Page 91 of The Midnight Order
“What family?” I ask, searching his face as it pales a fraction of a second before he answers.
“Tenebris.”
I sit back, feeling my face drain of the little blood coursing through it. “No fucking way.”
“I ran the test four times.”
“Tenebris? Who were they?” she asks, flicking her gaze between us as we chew on the news.
“The most powerful vampire line there ever was. The original line.”
“Uhh—” She laughs, shaking her head and crossing her arms. “You’ve both lost the fucking plot. That’s not possible. Like I said, not a vampire.” She lifts her lip and shows us both her teeth.
“The gene in vampires who are born works differently, unfortunately,” Corvin tells her, shoving his hands in his pockets to hide their quake.
If he’s right, if she’s a Tenebris, she’s not only the only one living, but she’s more powerful than all four of us combined.
He’s right to be afraid of her.
“How does it work?” she asks, her voice shaking.
“Someone has to feed you,” I reply for him when Corvin seems unable to do so. “Someone has to awaken the gene.”
“Let me ask you something,” I add, standing and buttoning my suit jacket as she pins me with her baby blues teeming with fear. “What do you remember from your childhood?”
“I—” she swallows thickly. “I’ve never actually told anyone this before.”
I nod. “Go on.”
“I don’t remember my childhood.”
“None of it?” Corvin asks, stepping closer to her now, his fear tossed to the wayside as his curiosity piques.
“Not one blessed moment,” she replies, and I hear both his heart and mine collectively skip an off-center beat as the air in the room charges.
“Who am I?” she asks, tears rolling down her beautiful cheeks.
“We don’t know.”
It’s all the answer I can give her as we mull over the possibility that she’s a walking relic who needs to be locked away.
For her safety and ours.
Chapter 24
Silver
My heart feelslike it’s trying to beat its way out of my chest. It’s almost like it no longer wants to be a visceral, quintessential part of my body, yet it’s the very thing that might hold the answers to who I am.
I’ve never been able to recall who I was; my childhood is locked away deep in my brain, and the root of the night terrors lies in wait. When Lowell told me they could hypnotize me, I thought about it. I did. But the idea of scratching the surface of something that I can’t ever put back once it’s unleashed scared me.
It still scares me.
“You remember nothing? Who were your parents?” Corvin asks, leading me to a chair in front of Jasper’s desk and helping me to sit.
Instead of standing, he crouches, making himself seem smaller. Making himself seem approachable.
He’s a vampire, for fuck’s sake.
