Cassie nodded, pocketing the lighter.
Kahli looked back and forth at them, wondering where this change came from. Before she left, Cassie acted like she wouldn't hurt anything, and now she was okay with torching any vampires in her way. Brows knitting together, Kahli said, "You can't be serious?"
Cole spoke over Cassie, "I'm not defending our actions to you."
"But a bunch of them are under the King's thrall. You can just light them all on fire. It's not - " By a bunch of them, she meant Will, and other Bane that were property just as much as they were. Never in her life did Kahli think she would be speaking up against slaying vampires, but Bane were different. They had no choice. They were slaves, caught between the greed and blood of the old vampire regime.
"Not what?" Cole bit off. "Humane? They aren't human, Kahli." Lifting his gaze toward Cassie, he nodded once, affirming his original order.
Cassie looked back at Kahli. Something flashed in her friend's eyes. She wasn't sure if it was uncertainty or an apology. "Will's out there," she finally said. She left him lying in a heap of dead vamps. The look on Kahli's face said everything. Cassie opened her mouth, her head tilting to the side as though she was about to say she wouldn't torch Will.
But Cole cut her off, "He's one of them."
"He is not," Kahli bit back, rounding on Cole. "He's one of us."
"How stupid are you?" Cole scolded, "Will's a vampire. He's on their side."
Kahli's voice was deep and menacing. "Will risked his life for me. He's not a vamp. He's a Bane," there were a few gasps around the room. It was a secret she was supposed to keep. Will didn't tell anyone what he was. They all assumed that he was a vampire, but he wasn't. He aged, he bled, he breathed. Kahli couldn't have Cassie drop a torch on that pile of dead vampires in the courtyard. She couldn't let them kill Will. Kahli continued, her eyes locked with Cole's, "He's half human. You can't kill him."
"Even if he is a Bane," he said, voice stern, "there's no such thing as a half-breed. If he needs blood to survive, he's one of them, he's a vampire. We can't afford to make a mistake tonight, Kahli. All vampires are evil. You know this..." Cole's voice drifted off as he stopped speaking. He acted like explaining something so remedial to Kahli was absurd. Kahli hunted and killed vamps. Just because Will was a Bane, didn't mean he didn't have blood on his hands. To Cole, Will was a vampire. End of story. Disgusted, he turned to his sister. Glancing at Cassie, he nodded, repeating, "Kill him."
Kahli's body tensed, her fingers curling to fists at her sides like she'd punch Cole if he kept talking, but Cassie started hissing at them. The forcefulness of her voice made them both look at her in surprise. "Stop fighting. Now." She glared at them. After a second she said, "We're leaving. I'm not killing Will. He helped me too many times, Cole." Cassie knew that Kahli had feelings for Will. Although they hadn't spoken of it much, she knew. Cassie nodded at Cole and slinked out the door before he had a chance to say anything else.
Tension lined Kahli's shoulders and arms. "Have you forgotten what murder is, Cole?"
He rounded on her. Using his body, he shoved Kahli hard into the wall. The movement was fast and hard. Kahli's head banged into the plaster, pieces of it flaked off into her hair on impact, "Don't assume you know crap about my life." He held his arm on her neck. If he threw his weight into his arm, it would crush her throat.
Kahli couldn't let him think he was right, "There's no justification you can give that makes it right, ever. I have blood on my hands. Vamp blood. Human blood. It was my decision." She choked the words out. Cole's arm remained in place as she spoke. "Never for one moment did I pretend that it wasn't wrong."
"But you killed them anyway," he breathed. "You hunted the Trackers and picked them off one by one. You attacked Will and tried to kill him yourself when you first got here. You're honestly telling me, given the chance again, that you wouldn't slaughter the lot of them?"
Kahli's throat burned. Cole dropped her, and stepped away. Kahli fell forward, and sucked in air, choking. Cole was dangerous, more so than she thought. When she stood, Kahli straightened her spine and walked up to Cole. Inches from his face, she said with utter conviction, "I wish they never existed. I wish they never found us, never hunted us, never needed us to survive. If I had it to do over again, I'd want to kill every last vampire, but I wouldn't..."
With a bewildered look on his face, Cole asked, "Why?"
Kahli answered, "Because some of them are as trapped as we are. Some of them are worse off than me and you. Their families were slaughtered, too. They're weak and dying, starving to death. This isn't right. The way the world works is broken, Cole. You can't kill everyone in it and start over. Life doesn't work that way." Disgusted with him, Kahli shook her head and moved toward the door.
"I don't understand you," he confessed, but it sounded like an accusation. Cole fell in step behind her and Kahli pulled the door open.
Looking at him over her shoulder, she said, "Join the club."
Chapter 38
Reggie made the mistake of arriving alone. The Queen's guards were at his back, his insane sister in front of him. "Darling, Sophia. How's the evening progressing for you? Out for a bit of fresh air?" he asked smiling. The wind blew harshly, blowing his coat open.
