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“Wait, that wasn’t some kind of miracle?”
“No, maybe, we don’t know. Something is changing the blood of certain individual human beings when they come into contact with nyktelios, and it’s not venom changing them. They’re not feeders. They’re like Jayden is to us. They’re… special.”
Saint blinked and stared again at Eric and Zaine. They’d separated and were making their way back to the van, deep in conversation. “Mikalis is aware of this?”
“Yes, he didn’t like it, but once Felix exhibited the same abilities as Eric, he couldn’t ignore it. And now there’s Jayden, so…”
“They’re godtouched.”
“What?” Octavius asked. He’d always hated that term. Godtouched. For him, it meant his fate had been sealed by the villagers who’d sought to sacrifice him. No good had ever come from the word. “Godtouched?”
“There’s no other explanation, humans don’t suddenly become immortal. They’re being changed by the gods for a reason.”
“Could it be to weaken us?” As Octavius had feared, and Raiden had latched on to.
Saint shrugged. “Do they look weak?”
Eric laughed at something Zaine said. They walked beside each other, at ease, but more than that. Anyone only had to glimpse at them and see the way they admired each other to know they were in love.
They weren’t weak. If anything, Eric seemed rejuvenated now alongside Zaine.
“They aren’t weak.” Since Eric had waltzed into the ops room and upset the status quo, Octavius had feared the man’s presence would damage the Brotherhood. Then along came Felix Quaid, who had somehow tamed Kazimir, and again, Octavius had feared the humans would change the Brotherhood by infecting it with their weaknesses. But he’d been looking at it all wrong. Humans, with all their messy emotions and brilliant lust for life… They weren’t weak. They were everything the Brotherhood lacked.
“Hey,” Eric said, sliding into the front passenger seat as Zaine got behind the wheel. “You guys good? Saint, right?” Eric offered his hand between the front seats for Saint to shake. “I tried to get into your prison cell once. Kazimir almost pitched a fit.”
Saint shook Eric’s hand, his smile growing.
“It’s good to see all the rumors weren’t true,” Eric said, getting settled in the front.
“Some are.” Saint grinned.
Eric laughed, and Octavius watched all this with a strange tinge of jealousy. How was Saint able to click with people, despite what and who he was? Octavius had never been good at being social. He didn’t knowhowto people.
Saint’s hand landed on Octavius’s knee and gave a reassuring squeeze.
“Things have settled down in the city now communications have been restored,” Eric explained as Zaine got the van underway. “But shit got real crazy for a while there. I doubt Mikalis is going to be able to brush all this under a rug. Seems like your existence and the fact vampires are real is common knowledge now.”
“There’s no rug big enough to cover all this shit,” Zaine muttered.
“If we don’t stop the wave of nyks,” Octavius said, “there won’t be much left to cover up.”
“Any news on where Mikalis is?” Eric asked.
“No,” Zaine growled. “Wherever he is, he’s walking on thin ice. Storm is having a hard time covering for him.”
“Maybe Mikalis will pull a rabbit out of a hat?” Eric asked.
“Yeah, maybe…”
None of them seemed too convinced of a last-minute rescue. Mikalis’s bridges were burned. The Brotherhood had needed its leader, and the fact he wasn’t here told them all they needed to know. Saint’s sideways glance to Octavius confirmed it.
They were on their own.
CHAPTER36
Saint
A hintof sweet decay hung in the air around the docks and the Nyxian’s warehouses. The warm, wet breeze shifted scents around, but the smell of nyktelios among the heavier smells of river water was strong.
