Page 150 of Gift from the Stone

“We’ll all go,” I say, standing with him.

“Then you two are staying for dinner. If you won’t be staying the night, you can at least have a meal with your parents before rushing back off,” my mom declares.

“We will,” I say, giving Caspian a death glare as he opens his mouth to argue. It won’t kill us to stay for dinner.

Making our way down the long stone hallway, we enter into the study, that’s the same as it’s always been. Looking around, I can’t help but think of Willow. She’d love this room. It’s large, but with the dim lighting and a fresh breeze, it’s comforting.

There are rows of bookshelves, many of which we have at the mansion as well, but some are my parents’ personal collections. A large sectional sits in the middle of the room for when they want to relax, and a desk massive enough that it can accommodate all five of them sits in front of the windows.

Dyce makes his way around the desk and unlocks the safe that’s hidden underneath and pulls out the information on the Forsaken Forest. He passes it off to Caspian, who immediately starts reading it over.

“Share, why don’t you?” I comment.

“In the original roundup, they deposited two hundred and eighty-seven vampires into the forest over the course of six months. Over the last five hundred years, another one hundred and forty-three have been caught and relocated there. Any that pop up or commit an unredeemable offense get sent straight there or sentenced to death, depending on the crime. There’s also a topographic map. The forest stretches about ten thousand acres,” he summarizes, not taking his eyes off the ledger.

Fuck.

Four hundred and thirty vampires may not seem like a lot when you think of the entire population, but that is a fuck ton in terms of the amount of E.F. members we’d have to take with us. Plus, scattered about in an unkept, darkened forest.

Our elements and gifts affect them substantially, but their abilities are far different than ours and they’re deadly.

Incredible, unmatched speeds, super fucking strength, and not to mention, if they get their fangs locked into you, you’re done for. Their venom strikes you immobile, completely helpless to it.

Your element or gift is pointless if you can’t see them coming for you until it’s too late.

“Donations?” I ask.

“Same time, midmorning, every day,” he grunts.

“That needs to change. The Mastery knows that’s the routine of their feedings, so they avoid the forest at that time. They need to be made random, unpredictable,” I say.

“I’ll let the runner know. I’ll dictate the times when the blood should be taken. Or we could just cut them off,” Neil says.

“No. If they’re all not feeding from what the Mastery brings in, then they’re relying on the blood donations. If we cut them off, we’ll be going in with even more unhinged, bloodthirsty vampires,” I argue.

I understand it may seem easier to just starve them out, but that won’t work. We’ve already learned that. They don’t just die. Like Willow saw in the vision. There’s only one surefire way to kill them.

Beheading.

“I’m going to head to the archives and start looking there for information on the elixir, as well as anything we may have on the Keeper line. If you all need me, that’s where you’ll find me,” Gaster announces, heading out of the study.

For the next few hours, me, Caspian, and our parents comb over any little detail they have in here of the forest and the top five families. With the number of vampires and the size of the forest, that’s about as deep as we’ll get since the territory has basically been abandoned to the creatures.

The top five families, although none of the information is new, I scrutinize every detail, looking for any inconsistency or sign of their betrayal.

The council is set up where it’s one family from each territory, including the central. They’re supposed to govern their territory and bring the concerns and needs of the people to the ruling family. But over the years, it’s become more of how can we grow our own standards rather than the standards of the people.

It’s fucking bullshit.

The council changes as the rulers change. Typically, the next heirs of the councilors step up, but I can assure you, when my Nexus steps up, we’ll be changing families completely. There’s no fucking way in hell Willow would work with Gima anyway. Two hundred years away or not, I don’t see the two of them ever being cordial enough to work together. Nor do I want to work with her.

Gima is a part of the Everglow family in Pyrathia. Every female born into their family has wielded a fire element, so many, many centuries ago, they deemed the volcanic land their home. Her family has been on the council for as long as my family has ruled. When their mindsets changed from protecting and promoting their people to we’re better than them all, I don’t know, but the apple didn’t fall far from the tree with Gima.

The Alewood family from Aeradora. Their Primary has a strong air element, one that almost matches my own. They have one son who’s around Draken’s age who was asked to come to Vito Academy, but his family felt it was best for him to stay closer to home and attend their third-year academy. They don’t speak much; very secretive people.

The Drover family from Terian. They’re a Nexus of different shifters, aside from wolves, and they’re a brutal bunch. Their mixture of animals makes them all dominant and needless to say they don’t play well with others. They also have a son, older than us, in his early forties.

The Tealwaters from Aquaria. Technically, their last name is just Teal, but they have a strong belief that the water element is the most important, most vital of the elements, so they had water added to the end of their last names. They have a daughter, very young, around twelve.

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