Chapter 126

I swallowed thickly and looked at Candido. His eyes were hard and pensive, like he was trying to think of a way out of this, but he couldn’t. I couldn’t either. I looked back at the rest of the unit that seemed to be slumping a little against their weapons. Their eyes were trained everywhere, but they didn’t look like they were able to fight.

If we were going to get to the site in time and in any shape to do anything, we had to do something.

“No one leaves the jeeps,” Candido said, turning paler by the moment. “We’re surrounded by silver.”

Claire went tense and her hand went to her throat where the wound had just started to close.

Candido looked at me. His eyes were tense, searching mine for something. It felt like he was asking me something like he wanted me to refuse, but I looked away. There was nothing else I could do. No matter what happened next, our only hope of getting out of here alive was if I went with this woman. I stood and stepped towards her.

“Oh, thank the goddess that we can get on with it! Honestly, I have other things to do than watch him angst about you…” She said as she skipped up the stairs.

I followed, only glancing back once as my stomach turned with nerves. What could this person want with me? I didn’t know, but I didn’t have a good feeling about it. Candido looked ready to run after me, and that was a bit of a comfort. He was being mean right now, but at least he didn’t seem to be forgetting his promise to me.

Still, he didn’t look like he had the strength to run after me either. That was more alarming than anything. Vanessa said that he’d needed rest, and he had rested. He’d eaten when I hadn’t and slept a bit. If it wasn’t for the silver, I’m sure he would have been fine.

“Get back in the jeep,” I said. “I’ll… be back soon.”

Then, the wall slid closed behind me, plunging me into gold-lit darkness. I looked up, searching for the source of light, only to see a trail of golden light snaking up the steps after her. I walked up the stairs and gasped as the wall slid aside and revealed the library in the academy in Full Moon’s capital.

My stomach churned. Had she been the reason all those beasts were being let out? Was it safe still here? Had the students all gone home or were they hiding in the building still?

“This is the only building left standing around the capital,” she said as she led me out of the passage. Once I was inside the library, the painting slid back into place behind me. “It was built long before the academy was, so it’s far more sturdy and far older… Think of it as… something like an extension of the temple.”

She hummed, trailing her hands across the surface of the nearest bookcase. “Well… except for the contents. Honestly… I didn’t care what Full Moon did with all the libraries, but the least they could have done was keep the contents up to standard…”

She pulled down a book and flipped through it, tossing it over her head. “Garbage… Garbage…”

I frowned and looked around. “The temple rejected Sibyl. How could it let vampires through the entrance? How can you even be standing in here if it’s an extension of the temple?”

She stopped mid-reach for another book as a book landed with a thud behind her.

“Are you… Are you serious?” She asked. Then, she laughed as if I had asked a stupid question. It felt a little bit like talking to Shiloh and Messiah. “Of course, you’re serious. Oh, poor Hedy, that situation is far more complex and is hardly important.”

She gestured vaguely as she pulled another book from the shelf and shook her head. She tossed it and sighed.

“She was almost queen.”

“Oh, no,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “As if the werewolves haven’t had a trash queen before…”

I set my jaw. “Just because vampires want to tear us down from the inside doesn’t mean you have the right to laugh! We’re not going to just stand by and let you—”

“Yes, yes,” she waved her hand, cutting me off and stepping into the air. “Vampires will die because of werewolf righteousness. Tyranny. Blood. Bump in the dark—I’ve heard it so many times, dear. Do be a little creative.”

I glared at her. “You’re mocking me.”

She shrugged. “I only mock those who deserve it.”

I set my jaw. “Candido will stop you. He’ll rally the werewolves together and we’ll defeat you.”

“And then you’ll get married and have cute little blonde babies?” She asked leaning on one hand and inspecting her nails. “They’ll have his green eyes. And you’ll be the perfect mother. You’ll get to be his little princess-queen-housewife who doesn’t clean or cook. Happily. Ever. After.”

I flinched at her mocking tone. “You’re just jealous.”

She laughed again. “Oh, you’re more fun than I thought you’d be… That or just more silly. Listen, dear. I don’t judge anyone for their dreams and wishes. What you like you like, no harm in it… besides, there is something to be said for an older man.”

She lifted her shoulder again. “To get back to that cow Sibyl and her entire line. They’ll get what is owed to them soon enough. To think the line had fallen so far…”

I frowned. “The line?”

“We’ll get to it. Very long history lesson ahead of us.” She turned to me. “At this point, it seems silly to ask, but what do you actually know about vampires?”

“They’re… evil,” I said. “Blood-sucking, vicious monsters trying to destroy us… They can’t be killed easily, and… they can turn werewolves into their kind.”

She snorted into her hand. “Oh, could you go back? I stopped listening at evil.”

I bared my teeth. “How long are you going to mock me?”

“For as long as you deserve to be mocked.” She shook her head. “I can only imagine what Messiah and Shiloh had say about all of that.”

My face heated thinking back to the way they mocked me. It had felt insulting coming from them, but it felt even more insulting coming from her.

“What do I care about what any of you have to say?” I asked, crossing my eyes. “You’re all vampires!”

“And I want to suck your blood, drain you dry and leave your body strewn somewhere that Candido will find it,” she said with a dramatic sigh. “I’m only thinking about when the perfect time would be to maximize his anguish…”

“Stop mocking me!”

“Stop being stupid,” she said with a shrug. “Naïve, and use that brain for more than fantasy.”

She shook her head. “Moon Shadow as really scraping the bottom of the barrel if you’re their ace.”

My heart lurched. “How do you all know that? Are you behind the attack on HQ?”

She snorted, “You mean the basement of city hall? Honestly, you’d think they would put somewhere a little more secure… or at least less obvious. But no, dear. That would have been a waste of time.”

I turned her words over. She didn’t seem to be lying to me, but she was also a vampire and given all the attacks, there was no reason to listen to anything she had to say.

“What do you want with me?”

She sighed dramatically and jumped down, landing so gently that she seemed weightless.

“Francia was right. You’re brainwashed… I guess I’m in too deep now to turn back. I’d really hoped there was more hope for you, but I guess you’ll be dead soon so it won’t matter.”

I froze. “What… does that mean? You said--”

The woman reached for her hood, and my heart lurched. The face that had looked at me in that hazy dream when I was in the cave was looking at me. Her face looked so much like my mother’s in the painting, but there were several differences that told me that she wasn’t. She was a relative of some sort.

“Who… are you?’

“If you’d like the formality, I am Raven, the second princess of the United Vampire Covens.” She said with a small smirk. “I am also the true leader of the Blood Moon Coven, more commonly known as the Red Moon Pack.”

My eyes widened, and I couldn’t breathe. “Blood… Moon.”

Her eyebrows jumped. “Those titles aren’t nearly as important as who I am to you.”

I shook my head and stepped back. There had already been so much going on. I just couldn’t take anymore. She smirked, flashing one of her fangs even as her eyes turned a burning, glowing red.

“Hedwig was the first princess of the United Vampire Covens. She was my mother making you my little half-sister.” She chuckled. “So glad we could meet in such… exhilarating circumstances.”