Page 16 of The Shadows of the Dawn

“Where the hell are we?” Moss groveled out. They looked around the room, their nostrils flaring, noticing their heightened senses. Asher knew from experience that they were looking at individual dust motes, grimacing at every smell of wood rot and wet soil, listening to the sounds of burrowing insects and foraging mice.

It had to be overwhelming, from what Asher could remember, but it seemed that Moss wasn’t suffering the immediate, crushing thirst of a newborn Blood Follower.

Moss’s heart rate ticked upwards, their eyes darting about anxiously as they began to fully wake up.

Liam and Trish exchanged panicked glances. Newborns were unpredictable, and none of them had much experience with hybrids, so they would need to tread carefully.

Nikola took over, kneeling and speaking with soft words. “What is the last thing you remember, Moss?”

Moss shook their head, as if to rattle free the disjointed memories. “Uh, the SUV. Being followed... gunshots. Liam... losing control of the vehicle... darkness. Just darkness.” Moss swallowed hard. “We crashed, didn’t we?”

Nikola nodded gravely. “We did, but we all got away. But you, well, you were pretty roughed up when we got you out of the rubble.” Moss narrowed their two-toned eyes. “You died, Moss, for a brief moment. We had to... we had to do what we had to do to bring you back. You are a vampire, Moss.”

Moss’s body went still, as still as only the undead were capable of.

“Are they red or silver?” Moss whispered.

Nikola looked over at Asher. “You are like Asher and me. You are both Moon and Blood.” Moss cursed, examining Trish and Liam standing close to each other, as if studying the differences between them.

“Who did it? Who Changed me? You?”

Nikola hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Yes. I was, uh, the closest to you.” Asher noticed that Nikola was dodging anything to do with Liam going feral. He was sure Moss would ask what had happened to their pursuers later.

But for now, Moss didn’t say anything. Asher registered Nikola’s nerves spike, manifesting in the form of anxious rambling. “You are taking this far better than I had at first. You’ve had the benefit of being exposed to the vampiric world. I spent my first hours accusing my vampiric father of being a mad man.”

Moss’s laugh was sharp with sarcasm. Nikola winced, realizing he’d said the wrong things. Asher crept closer. “Your vampiric father? Oh, what? You think you’re my father now? Newsflash, I already have two fathers, and now I can’t even return to them without putting their lives in danger.” A sob broke from their chest. “Christ, I didn’t ask for any of this. You took my choice away from me!”

While Asher understood where the kid was coming from, he didn’t appreciate the hurt causing Nikola’s features to drop. “Yeah, sorry,” Asher said. “You were a bit too dead to ask permission. That what you want? Would you rather be dead than undead? It’d be real easy to fulfill that wish, y’know. Dawn is soon. Solar suicide is only painful for a few seconds. Or I could do the honor.” Liam growled, his hackles raising, but no one called out the bluff.

Their jaw clenched and unclenched. Asher and Moss had a long staring battle that Asher won when Moss looked down at the floor. “I’m not going to thank you,” Moss mumbled.

“We ain’t asking for thanks,” Asher said, coming up behind Nikola and reassuringly squeezing his shoulders. “But this is your reality now, so it’s best to get your shit together until we are a little more settled.”

Moss’s scarlet eye flared with a light Asher recognized all too well. No one else saw it but him.

He was the only one not exclaiming in surprise when Moss lunged. Asher expertly sidestepped, clotheslining their throat. As they gagged, he swept their leg and pinned them to the ground, a knee on their chest and a hand around their throat.

He held up the other hand at Liam without looking at him, knowing the guy was seconds from foolishly intervening. “There it is, the Blood anger,” Asher said calmly, ignoring the way Moss fruitlessly thrashed under his restraint. “You’re going to chill out, kid. Because I said so. There we go, we can do this the easy way, eh?” Asher was beginning to find that narrating his powers of manipulation helped to guide it, as if his words were a tool, or as if the suggestions made them more effective. Moss settled down, eyeballs rolling and breaths sawing.

“I know that little voice goading you to kill. I got it, too, and it used to be way louder. But listen. We ain’t the Horned One’s, not entirely. If we wanna keep the Moon’s grace, if you don’t wanna be the mindless monster you were so scared of becoming, we can’t kill to feed, and we can’t kill every bastard that pisses us off. For Blood Followers, the act of taking a life gives us power, but we ain’t fully Blood, so that doesn’t apply to us.” Asher felt Liam’s gaze sharpen, and he resisted arching an eyebrow at him. “It’s a fucked-up world out there for creatures like us—kill or be killed. Sometimes we gotta kill to protect ourselves and our covens. But that’s the only exception. And, unfortunately for you, I ain’t that exception right now.”

Asher wasn’t really the type to talk newborns down, but something seemed to get through to Moss. They let out a huff, turning their face away and audibly grinding their teeth. Eh, they’ll come around. Asher stood up off them and theatrically brushed off his knees.

“Dawn soon,” he said to Moss, who acted like they weren’t listening. “We best get some sleep.”

Now that the drama had passed, everyone began to settle down as the fatigue of the rising sun settled in. Moss laid down on the very edge of the nest, as far from everyone as possible. Nikola gave them their space, floating toward Asher. But Asher was fixated on Liam.

The newbie Blood Follower had just had a taste of the rush of power that came from killing. So, Liam was stronger, and Trish would be weaker by tomorrow night.

With that in mind, and Nikola’s hand in his, Asher prepared for bed closer to Liam, well within reach.

Moss was quiet and subdued by dusk. Liam came over to Moss, hovering over their shoulders without touching, talking in hushed whispers. Asher could’ve spied with ease, but he let the two be, turning instead to Katsuki and Nikola.

“Y’all managed to keep us hidden throughout the entire day,” he said. “Color me impressed. How about we take it a step further and feed while we can before we hit the road?”

Kat considered it with the tilt of their head. “Would be unwise to let the opportunity pass us by. But we must consider that we have newborns under our care.”

Asher snorted in agreement. “Yeah, with three-fourths of Blood between them.” Asher turned toward Trish, who was hanging out nearby and doing a piss-poor job of pretending that she wasn’t eavesdropping. “You need to drink, too, y’know.” She jumped as he addressed her. “Don’t neglect yourself.”

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