She couldn’t understand how Taverin was actually peaceful—like she wasn’t scared at all, even though she’d been told all about Rein’s transformation, love for Traith; really everything. It was, in reality, rather inspirational in the way it was handled by the girl.
Rein weakly lifted her arms and let her hair down, still seated in the giant armchair she’d fallen asleep in while talking to Taverin. Her head was sore from where the pins were holding her hair up. She scratched her head softly, enjoying the alleviating feeling of her hair down and long around her face. She stretched out her legs, untucking her feet from underneath her, and then stood. She tried smoothing out the wrinkles in her grey dress that resulted from how she’d slept, but found it useless.
Although she didn’t want to leave the girl alone, Rein wanted to find Traith. After looking once more at Taverin, Rein left the chamber for the hall, trying very hard not to let her boot heels click too loudly. It had to be extremely late; the spare chamber had been so dark that it obviously was still some time in the night.
She opened the door to the master bedroom as quiet as she could, in case
Traith was asleep too. He fidgeted at the noise of her entrance but eventually grew still. Since she wasn’t tired, she simply walked past the bed and out onto the balcony. She leaned on the rail, the wind blowing her hair around her face. She began thinking.
Her mind was developing at a tremendous rate. It was almost as if she
could
see with both her eyes
and
her mind. It was like an unfathomable advancement in vision and in thought. She could know things if she wanted. She could change people’s minds. She just
could
now; no training was needed. It was just a matter now of channeling that near limitless power. And there were so many questions she had about it; so many things she wished could be answered to make her life a bit easier. But that was impossible.
The only answer she
had
received so far was that she needed to
enhance
whatever power she had. It was a close call at her old home; the Mardinial Council, or someone from it, had almost been there. If they’d come, there would’ve been an altercation, and she would’ve had to fight—she would’ve had to use her powers against them.
Mistress had said she would become extremely powerful; she realized she needed to begin that transformation by becoming stronger in her heart. She was a vampire. She had to work with it.
She shook her head and held it, resting her weight on the stone railing. More than just her mind was on her mind, too. Taverin—how was she going to adjust to having a sister? How was Traith going to adjust to having a young girl with him? He wasn’t used to people, especially not adolescent girls.
A rustling, then a masculine moan sounded. She turned from the night sky and her thoughts and realized she had left the balcony doors wide open. Traith must have felt the breeze, and she saw him sit up slowly, staring at her.
He murmured her name and got up, fumbling out the doors in a haze. The wind blew through his hair, and his shirt was off so his scar-scattered muscles rippled sleekly down his smooth abdomen.
She touched his face, and he gently held her wrist. “I want to know something.”
“
Do you?” he asked as he rubbed his eyes, his words slurred a little by the lingering fatigue. “What’s that?”
“
Tell me about the people in the other—the Mardinial Council. Explain them, and how you know them.”
He smiled in his perplexity. “Why?”
She paused in thought. “They were almost there, Traith,” she murmured. “I almost had to fight them, and I wasn’t prepared. The only conflict I’ve ever had was with Dr. Campbell, and that was alarming enough. I would’ve been utterly useless facing more than one immortal;
experienced
ones nonetheless. I’ve still only got the knowledge that an average twenty year old girl would.”
“
Not really,” he said. He sighed and stepped back a little. “There are four you should know about, I suppose. The rest are just aggravating creatures that seem to multiply. Tanya is the Mardinial First Hand, a vampire. She’s nasty. Cruel—nearly worse than Helena, whom you’ve yet to meet. Helena is just hideously seductive. Terrifying yet beautiful. At least to men, for some reason.”
“
Beautiful?”
“
In the most grotesque way, yes,” he said, laughing. “There’s her ‘husband,’ a werewolf, Ben Smoke.” Traith shrugged. “Ben is mostly controlled by Helena. He’s her toy. And the oaf is completely void of any personality. And lastly, there’s my sister.”
Noting the way he said that, Rein didn’t press him further. “So what would they want Taverin for?” she asked, recalling the eerie feeling that beleaguered her just before they’d left the house.
“
She is your blood, Rein,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Anything connected to you, now, could be in danger. It hurts to say, but…maybe you should be thankful you don’t have family.”
She didn’t reply, then, but looked at him. He was right, in a sense, but it
did
hurt to say. He was staring out into the wood, and despite the severity of the situation, she couldn’t help but experience those wildly in-love feelings that were excited each time she looked at his perfectly toughened face, worn from years of fighting, yet so handsome.
“
They wanted to attack differently by attacking your heart,” he said, completely oblivious to her desiring thoughts. “They don’t want us
dead
—or, at least not worse off than we already are—but they want us. Just, for some reason, not yet.”
She was slightly confused, but she didn’t question him for a moment. He looked so lost in thought, like he was trying to figure things out.
He turned his gaze to her, and it was grave. “Rein, that council has thousands more people than our own does. Especially now, after my absence. They destroyed half of our council because I wasn’t here.”
“
How, exactly?” she asked, lifting herself to sit on the rail.
“
Battles,” he whispered pensively. “Assaults on us. We don’t create people like they do, that’s what differentiates us. Apparently our council did
nothing
while I was gone. They lost everything each time they fought; each time they tried to help some victim that the other council had taken. I didn’t realize that I was that powerful in this council, but apparently I am—or was.” He paused. “I noticed when I returned, with you, that many of those I once knew were gone. Lorena is the only one left that I knew before I was cursed. She has always fought alongside me whether I asked her to or not.” He smiled. “She never acted this desperate until she recognized I’d found you.”
