You’re free to leave. And I’m feeling magnanimous, so I’l let your brother loose, too. I feel you may have new enemies to keep you busy now,” he said with a demonic laugh.
In the moments since he’d eaten the heart, Samuel had changed. He was tal er and stronger, and seemed to be glowing from within. I tried to avoid staring in his eyes, doing anything to resist potential compulsion. Damon blinked, for once at a loss for words.
Samuel kicked Mary Jane’s prostrate body and snorted derisively. “What’s one less witch? You al should feel jealous that she died and got to escape this slum. If I were a nice man, I’d give you the same opportunity.” At this, Jemima and the other orphans fled the scene, terrified. I didn’t blame them. “But I have much to do, and none of it includes spending a second longer here than I have to,” Samuel concluded. He roughly picked up Seaver’s stil -
bleeding body and hauled it over his shoulder, walking out and making sure to close the door gently behind him. I heard the whinny of a horse, fol owed by hoof-beats.
Damon and I locked eyes, and as if by mutual agreement I grabbed the stil -keening Lady Alice, and Damon grabbed Lavinia. Together, we made our way to the river. With every footstep, I imagined the agony Mary Jane must have felt in the instant her chest had been ripped open and her heart pul ed from her body. I wanted to dive into the inky blackness of the Thames and swim as far as I could, to where the river met the Atlantic and I could swim onward to America.
Final y, when we had put enough distance between us and the house, we stopped. For the moment at least, we were safe. Unlike Mary Jane…
I careful y placed Lady Alice on her feet.
“I’m sorry,” I said, knowing the words meant nothing.
Anger flashed in her eyes.
“You did this,” she spat.
“I tried my best. I kil ed Seaver. What else could I have done?” I said. My voice was angry, not soothing.
“You could have kil ed Seaver before he removed the spel on Mary Jane. That was your job. But no, you had to go after the glory and try to kil Samuel. That wasn’t your place, vampire,” Lavinia said, her voice dripping with hate.
“Calm down. You need to be rational,” Damon said, placing a hand on Lady Alice’s shoulder.
“Stop!” she screeched. “Don’t touch me. None of you touch me. You broke your word. Stefan was supposed to fol ow our plan. He was supposed to kil Seaver. He did it too late and ruined everything. And in doing so, he broke the spel . No more vinculum. We have nothing to do with each other now, vampire.”
Lavinia nodded, her eyes hol ow. “Stefan gave his word Mary Jane would be protected. She wasn’t. How could you have been so foolish? Only thinking of yourself, and of your brother, when an innocent girl had to pay the price,” she said in disgust. “Vampires can’t be trusted.”
“I’m sorry!” I said again, helplessly. “But we can’t just lash out at each other. Don’t you see? We have to work together. None of us are safe. Seaver may be dead, but Samuel’s stil out there, and now that he can compel vampires…”
“Then maybe you’l final y learn how to fol ow directions.
We’re done, vampire,” Lady Alice said, her voice cold as ice. Lavinia nodded, glaring at me in silent judgment.
“We’ve just begun,” I shouted, desperate to get them to realize how vital it was that we work together. “Don’t you see? He can compel anyone now. And that’s why we need you more than ever. We need to come up with another spel . Anything to hold him back. And then Damon and I wil …”
“Wil do what? Nothing. You’l do nothing. I want you both to suffer the way Mary Jane did,” Lady Alice yel ed.
“Deletum vampiro!” Lavinia intoned, flinging her arms in our direction. As she said the words, the ground beneath us cracked and green weeds began sprouting through the new openings. They quickly grew thicker and tal er. Tiny purple flowers sprung from the green stems, and a sickly sweet smel fil ed the air. They were vervain plants, larger then I’d ever seen, and they were circling Damon and I, creating a cage. Terror flooded my veins as the scent stung my eyes and made me feel weak. I wanted to col apse, to al ow the vervain to overpower me. That was what the witches wanted. It would be so easy to succumb, to final y al ow the death I’d escaped for so long to overtake me. Maybe I deserved it.
But not as much as Samuel. The thought tugged against my brain and made me force myself to my knees. Then, I fel back. I was too weak.
“Let’s go!” I felt a tug on my arm. Damon.
“I can’t!” I protested. The vervain had rendered me nearly unconscious. I felt as though my skin was separating from my body. The only thing I could focus on was the pain penetrating the very core of my being. It was as if I were being burned alive, and I could hear my breathing, wet and ragged, below the sound of Lavinia’s demonic laughter.
“Get up!” Damon commanded as he dragged me to my feet and pul ed me past the vervain plants. The pain intensified to a place beyond agony. I felt my body being hoisted on top of Damon’s shoulders as he broke into a run.
My eyelids fluttered closed. My mind wandered back to Mystic Fal s on a moonless night.
I was frantically riding Mezzanotte through the forest, an unconscious and transitioning Damon splayed over the saddle. Jonathan Gilbert and the other townspeople were in pursuit close behind us. Mezzanotte galloped, jumping over felled trees and sidestepping branches. But she was wounded by their bullets, and foam spewed from her mouth. The townspeople’s anger spurred their adrenaline, and they were gaining on us. I drove my heel into Mezzanotte’s flank as another fallen tree blocked our path.