Sophia stood before him in her flimsy red dress, the skirt blowing in the wind like a bloody streamer. Her lips pulled back into a smile, revealing her pointed teeth, "Nice to see you, brother. Have you brought me more gifts? Or perhaps returned the one that was stolen from me?" Sophia looked past him, but only saw her guards. When she looked back at her brother, she lifted a delicate brow to indicate she was waiting for a reply - and it better not suck.
Reggie clasped his hands behind his back and smiled widely. "You know, the strangest thing happened. When I left yesterday, I managed to get lost in the storm. Thomas drove us into the wasteland where I came across a young man and a red-headed girl."
Sophia stepped toward him, half excited, half angry. "Where are they? You found both of them?"
Reggie, beamed, nodding, not exactly sure how to play his hand since his salvation ran off and didn't come back. Damn that girl. "I did. They're here now. I set them loose once we were on the grounds. Will was bringing her back to you, when they disappeared. I heard there was some question of loyalty last night, and I wanted to present them to you myself, but I'm not a fool."
She folded her small arms over her chest, "Apparently you are, dear brother, because I've yet to see young William or the girl."
"Yes," he said nervously, but still smiling. "But a gift given is still a gift, sister. They are here. Your guards know it. They've seen them."
Sophia snapped her fingers impatiently, her red nails flashing in the moonlight. The guards that escorted Reggie in fell in front of Sophia, bowing lowly. "Did you see the girl? Or Will?"
The guards rose. "Yes, Your Majesty. They were both in the truck when your brother arrived. The girl fell out the door, and the boy ran after her. We sent a pair of guards after them."
"So," Sophia said, speaking like they were toddlers incapable of understanding her, "where are they?"
The guard's looked at each other for a split second, and then lowered their gazes to the ground. "On the grounds, My Queen." One of them said at last. "We had to stay with Regent Reginald. They were charged with capturing the girl and bringing her back."
The Queen listened, tapping her ruby red nails together, which made an annoying clicking sound. A gust of wind howled and she stopped. It yanked her dark hair hard, pulling the curls loose. Sophia felt her hairstyle unraveling, but she didn't move. She didn't touch. Staring at the two guards, she hissed, "Find them. Now."
The two guards turned to scurry off, but stopped in their tracks. The front door to the palace was thrown open and light cut across the dark snow, cutting a wedge of light on the sparkling lawn. Sophia's lips parted, before curling at the corners. "How sweet. My husband has returned."
"I don't think he's bringing you presents, sister," Reggie said after stopping next to Sophia, and leaning to her ear. "He tried to drain her, you know. Bit her neck, and nearly lopped Kahli's head off. Somehow I doubt it was because he was bottling her blood for you..." Reggie trailed off as he saw the massive vampire appear in the threshold and follow the King onto the lawn.
Sophia remained relaxed. Her dark hair blew in the frigid wind as she watched her husband walk confidently toward her. The King stopped a few paces from his wife. "Sophia," he said once, but didn't incline his head as was the custom. Slipping his hands into his pockets, the King stood there, looking dashing as tiny flakes of snow whipped around him.
"Jared," Sophia replied, using his name, rather than title, to show she was through with him. In all the years they were together, she tolerated much, but this was the last straw. Sophia sauntered to him, swaying her slender h*ps as she went. "It's been drawn to my attention that you tried to drain my prized possession."
The King laughed like it was funny, "Prized possession? I hardly think she was your prized possession. That would be your mirror, but things have changed, haven't they Sophia?" He smiled with his lips closed, intending to appear smug. Celticad's shadow stretched out across the ground behind him. Everyone was in place, except the girl. Where was she?
Sophia's lips curled back into a vicious smile, revealing her pointed fangs. She licked them with her tongue, a slow stroke, the way she did when she was younger, when they met. "They certainly have."
The King's eyebrows lifted as his lips pulled into a small smile, still careful not to reveal his fangs, "Well, this makes things more interesting, does it not?" He looked at Reggie who had drawn back when the King strode across the lawn. The vampire was standing in a patch of moonlight that doused his dark hair, forming a halo. Jared laughed. "The old ways are returning, and with the old ways, old times, eh, Reggie?"
Reggie inclined his head, his full lips twisting into a smirk, "So it would seem."
Sophia's eyes darted between the two and for the first time in a century, she wasn't certain she knew everything. They were referring to something, something from their past. But their lives didn't intersect. They never had. Sophia's gaze narrowed, "Enough of this. If you are here to take what is mine, do not dishonor me with such idle chatter. Jared, the butcher's child, son of a peasant - I gave you this life and I can end it."
The King remained calm, "Then you better do so, my dear, because I've had enough of you to last a lifetime or two."
The Queen sprang on him, moving faster than the eye could see. The King shouldn't have seen it, he shouldn't have had time to react, but he did. Stepping to the side, the Queen flew by, comically streaking through the air like a kite. Landing hard on her feet, Sophia screamed and rounded on Jared. "You drank her blood," she accused.
The King shrugged, "It was there and I had nothing better to do, since you removed all my previous pastimes."