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“The cure for what?” I question, not following Madame Shante’s cryptic message.
“That is what my father was trying to uncover. He was searching for the three sisters, but he never found them.”
“What does this have to do with me, Julian?”
“In this century, something happened to my brothers and me. We all had a strong pull to travel. It led us to small towns all over the Midwest. We were on a wild goose chase that we couldn’t explain. It started on April 13, 1994.”
The room stills. My heart picks up speed.
“My birthday,” I whisper.
“Something was different for Marcellus. He experienced the need, but within minutes, bone-crushing sadness took over, and he’s never recovered.”
I ruminate on his words, digesting everything he’s said and all that he hasn’t. Three brothers and three... sisters. Three sisters all born on April 13, 1994.
“You think it’s us,” I stammer. “You think we are your familiars.”
“You, Marina.Youaremyfamiliar.”
He leaves no room for argument, but that’s all I want to do. There is no way I’m his familiar. I’m a regular girl, and he’s drunk my blood, and nothing spectacular outside of reading my thoughts has happened.
“Marina. Say something,” he demands.
My back straightens, and I wipe away stray tears. Anger is the prominent emotion coursing through me. I hold on to it.
“You’re trying to tell me that I possess blood that can make you one of the most powerful beings on earth? That I alone can enable you to harness that capability.” I throw my hands in the air. “It’s bullshit, Julian. I’m just a human and you’re sadly mistaken. Your father was sadly mistaken. You said earlier it was a myth. So now you’re saying I’m it? I’m the legend?”
“I didn’t know until recently. I started to suspect after New Orleans, but it was Shante who confirmed it. I couldn’t admit it to you. It puts you in grave danger, Marina.”
“Bullshit. I’m in danger no matter where I am. You’re confusing me and for what? I can’t be your familiar. I’m human. Nothing special.”
“You’re more special than you could ever know. My father looked for you because he knew it too. If he had found you, he would’ve told you all of this.”
He’s wrong about one thing—his father or the Council did find us. Everything from my childhood suddenly makes sense. The monsters that stalked me and Maggie, the ones who caused her death, came because they thought we were something that we’re not. It was all for nothing.
“I’ve been uprooted from my life and for what? My sister died because vampires wouldn’t stop coming. She was trying to protectme.” I jab my finger into my chest, needing to feel pain. Anything other than the crushing sadness.
“It wasn’t for nothing. Youaremy familiar. Maggie was Law’s and Molly was Marcellus’s. He is the way he is because he can’t get over the grief of losing her.”
“No,” I yell. “It can’t be true. Maggie is dead. If she was Law’s familiar, he’d be broken like Marcellus. Yet he seems fine.”
“Law is stronger than Marcellus. He’s learned to deal with his grief in other ways—alcohol, women.”
I grimace, realizing how similar Law is to my parents, hiding from their sadness with some of the same things.
“I knew something was different the moment I drank from you at the auction. It was the way my body hummed from your blood. The need to protect you became so acute it was almost debilitating. But even before that, when I walked into the room, you called to me. It’s what brought me to the stage. I can’t explain it—it was as if I could hear your soul calling to mine. I just didn’t realize it at that time.”
My knees shake and my eyes roll back into my head at his words. I feel it all. Everything he’s described times ten. When he’s near, my body comes alive. I’ve never felt this way, and I knew it was something more from the beginning. It was my lack of experience with love that had me second-guessing myself, but I knew. It was different.
“Marina, I brought you here to keep you safe, but I’m keeping you here out of necessity. The Council is not merciful. If they came into the knowledge that you existed, and our bond was true, you’d endure terrible things. They’d never allow you to live.” He takes a deep breath. “No matter where we could go, they’d hunt us until the end.”
“If the legends are true, I can make you stronger than any of them. You’ve drunk my blood; why hasn’t anything happened?”
“I have to drink directly from you. You’re not ready for that.”
He’s wrong. I am. I’ve been ready.
All of my insecurities and fear for our future dissipate, making me feel stronger.
