THREE
After our joyful reunion, Hayden sat me down and told me that the Warrens had plans to attack the farm soon. “And they intend to kill all of us.”
My first thought was Chrissy, who was sleeping in the nursery, and a sense of dread immediately twisted my stomach into knots.
Hayden was quick to continue, though, telling me that he would never let the Warrens do what they wanted to do. “I’ll keep you, Chrissy, and everyone here on the farm safe, Sydney. I promise you that.”
In the dim light from a single glowing lamp in the living room, his beautiful blue eyes radiated sincerity and confidence. However, knowing what the Warrens were capable of, and knowing that their numbers had swelled in recent months, I just couldn’t muster the same level of confidence. Simply put, I was afraid. I was afraid in a way that I’d never been until I’d become a mother.
I was more afraid than I’d even been when the Warrens had attempted to kill me by running my car off the road about a year earlier. Even the mere thought of someone harming my precious baby was enough to make my face flush hot and then cold, while fear seemed to course through my veins like some living thing, becoming stronger with every beat of my heart.
Sitting beside me on the couch, Hayden seemed to sense my anxiety, and he took both my hands in his while also turning his body toward mine to look at me. “Hey. Believe me, Syd. I won’t let the Warrens, or Carla, hurt you or Chrissy, or anyone else here on the farm. I promise you.”
With my mouth a little dry, I forced myself to nod. “I know. I believe you.”
I wanted to, anyway. I at least mostly believed Hayden, and trusted him too. It was just that I didn’t trust the Warrens. I didn’t trust them to not use their strength and power to do something absolutely heinous, like harm my child. And no matter how much Hayden assured me that this wouldn’t happen, the fact remained that he was fallible, even though he was an exceptionally strong vampire.
This was where my fear came from. It came from me knowing that even superhuman creatures, like vampires, could make mistakes or be overpowered. This knowing made me wish that I were a superhuman creature, just so that I could help protect Chrissy in some way. As it was, with me being a regular human, I knew there was next to nothing I could do, which made me feel powerless, and only added to my fear. So far, my reunion with Hayden wasn’t turning out to be the evening of pure bliss I’d expected.
Soon, he went on to tell me that Carla was currently with the Warrens just a short distance east of Sweetwater.
“So, she is definitely in league with them, then?”
Hayden said “Yes, without a doubt. They’ve had yet another shakeup in leadership recently, and their new leader, Axel Warren, has accepted Carla with open arms as some sort of co-leader, at least for the time being, while they both share a common goal of annihilating all of us Watchers here at the farm.”
I told Hayden that I understood why the Warrens wanted to wipe us out, but still didn’t know what Carla’s motive was. “Have you been able to find out?”
“Basically, unbeknownst to me, I killed her fiancé, Clark, who was a Warren cousin, a few years ago. Carla was a mortal woman then, and they were trying to have a baby. So, by killing Clark, I killed all chances of Carla getting what she wanted and having a happy future.”
“So, that whole story she told me about being pregnant with a vampire named Conner, and then losing the baby after finding out he was cheating on her…that was all a total lie?”
“Yes,” said Hayden. “It seems like that was all just a tall tale she told you to try to gain your sympathy and trust. She was never actually pregnant, and ‘Conner’ never existed. Some parts of the story she told you were true, though, at least in a way.”
“What parts?”
“Well, she wasn’t lying when she claimed that a personal tragedy caused her to ask vampire elders to turn her into a vampire, too, so that she could be strong enough to take revenge against who she felt wronged her. She also wasn’t lying when she said that she was turned, and then at least tried to get revenge.
Her saying that she was living among some random, non-Warren vampire coven at this time was definitely a lie, however. She was already living among the Anarchist Warrens, although she wasn’t on our radar at all yet because she was still human and therefore never joined in fights, which ended up working to her advantage.”
“Because she was then able to get the Warren elders to turn her, and then she infiltrated our community here on the farm with no problems?”
