Page 143 of The Midnight Order
“Milly, we’d both like two lattes, please.”
“Straight away, Master Corvin.”
Silver and I wait for Milly, who mechanically works to make our coffee, and before I know it, we’re seated together on the veranda, the steam of our coffee billowing out of the cups we each hold.
“I forget how beautiful it is back here. I hardly ever leave the lab anymore.”
“Were you a doctor before you were… before you died?” Silver asks, and although I find her turn of phrase odd, I note it to discuss with Lowell later.
“I was. I was a medic in the Army.”
“So, as a vampire, you honed your craft?”
“I did. I learned more and more as modern medicine evolved. I still think some older remedies work better than any chemical-laced cream or pill.”
“I agree with you there.” She sips her coffee, her eyes traveling over the lawn.
It’s not enough that she’s had four vampires disrupt her entire world; now, she’s in a crisis of self and is questioning her entire reality.
I hate that we had any part in it.
But it all feels… fated.
A rare word for me. My rational, scientific brain doesn’t understand fate or the universe, but being a vampire, I understand that there are things out there that we don’t know and can’t explain.
I’m one of them.
“For years, I studied myself,” I tell her. “Tried to determine a way back to my humanity. Tried to find a cure for vampirism. Tried to find a reason for my existence.”
“And?” She turns, pinning me with her piercing blue eyes.
“And nothing. I found nothing. Each vampire’s genes are specific to them, and there’s no rhyme or reason for why we are still alive. It’s something in the blood, something untraceable to even modern science.”
She swallows, setting her cup down as she stands and walks to the stone balcony overlooking the grounds below. We’re not far above the sprawling lawns, but elevated enough to give the feeling of floating.
“Do you think she would’ve ever told me who I was?”
Her question is heavy, and I don’t know how to answer it. “Maybe. We’d have to know first why she was hiding the truth and who she was to you.”
She shakes her head as she turns, leaning back on the cold stone. “I’m so sick of the tangled web of secrets and the bullshit.”
It’s the first time I’ve seen her so… raw.
“I’m sure that you are. Maybe the box holds all the answers.”
“Maybe. But it won’t tell me if I’m Lowell’s key, and it isn’t going to tell me if triggering my gene is a good idea.”
“No. It won’t,” I agree, laying out the cold, hard facts. “But it might give you insight into who you are so that you might better understand what direction to go in.”
“You know, Asher says that you’re annoyingly smart sometimes, and I think I have to agree with him on that.”
I grin. “Is that right?”
She grips the front of my shirt, tugging me closer until I look down at her, my hands on the chilled stone on either side of her.
Our breathing mixes in a fog between us. “Did you get our test results back?”
I nod. “I did.”
