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Liv
I practically ran out of that room, my mind feeling scrambled by their lies. For a half a second I’d felt comfortable, almost remembering what it was like to sit in on those meetings with Kelsey and the gang. Though Lee had been much smaller in those days and Fen and Evan not around at all. It had felt almost right to be there.
Then reality set in. Gray had snarled my way and everyone had started lying.
It was all fucking lies with these people. I had to wonder if they sat up at night making this shit up.
Did they truly believe I didn’t know what had happened? I’d been there.
Except when I wasn’t. Except when I allowed the master to take over and then the world seemed foggy and unreal to me. Like I was trapped in my body. It was odd because it wasn’t an unpleasant sensation. When I allowed Myrddin to take over, the world receded and I floated through. Like a drug.
But I knew what happened. I knew what happened that day when they returned. I had offered to take them to the master, to show them how we’d made the world better, and they’d fought. They’d killed several of our shifters.
They were the ones who’d done the killing.
“Do you honestly believe that bullshit you spouted off in there?”
I stopped in the middle of the hallway, closing my eyes. Of all the voices I didn’t need to hear right now, his was the worst. Casey. Fucking Casey. Sometimes I cursed the day he rose.
“Leave me alone.”
“I want an answer, Olivia.”
I turned, letting him feel how much I cared about what he wanted. He stood there, the light behind him glowing around the edges of his form. Sometimes it was like that with supernatural creatures. The light seemed to caress or reject them. In this case, it made Casey look a bit angelic, which was a fucking lie. “You know what I wanted? A boyfriend who didn’t run at the slightest provocation.”
“Slightest provocation? Are you talking about the day when your friends murdered all of mine?” His jaw tightened. His hair was still fairly long. It was hard for vampires to change their appearances. He could get up every day and cut it, but Casey simply pulled it back in a queue.
I used to love running my fingers through his hair. We had such a short time together. When I thought about it, we’d only had a few weeks when I’d lived in his apartment, fed him, loved him. When he’d treated me like I was something precious.
“It was war, and I was in that building. I was mere floors away from you when it started. I didn’t know what was happening that day. I wasn’t as powerful as I am now. I was vulnerable, and you left me behind. You ran the minute things got bad.”
It was precisely why I’d ended up at the Days. I’d looked for Casey and discovered he’d left me behind.
Casey seemed to consider me for a moment. “Is that what you think?”
“It’s what I know.” He’d run with the academics. He hadn’t even given us a chance. “If you’d done the least bit of work to find me...” I sometimes wondered if I would have run with him. Maybe. I was weak back then. I’d clung to him, though I’d hated myself for the weakness. I couldn’t let him see that. “You would have seen that everything would have been okay.”
Casey’s eyes narrowed, and he stalked toward me. “I was there when Justin was murdered by a witch. She was about to kill me when Henri showed up. He knew I wouldn’t leave without you. He also knew how much time you’d spent with Myrddin. Do you think I had a choice? He hauled me from the building. Likely only moments before we both would have died. They weren’t asking if we wanted to bend a knee to Myrddin. They slaughtered us.”
More lies. I knew what had happened. The vampires had fought. They’d attempted to kill all the witches. Well, the ones who couldn’t give up power and work together. “There are many vampires working with us.”
“How many academics, Liv?”
Not a single one. The academics were known for clinging to power, for working behind the scenes to lift themselves up. They weren’t as strong as the warrior class, but no warrior could match their machinations. Still, I knew what happened. “They weren’t going to kill you.”
“Like they weren’t going to kill Justin?”
I didn’t even understand why we were having this argument. “He must have fought.”
“It was daylight.” He said each word with conviction. “He was dead to the world. He was a warrior and they slaughtered him as he lay in bed. He was no threat. But he had been turned by the king. Most of the young vampires had. Sasha and I are the last of the king’s vampires. Sasha because he wasn’t at the Council House and me because Henri cared enough to risk his life to save mine.”
His words slashed at my brain, making it ache. “No. It wasn’t. It was night. I know it was night.”
Wasn’t it? How else could the vampires have attacked? They attacked us first. They attacked when Myrddin announced he would need to take the crown for a brief period of time.
Except Myrddin had known Donovan wouldn’t be back for years, if ever, since he’d been the one who’d laid the trap. I hadn’t known that piece of information that day.
A low throb started in the back of my head.
