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  "So it is, so it is," she said, nodding. "You have shown you are not like the blood mages of old whose souls were tainted by the use of their magic to kill."

  I shifted, a little uncomfortable at that. She didn't have to know that I enjoyed my work—I still didn't do it for fun. I had never killed anyone that hadn't earned their death, and I wasn't going to change that. Not ever.

  "Go on, child. Access my rhythm. You may lay hands on me."

  I swallowed, nervous now. With a trembling hand, I reached out and touched two fingers to her wrist. I was barely touching her, almost hovering above her in truth, but it was enough for me to establish a hold on her rhythm.

  Immediately, the knowledge that I had always sought before came to me. The knowledge of her weaknesses—the slight murmur in her heart, the fragility of her bones, the weakness of the veins that held her blood. All things I could use to kill her.

  For the first time, I felt uncomfortable knowing such things.

  "Eva…" I whispered. "You have a heart condition."

  "I know," she said, sounding amused. "But it is impressive you were able to identify it so quickly."

  "Why haven't you healed it?"

  "I have, several times. It keeps coming back, though. A reminder from the Goddess that we cannot heal all that ails us, and that there is a time for all to die. It is not her will that I survive this. It will take me when she says it is time to take me."

  "Oh." I felt a heavy weight of sadness settle on me. "I'm sorry."

  "Don't be. It is the way of life. I am not troubled by it. Go on, heal my hand. I'm dripping."

  I hid a quick grin at the cavalier way she addressed everything. She had a good humor about her, considering all that she had lived through and seen. I did as she asked, focusing my attention on her hand, spying the broken blood vessels inside of her.

  This was an easy enough repair for my own body, but it proved much more difficult with hers. I realized that part of it was because I didn't know the makeup of her vessels as I did my own, so it was much harder to mend them.

  It felt like an eternity later, and my forehead was dripping with sweat, but at last the last bit of the wound was closed. I was breathing hard, and I slumped in place once it was finished.

  Eva was looking at me with admiration, though, which was confusing. It had taken me ages to do what must have been child's play to her.

  "You are an odd one," she said at last.

  "I'm sorry I'm not better at this," I said, sighing. "I know how it must look."

  "Better?" Tita's voice behind me surprised me. I'd forgotten she was there. "You healed her on the first try!"

  "But it was just a little, shallow cut," I protested. "It should have been so much easier. I could have healed myself of that in mere seconds, and it took me hours, didn't it?"

  "An hour and a half," Eva said, and she sounded amused again. "But you do not understand, Nina. This is a difficult spell to work the first time. For most of us, it takes a great deal longer than one session to learn how to heal another's wound."

  "Oh."

  "I am not surprised," she said, briskly, standing up. "I knew you were strong when you avenged Isaac. You said that anyone could have taken down that monster if they learned how to fight, but I believe you are wrong. For one, I have never heard of a blood mage who took up combat magic that did not go bad shortly after their first kill—and I feel it is safe to assume you have killed many in your few years. Yet your soul is not tainted. And now you display more natural talent than anyone I've seen before. You are blessed, Nina. The Goddess created you this way for a reason. I believe you are destined for much, and much of it will be difficult."

  I shivered, looking down at the floor in front of me, as I still had not stood.

  "I really don't think so," I said softly. "I just happened to be the mage Conall freed from the cells. It could have been anyone that he chose to become a hunter."

  She made a dismissive sound. "The wolves do not worship the Goddess, but that does not mean they are not guided by her. It was your destiny to become a hunter, that you could better protect those you love. But what more lies ahead of you? We shall have to see."

  What, indeed?

  Fourteen

  I woke to the sensation of someone tugging on my arm. In a flash, I had them pinned to the bed, my hand around their throat. Only after that did I recognize the person as Tita.

  "Oh!" I jumped back, filled with shame. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know who you were."

  She grimaced, rubbing at her throat. "No, I should have known better than to wake you like that, considering your life."

  "Still…"

  "It's beside the point, though. We need to leave the house."

  "What? Why?" I panicked a little, thinking that Eva was finally kicking me out.

  "Someone's brought a little boy in with some bad injuries, and we need to replenish some of the supplies before they run out while they're working on him," she said, and I soothed somewhat. "I volunteered to go, but I need you to come with me. It's the middle of the night, and well…"

  "Of course," I said, already pulling on my hunting gear. "You need me to keep you safe. Go ahead and get dressed, and we'll leave in a second."

  She changed out of her nightgown and into her normal white dress just a moment after I finished pulling on my shirt, securing my mask, and tying the scarf around my wrist.

  There really wasn't a need for my whole get-up anymore—hiding who I was didn't seem so important when all the vampires knew me now—but it was a habit, and I liked the clothes.

  We headed down the stairs and out the door. The shop we needed to go to was halfway into the city from where we were, a long walk to make in the middle of the night, and it was going to be a pain waking up the owners. But they were friendly to mages—otherwise they wouldn't run the shop they did—and they would understand that there was a little boy in need of help.

