Page 29 of House of Pawns
Christian.
Trinity.
Cameron.
I know I will never win over Micah. He will remain loyal to Jasmine to the end. And, he may be my biggest threat because of that fact. He could be a complication I will have to deal with.
Markov. I once thought that if I could sway him to my side that I could do this. I’m already halfway there and yet I don’t have his loyalty. But he constantly seems intrigued by my tactics. I need him on my side, but I’m not sure how to win his loyalty.
I don’t think I understand Christian enough to know how to handle him. His father once ran the House, after my uncle was killed. The King publicly shamed his family. Will he stay with Jasmine out of habit and nostalgia? I feel I’m going to have to enlist Samuel to gain his brother’s loyalty.
Trinity hates me. I don’t understand why. I’ve never done anything to her personally. I’m quite sure she will have no desire to come to my House. But I am not sure I can get Cameron to join my ranks without Trinity. They are both young, him in blind love with the girl who thinks of him as nothing more than a friend. I’m going to have to think back in the ways of high school hormones to handle this situation.
Who do I go after first? Markov, Christian, or Cameron?
The air around me is cold and the night dark outside. I’ve yet to die and resurrect, but the more vampires that come to inhabit my home, the more nocturnal my schedule has become.
A small voice in the back of my head says it would make my life easier to simply get my death over with and embrace theinevitable. But there is something else, something basic and so very, very human that saysnot yet.
And I know. I justknow, that Ian will never look at me the same once I’ve resurrected. I hate feeling this way.
There is also the fact that as soon as I am a vampire, I will have to find another way to keep my subjects fed.
Every other day. That’s how often I let one of them feed on me. First Samuel. Second Lillian. And then Anna, just a few hours ago.
It’s a problem I will have to deal with soon. The more House members I gain, the less blood left for me. I will die eventually just trying to take care of them.
A commotion downstairs draws my attention. Hushed voices float my way and I strain my ears to hear them. I walk toward the door to hear what is being spoken.
“This will shift everything,” Rath whispers. “This will destroy her.”
“I will not keep this silent,” Anna says quietly, but with determination. “How would I even begin to hide it, anyway?”
“I will take care of it,” Rath responds. Because he can take care of anything.
“She needs to know,” Anna breathes.
I step out of the office and walk to the balcony that looks over the foyer. I rest my hands on the railing and look down on them. They stand close, the tension a physical thing between them.
“I need to know what?” I ask calmly.
Both their eyes dart up to my face. There is a darkness in Rath’s that says if I hear what needs to be said, there is no going back. But Anna is determined. And, in her face I see the first seedlings ofloyalty.
“There’s something you need to see,” she says. “But be prepared, it’s bad.”
For the first time in a while, my heart leaps a little higher in my chest. A slight sweat breaks out on my palms.
I descend down the stairs and just before I’m about to follow Anna out the front door, Rath catches me by my wrist.
“Just remember who you are, Alivia Ryan,” he warns.
But his warning, his reaction, just hurries my departure outside.
It’s still early, or rather, late, depending on how you look at it. It’s just after ten o’clock, so the sky is dark and damp. I cannot see much as I walk with Anna down my front steps and out onto the grounds.
There, between the steps and the fountain, in the middle of the circular driveway, is a large cement box. I squint against the dark, trying to make out details.
Details like the dirt that clings to most of its surfaces. Details like the marble headstone sitting directly in front of the box.