“Right. I never had any idea about her true past, and neither did anyone else. We all simply bought her story, which was a story similar to the one she told you. She said she’d come from some non-hostile coven a few hundred miles away, one so small that I’d never even heard of it, but things hadn’t worked out, there had been a heartbreak, so she wanted to join a different group in a different state. At the time, I had no reason to doubt her.
That being said, though, I still did, but just a bit, and just in the beginning. After a few months, she’d worked her way into the fabric of the community, and I began to trust her, which I’m sure was exactly what she was hoping for. I’m sure she was also hoping I’d be receptive when she made it clear that she wanted a relationship with me, but as you know, that wasn’t the case. I know a lot of people think she’s quite the looker, but I just wasn’t attracted to her.”
“And thank God for that. If she’d been able to worm her way into your heart, I’m sure she would have used that closeness to try to kill you.”
“Exactly. She would have tried, I’m sure, although there was never any chance of an attempt being successful. Simply put, Carla’s just too weak of a vampire to ever take me down in any kind of a physical battle.”
I pointed out that she’d had an enchanted, poisonous dagger, though, and Hayden said that was true.
“She might have been able to get me with that, but I foiled her revenge plan when I rejected her. And that’s when I think she realized that she’d have to try a different tack, using someone else to do her dirty work. For a while, knowing that everyone here at the farm is loyal to me, I bet she didn’t have a clue what she would do. But then, you came…and I think she figured that she’d use your insecurities about me being gone to get you to try to kill me, knowing that you could probably get close enough to me to do it, and that my guard would be down because I trusted you.”
Recalling how I’d actually planned to kill Hayden, my face flushed with a bit of hot shame, and I said that I couldn’t believe I’d allowed Carla to get inside my mind how she had.
Giving my hands a squeeze, Hayden said none of that mattered anymore. “That’s all in the past. Now all we have to deal with is the future.”
“Which includes an attack on the farm.”
“That’s true, but like I said, the Warrens can attack us whenever they want and with however many fighters they want, but I’m still not going to let anything happen to you and Chrissy, or anyone else here on the farm. With this advance notice that my men and I got from our spying activities, we’ll be ready for a Warren attack now. We’ll be ready to annihilate them.”
“There’s so many of them, though…and if they’re still so determined to kill Chrissy because of what a ‘super vampire’ or whatever she might grow up to be—”
“Try not to even think about that, Syd. It’ll just make you upset.”
I was already plenty upset, specifically because Hayden hadn’t denied that the Warrens still specifically wanted to kill Chrissy, and I told him this. Again, he didn’t deny it, and instead, he tried to change the subject, saying something about how he didn’t want me to worry, because everything would all be over soon. I persisted, though, demanding that he tell me if the Warrens still had specific plans to kill Chrissy, and he sighed, pretty much telling me all I needed to know right then.
“Look. The answer is yes. But—”
“So, right now, a murderous vampire coven has concrete plans to kill our baby daughter, and soon. How are we still sitting on this couch like that’s not the most horrifying thing ever, Hayden?”
Again, he sighed. “We’re still sitting on this couch because I’ll always keep you and Chrissy safe, no matter what, so it doesn’t even matter what the Warrens plan to do to you and Chrissy.”
“Oh, so they specifically plan to kill both of us?”
Hayden winced, as if he hadn’t been wanting to confirm this part. “Yes. They don’t want there to be any chance of you ever having another baby, for the same reason that they don’t want Chrissy to live. With your mom’s supernatural powers in your bloodline, they fear that any child of yours could be powerful enough to wipe them all out if turned into a vampire in adulthood.”
“So, they’re never going to stop coming for me and Chrissy, are they? This will never be over. And Carla is probably never going to stop trying to kill you, either. So, basically, our whole family is doomed. Basically—”
“Sydney, please listen to me. I’m going to keep us all safe, and this will all be over someday, and someday soon. Don’t you believe me?”
Wrenching my hands free from his grasp, I answered honestly. “Not as much belief as I need to have in order to stay here. I’m leaving, Hayden…and I’m taking Chrissy with me.”