  Tita didn't see the need to make conversation as we went, and for that I was grateful. It was hard enough with her inability to melt in and out of the shadows the way I could, so I didn't want to draw any attention to us by making noise.

  But three blocks down we had a problem. I had my magic stretched thin, far ahead, around, and behind us. It was exhausting to keep it blanketed out in that way, but when I couldn't rely on keeping myself hidden and my scent masked the way I would when I was on my own, I had to be aware of everything around us. The only way to do that was to keep my magic stretched out.

  And a block behind us was a group of vampires.

  "Tita," I said as quietly as I could, touching her elbow. "There's an alley up ahead to our left. It connects to another alley on the left-hand side once you’re inside it, and if you follow the connections back south, you'll end up just a street over from the house. I need you to run as fast as you can back home."

  "What? Why?" She was trying to whisper, but panic made her voice high-pitched. I winced at the sound.

  "Vampires are following us. If we're lucky, they've just caught the scent of a mage, and they won't know that there are specifically two of us. If you run now, I can lead them away from you long enough for you to get home safe. Now run!" I gave her a little shove, and thankfully she didn't argue with me anymore. She bolted into the alley, and I heard the soft patter of her shoes against the asphalt.

  I turned and ran directly toward the vampires, amplifying my scent as I did, making as much noise as I could. I had to drown out the sounds of Tita running back to the safe house. Otherwise they would turn and follow her and massacre the other mages there.

  Even now, I felt two of them slowing their pace. They knew that we had split up, then.

  "King's thrall over here!" I called ahead, just as I came into view of them. "I wonder what price the Council has on my head."

  That got their attention. All five of them turned toward me, fangs bared.

  For a moment, we stood still, staring at one another. And then the moment broke and they lunged.

 
I tore down the alley to my left, the one that led away from Tita.

  Fifteen

  The mad dash through the maze of alleys was one I would remember for years to come. The sensation of my blood pounding in my veins, the adrenaline coursing through me, had me almost giddy. I hadn't had a fight like this in ages, and we weren't even fighting yet. I could have turned and dealt with them at once, but I wanted to get them as far away from Tita and the other mages as I could before I did that.

  There was always the chance they would overcome me, especially with five of them, and I didn't want them to be within scenting distance of Tita. If they got rid of me and caught onto her scent, she would lead them back to the others, and all would be for nothing. If I had to die, I wanted to make sure the others were safe.

  At last, though, I made a wrong turn and came up to a dead end.

  Panting, I turned around to face my attackers as they filtered into the alley, smug looks on their faces.

  "I'll give you the same warning I gave the last one the Council sent," I said, though I knew it would do no good. "Whoever kills me is going to have my death curse to contend with. It will torture you, and it will kill you. Killing me is tantamount to suicide."

  "The Council warned us you would say such things," the one at the front, with orange-red hair, said. "You will say anything to save your life, but the Council is through playing games with you."

  I shrugged. "It makes no difference to me if I kill you or if my death curse kills you, but either way…"

  That seemed to affect at least a few of them. Two of them traded uncertain looks with one another, but the leader didn't appear fazed.

  "Jorge, what if she's right?" One of the two who'd been concerned stepped forward to speak to the redheaded leader. "The mission is already dubious at best with the way things are going for the Council."

  "Yeah," the other uncertain one said. "The king's on the move again, and if things tip in his favor and he finds out we killed her…"

  "Shut up," the leader snapped. "The king's not going to get the upper hand. The Council's been working on this for ages now, and they've got it well in hand. Just because he seems to have perked up for once doesn't mean he's going to undo everything they've worked for."

  Well, that was news to me. I didn't realize that the Council had been plotting to overthrow Gray for a while. I had thought it was something new, related to the depression he'd spiraled into when I'd left him, according to Alex. But from what this vampire said, it had been a plot well underway for quite some time.

  But I was glad to hear that Gray was up and about again. I had been a little worried, with the way we left things, that he would sink back into the despair Alex had described.

  He told you he would do anything it took. You saw the look on his face; he's not giving up without a fight.

  I grinned at the thought. Gray had said that he would fight for me. But that really shouldn't have surprised me. I was his mate, after all. You didn't let someone like that go with much ease. I didn't know much about vampires and their mates, but from what Gray said, finding your other half had to be a huge thing. I knew it hurt me to be away from him, but it was probably affecting him even more, since he was an actual vampire.

  The fact that he was powering through that and working to fix things…well, I was impressed.

  Maybe it isn't over. Maybe he can actually change things, and we could be together…

  But no, that was wishful thinking. I should know better than that by now. These vampires had just said that the Council had been working on this for ages. Likely as not, that meant that Gray getting his ass in gear now was going to be too late.

  He was going to be overthrown, I realized, my gut churning at the thought. And he was going to be alone when it happened, because there was no way I could be there, not with the way things were right now.

  Not if you keep making a target out of yourself.

