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With a grunt, I sat on the small porch steps and looked at the new red rosebush right in the yard’s center. After Raika’s cremation, Minsi was hysterical. To try to calm her down, Thea told Aurora to bring Minsi a present. The seven-year-old half-witch, half-vampire had brought a green stem, but nothing more. Holding hands, the two of them had come to the backyard, and Aurora had magicked the stem to come “alive.” It floated between them, planted itself, grew larger and wider, and eight bright red roses blossomed in a few minutes.
“For Raika,” Aurora said in her mature voice.
Minsi watched over the rosebush like a hawk.
And I did too.
The rosebush had nothing to do with Raika, besides the fact that it had been a gift to comfort Minsi after Raika’s death. And yet, I often came back here and stared at the rosebush.
Because it comforted me.
I rubbed at my chest as the constant pain there increased.
All I wanted to do was lie down and think about Raika. Remember her. Remember her pretty face, her smile, the gleam in her blue eyes when she was happy. Her soft lips, her arduous kisses, her delicious scent, and her hot body, especially when it was pressed to mine.
I missed her. I missed her more than I missed the air when I stopped breathing.
My eyes stung and I blinked fast.
I didn’t want to cry anymore. I wanted to honor Raika, her love, and her life, by doing the best I could for the pack she had worked so hard for. Somehow, I would give the pack a better life. Somehow, I would break the curse and stop frightening everyone each time the full moon came. Somehow, I would avenge Raika.
I had no idea how, or when, but one day, even if it was in a hundred years, I would find a way to kill Paimon.
Until then, I had duties to attend.
I exhaled as I rose from the porch step, got ready, and left for the building in the town center, which now housed our administrative sector: my office and the council meeting room.
When I stepped inside the large, rectangular conference room, the few remaining council members were already there, seated in chairs forming a circle: Hamill, Rue, and Killian, who was still an honorary member.
Serge had been a member, but he had left us, betrayed us, and now I had no idea where he was or what he was doing. And that was good, because that one also deserved to be killed in the most painful way.
“Morning,” I said, approaching them. I looked at Hamill. “Feeling better?”
“Yes,” he answered.
Hamill had been our first poison victim a little over a week ago. He had fallen ill, and looked as good as dead with pale skin, sunken eyes, and black fingers. Now, despite his age, he looked healthy.
“Good.” Nodding, I sat on one of the chairs. “So, what’s the latest?”
Rue started. She told me about how the kids were having fun with their new school—which often included field trips to DuMoir Castle or the Silver Moon Academy. A couple of witches helped Vianna and her keep the kids and teenagers entertained until we decided what to do. Would we stay here? Would I find us someplace else? But where? And how? Just go around and claim some land for us? Land had owners, and if we set up camp anywhere, we would be exposed, open to attacks, and the moon knew we'd had too many of those.
Hamill was next. He told me about the rest of the pack. Most wolves were still wary of everything that had happened in the last ten days. Hell, in the last year. They weren’t happy about losing the crystals, fleeing our town, hiding with the vampires, about having an alpha who was cursed to become an uncontrollable Shadow Wolf during the full moon, and even though they hadn’t approved of Raika being my mate and the fact that she was half-demon, they missed her. They wished she was here, because, according to Hamill, she had soothed them and stayed in control of everything before. They wanted that from her again.
By the moon, didn’t I want that too?
But I couldn’t bring back the dead.
I pressed a hand to my chest, where the pain forcefully reminded me of that each second of each day.
Then it was Killian’s turn. Usually, he and Dom took turns coming to the daily meetings—while one was here, the other was training with the rest of the wolves.
“The wolves haven’t been talking much during training,” Killian said. “At least, not while I’m there. Most didn’t seem open to Lavinia and me. Now it's worse.”
I let out a long sigh.
There was no easy fix for any of this. What I had to do was come up with ideas, give them purpose; that way they would feel a part of a community again, their time would be well spent, and maybe they would start seeing the vampires—and the witches—in a new light.
Because as much as I liked to think we wouldn’t stay there forever, the truth was, I didn’t know if leaving the place was feasible. For now and for the unforeseeable future, we were living alongside vampires and witches, and the sooner everyone got along, the better.
