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“This is a delicious meal. Thank you for hosting us tonight. I have really missed eating,” I said. Peter smiled.
“I tried to do what Jessie would have done. I was never quite as good as her at these things, but I learned a lot from her,” he said.
“It reminds me of some of the banquets I used to enjoy when I was younger. Of course, they were held in some of the biggest manors in the city. Tables stretched out for what seemed like miles all filled with every type of food in existence, but the quality is the same here. I do love being able to pick and choose what I eat, and of course the company is far less stuffy than what I was used to,” I laughed a little as I spoke.
“In manors? Oh, you must have been quite an important person.”
I blushed a little. “Not really. Not until I became a… well… you know.” I averted my gaze as I referenced my history as a vampire.
Peter cleared his throat. “And what did you do before then?”
“Well, I was a struggling concert pianist. All I wanted was to be up on the stage and share my music with the world.”
“That’s fascinating. I’m afraid we don’t have a piano around here. Did you compose anything that I might have heard of?”
“Well, I only became a musician of note when I was given the gift of time. But you might have heard this piece,” I started to hum one of my more famous tunes. There was a blank look on Peter’s face for the first few notes, but then recognition bloomed upon his features. He clapped his hands and continued the tune, his rich voice filling the air. He then laughed.
“I remember my mother humming that to me when I was a child. To think I’m actually speaking to the composer. But that was composed a very long time ago,” he frowned as he began to realize what it meant.
“Cassius has been around for a while Dad,” Willow reminded him.
“I just didn’t realize it was quite that long,” he gave me a shadow of a smile and then went back to his food. I wondered if he was ever going to get used to my nature as a vampire and what it implied. I had no idea if he thought I was worthy of his daughter or not. I assume he would have preferred her to choose someone who was more traditional. It would certainly have made this night easier to handle, but I couldn’t very well go changing my past.
“So how long are you two going to be staying here for? I hope that it will give us a chance to reconnect,” Peter said, his eyes filled with hope. I noticed that Willow did not comment on that last part.
“That really depends on how much danger we’re in. I have to be honest with you Dad… things could get pretty bad. Brandon is going to address the pack tonight but the vampire who is loose… she’s vicious. She’s probably the cruelest one there has ever been and if she decides to set her fangs on us then it’s going to mean a lot of trouble for the pack. I’m not quite sure how we’re going to be able to handle her.”
“We’ll find a way love, because we do it together. We always have. That’s the nature of wolves,” Peter offered a reassuring smile, but I could tell that Willow was not convinced. I could almost hear the thought spinning in her mind.
If being together was so important then why did you push me away?
But Willow did not say anything, deciding that discretion was the better part of valor.
“I suppose we have been due some kind of drama. Life can never be this peaceful for too long. War is in the very fabric of the world and it’s our responsibility to fight. I suppose living here without it wasn’t going to be possible for the long haul. Wolves are always called to fight,” Peter continued. “I’m just glad that your mother doesn’t have any part of this.” He might have meant it to be reassuring, but I didn’t find the words comforting, and I wasn’t sure Willow did either.
We continued eating and our conversation turned to various other matters. Peter shared some stories about Willow when she was a child, which I enjoyed hearing. Willow, not so much. I found her hand under the table and gave it a comforting squeeze, hoping to convey the depth of my emotion and appreciation to her for this. I knew this was not what she wanted from life. We both wanted to live in our isolated paradise where we did not have to worry about presenting ourselves to other people. All we wanted was to live alone, to be lost in our own sense of happiness, but we were back in the real world where we had to deal with other people and worry about what they thought of us.
And it was my fault because my trap had not been strong enough to hold Amara. Despite being present with Peter, thoughts still churned in the back of my mind, trying to unwind this puzzle. There was something I was missing, something I hadn’t considered, but what was it? If I hoped to defeat Amara again then I needed to understand how she could have returned, because anything other than utter oblivion was thus doomed to failure. Banishing her was one thing, but killing her was quite another. Frankly, I wasn’t sure it was even possible. If there was ever a guard against death then Amara was the one to find it, and her nature meant it was quite likely she would have kept a thing for herself.
The day turned to the evening turned and we were summoned to hear Brandon. He stood in the middle of the village. The buildings were arranged to form a neat square outside his lodge. There was a fire pit that was lit every night. The flames crackled and illuminated him, casting him in an amber glow. The stars were out now, glittering in their twinkling glory. The moon was a crescent, waning. The wolves had all gathered. My hearing was not as good as it had been before, but I still knew they were talking about me.
Why was the vampire here? They asked. Why had the outcast returned?
Not all of them understood our story, but Brandon did, and they followed his lead because he was the Alpha. He had led them into the pale realm of the vampires and had made them stand before the castle. They had watched as I insulted them and goaded them, forcing them to stand outside in the brittle black forest where hope went to die. If Willow had not persuaded me to show them mercy then I might well have left them there to die, falling prey to hunger and starvation, losing their minds before they lost their lives. Some of them had not forgotten this. I could see it in their eyes. I planned to stay away from them as much as possible. I had had enough trouble to last me a lifetime.
Brandon held up his hands, quieting the small murmur of chatter that passed through the crowd.
“My pack, as some of you have already realized we have visitors. Willow and Cassius have returned to us, and Cassius is a changed man. He no longer suffers from the vampire’s curse.” I wasn’t sure this would change anyone’s opinion of me, but I appreciated that he told them. “However, they return with troubling news. A vampire has escaped and as we know even the presence of one vampire in the world can be terrible. We must be on our guard and prepare for an attack. We thought the days of war were behind us, but we were wrong. This vampire, Amara, is going to try and raise an army. She may attack us with one, or she may come herself. Either way we must set up watches throughout the day and night. We must produce weapons and prepare traps, and we must pray to the moon to watch over us. We are wolves, we are proud, and we were not born to simply die at the hands of a vampire. If Amara does come for us then she will find a staunch enemy waiting for her. She will be forced to turn back in horror, and if we get the opportunity then we shall kill her and put an end to the threat of vampires once and for all. Be on your guard, be vigilant, for we live in a dangerous time. But remember that we live in a pack, and our pack is strong.”
His words were met with a howl. The people around us lifted their heads and opened their mouths, bellowing out a long howl that soared into the air and made the stars tremble. If the moon was indeed watching them then she would have heard this, and she would have been proud. Brandon stood there and waited to answer questions and concerns that some of them had. I wondered if they were going to ask me anything, or blame me. Either was likely. But then, before this discourse had ended, Willow squeezed my hand and beckoned me away. We slipped through the crowd and the darkness, disappearing from sight.
Chapter Six
Willow
I found the crowd stifling. I had never been used to being around this many people. The smell of them filled my nostrils and the heat made my skin prickle with sweat. It had been bad enough to be forced to endure the presence of my father. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be around him, but being forced to speak with him when there was so much trouble behind us made it difficult to cope. He seemed to want to leave the past behind as though it was a whisper, but to me it was a constant drum that hammered within my skull. All the pain and torment, all the insults that had been flung my way were not things that I could easily shrug off. And now I was back in this cauldron of anguish and there was nowhere to turn. My people needed me, and I was going to have to find a way to move beyond this, but it was too much to ask too soon. I needed to be free. I needed to feel the cool air of the night upon my skin, and I needed to be alone with Cassius.
“Where are we going?” he asked with a tinge of panic in his voice as he noticed we were moving away from the village. The light from the fire faded. His human eyes would not be able to peer through the veil of darkness as his vampire gaze would have. Instead he was forced to trust that I would not lead him astray.
