“Yes,” Braith acknowledged.
“Vampires gobbled up the crap the king was spewing, bought it hook, line, and sinker. Even then the king was the most powerful, the oldest, and though he didn’t control everything, we looked to him for leadership and guidance. We were fools. He took everything. And when he was done with the humans, he turned on his own kind. There were those of us that disagreed with what he was doing all along, and those that realized to late what he intended. The world had gone to hell, blood and death ruled. Though I do enjoy my fair share of blood, killing indiscriminately was never my forte, or anything I took pleasure in.
“These people, and these vampires,” he gestured around the restaurant, “Are the survivors, and their offspring. The factions surrounding us are led by the other aristocrats that escaped, and the humans that fled from the fallout of the war. Some of the humans are descendants of the early escapees from the palace.”
“My great grandfather escaped the palace when he was thirteen, he started the rebellion,” Aria muttered.
“So you’ve always had rebel in your blood?” Braith inquired as his finger briefly rubbed the back of her hand.
She smiled as she shrugged at him. “I guess so.”
Gideon shook his head as he took a sip of blood and looked at Braith thoughtfully. “If it hadn’t been for Ashby’s bomb, I think you would have come to see what your father was a lot sooner. I still can’t believe you survived that thing. You were a mess; your arm was barely attached, your torso… We all thought you were as good as dead.”
Aria didn’t like the picture that Gideon was painting. She couldn’t imagine Braith so vulnerable and broken. “So did my father,” replied Braith. “I think surviving it in the first place, even more so than mastering my blindness, was the thing that convinced him to let me live.”
“Your blindness?” Gideon inquired, though his gaze was focused on Aria.
“Don’t play stupid Gideon, I heard you questioning Ashby about us.” Braith’s body vibrated like a tuning fork as his chest pressed against her shoulder. His hand fell to her waist, pulling her possessively closer to him. “I think you’ve figured out the extremes that I will go to, and that there isn’t anything I won’t do, any one I won’t destroy, to protect her.”
The words, growled and cold, caused the hair on her neck to stand on end. Gideon quirked an eyebrow, a small smile of amusement flickered over his full lips. “Easy there watchdog, I mean no harm, to either of you. Like I said, we’ve been waiting for your arrival. I’m not going to ruin that now. Yes, I already figured out that there’s something going on between you two. I’m not exactly sure what, but I’m guessing that it’s far more than you’re willing to tell me right now, and that it has something to do with the return of your sight. Though, I think it will be best if this is kept from the others, at least for now.”
There was something more beneath his words. She suspected the “for now” was just to appease Braith, and that this was really something Gideon meant to keep secret for good. A part of her knew he was right, and that part terrified her.
“And you truly think things will be so different if you return now?” Aria inquired, proud her voice remained strong.
“I know they will be,” answered Gideon. The way he stared at Braith made it clear why he believed things would be different.
“Why would you even go back?” Aria gestured around the restaurant. “Everyone seems happy here, you’ve somehow managed to find a way for humans and vampires to coexist in peace.”
“Let’s be clear here, before the war we all lived in relative peace too. Most humans were oblivious to us, and we liked it that way. There were some that were a threat, some that hunted us. For the most part other humans thought those that hunted us were crazy, and there were so few of them that they weren’t all that threatening to us anyway. Some of the humans actually enjoyed our world, enjoyed sharing their blood with us. It was actually an agreeable time and place. The king forced us into the border towns and The Barrens. He ripped our world away from us and he slaughtered our families. I want revenge, I want my life back just as much as you want freedom and security.”
Aria hadn’t seen Gideon move until his hand was resting casually upon hers. She jumped slightly, as did everyone around them, when Braith’s hand slammed down upon Gideon’s. “I’ll only tell you this once, do not touch her.”
Gideon winced as Braith’s grip tightened on his wrist. “Braith,” Aria said softly.
He lifted Gideon’s arm from her and threw it back at him. Though he tried not to, Gideon finally gave into the urge to rub his brutalized wrist. Aria almost apologized to him but she remained silent as Braith smoothly moved her hand off the table. “Touchy aren’t we,” Gideon muttered.
The people around them slowly went back to eating. “I’m not saying it’s going to be easy,” Gideon continued. “It took awhile for the humans to trust us, years and a couple of generations to forge the easy coexistence we have now, but it works well for us. It will probably take even more time with your people. They’ve been even more oppressed, even more beaten and broken than the ancestors of the people here. However, their offspring, and future generations, won’t even know what it was like to be oppressed.”
Aria was breathless, her hand clenched around Braith’s as hope filled her. “The same way I don’t know what it feels like not to be oppressed,” she whispered.