  Ah, that was true. I wasn't helping matters by killing the vampires that were sent after me. Gray had said there were those in the court that missed me, but they would certainly turn away from those thoughts if I kept cutting down the people they loved.

  And there were two men present who didn't want to kill me, by the looks of it.

  I took advantage of the moment while they were bickering among themselves, reaching out and rapidly taking hold of their biorhythms. It took a mere moment to induce the aneurysm-based migraine that left them sprawling on the ground in agony. But it was better than death.

  As soon as they were down, I took the time to apply the paralytic spell I had used on the hybrid earlier so that they wouldn't be able to get away.

  I walked up to them, dropping the aneurysm spell now that they were frozen on the ground.

  "Remember that I showed you mercy," I said. "Your muscles will unlock soon, since you've got fast healing and that'll take care of it. But I'll be long gone before you can get up again. Go home. Ask the king about the death curse. I didn't lie to you, and I didn't kill you. Remember that."

  They stared up at me, confusion and outrage in their eyes, but I didn't waste another moment on them.

  I raced back through the night.

  Sixteen

  Everyone knows the concept of the calm before the storm. That was what the week that passed since the vampires found Tita and me in the night felt like. Nothing happened. When I went out hunting, there were no hybrids to be found, and no vampires came after me.

  I wondered if maybe the five vampires had taken my words to heart. Maybe they had gone to Gray and learned the truth of the death curse. Maybe they had told the others that I had spared them, and the Council couldn't find any more vampires that were willing to come after me.

  If they had spread the truth of the death curse around, I wouldn't be surprised by that.

  But that would all be too much good luck. There was no way things could go so well for me. I knew that. Something bad was going to come soon. I just had to find out what that was going to be.

  Nice things don't last forever, and I was growing more and more antsy as the days passed.

  "What's wrong, Nina?" Tita asked me. We were working in the healing room. She was sorting herbs, and I was studying the healing grimoire, homework that Eva had assigned me.

  "What?"

  "You've been twisting your hair for the past hour, and you keep sighing. What's going on that's got you so upset?"

  "I'm not upset, I'm just…anxious," I said. I didn't have a better way to phrase it, so that was going to have to do for now.

  "Well, what are you anxious about?"

  "Everything's been going so well for the past week. It can't last forever, and I think something much worse is going to happen to disrupt the calm. I haven't found a single hybrid in the streets the last week, and no vampires have showed up that were hunting me. Everything is fine in the city right now. No mysterious deaths. It's too perfect, Tita, something's going on."

  "Oh, Nina," she said, sighing. "I hate that things have been so bad for you in life that you have to think like that."

  I frowned. "Weren't you just saying the other day that you didn't like me hunting anymore because you thought hybrids were going to jump me?"

  She shifted. "That's different. And nothing's happened with the hybrids since then, so I think I was overreacting. And besides, you handled those vampires without any problem, the ones that were following us. You said yourself that you warned them, so maybe they took it to heart and that's why no one's been hunting you."

  "I thought that as well, but it's just too convenient. You don't know the Vampire Council like I do; they don't just give up when things get difficult. They want me dead, and they're not going to stop until I am."

  She frowned. "But what about your death curse? Surely they're afraid of that."

  "They are, which is why they're sending other people to do their dirty work for them. They won't kill me themselves. They'll have a vampire they think of as disposable do it. It's heartless."

  "H
eartless? But it's a vampire."

  I squirmed a little. "Yeah, well…they're not all monsters."

  She looked at me with wide, shocked eyes. "You can't be serious. You don't really think there's anything redeemable about a vampire?"

  "I've met ones who aren't bad, actually," I said, growing more and more uncomfortable with the conversation. I didn't know why I was going down this road. I knew no one was going to understand my point of view on this. "They don't all hate us, you know."

  "Of course they do," she said. "That's why they have our people in chains."

  "No. Remember how I told you the vampires found out about me, and then I had to work for them? They kept it a secret from most of the vampires, but there were a few who knew what I was, and they didn't hate me for it. They actually tried to understand where I was coming from, why I did what I did. And they forgave me. Most of the vampires don't even really think about the blood mages anymore; it's something that's kind of…over for them. The new ones probably don't even know much about it."

  "And that makes it okay?" she snapped.

  "No, I didn't say that. I'm saying, you know, that not all of them are bad. And if we could get them to understand us—which is possible, I'm sure, since some of them have understood me—then maybe we could work out a peace. Maybe we could get them to free our people, and then we could live in harmony. Isn't that what everyone wants, deep down?"

  "Not everyone," she said, shaking her head. "I wouldn't mind it, honestly, but a lot of our people want revenge."

  "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," I said with a sad laugh. "We won't get anywhere if we're constantly focused on fighting each other. We need to work on bringing the world together, not driving it apart."

  "Nina, the things you're saying…they're just not possible. The vampires are never going to understand or respect us. It's a beautiful idea, but it's not the way of the world."