Celia

The guard was looking at me strange. Idris had said the bites had healed, but my body chemistry would be different now that he fed from me. And the vampires would smell it. I tried hunching my shoulders, doing my best to look scared and beaten. I’d never been good at acting and was always Crowd Member #4 in school plays, but this time, my life depended on it.

It actually wasn’t that hard. The euphoria of being with Idris was wearing off, and to be honest, even though he held me in his arms moments ago, it all felt like a dream.

Instead of taking me back to Keno’s room, the guard led me to Amelia. “Keno is busy,” he said gruffly, still giving me a suspicious look. “He said you can meet your sister and he’ll come get you when he’s finished with his business.”

I perked up at that. I got to meet Amelia? Talk to her? All of a sudden, I didn’t feel ready. I was dirty and sore and out of my mind with fear. Now I had to talk to my teenage sister? When I looked in the window, she wasn’t sitting on her bed reading, or mouthing off to whomever she thought was on the other side of the glass. Instead she sat in a huddled ball, knees tucked to her chest, head turned so I could see the tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes.

My heart seized just as the guard said, “Keno told her that her father died.” Then he opened up the door, shoved me in, and latched it behind me.

Amelia’s head jerked up as I came to a stop just inside the door. She stared at me, and I stared at her. I was at a loss for words. Too much had happened over the past several days and this? This was going to be what broke me—looking into my sister’s eyes and having to tell her everything was going to be okay when I had no idea if it would be. If Idris’s plan failed, we were both fucked.

I had to be careful with my words. I had no idea if the guard was outside listening to what we had to say. Knowing Keno, he wasn’t busy at all. He threw me in here to observe what I told my sister. So I had to remain calm, and not let her know that Idris and I had a plan to try to break us out of here. A plan that could fail miserably as there were too many variables. But I didn’t want to alarm her, and I didn’t want to alert any guards.

Unsure what to do, I raised a hand in a wave. “Hi.”

She sniffed, the little crinkle of her nose so familiar that my heart skipped a beat. She unfolded and dropped her legs to the floor on the side of her bed while she gripped the end of the mattress. “Hi.”

“I’m—”

“My sister. Celia,” she said on a whisper, her little eyes wide in her red-splotched face. “Keno told me.”

I nodded slowly. “And you’re Amelia. What else did Keno tell you?”

“I hate him,” she said swiftly, and I squeezed my lips shut. “He’ll make a terrible king.” She sniffed. “Dad was a good one.”

Dad. Fuck, this was so goddamn hard. Because she’d had a dad and I hadn’t, I was jealous of a human teenager imprisoned in a room in a vampire compound. I was sick. I gestured to the space beside her on the bed. “Can I?”

She wiped the back of her hand across her nose. “Yeah, of course.”

I walked over and sat down beside her. We both stared at the mirror. At our faces that looked so similar but with over a decade of years’ difference. “How long have you been in this room?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine, based on how much she liked her father, that he kept her in here.

“Couple of days,” she said. “Dad said he had to leave for a while. The day after he left, Keno busted into the house where I lived, took me, and locked me in here.”

“Where is here?”

“It’s the Valarian bunker. The emergency shelter.”

I blinked. “So you know—”

“Yeah, I know what I am.” She tilted her head and looked at me. “Don’t you?”

“I only found out a couple of days ago. I grew up in the city—Mission City. Do you know where that is?”

She nodded. “I’ve never been there, but my father told me it was a dirty, bad place.”

He wasn’t really wrong. “Well, that’s where I lived all my life. I didn’t know I had vampire blood until recently.”

She looked concerned. “Were you okay in that place? Mission City.” Her little hand rested on my thigh.

Tears threatened. “Yes, honey, I was fine. I was a nurse in the hospital. I took care of sick people. Kids like you.” I couldn’t resist touching her hair, the thick of it slipping through my fingers as I brushed it off her shoulder.

“Oh,” Amelia said. “That’s really cool. I want to be a teacher. Dad hired tutors for me, and I really liked them. I want to do that. You can heal the kids and I can teach them!”

Oh, bless her heart. Why couldn’t she have been a brat? After everything I’d been told about the Valarians, I was convinced my father wasn’t all bad. He might not have been all good, but he wasn’t all bad, either, not if he raised a daughter like Amelia. Vampires seemed to be just as complex in their humanity as humans.

