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She didn’t want to cry in front of all these people but she was too hurt. She never would have believed her own brother could do something this painful.
“I had to,” Kellam pleaded. “It was crucial.”
“My pain was crucial?” she swallowed heavily before speaking again. “We’re partners. We’ve always been partners and you chose to leave me behind…”
She looked down and bit her lower lip. She wanted to run far away from this place, but she needed more answers. Also, no matter how much he had hurt her, she couldn’t leave him behind, not when he needed her help. Dante was still a threat, a real threat and it would take both of them to bring him down.
“I didn’t leave you behind,” he sighed, sounding heartbroken. “I tried to keep you safe. If you knew where I was, you wouldn’t act like this and they’d see through any pretense you were putting on. These guys don’t play around, Mina.”
She jumped at the mention of her name. She looked around frantically, waiting for any sign of a possible attack. She was someone else to them, a friend, a fellow student, not a vampire slayer, but the mention of her name revealed her identity and she knew that could mean trouble.
“They know, Mina,” Kellam repeated her name. “They’ve known all along.”
She looked around. Thorne’s gaze was aimed at her. Raphael watched her intensely. Renwick’s eyes hadn’t left her from the moment she’d stepped in. Hendrik was still behind her and she realized this only now. She was the main star, and they were her audience. She should be feeling special, but instead, all she felt was deeply hurt.
“Hendrik is my main man,” Kellam looked up, somewhere above Mina’s head and she figured, he must have been looking at Hendrik.
She didn’t turn around. Her gaze was focused on Kellam, on getting to the bottom of this, whatever it was. She still didn’t understand why all this was necessary, why she couldn’t have been in on it, from the very start.
“It was his job to keep you safe, in case Dante found out anything.”
“Can you start from the beginning, please?” Mina was starting to get a headache. “Why? And what happened at your place? How did you end up here?”
Kellam smiled gently. He understood the confusion. He also understood why his sister was feeling this way. She was hurt, deeply hurt, and it was because of him. She might need some time to get over this but, unfortunately, that was the only thing they didn’t have nearly enough of. He had to tell her everything quickly and then move on. Time was of the essence.
“I found out that Dante was looking for our book, he just didn’t know we had it. In his pursuit of the book, he killed many of our own,” he started explaining, as quickly and as succinctly as he could, trying not to waste time.
“Rune and Vasilisa,” Mina interjected.
“Yes, and not only them,” Kellam lowered his head, as if to give honor to those who were no longer with them. “Many have fallen, because they wouldn’t reveal to Dante that we were the keepers of the book. I knew it was just a matter of time before he realized this and came knocking on our door. So, I knew I had to do something. I trashed my place, so you’d think someone attacked me. I took the book with me, so you’d also think that whoever attacked me, now had the book. Because, if you thought that, then Dante would think that as well. It would leave him confused, wondering who had attacked us. It bought us some time. Then, I arrived here and the Bunker gang has been keeping me safe ever since.”
“But…” Mina wanted to say something, but being outnumbered, she was reluctant to say it out loud.
“We’re slayers and they’re vampires?” Kellam asked exactly what was on her mind.
This was the secret she’d been trying to keep from everyone, the secret she thought might destroy everything she’d worked so hard for, while she was here. The thought never left her mind, how she would explain it to the guys. Now, it turned out, they all knew that. They all knew it and they all kept it from her.
“Well… yes…” she was still unsure how that would sound, spoken in this place.
“Of course they know,” Kellam smiled.
“But, how are we on the same side?” Mina wondered.
This was unheard of: vampires and slayers working side by side. At least, she hadn’t heard of that in a long, long time.
“Dante is an egomaniac,” Thorne interrupted, but neither Mina nor Kellam seemed to mind, “all he cares about is himself. He wants the book so that he can gain power beyond anything we can imagine, but it’s not to make the world a better place for vampires. He just wants to rule someone or something. He has no morals, no scruples. We don’t want someone like that to guide us.”
“We want the Overseer back,” Renwick added, saying the name which many knew of but which was still hidden in a veil of mystery.
“But, isn’t he dead?” Mi
na wondered.
She’d only heard stories about the famous Overseer, nameless and faceless to many, about the old days when humans and vampires lived side by side, without any wars or arguments. They lived in harmony simply because the Overseer brought out the best of both worlds. What Dante did was the opposite: he brought out the worst of both worlds and kept making it worse.
“He was laid to rest in the old church on the top of this mountain,” Kellam told her. “When they found his body, they noticed that his heart was missing. If we manage to find his heart, we can bring him back. We can bring back the good old days.”
“That’s what we are fighting for,” Thorne smiled.
