Page 3 of Vampire's Breath

I lashed my tongue over the wound, closing and hiding it. She’d never know. She was still in my trance, and I met her gaze again. “Thank you.”

“You’re my favorite stop, Lorcan. Is there anything else you need?” Her words were robotic. “You seem upset.”

I bit my lip. “My brothers…”

“You’ve never told me much about them.”

I stifled a smile before sighing. I had told her on multiple occasions, but of course, she wouldn’t remember. “What is there to tell? Aiden has destroyed everything.”

In 1904, my younger brother, Aiden, found his heart on the wrong end of a hunter’s arrow. It should have killed him. Instead, our adopted brother Declan pulled the arrow from Aiden’s chest, and the wound healed as though it had been any other. From that day forward, he demanded we bow to him. And now, I heard he had this infernal plan to reorganize the supernatural world with him as king.

She smiled, a much friendlier smile than I deserved. “I’m sure that can’t be true.”

“But it is. He demands we recognize him as superior to us. And truthfully, he is. You couldn’t drive a stake into my heart and watch me live. But no one knows how he survived. And of course, Cormac keeps trying to fix it and reunite the family. Or he would if he could find me.”

She tilted her head. “Cormac?”

I sipped my tea. “My eldest brother. He’s always been determined to keep our family together.”

“But you’re here?”

I sat in my chair, my fingers turning white as they gripped my cup. I forced them to relax, my mind racing. “About as far as I can get from my brothers and Aiden’s madness.”

Aiden only used one method of persuasion: violence. Instead of pulling groups together, it turned them away and made his quest for power less effective, but he’d finally taken control of Charleston, which made everyone nervous. I’d watched from afar as his ambitions grew darker each year, a mirror of my fearof what I could become if I ever returned to their world. It was a fate a family as old as mine attempted to walk above, a tightrope that threatened to snap beneath us, throwing us into an abyss of blood and hell. It was a tightrope that Cormac kept attempting to repair for Aiden. I didn’t aspire to be a monster.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” Her fingers grazed my arm.

A shiver went through me at the contact. “Truthfully, there isn’t a lot I know. I try my best not to hear anything about them. Of course, sometimes I run into others of my kind who can’t help but tell me the rumors.”

“And rumors are not really what you want to hear.”

I shook my head and drew air through my nose, feeling the coolness fill my lungs. “No, they aren’t, but they are getting more prevalent and worse.”

She tilted her head. “How so?”

The words caught in my throat because they weren’t true as long as I didn’t speak them. “Aiden has united the factions and supernaturals in Charleston, forming an alliance he calls the Council of Charleston—with himself as its head.” I swallowed. “He rules them through force, torturing and murdering anyone who stands up to him.”

“That sounds bad.”

“They’ve moved toward New Orleans, the last city a group like that should attempt to take.” My shoulders rose and fell as I focused on my breath, a habit of comfort, not necessity. “The witches, vampires, and wolves there have worked harmoniously for a thousand years. He doesn’t stand a chance. If he thinks the Coven of the Blood was powerful… The New Orleans witches never lost their memories—their magic. And if they have to stop him from trying to take the city, they will go after the rest of the Clan O’Cillian after that.”

She bit her lip. “Isn’t there a way for you to stop him?”

I chuckled. “No, my dear friend, there is not. For a few years, I thought there might be, and then I saw how hopeless it was, so I came here. Of course, Cormac will try, but my guess is that he will fail. I’ll just stay in the shadows. I like it better anyway. Maybe someday Conall will follow my lead.”

“Who’s that?”

I glanced at my watch. She wouldn’t finish her route on time if she didn’t get going soon. “He’s the youngest. But we can talk about him tomorrow when I see you.”

“Of course. And I won’t remember anything except that I enjoy this stop because you give me tea.” She smiled in a way that made me worry she was becoming infatuated with me, a side effect of our daily interactions. If so, I’d have to compel the delivery manager to assign someone else. But right then, I had an herb to find.

Briar

Outside the window, the crunch of footsteps on the gravel reached my ears. I raised my eyes to the open door, pushing my chair back in anticipation of needing to help a customer.

“Briar?”

My heart lightened, and my shoulders relaxed at Amy’s familiar voice.

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