Page 8 of The Shadows of the Dawn

Asher pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, dawg. It’s not. Please elaborate.”

Katsuki focused on Trish as they answered. “You are so young, yet already your power of empathy nearly eclipses mine.” They gave a tight smile. “Nearly, but not quite. Do I think you could cause a regional hallucination? Well, no. But together? Possibly. Especially if we are to guide one another. Here is my proposition: We shall help get you back to Grander safely if you agree to help us protect Grander. The world is not safe for newborn vampires, I promise you, but if we can pull this off, Grander could be.”

Trish pursed her lips, considering the words. Liam scoffed and said, “Thanks, but no thanks. Just like the rest of you, we escaped Grander for a reason. We have no plans of going back.”

“Speak for yourself,” Moss snapped at the Blood Follower, resentment in their green eyes. Ooh, drama. “Maybe I want to go back. Ever think of that?”

Liam sputtered. He reached for the human, but Moss sneered and shook him off. Liam tried to speak, opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

“We’ll go back with you,” Trish said with a distant expression. “It’s the least I could do, considering I started this mess anyway. But... I don’t know if I’ll be able to help you with Grander. We’ll have to figure that out along the way, I think.” Liam watched his vote get vetoed by majority rule, his shoulders and expression dropping. Asher loved to see it.

Katsuki inclined their head in Nikola and Asher’s direction. “Well, our pair of prophets, what does the God and the Goddess think?”

That was a loaded question.

“The pilgrimage that will save vampirekind.” Those were the words the Goddess had whispered to Asher and were the words he repeated out loud. So that was it then. Nikola Kingston and Asher Black would be going back to Grander.

Katsuki helped lay out the plan.

“To travel by conventional means is out of the question. Too dangerous,” they explained, citing the footage of commuters being shot or detained at train stations and bus stops if suspected of vampirism.

“To travel solely on foot would take several days, if not weeks, with a human with us,” Kat went on. “Therefore, we steal a car.” Asher guffawed at the nonplussed tone. Meanwhile, other than the pinch of Trish’s brow, no one else reacted.

Despite being a half-breed himself, Moon Children never ceased to surprise him.

“To drive only at night would extend the travel time to maybe three days. And during that time, I shall help exemplify your Moon gifts.”

“Kind of reaching for the stars, don’t you think?” Veronica bit out. “Three days to teach two newborns—no offense, Asher—and Nikola how to make an entire city hallucinate?” Newborn? The hell? He was new to the Moon, but that didn’t mean... right? Ah, fuck it.

Katsuki shrugged. “Through story, example, and wisdom, I could help compartmentalize what they already know of their own abilities. I have found that the better one gets to know someone, the easier it is to combine your Moon abilities. I could use the night we had council with Lady Morrigan as an example. But I am no fool, Veronica. I am aware that it may very well fail.” Veronica made a disgusted noise and threw up her hands. “Please, listen. This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve achieved such a feat, though admittedly on a lesser scale.”

Kat’s eyes unfocused as they slipped into one of their trademark anecdotes. When someone as old as Katsuki started telling a story, you shut your mouth and listened. And that’s what everyone did.

“It was after World War Two, and I had found myself in the Irish neighborhoods of Brooklyn.” The twins, ever quiet, exchanged a glance. Asher pricked up his ears. What was up with these two, anyway? “The twins had fled with their creator to England after resurrecting them from the famine that had stolen their mortal life, only for the bombs overhead to destroy him. They had planned to travel to the States, so the twins carried out those plans without him. But without their creator, the undead children would oft be sloppy with their hunts. Human memory was relatively fresh when it came to vampiric activity, and after witnessing the absolute carnage of weaponry developed over the course of the World Wars, well, I had plenty of reasons to track them down. I did not expect to find those who were Changed far younger than what is universally deemed acceptable.”

The twins, flushing pink, shuffled closer together, clasping each other’s wrists. Asher couldn’t help but think of Mary, his stomach churning uncomfortably. She’d been Changed so young that she had lost her lucidity alongside her humanity, but the twins, physically a couple years older, had a hollow look in their eyes that told Asher that they understood all too well the implications of being forever trapped in underdeveloped bodies.

Yeah, he probably wouldn’t talk much either if it were him.

Katsuki continued. “Of course, if I had heard of the twins, it was because other people had told me about them. This was a problem I had to fix. Amnesia, you see. To induce amnesia is the gift of the Moon, a solution to the issues that arise when you let your victim live. Quite simply, I had cast it over the entire side of town the twins had haunted, using it to help teach them about their own abilities as well.

“We functionally existed as ghosts while I tutored them. We returned to those streets a few years ago for nostalgia’s sake and discovered we could still pass unseen beneath human eyes. The Moon spell I had cast, which I had all but forgotten about, had yet to expire.”

Katsuki gazed softly at the twins. It struck Asher that all three of them were tragically young, Katsuki Changed on the cusp of adolescence. Was that because humans considered the coming of age to happen earlier during ancient times? How did Katsuki perceive their own age, surrounded by physically mature adults?

The train of thought was derailed by Veronica jumping to her feet and storming out. Francis called her name, but he stopped following her when she hissed over her shoulder. Asher, undeterred by such flavor of threats, went after her.

“Leave me alone,” she barked without looking back, stomping down the hall with balled-up fists swinging at her sides. Asher clicked his tongue, sprinting until he was in front of her, stopping her dead in her tracks. She hissed again, canines glistening, but Asher didn’t even flinch.

“I’m not happy about it either, man,” he started.

“You’re not exactly fighting it,” Veronica snapped. Her voice warbled. “Is this some Blood shit with you and Nikki? Just can’t resist jumping back into the action even if it means ditching and breaking apart your families?”

Asher knew she was just trying to hurt him amidst her own hurt, but... she might have been onto something. It was no secret that Asher had loved the power of his former ranking. Did he miss it? The last several weeks had been a chaos of drugs and survival mode, so he hadn’t really had the chance to evaluate the life he’d left behind. A life he’d been good at. Would he want that life again under Queen Morrigan if he was able to have Nikola by his side?

Nikola, who would absolutely never want to live amongst a Blood coven ever again. There wasn’t a doubt in Asher’s mind that he loved Nikola Kingston more than he did the respect of disposable goons.

“Oh, Vee,” Asher said before his pause could grow noticeable. “Trust me, I would not willingly travel across the country with my dickhead of an ex unless a god was literally yelling at me to do so.”

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