“That’s wonderful,” I said. “So tell me. Tell me how you grew up.”

She launched into telling me about her childhood with bright eyes. She was raised in a small cottage outside Mission. It was all so Disney princess-y. She had a house mother who took care of her, and Aleksandr Valarian would visit as often as he could. She sometimes played with other dhampir Valarian children, and she visited the main Valarian compound occasionally, but mostly she was kept isolated. Tutors came into her home, and she even took piano lessons. She said she didn’t know her mother, and I assumed she had a different mother than I did.

“Father had been saying in the past month or so that changes were coming,” she said.

“What kind of changes?”

“He didn’t say.” She twisted her fingers in her lap, and her shoulders hitched. “And now he’s dead, and Keno locked me in this room, and I don’t know what’s going to happen. I want my old life back.”

I wanted to give that to her more than anything. But no matter the outcome of Idris’s plan, her old life was exactly that—in the past. I couldn’t return her to her idyll cottage life with the squirrels she fed and deer she befriended.

I also couldn’t leave her here to a horrible fate. Keno would crush her innocence without a second thought. How had our father not noticed Keno’s mutinous leanings?

I reached out and slipped my fingers in hers. She stilled, then slanted her eyes up at me. I smiled at her, and she smiled back, a slow, tentative one. “Look, I’m your big sister now, and while I can’t give you your old life back, I’ll do everything I can to make life good for you now. Do you trust me?”

She didn’t answer right away. She studied my face for a beat before she nodded. “Yeah, I trust you.” She bit her lip. “Can you tell me about you?”

Yeah, I could do that. So I spent the next forty-five minutes sitting cross-legged on the bed with Amelia, telling her about my life in Mission. I might have embellished a bit to make my life sound more exciting than it was, but by the look on Amelia’s face, I hadn’t needed to. She asked a dozen questions about boys, and I felt ill equipped to answer seeing as though I’d just lost my virginity at twenty-five to a chained-up vampire.

As much as I wanted to spend time with Amelia, I had to talk to Keno. Without feeding him the information I was supposed to, our plan to break out of here wasn’t going to work.

I was also hungry as hell. They hadn’t fed me since I’d been here. What was that about? Amelia’s stomach rumbled while she was speaking, and she stopped midsentence then giggled. “Guess I’m hungry. Are you hungry?”

Famished. I nodded.

She hopped off of the bed and walked over to the glass. There was a little button on the side and she pressed it rapidly, then yelled, “Do you plan to feed us?”

I appreciated her sass.

As if they were just waiting for us to complain, the door opened, and the guard from before strode in carrying two bags. He tossed them on the bed. “Sandwiches. Eat. When you’re finished”—he pointed at me—“Keno needs to see you.”

Well, crap. All of a sudden my appetite fled.

“Thanks, Pulo!” Amelia said, skipping over to the bed. He shut the door and she whispered to me. “I don’t really like him. I just like being really sugary-sweet to him because he hates it.”

“No whispering!” Pulo yelled at us over the intercom.

I flinched just as Amelia turned to the window. “Sure thing, sweetie. Sorry!” Then she turned to me with a wicked grin.

And just like that, I fell in love with my sister.

The sandwiches were peanut butter and jelly. A mealy apple was in there as well as a bag of pretzels. I’d had worse lunches on school field trips, so I didn’t complain, but I could tell Amelia was used to better food. She picked at her food and only ate half her sandwich. As much as I had to force the food down my throat, I still did it. I wasn’t stupid and I knew I was going to need my energy coming up.

“Honey,” I said as Amelia pushed away her half-eaten sandwich, “I know it’s not gourmet, but I really would like if you ate the whole thing. You need the protein and brain fuel, okay?”

I met her gaze steadily, trying to communicate something that she wouldn’t be able to understand. She had no idea what Keno had in mind, or that I planned to bust her out of here. To her, this was a setback in her pretty cushy life. Still, she was smart. She understood what I was saying to her, and with a tight nod, she picked up her sandwich, and dutifully finished it.

When I threw my empty bag and apple core in the trash, Pulo wasted no time. He opened the door and stood just inside it. “Keno would like to speak to you now.”

