“Okay Vinna, I’m going to activate the spell. If it works, you’ll feel a small pull on your magic. It won’t hurt, and it will be over quickly," Keegan tells me.

I don’t respond. I get up and wander over to the bookshelves succumbing to the sudden need to move. They already have my blood and clearly plan to complete this spell regardless of how I feel about it. Pricks. Well the jokes on them. They can tell me if I’m a caster, but they’re leaving tomorrow, so even if they discover someone related to me, it doesn’t mean I’ll let them find me again.

Now that I know about them, I can try to track down some other casters and see if they can teach me more about my magic--that is, if that’s even what I am. There’s a flash of light inside the bowl Keegan’s working over, and a trickle of red smoke wafts up from it. I feel a quick jerk in my chest, but just like Keegan said, it’s over almost as soon as it starts.

I run my finger over the spine of a leather-bound book, and I hear a sharp intake of breath.

“Impossible!”

I turn around at Lachlan’s pained shout. He leaps over the back of the couch and slams me into a bookshelf. I’m so shocked that I don’t initially react. He has one hand around my throat and the other digging into my shoulder. He shakes me as he screams in my face, asking things that make no sense to me.

Hands appear on Lachlan, trying to pull him off of me, but his hold around my throat is solid. Rage overtakes my shock, and I call on the runes of two short swords. I move one to Lachlan’s throat and the other to his dick. The look on Lachlan’s face is pained and manic, but I see the trickle of fear that seeps into his face when he registers the blades biting into him.

Everyone goes quiet and steps away from us at my silent threat. Lachlan slowly drops his grip from around my throat. I push against him, and he backs up to keep the knives from cutting him deeper. A trail of blood leaks out around the blade I hold at his neck, but there’s not a single ounce of me that cares.

“I don’t know what the fuck your damage is, but if you ever put your hands on me again, I will fucking end you," I seethe at him, pressing him back even more.

“Vinna, you don’t understand--”

“I don’t care!” I shout at whoever’s trying to defend this asshole. “Keep this fucking mental case away from me!”

Hands wrap around Lachlan’s shoulders and pull him free from my blades. I let them take him away, but I hold firmly to my weapons, staring at everyone else in the room and daring them to test me.

Silva moves towards me, and I crouch defensively. He raises his hands in a placating gesture and stops.

“I won’t hurt you. I just want to know if you know where Eden is, or Vaughn and Lance?”

Silva’s voice breaks with emotion when he says the name Eden. I stare at him, completely confused.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about," I yell at him.

Silva closes his eyes, seemingly in pain from my declaration. I see Keegan cradling Lachlan’s head against his shoulder and speaking in hushed tones with him. It’s clear that Lachlan is in pain, but I can’t be bothered to care to know why. I need to get out of here. I start to back away, easing my way toward the doors that mark the closest exit.

“Vinna, stop," Aydin implores. “I’m sorry that just happened, but please let us explain.”

I vacillate between my need to escape this nightmare, and the need to make sense of what the hell’s going on right now. I step out of the room.

“Vinna, please!” Silva begs, and I pause.

I stand half in and half out of the room, not sure which way I want to go. Keegan walks Lachlan over to the stone bowl, and he starts chanting. Lachlan mumbles something and runs a finger across his palm where a slash appears. He closes his fist over the bowl and blood trickles in.

Keegan chants some more, and the inside of the bowl flashes again. Lachlan releases a relieved breath and calm washes over me. I don’t know where the feeling comes from, but I know it’s sure as hell not from me.

“Vinna, come, sit down, and we’ll explain,” Keegan tells me.

I shake my head, not willing to go anywhere near these paladin or casters or whatever the fuck they are. The best I can offer is to lean against the door frame.

“I’m related to you?” I question, looking at Lachlan like he’s shit I just discovered on my shoe.

He solemnly nods, clearly not any happier about this revelation than I am.

“You knew from the minute I told you my name in the car, didn’t you?”

“We all suspected, but we couldn’t be sure until we completed the spell,” Keegan explains.

I stare at Lachlan with more scrutiny than I previously had. His hair is dark like mine and styled in a very McDreamy kind of way. His eyes are a darker green, more emerald to my sea foam. We share the same high cheekbones and oval face, his the masculine version of mine. He’s all chiseled jaw and manly edges with the faintest hint of stubble on his face. I choke a little on my sudden thought.

“Are you my father?” I croak out, my breaths becoming rapid and shallow.

“No, I’m your uncle.”

“Where are they…my…uh…my…parents?” I finally manage to get out while trying to keep from free-falling into full-blown hyperventilation.

“We were hoping you could tell us that," Silva confesses.

“I told you, I’ve only ever known Beth.”

I’m losing the battle with my runaway breaths. Evrin hops up and strides toward me. I’m bent over at the waist, but I hold out a short sword at his approach.

“Don’t…come…near…me," I warn him between frantic breaths.

“I just want to help you," he soothes.

“I don’t care, I don’t want any of you to come near me," I huff out, labored and slow.

I look up at Evrin to make sure he listens, and I see the hurt on his face. I move my gaze down to his chest and watch it rise and fall with his calm, normal breathing. I focus on that, trying to match my own inhale and exhale with his.

It takes time, but my panic gradually recedes, and my lungs inflate rhythmically as I get myself back under control.

“If you’re my uncle, are you from my mother’s side or my father’s?” I ask, staring at the ground.

“Your father’s.”

“What’s his name?” I whisper, tracing the pattern of the carpet with my eyes.

“Vaughn Aylin…we’re identical twins," Lachlan laments, his voice breaking at the admission.

This revelation shakes me. This is what my father looks like. I stare at Lachlan, going back over the pieces of myself in his face.

“I don’t know how you came to be, but I know that Vaughn would’ve never willingly walked away from his child," Lachlan tells me.

I think he means for his words to comfort me, but they don’t counteract the holes in the story of my existence. I have my father’s last name. Either he knew about me, or Beth knew more about him than she admitted.

“Do you know who my mother is?” I ask Lachlan, feeling more and more empty as the seconds tick by.

“No.”

“Are you sure Beth was a non?” Silva asks me.

“What the hell is a non?”

“It’s what we call humans or anyone who’s not supernatural,” Silva clarifies.

“Yeah, I’d say about ninety-eight percent sure. So, where is...uh...Vaughn?” There’s no way I can call him my dad or father. It feels too fucking weird.

“None of us knows," Keegan answers. “Another coven of paladin requested help with a nest of lamia they were assigned to purge. The other coven required more protective magic, so the elders assigned Vaughn. No one ever returned from that mission. The entire coven of paladin, and the lamia they were supposed to exterminate vanished.

“It’s been over twenty-three years, and we’ve never stopped looking. We’ve done everything possible to try and find them, but at every turn, we’ve hit nothing but dead-ends and walls.” Keegan looks to Lachlan with sadness in his eyes.

“And now, here you are Vinna, another piece in a seemingly impossible puzzle to solve," Silva adds, and he sounds surprisingly hostile.

I can connect most of the dots now. What happened to the people they love, it makes it easier to understand the frustration and sadness that’s palpable and suffocating in this room. What I don’t get, is the anger and hostility that’s directed at me. Why am I being attacked over something I wasn’t even alive for?

“What is a lamia?”

“They’re basically vampires,” Aydin tells me.

“So the fanged fuckers are lamia,” I mumble to myself.

Five heads snap to me.

“What did you say?” Lachlan asks me.

“I always called them the fanged fuckers. I could never make one of them tell me what they called themselves.”