when she had no memory of this man. But she remembered what it was like to see Julian fall with Armina's magic ripping through him, his body stiff and eyes wide open in a death stare.Some version of her had loved and lost, and had suffered enough that Kova was still haunted by it.

"Why?" she whispered. "What does that have to do with Julian?"

"She wanted to see if she could make you hunt him down. A few weeks after his death, she swooped into your life to comfort you and tell you that what you'd experienced was real, and that she could help you find the man who did it," Kova said. "It was?—"

"So she killed him just to see what would happen?" she said incredulously.

"When you took the bait, she tried to make me train you to hunt. I refused, so she locked me in the basement for nearly a year and starved me out. When she finally let me out, it was to protect her from Julian when he came looking for her, and then again to bring you back when it was over," Kova said.

Her throat closed off as tears spilled over her cheeks. "You tried so hard for me."

"I did for you what I couldn't do for Lucia. I wanted—" His voice broke, and he clamped his lips shut as he stared intently at his hands. Her heart pounded as they sat together. Though they did not speak, the pain echoing in the room was deafening. "What else do you want to know?"

"I want to know if you'll be okay," she said.

His eyes lifted. "All of this, and you're worried about me? I'm fine."

"What about Lucia? Are you going to see her?"

His lips parted, and there was a strange pulse of light, his dark eyes going red. "I don't know if I can. All these years gave me so much time to think. Lucia's not like me. She's gentle and sweet. Never hurt anyone, not even by accident. I always thought it was strange that she loved me, even then."

"And you think you don't deserve her?" Scarlett asked.

His eyes lifted to her, and he simply smiled.

"I think you're full of shit," she said sharply. His brows arched. "And I think you should let Lucia decide if you're good enough for her, instead of treating her like some delicate creature who doesn't have the capacity to make her own decisions."

His jaw dropped. "Scarlett."

"I'm sorry, but it's true," she said. "Why would you go through all of this for her and then hide when she's finally in reach?"

"What if she hates me?" he asked.

"How could she hate you?" she said. "She knows you. I know you and I love you."

His eyes welled over, but he scrubbed quickly at them. With a nervous laugh, he finished off the blood bag. "Careful with all this. I'll have you running laps if you keep making me look at myself this closely." Then he slid around the table, close enough to hold her shoulders. He kissed her forehead, then lifted her chin. "I'll try to be brave enough for Lucia. But for now, she's safe. You aren't. Let me focus on helping you, zaika."

She nodded solemnly. "Okay. You think they can do it?"

"I think if those two can break a century-old binding, they've got a damned good chance at it," he said.

Her heart thrummed. "Okay. I trust you."

A low chuckle rumbled in his chest. "You don't know how much that means."

She gave Kova a long hug before he retreated for the day, and she followed the instructions Olivia had left to find Julian in Building Two, sleeping hard in a sun-proofed room. She couldn't help but notice the way he'd edged over to the side of the bed, as if he was anticipating someone joining him.

Standing in the doorway, her mind felt sheared in a dozen directions. She saw him—younger, with longer hair—asleep under a thick woven blanket with a fire still crackling in a stone fireplace. In another flash, he sat up, then crooked a finger at her in a quiet invitation. And in another, he was atop her, greeting the sunset buried between her thighs.

Strange fear shuddered through her, and she quickly backed away from the door, closing it quietly. If there was some strange protection on her, it ended tomorrow.

And then, she was in fate's hands.