I nodded, my heart thudding in my throat, my steps heavy. I looked back at Amelia, who was watching me with eyes well beyond her years. Maybe she wasn’t so naive as to what was going on. She held up her hand, fingers crossed, and I crossed mine back to her. She smiled, and I carried that smile with me in my heart the whole way to Keno’s room.

Idris

I wasn’t sure when this all got so fucked up. Was I doomed as soon as I saw Celia? As soon as I caught a glimpse of her heart, her unwavering devotion to healing people and visiting sick children?

She was on my side. She’d always been on my side. She might have been born with Valarian blood, but she wasn’t a Valarian. I thought I cared about humans, that I’d been putting them first, but what I did paled in comparison to Celia’s selflessness. When I’d been hell-bent on revenge, she’d made it through my thick skull—in a way my brother couldn’t—that I needed to focus on the greater good.

And now, as the door to my cell opened, I knew this was my shot. My only fucking chance to make this right, to get out of here with Celia and her sister and prostrate myself at my brother’s feet. I’d serve him the way he deserved, the way I hadn’t up until this point.

Two guards walked inside my cell, and then the big bald head of Keno caught the small sliver of light. I held back a smile. This was what I’d wanted, to face the vampire who’d robbed me of my revenge and struck the woman I loved.

I sat on my pallet, forcing myself to appear weak, tired, near death. Keno wouldn’t be fooled for long, but he was in front of me now. That was all I needed.

Three on one. The odds weren’t in my favor on a regular day. But I was fueled with Celia’s blood, and it thrummed through my body like a live wire. I’d never felt this strong, but then I’d never fed from a dhampir before. I could barely contain myself sitting here, knowing Celia had left my cell and I hadn’t been able to protect her. Where was she now? And so help him if he had touched her…

The two guards flanked the door as Keno stepped in front of me. His gaze tracked over me, and I relaxed all my muscles, slumping my head between my shoulders. I didn’t meet his gaze, playing the part of cowed prisoner.

“Celia is a weakness for you, yes?” Keno sneered.

I kept my focus on his scuffed and dusty boots. And I remained silent. She was a weakness. And I wanted him to know that—for once, my weakness for her would be my advantage. I needed him to believe I told her the truth.

“You see a simple, pretty, delicate human. You could have been smarter if you’d been more ruthless. If you’d been willing to be a little harsher to the girl. Instead you were weak. I have a hold over Celia. She will do anything to save her sister, and so she sold you out to save her own kin.”

I closed my eyes so he wouldn’t see the victory shining out of them.

“I’ve been wanting to draw your brother from his fortified walls. You played right into my hands, and so did he.” He stepped closer. “I will clip his wings, and slit his throat while you watch. Then I’ll breed Celia in front of your eyes. And then I’ll burn you limb, by limb, by limb. Just because I can.”

He’d do it. I could hear the conviction and hatred in his voice. I swallowed, and bided my time. Soon. So soon, I just needed him closer….

With a painfully tight grip on my hair, he wrenched my head back, surely to force me to look at him. I kept my eyes squeezed shut as his words flew spittle into my face. “I can’t wait to hear you scream, just like Celia did when I fucked her ten minutes ago. Right after she betrayed you.”

My eyes flew open, and Keno registered shock at the sight of me—the pure power shining from within. Before he could protect himself, I tore the weakened chain from the wall with a roar. The links lashed out, wrapping around the two guards. I stood and with a swift kick to Keno’s midsection, sent him sprawling back into the guards. I caught the other end of the chain and tightened it around the three vampires.

I grabbed both ends with one hand and swung, sending the three of them sailing into the back corner of the cell. I didn’t have time to deal with them. More guards would be coming, and once the element of surprise was over, the three of them would overpower me. Already Keno was ripping the chain off his body, red eyes promising to send me straight to hell.

I sprinted for the door, sliding out into the hallway and slamming it shut behind me just as a body crashed into the other side. I slid the bolt across it as fists pounded on the other side. It wouldn’t hold them for long—even now the hinges were rattling. I needed to get Celia and get the fuck out of here. Keno would be dealt with later. He didn’t have his soldiers, only a handful of guards.

