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“Prey.” I sigh. “I’m not sure I like that word.”
“Nor do I.”
To mitigate the awkward silence that follows, I collect all the books I dropped earlier, hoping none of them are damaged. I’d hate to disappoint Damien.
Perching on a stone step, Cyrus opens the first one on the floor of the crypt.
“You’ve been here alone all day,” I remember. “With no chairs or a bed or a table. Nothing to watch on TV or read.”
“TV?”
I smile. “Oh man. You are going to be so excited about TV once we get you out of here. There is so much for you to catch up on.Succession, Game of Thrones… oh my God,The Sopranos.” When I notice his blank expression, I wave a hand. “Sorry, not important. I wish I could get you some chairs, though. Or a bed. Do vampires sleep?”
“We do.”
I glance at his coffin.
He shudders. “Yes, last night, I slept in my coffin. It was not pleasant.”
I sit down on the step next to him. “So vampires don’t sleep in coffins? They do in movies.” When Cyrus’s expression turns confused, I shake my head. “Never mind. What about sunlight? Can you go outside in the sun?”
“Of course.”
“Ah. Only there were some books written saying that you couldn’t.”
He shrugs. “I like the sun.”
He glances at the skin of his arm, and I can tell he’sthinking about the warmth of the sun on his body. I’d miss it too.
“What else is true about vampires? Are you killed with stakes?” I ask.
“Yes, we can be killed with stakes. And weakened by silver,” he says. “We are harder to kill than some auras.”
“Are you my age? Are you eighteen?”
He nods.
“So do you need to be near auras like I do?”
“No. Vampires only need to be near other vampires before transitioning into an adult.”
“And that happens when we’re twenty, right?” I ask.
He nods.
“But there aren’t any vampires here. So are you going to be okay?” I ask.
Cyrus pauses for a moment. He frowns. “Perhaps the bones of my family are keeping me from becoming ill.”
I can tell the thought hurts him so I decide to change the subject. “What can I get for you while you’re stuck in here? It won’t be easy, bringing things down here, but I can try. If there are some other rooms down here in the tunnels, I can see what’s in them—”
“My family,” Cyrus says, brightening. “If you resurrected me, that means you can resurrect my family. Your blood is the key, Kira.”
I think about Vladimir Dracul’s portrait and the atrocities he committed. Creating prison camps for werewolves and seeking ultimate power. Cyrus notices my expression and places a gentle hand on my knee.
“Not my father,” he adds. “My mother and sister.”
“I… I don’t know.” I pause. “What if they then want your father to be resurrected too? What if it starts the war again? It caused a lot of deaths last time.” I glance at the book in his hand.
