Page 17 of The Shadows of the Dawn

She didn’t get the chance to respond before Nikola swooped in. “Moss won’t need to feed for a couple of sun downs with my blood running through their veins, but at some point, I will need to satiate them.”

At the mention of their name, Moss looked over, cutting off whatever conversation they were having with Liam. Asher said, “Yeah, I think Liam is good for a bit, too.”

“Wait, what?” Moss said. “What is he talking about?”

Asher opened his mouth to retell Liam’s dance with the Horned One, but Liam held up a hand with a sharp gaze. Asher arched an eyebrow. “No. I’ll explain.” His scarlet eyes flickered back to Moss, his cheeks flushed and his jaw set. Asher personally didn’t care that Liam had taken out all those humans. He was actually happy someone had, and that it happened to be someone who was already built to kill.

But how would Moss take it?

“The men who shot at the van are no longer following us,” Liam stated matter-of-factly. Moss’s eyes darted away, worrying their lip as they started to piece together what was about to be said to them. “I can’t really... remember everything. It’s all a blur of blood and rage. But I didn’t do it to stop them or to protect anyone. I did it because...” Liam shook his head, gesturing vaguely. “You died, Moss. One second you were there, and then you weren’t. And you weren’t even the one they were trying to kill.”

Liam’s voice warbled, his fists curling at his sides. He spun around, trying to hide the tears pooling in his eyes. Moss gaped at Liam for a second. Asher expected horror or disgust from the recently Changed.

But Moss surprised him by whispering, “You took out those cops... for me?” Liam glanced back tentatively, the red glittering. Moss rushed forward, tagging Liam in a crushing embrace.

Asher turned away, if only to give the two their privacy. He didn’t care one way or another if Moss could overlook Liam’s past or not. It wasn’t like they had to deal with him back then.

How those two viewed each other wasn’t the objective. Nikola, however, eyed them suspiciously. “I am still wary of leaving the newborns alone together, especially if Trish is away feeding. And I do not think they should be here as we feed.”

Asher thought his old man was being a tad bit paranoid, but Kat nodded. “I will venture out into the fields with them as the rest of you feed. I’ll return here when we meet up to lower the field.”

Trish glanced back at her brother still wrapped around Moss. “I’m—I’m not sure if I should—”

Asher cut her off. “Nah, save it. You need to take care of yourself, too. I mean, shit, how often can you really feed babysitting your bro all the time? Actually, color me curious. How do you manage to keep your brother from losing it while he got his teeth in a human?”

Trish cringed at the wording. “Uh, he doesn’t, you know... I’ll feed first, go back to him to take from me, then I usually find someone else.”

Nikola frowned in concern. “That isn’t sustainable in the long run, for you or for him.” Asher and Nikola shared a glance, with it the same thoughts about a future where Trish would eventually have to let go of that leash. But not yet. Liam being an untethered newborn Follower was not what they needed on the road. “Tonight, you feed. Come, your abilities will be put to good use.”

CHAPTER NINE

Nikola

Each night, they didn’t stop moving until the sky promised certain death with the hues of a pink dawn. It remained bitterly cold, but, thankfully, the weather was consistently clear. Winter winds did nothing to slow down stressed vampires.

The cover of the night had served vampirickind since the first whispers of history, and it continued to serve them now. “I wonder,” Nikola reflected to Asher as they curled up in an underground storm shelter they’d broken into, “if the God and Goddess cursed us with a deadly repulsion to sunlight in order to force us to stay hidden by the cloak of darkness.”

“Sounds like some fucked shit they’d do,” came Asher’s groggy response.

They did not encounter any more agents or patrols, though they made a point to bypass the major Midwestern cities. From afar, they could make out congested traffic, the borders of each city proper flashing with blue and red as police did checks of any suspicious vehicle coming or going.

Nikola couldn’t help but mutter to Asher that maybe they got lucky, having been forced off the road. Asher grunted in agreement. In his peripheral, Nikola noticed Moss looking over with pinched brows but otherwise did not share their thoughts. For the most part, they were quiet, keeping close to Liam and only chiming in with occasional news reports.

From what Nikola could gather, the twenty-first century Purging had already begun.

Were they too late?

“Even if only a single member of our children survives, it is never too late,” came the Goddess’s whisper each time that fear clenched Nikola’s stomach.

When Nikola expressed his worry out loud, Katsuki would remark, “It would’ve been impossible to cover up the existence of vampires after the collapse of Grander’s catacombs. But our kind has survived Purgings before, and we will again. That is our objective.”

Nikola wanted to ask Moss if the patrons spoke to them as well—why else would the two choose to share yet another vampire, seemingly at random?—but he didn’t want to jar the newborn more than they already were.

Just feeding from the open vein of Nikola’s wrist had taken some convincing despite Moss’s quiet heart and cold skin, as if the pain of thirst had little effect on them despite their newborn status. Of course, once they’d started feeding, they didn’t want to stop, and Nikola didn’t force them to, despite Asher’s protests about Nikola needing his strength as well.

Nikola would live. He was used to existing on the brink of malnourishment and yet had always kept up with Morrigan’s coven. He was far more concerned with the vampire he had created, who had no choice in the matter.

Once they hit the New York state border, Nikola phoned Morrigan, chastising himself for not having done so sooner. But in his defense, they’d barely given themselves time to chit-chat, let alone stop and make calls.

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