I took off down the hallway and bounded up a flight of stairs at the end. I could sense Celia, and I ran to her as if she’d left breadcrumbs behind. The connection we’d forged in that cell was the ticket to getting us out of here. I wasn’t sure if Keno was right, if he’d actually touched her. I was shaking with rage, wondering what condition I’d find her in. I had to remain calm, though. My emotions had been what got us into this mess. No matter what Celia’s condition was like, I had to remain focused on the mission and get us out of here, not return to the cell and pound Keno with my fists.

I turned the corner of a hallway, knowing Celia was close. A guard stood outside a room with a large sheet of glass. He saw me coming, and confusion passed over his face before he withdrew a weapon. I heard pounding, but ignored it, because I knew in that room was Celia. I could feel her.

I tackled the guard, only vaguely feeling the hot slice of the knife on my hip. We fell to the ground on a thud, and I wrestled him for the knife. He got a punch into my ribs, but I slammed his wrist down on the ground until the bones cracked and he dropped the knife with a cry. I grabbed it and slit his throat. I stood, heaving with exertion, while the blood still poured from his wound, and his eyes still glared at me as the life left them.

I turned to see two sets of eyes peering at me through the glass. Celia. And the younger one who looked so much like her must be her sister. I pressed a series of buttons on the side of the door until a lock clicked. The door flew open and then two sets of half-human bodies slammed into me.

“Idris!” Celia cried.

My hands roamed her body, cataloging her injuries. “Are you okay? Did Keno touch you?”

She shook her head at me as tears leaked from her eyes. She grabbed her sister’s hand. “No. I told him what you said, and he left immediately. He’d promised when he came back, though…” She shuddered. “If you’d failed, I don’t even want to know what he would have done to me.”

“Well, we aren’t in the clear yet,” I said, thankful Keno had been lying. He’d wanted to hurt me, get a rise out of me. And he had, but I’d been planning on that escape anyway. He’d only made me angrier—and stronger.

“I know how to get out of here,” Amelia said. “We’re in Mission Woods.”

Celia whipped her head to me. “What if the sun is up? How will we escape?”

“You’ll still escape,” I said. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Idris!” she snapped.

“We’re not arguing about that right now, not when we don’t even know what time it is, all right?” I nodded to Amelia. “Introductions can wait until we’re safe. Show us out.”

After about ten seconds, I was done with Amelia leading the way. Their human speed wasn’t enough for me, not when I was sure more guards that Keno still had on the compound would be after us. I picked both of them up under my arms and told Amelia to tell me where to turn and which stairs to take.

The entire bunker was underground, and I ran up so many flights and went down so many tunnels, that I was dizzy. Finally, we reached a heavy metal door, which was thankfully guard-free. I pushed it open and stumbled out into moonlight.

Beautiful, blessed moonlight.

I set the girls down and fell to my knees, heaving the fresh air, letting it fill my lungs. I knew we didn’t have time to waste, but I took five seconds to relish in the success of our escape.

Well, it was successful so far. But a large boom from below us that shook the earth under our feet let me know that Keno was coming with manpower and firepower.

Celia and her sister were dirty, shaken, and scared, but we had to keep moving. It took me a minute to get my bearings, and after studying where the moon was in the sky, I oriented myself on our location in Mission Woods. It would be a trek to get to the Gregorie compound, and I wished that Athan was actually coming. Instead that’d only been a bluff to send the Valarian soldiers far from the bunker.

If Keno believed Celia, then the soldiers were heading in the wrong direction, believing Athan would be approaching the bunker from the south side instead of the east. If we made a beeline for the Gregorie compound, we’d avoid them.

“I’m going to carry you two again. Not the whole way, but we need to get as much distance as we can quickly. Okay?”

Celia nodded, and before my eyes, she took deep breaths, shoring up her strength. “How do you want us?”

“You on my back. Amelia under my arm. I’ll go as long as I can.”

Celia nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead, inhaling her sweet scent. She clung to me for a brief moment. “You’re so brave, little one.”

“I’m trying, Idris. I’m trying so hard.”

“Just a little longer.” I pressed her to me and felt Amelia’s eyes on us.

Celia looked into my eyes. “Just promise me, no matter what, you keep Amelia safe.”

“Cel—”

“Promise me.”

I swallowed, even though I had a feeling of dread that this promise would come back around to haunt me. “I promise.”

With that, Celia climbed onto my back. “Then let’s go.”

I picked Amelia up, and with Celia’s arms around my shoulders, I sprinted into the deep woods.