Page 24 of Ashvale: The Vampire's Kiss

How had Emerson known? What did she think I could do? Novalie would become a member of the undead—except, her parents hadn’t walked away yet, that same slim blade still sat in her mother’s hand. The other vampires waiting for the meeting to start had begun to scent the blood, turning around with expressions ranging from interest to outright hunger. Others merely looked entertained and this only increased when I snapped her mother’s wrist. The blade fell to the floor and I kicked it away.

I couldn’t undo what had already been done, but I could stop them from giving Novalie a true death. Novalie crumbled, her knees giving out as her purple dress became red and her skin a stark white, and I caught her before she could hit the ground.

Whatever had come over Emerson had faded away, her eyes back to their normal colour and when Novalie’s mother made to approach us once more, the growl that rumbled out of Emerson raised the hair on the back of my neck.

Several other vampires in the vicinity raised eyebrows and backed away a little further as Emerson flew between us and Novalie’s parents. I trusted her, she could handle herself and she was strong, partially thanks to being a bitten vampire rather than one born. I couldn’t turn my head to watch her tear apart Novalie’s parents, but I could hear it, alert to any grunts of pain on Emerson’s end of things.

Instead, I focused on my friend that lay dying in my arms. It didn’t matter that she would come back—this version of her would be gone and there was no telling how much of her personality would survive her undeath. Would she grow cold, like Elowen and so many others? My hands clasped her shoulders tighter as her heart began to slow and her fingers became limp where they held onto my wrists.

I’d witnessed plenty of death, caused it more than once, and felt its embrace myself. Knowing Novalie would come back didn’t make it any easier to see her die. My hands were shaking and I looked up and around, as if someone could help us—as if anyone would—and for some reason all I could think about was Hayes in that fucking dream, telling me he would be at the trial today. It wasn’t logical to be angry at someone for something a version of them said in a dream, but it didn’t matter. There was blood soaking the floor, coating the tights I’d let Novalie talk me into wearing, the sparkly skulls now red, and I needed someone to be pissed at. So I chose him, because he wasn’t there and I hated that I wished he was.

Wild and uncontrolled, my magick rose up inside of me as the wave of my emotions crested, my rage unspent and my worry for Novalie driving me even as her eyelashes fluttered. I could taste the lightning in my veins, could see my hair lifting off of my shoulders, and when Novalie’s eyes finally opened, locking on mine, I followed the instinct lighting up my blood.

Because she had been right—we were her family and she was mine.

I bit into my palm, the blood welling immediately even as sparks jolted from my skin and singed the air. “Novalie,” I intoned, my voice echoing with the same strange power Emerson had displayed, and I could see my own white glowing eyes reflected in Novalie’s. “House of Romilly claims you. Do you accept?”

There was nothing in my ears except static, increasing to thunder when her eyes lit up and she raised herself from the floor to drink the blood I’d spilled just for her. “I accept.”

Power rushed through me and I could feel it in her, like my bond with Hayes but different, lesser. Novalie gasped, like she could feel it too, and when the rush faded away I sagged, Emerson’s arm holding me up until my head stopped spinning.

“What just happened?” Novalie said, her throat healed with barely a pink line to show where it had been cut.

“I have no idea.” I sighed, something told me it wasn’t commonplace, though. The power in my veins had retreated and my mind was clear, free to process the muttering and cautious looks that surrounded us. At some point, Adrian had appeared, too. I didn’t know how much he’d seen or heard, but I could guess that it was enough. He took a step forward and sudden strength flooded me. A snarl ripped through the air and I cut it off when I realised it was coming from me. Something territorial had awoken inside me at Adrian’s approach.

There was a harsh beat of silence and I wondered if he would kill me right there and then. Instead, he clapped his hands once. “We are ready to begin.”

The doors behind him and a few other vampires still crowding round swung open, as if on command.

“I couldn’t have been gone for more than twenty-minutes,” a fair-haired man hissed at me as he shook his head and I blinked at him, sure he had the wrong person until I looked into his eyes and realised it was Cal. Why he’d felt the need for a disguise was a mystery, maybe he’d just felt like showing off, but in that moment, I’d never been more grateful to see him. “Twenty fucking minutes, Nora.”

I shook my head, unsure what to say. Novalie was sitting up, her face soft and vulnerable and before I could try and find the words to talk to her, she was throwing her arms around me.

“I can’t believe my mother tried to kill me,” she mumbled into my shoulder and I laughed, the sound oddly wet.

“Join the club.”

We let go of one another and I took her chin gently in my hand, tilting it so she couldn’t see behind me to whatever Emerson had left of her parents.

“Take them somewhere safe,” I said to Cal, weariness filling me, and he nodded.

“You’ll be okay?” Emerson said quietly and I nodded, searching her face for any evidence of the previous strangeness. Had I imagined it? Or had Emerson somehow known what Novalie’s parents were planning before they’d acted? “Alright,” she murmured, helping Novalie to her feet and taking Cal’s hand. They vanished and I was still standing in the same spot when he blinked back to me. The blood on the floor was settling into the cracks of the stone and I could feel the stickiness of it congealing in various places on my body.

There was something like concern in his eyes as I walked closer and braced one hand on his shoulder, using my other to half-shimmy and half-rip myself out of the bloody tights.

“Here.” He waved a hand and a cool mist smoothed over my skin and hair, cleansing me. “You’re slightly less bloody now.”

“Thank you.” I set my shoulders and was glad when he didn’t try to ask if I was okay. I wanted to be with Novalie and Emerson, making sure they were okay, but I could feel the tiny threads inside of me that connected us together, and that would have to do for now.

We walked through the stone doors into the sanctuary of what might once have been a church, complete with stone pews moulded to the ground and a squeaky gate that separated the council members and their audience.

I couldn’t avoid Adrian’s stare, so I met it head-on and wasn’t sure what it meant when he looked away first.

“Let us begin.”

Chapter Thirteen

Leonora

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