AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Embry laughs and gives me a wink. “Absolutely, filters are for people who give two fucks what other people think!”
Lucianna rolls her eyes.
Raven flips a piece of her pixie styled hair behind an ear. “Don’t look at me. We had to do something to fill the time when he swept in here and took you away. Did you think we wouldn’t notice as they whisked you out the back door and disappeared into the night?” She doesn’t even give me time to respond. “Not likely. Besides, the other guys were talking work. Boring!”
Embry turns to her. “Speak for yourself, witchy girl. I still say we need to go help them kick some ass, not be left here like women who can’t contribute to anything important. It should be a team effort, and we are the other half of the team, no?”
Lucianna puts a hand on Embry’s shoulders. “You know they think highly of you. The assignment to stay with us wasn’t personal. We need you here, Embry.”
Embry doesn’t seem likely to be consoled one little bit. “It just irks my ass. I’m part of the special units team now. Overmaster Descallia has me sitting here babysitting your asses. It’s not like it hasn’t been fun, ladies, but it’s hard enough being the only female on that team. I had to prove that I was capable, that I was strong enough and that I can do what needs to be done as an equal to the other males. Then the minute someone needs to be taken care of like this, I get the job. I know you think the world rises and falls with the man, but it sucks balls and not in a good way.”
Lucianna turns to her friend. “I don’t think it’s so much that you’re a female, Embry. They all know how important you are to their team. You don’t need to prove that anymore. Everyone knows you’re as skilled and qualified as the others, but in this case, I agree with the decision to leave you here with us.”
Embry starts to say something, but Lucianna holds up her hand. “Let me say this. You’re a close friend of mine, you’re comfortable here at our home, and both Raven and Willow are far more comfortable with you than they would be a stranger like Clay and Terrence. It’s just a matter of the right fit, not that you’re the only female.” Embry runs the tip of her shorty boot across the marble floor, making a semi-circle motion in front of her. “Fine.”
Lucianna takes Embry’s arm. “Seriously, if it had been males that Salvatore were trying to safeguard, the logical choice would have been to have a male or two stay behind. No disrespect to you, but the logical choice would have been another male.”
“Why do you always have to be so rational when all I want to do is vent and drink,” Embry says, reaching for the crystal decanter of pureblood. I try not to stare, but Embry doesn’t miss a thing. She gives me a smirk as she purposely lets a drop of blood run over her lip and down her chin.
I don’t give her the satisfaction of looking away. Finally, she gives up and wipes the blood with a napkin, giving me a wink. “Not too bad, witchy girl.”
Clearly, I’ve passed another of her tests. “I’m personally glad you were left behind. It gave us a chance to work through all the things we probably wouldn’t have had a chance to say otherwise. Maybe some things happen for a reason? Right?”
She grins. “It still sucks balls. It was probably the smart thing to do, but what I really want to be doing is catching shiesty shifters instead of babysitting your asses!”
I decide to give Embry a little moral support. “I felt the same way about coming back here tonight. I wanted to go with Master Campania and help. He’s going up against shifters who clearly had the help of magic. Nothing against the vampires, but it’s not like you guys have magic or know how to control it. I told him that I can help correct some of the spells they might’ve put on the shifters, or any number of things. He just wouldn’t listen, and now he’s out there at the mercy of whatever magic the witches have given him.”
Lucianna takes a seat at the bar, taking a piece of cheese and rolling it between her two fingers until it looks like a cigarette roll. “He wants to keep you safe. He’s protecting you, Willow. The rogues are like nothing you’ve ever gone up against. They want to get rid of us completely and take over. They want nothing more than to turn back the clocks of time.”
“I’ve heard stories about the rogues. At the academy, they taught us that they’re scarier than any other vampire.”
Lucianna nods. “On that, I don’t disagree. They want to see the vampires across the world go back to doing what they used to do. Terrorizing people on the street, attacking and mutilating for blood. They want to rule by fear and not by intellect or power of deserved respect. They haven’t stopped in centuries, but they have never been able to pull this many factions together on their side. The atmosphere is tilted, swirling in the air. It will take all of our strength, power, and resources to best them at their game.”
The image of being ripped apart swirls in my mind. “That’s awful and downright scary for someone, anyone, intended as one of their snacks.”
Her eyes soften as they look at me. “We won’t let them get away with this. They’ve been trying to make the humans believe that we were taking women, snatching them for blood again. All to create fear among the humans because they’ve accepted us. The rogues want to undo all the good that Overmaster Descallia and the masters have done over the centuries.”
“I heard about that right before me and my friends left the academy. It’s actually all we heard about for a while. The story about the vampires snatching women was used to confirm how evil the vampires are and to drill fear into our heads.”
Lucianna looks from me to Embry and back to me with a confused look on her face. “That’s what Devora was teaching right before you left the academy, only shortly ago?”
I nod. “It was actually pretty gruesome. One of the final straws that pushed me and my friends to leave. It seemed the entire curriculum had become not how to empower our craft as witches, but how to best the vampires. Not that I didn’t want to learn how to defend myself, if I’m being honest, but it was too much brainwash, too much controlling behavior, and we all needed a little space.”
Lucianna looks to Raven. “Do you recall Devora trying to instill fear with that story?”
Raven stands from her seat and slides into the one next to me. “It’s so hard for me to recall exactly what they were teaching at that time. I had so much going on in my life right then. I was skipping classes to spy on Romano’s estate, hoping to catch sight of the big beast.”
She gives Lucianna a shrug. “I’m not sure. I’ve always felt like the teachings were always about how to fear the vampires, but I can’t recall that it increased during that time or the exact example, why.”
Something’s going on between Lucianna and Raven. I try to enter Lucianna’s pathways, but they are blurred and indecipherable.
Lucianna looks up at me suddenly, as if feeling the attempt to connect. “Sorry, Willow. There’s something to do with the timing that’s bugging me.”
She turns to Raven. “I know she’s your aunt and that Devora and the witches have always been neutral between the rogues, the vampires, and any other of the underworld factions. Devora knew that it was the rogues who we’re taking people. At least toward the end if not long before. That’s what I can’t seem to reconcile with the timing of the teachings at the academy?”
I think both Raven and I catch the look between Lucianna and Embry. Clearly the thought that Devora may have been playing both sides is weighing heavily on her mind.
Embry stands. “I say we put it out of our minds and find something else to do. Like it or not, you’re stuck with me for the night. We have to do something, or I’m going to go stark raving mad sitting around twiddling our thumbs, looking for explanations that don’t really exist. I may not be a fan of Devora, but she’s not the one out there trying to rip the vampires to pieces right now. She was here with the witches, ready to throw down and protect you.”
