Page 19 of Vervain

“And nothing?”

“Like I am searching for a fable.”

We enter the room ahead. Warm light blossoms orange against the limestone, and a shimmer of light glints across the long glass table in the middle of the room. In the centre, there’s a vase filled with sweet, cool-scented red spider lilies.

Lucifer is seated in the chair furthest from us, leaning back. Intense red eyes snap towards us, tracking Serun’s every move as he makes his way towards the bar on the right.

Neon red strips of light line the shelves of bottles on the back wall, and while Serun heads behind the bar, I wait by a stool. My hands grip the leather as I watch Lucifer from the corner of my eye.

Lucifer leans forward, resting his arms on the table as malice radiates from those pearly eyes while he death-stares me. What could I possibly have done to provoke so much loathing?

“Drink?” Serun tilts his head when I lift a brow at him. “While we wait for my fashionably late younger brother.”

My ears pull back and down. “These many siblings of yours…Are they your blood family?”

“No.” He slides one bottle of wine away from the others. “The law doesn’t allow the turning of family members. Once bitten, you accept that you are no longer human. You must give up the life you once lived.” He turns to face me, and his shadows spool across the bar. “You, though, are the exception. Balanced between life and death.”

Lucifer huffs insolently from the dining table.

Serun gestures to the bottle again, but I shake my head. “I’m fine.” I push off from the bar and make my way over to the dining table, sitting as far from Lucifer as possible. I smooth the crinkles on my gown, keeping my back straight. I doubt I will ever get comfortable being around nightwalkers.

“Did you sleep well?” Serun sips his wine, the thin, red liquid sliding into his mouth. Catching me staring, his red eyes settle on me, and he sets the glass back on the bar. A drop of liquid runs from the corner of his mouth before he wipes it away with the back of his hand. “It’s not blood this time, kamai. I’ve learned my lesson.”

My fingers tighten on my knees, and I stiffen as though a pin was poked into my back. “You can drink more than blood?”

“Not really.” His finger circles the top of the glass, spinning soft music. “Drinking or eating anything other than blood makes a nightwalker famished. Newborns often mistakenly believe they can substitute food and drink for blood, which leads them to eat until they become starved and frenzied.”

“Then why are you drinking the wine?”

Lucifer chuckles darkly. “Tell her your smitten-like-a-kitten ways, brother.”

Serun walks out from behind the bar and leans back against the mahogany wood. Broad muscles tense, he cocks his head to the side, eyes fixated on me. Red neon lighting burns half of his face, while shadows drench the rest. “I want to make you more comfortable. I’ve read that doing human things can make one less tense,” he says in a low voice, almost as if awkwardly reluctant to admit it.

Strange.

A smile almost reaches my face, but it sours, and I glare down at my hands under the table. “I’d quite like to gut you to see if it destroys the nightwalker side of me.”

Lucifer leans back comfortably in his chair. “You’re very forward. Very…not human-like.” He blurts a chilling laugh. “Very vegodian, actually. Saying it like it is—like it is natural.”

My brow twitches, and my ear flicks. “And being a nightwalker is natural?”

Lucifer’s jaw locks, and with a huffed breath, he looks away.

With a roll of my eyes, I settle back on Serun, who is smirking at me. “You can’t remember your humanity, so you have to read about it in a book?”

Serun dips his head. “Pieces come and go, but most are behind walls I cannot seem to overcome on my own.”

“Like the memory I saw in Hellsgate?”

“Hmm?” Lucifer looks at Serun quizzically.

Serun taps his finger on his arm. Without answering, he looks away from me, a curve of a smile reaching his face. “Evening, brother and Avianna.”

The hair on the back of my neck turns icy, and I look towards movement at the doorway. When another hit of ice touches my neck, near my pointed ear, I quickly stand and stumble away. Shadows swoop in front of me, and Serun blocks the path between me and the approaching nightwalkers.

Reyes has his golden hair slicked back and tucked behind pointed ears, the lengths of his waves resting on his shoulders. He wears a gold and white suit, and everything about him comes across as showy.

He sparkles.