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The thick tome rested on the ground beside me. I gathered it up and cradled it, fearing that somehow Amara would be able to reach this far beyond the castle and steal it from me, just as she had stolen so many other things.
Willow shifted back into her human form. Echoes of the wolf remained though, in her angry eyes and her pinched features.
“What the hell was that? How did she come back? Is that really who I think it is?” she asked, the questions punching the air.
I nodded slowly. I remained sitting, drawing my knees up and leaning my elbows against them. The book rested in my lap. Willow was standing, pacing back and forth. “Yes. It’s Amara.”
“But how? I thought you banished her?”
“I did!” I exclaimed, but calmed myself. I did not want to be angry with Willow. If I was angry with anyone it was with myself for not seeing this possibility. How had I missed it? I must have been arrogant enough to think that I had known everything. Amara had managed to keep even some things secret from me. I should have known better.
“Then how is she here?”
“I don’t know. But that’s not the biggest problem we have.”
“It’s not?” she recoiled.
I shook my head and groaned. “If she’s back in the castle then she might be able to bring all the other vampires back with her.”
“So we’ve gone from having no vampires in the world to having all of them,” Willow threw up her hands and paced around, stomping her feet into the ground. I could feel the vibrations passing under me.
“It’s not my fault.”
“Then who’s fault is it?” she snapped.
I bit back the words on my tongue as I glared at her. She could see something in my eyes. She softened and sighed, placing a hand on her forehead and rubbing the tension away.
“I’m sorry,” she continued. “I don’t mean to snap at you. I’m just shaken, that’s all. I thought things were finally over. I thought all we had to do was be happy. And I should have killed her. I almost had her. If I had just squeezed harder…”
“You can’t blame yourself. Amara has survived everything that life has thrown at her. She even survived being banished into a realm where time has no meaning. She’s not about to let her skull get crushed.”
Willow stopped pacing. She took a breath. She blocked the sun. I looked up, missing its warmth. Vulnerability to the sun had been a myth that vampires had spread among ourselves to obscure the truths of our true weaknesses, of which there were few. It had been a mild irritant, an itch on any exposed part, especially the brighter the light got. But now that I was human I derived comfort from the sun. It was warm and gentle. The shadows were cold though. Willow then slumped down beside me.
“Can she follow us here?”
“Given enough time, but she’s going to have to try and find where we are. Tracking us is not going to be a simple matter. That’s why I brought this with us,” I tapped my fingers against the cover of the book. Willow nodded. She then glanced around to take in her surroundings. Her eyebrows dipped in the middle.
“Are we-?” she asked, the question hesitant.
“I thought we should be somewhere with allies, just in case.”
“They’re not going to like this. They’re not going to like this one bit,” Willow said warily.
I shrugged. “I didn’t think we had much choice. Besides, even though they may not like it, they’re going to have to learn about this new development sooner or later. And by telling them, we might just save their lives.”
“Or doom them to a war that is never going to end.”
“Everything ends one way or the other Willow, everything,” I said, and I stared up at the sun and squinted, hating that I felt so powerless.
We looked hopelessly at each other for a few moments. Realization set in that we had lost so much. We had planned for a future in the castle, living together in our own paradise. Neither of us had ever been particularly fond of being with other people. Willow was more inclined to do so because of her innate sense to be with a pack, but after the way she was treated as a child she was quite happy to create a small pack consisting of just myself and her, with an addition of a child along the way.
But now? The thought of bringing a child into the world made me uneasy, for it was just another potential victim of Amara. I shuddered when I thought about her. She had always been a source of agony. I remember seeing her for the first time, her hair flaming as she stood over me, her smile alluring, her eyes blazing with a kind of intensity that I had never seen before. Her words were honeyed and they played a tune that lured me into her lair where she offered me eternity, coating the promise in sweet nectar so that it seemed appealing, without telling me what she was taking away. Because of her I had lived too long a life. She had ruled me, conquered me, she had reached into my soul and ripped everything apart. For all intents and purposes she was my mother, having breathed a vampiric life into me. I had struggled against my very nature to cast her out from the natural world, knowing that if she ever returned she would be hellbent on killing me.
And now Willow was in danger because of it as well. I glanced at her and noticed the worry on her face. She gnawed on her lower lip and her brow was knotted slightly. There was a pensive look in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” I said. She looked at me and then became deflated.
“It’s not your fault. Let’s just get to the others,” she looked around, and I wondered if she blamed me for bringing her back here as well. Even though she had made amends with her pack she might still have been wary, but I thought it was the safest place for us.