“
How reassuring,” Rein said, smirking.
“
She gets her head in the game in the right times, but every other waking moment it’s in the clouds.”
Rein nodded, but couldn’t say anything. She didn’t entirely like what he’d said, but she would get over it. He was honest, and she knew that.
“
And
you
,” he abruptly enunciated. “You are something so different for this council, Rein. You’re becoming so powerful.” He nearly laughed in amusement. “I mean, you can do almost anything you want with your mind. I’ve yet to see you do the same thing twice! In thousands of years, even, Mistress said she has never seen anything like you before.”
“
I hate it when you do that,” she said quietly, hopping off the rail.
He looked surprised. “What?”
She rubbed her finger down his neck. “You confuse me. So now, I believe, I should just stop asking questions and state what I do know.”
“
And what’s that?” he asked, pulling her close, seemingly forgetting any and all of his thoughts about the councils.
“
Well,” she said, smiling and cocking her head to the side, “you
tempt
me so. I cannot be entirely serious with you right now.”
His arms enveloped her. “And how am I tempting you?”
“
Well you stand there and give me full view of your handsome face, and you have no shirt on…”
“
I assure you I had no intention of distracting you by my half-dressed state and what you call ‘handsome’ features, darling.”
“
You assure me? Oh, thank you, Traith. I love your archaic speech.”
He laughed in the dawn at her teasing response. “
Archaic
?”
“
In the best way,” she murmured, drawing him close. “A man that looks so young that speaks so old-fashioned. I do adore it.”
“
I doubt I can marry someone who mocks me,” he said wryly.
“
And then you always ruin romantic moments with your sarcasm,” she said, crossing her arms in a huff, smiling at him and leaning back on the railing.
He chuckled, winning back her retreated form and holding her. “My sarcasm changes the fact that I’m romantic, does it? My towering opinion of you doesn’t ever change that quickly.”
“
My opinion of you never
changes
,” she protested.
“
Not even when nearly everything I try to do goes wrong? You know, I’m more like a lure for disaster.”
Rein turned and faced the blackness, and she felt his head rest on her shoulder, and his hands make their way around her waist.
“
You know, I never thought of it before,” he murmured.
“
Of what?”
“
Purchasing your home.”
She spun around and gazed at him fast, thrill hitting her. “
What
?”
“
I mean, why not? Hall doesn’t need it; not in his state. You have money of your own even without mine to the point that we could technically buy anything in this world. I know it means a lot to you, and even if we live here, we always have a place in England, where our hearts belong. It’s perfect. And because we aren’t always there, we can hire live-ins to take care of it.”
“
Really?” She felt chills run down her body in excitement. “Traith, I—that would be so—
oh
!”
He went to say something, but it was muffled under the restraint of her passionate kiss. He laughed and returned it by dipping into her, holding her body within his.
“
You really are wonderful, do you know that?” she gasped, holding back and almost shaking with ecstasy.
He shook his head and laughed. “Why are you out here anyway?” he asked. “Didn’t you want to sleep?”
“
I’m not very tired.” She rested on him, and he took her up in his arms. She laughed. “But I’m not in opposition to you
luring
me into bed, being the
lure
that you claim you are.”
“
I don’t think I need to lure you,” he said. “You seem willing enough.”
They faded into the darkness, the cool wind caressing them as they turned to leave the balcony.
Chapter 52
A bird song filled the quarters despite there being no window. Taverin heard him singing through the stone walls and iron and glass balcony doors. She awoke from her particularly peaceful sleep the next morning with ease. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times. But when she sat up, she felt her stomach knot. She glanced around her.
She was in that lavish chamber.
She slowly began remembering what had happened last night. Nervousness swelled inside her, and she felt ill. So much had gone on that she felt lost for a moment. She breathed in deep, settling her heartbeat. She had been so exhausted.
Taverin Badeau thought back on her relatively recent departure from France, when that man came in and said she was his. She was, she supposed, but he had still taken her from the only world she knew: Cherbourg, France.
Cherbourg
…where handsome girls met dashing men, where theater and balls were common, where she was able to sit at parties and listen to beautiful piano music with friends and the suave William Treau.
William
.
No, she would not see William again. She hadn’t seen William since she left France months ago. And on top of it all, she had been thrown into a world she had never thought to be real. A terrifying world. A world in which neither she nor anyone like her could ever feel safe.
But she now had a sister. Rein Pierson. Almost a brother-in-law, too.
She put all doubt aside; it was going to be her first real day in the Harker Castle, and she was anxious to explore it. It was so vast. It had to be. The chamber she was in was as large as a ballroom!
She shoved off the sheets and, in her bare feet and nightclothes, ran into the bathroom. The air was warm, yet the stone cooled her feet. She smiled into the mirror of the washroom and saw that there was a hair rat already placed on a stand next to her. She curled and tightened her hair into a bun with it and then brushed her teeth with a toothbrush. When she had finished, she walked back to the bedroom and noticed her slippers placed under the large, medieval bed. She yawned, tiptoed to the bed, and grabbed the slippers, tying the laces around her ankles. She spent a few moments admiring the silk and lace surrounding the exterior of the shoes; they were slippers her father had bought her. She walked over to the door leading to the hallway and opened it, but she didn’t walk out. She turned and quickly ran to the balcony windows and opened them. She wanted to see what it looked like out there, and how high she was.