Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 52247 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 261(@200wpm)___ 209(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52247 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 261(@200wpm)___ 209(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
“What?”
“She survived the massacre. Was picked up by another pack, lived out her days there. But she told the story of the attack to the leaders of her new pack. I can send ya the recording.”
“That’d be good. Did you listen to it? What did she say? “
“We did, lass,” he says in a gentle voice.
I swallow, my mouth is so dry. I still feel weak. “Tell me.”
“It was a vampire attack. Just one, but he was strong.”
“He?”
“She describes him.”
My gut cramps so hard I double over. “Yes?” I gasp. Please don’t say it’s Lucius. Please.
“It’s not Lucius,” Declan says as if he can read my mind. I slump back in my seat, my head so light it could float away. It wasn’t him.
My stomach clenches but the pains are weaker. My emotions are wreaking havoc on my body. Either that, or I ate something bad...over twenty four hours ago. I shouldn’t be reacting so strongly.
My first instinct shouldn’t be to clear Lucius’ name, but there’s no changing how I feel.
“At least, I don’t think it was,” Declan continues. “She described a big, powerful vampire, but this one had only one eye.”
The dizziness is back. “What?” I snap, my hand gripping the phone so hard the plastic cracks. “One eye? You’re sure?”
“He wore an eye patch, but in the struggle a wolf ripped it away. There was nothing where his eye should be.”
The image from my dream blows up in my mind’s eye. The dark shape in my childhood bedroom, stalking me after killing my parent’s. The one-eyed vampire. Xavier.
“You’re sure?” I whisper. If this is true, it changes everything.
Chapter 9
Five minutes later, I’ve watched the recording Declan sent several times. The old lady is a smaller and frailer version of the she wolf I recognize. She was part of my old pack. My parents had her babysit my sister and me a few times.
On camera, she’s unfocused and confused, her story meandering until she comes to the details of attack. She tells the tale with the growing horror of someone who can never forget the atrocity they lived through. Someone who still has nightmares of their pack’s slaughter. Her description matches the image of the old picture. Bodies lying on the floor--she was one of the last to be wounded, and she fell and played dead until the attacker left. When she describes the attacker, her words are clear: a large, male vampire with scars on his face and one eye.
I replay the recording a few times, even though I don’t need to. She said it over and over: the one-eyed vampire. He did it. He had one eye.
Scars and physical build are easy to recreate as part of a physical disguise, but there’s no faking that one damning detail. How many one eyed vampires are there?
Declan sent me the details of the pack who made the recording, so I can follow up, but I believe this account. There’s no reason for Lucius to lie, to create this long con. And this old lady isn’t the only witness. Deep down, suppressed until they appear only in my darkest dreams, I have my own memories of the attacker.
All these years. All the nightmares, night after night. Sleeping with a stake to protect myself from the vampire in the room. Not Lucius.
Xavier.
It was Xavier who came to my family home and killed my parents, did away with my siblings. Xavier who took me away for foster care to raise me until he was ready to train me to kill. But first, Xavier mind wiped me so I wouldn’t remember.
Except I knew. Deep down I knew. I never let down my guard.
Movement outside the car makes me jump. A bird flies into the shelter of mesquite branches. The sun has sunk behind the mountains, taking away all warmth. The last dying rays slant through the park, the world holding its breath before plunging into night.
I dial up Declan. I don’t know why. I need to talk to someone.
He answers without a greeting. “Did ya watch it?”
“Yes.” My voice must be thick with grief because his softens.
“I’m sorry, lass.”
“It’s okay. I’ll be okay. I had a dream actually. Xavier killed my family and wiped my mind so I wouldn’t remember. He returned and killed my pack. He took me and raised me…” I have to swallow several times to wet my throat enough to continue. “He told me Lucius did it. He promised me revenge, but all the while it was Xavier who killed them…” Because of Georgianna, I realize. He wanted to avenge her death, and when he found me, a girl who looked like her, he set his plan in motion. All those years for one long con.
Declan is silent, as if shocked by the turn of events. I can’t blame him. I lived through it and I still find it horrifying.