Page 119 of Black Bird

Athan’s jaw twitched, and he followed her out, shutting the door softly as they stepped out onto the porch. It was fully dark now, and an owl hooted in the distance. It was the only thing that broke the silence between them as she leaned on a post on the front step. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. The sound of his lighter flicking shut turned her around. “Wanna share it?” he asked, sliding the lighter back into his pocket.

“Sure.” Athan stepped forward and they sat down on the step. He took a drag and passed it to her. “That’s the blood bag Conrad was gonna use on the kid at the benefit,” Sarah offered, taking the cigarette between her lips.

“How did you get it?” he asked, puzzled.

“Brent.” She blew smoke and puffed one more time before handing it back to him. “He went to his old house to confront him, and Conrad told him everything. Told him about your Dahlia … she had the other bag.”

His Dahlia …

Athan thought he’d vomit at the sound of that. “That explains the girl at the hotel.”

“Yeah,” Sarah sighed. “Conrad gave him a choice. Brent decided to give the blood back to me. Now I have to decide what I’ll do with it.”

“Whatareyou gonna do with it?” Athan asked, taking his turn and passing the cigarette back. She didn’t answer but shrugged as the cherry lit up her chin. They grew quiet for a moment. “So, Stratford knows his father was working with a vampire coven?”

“He doesn’t know about you.” She stared forward into the darkness of the front yard. “Just her … and whatever other ones are at that club.” The strain in her voice scraped his bones. “He was working with someone else, too.”

“Who?” Athan asked, accepting the cigarette when she offered it. She looked over at him, then.

“Nick Specter. He was the one that gave them the two bags.”

The cigarette snapped in half between his fingers, and his blood began to boil. “What?” he asked between clenched teeth. Her hand peeked out from beneath the blanket, and she laid it on his knee, though it did little to stop him from wanting to rip Specter’s head from his shoulders. “I’ll fucking kill him.”

“No. Not without me, you won’t.” Sarah leaned closer. “I think it’s about time I started giving them all a taste of their own damn medicine.”

“I’m going with you.” He ground out.

Sarah stilled and those eyes pierced his. “And what if I say no?”

“Sarah …”

“I just told you something that—honestly—was none of your business, as far as I’m concerned. You still haven’t told me the truth. Other than what little I learned at your apartment, I don’t know much more than that. I read quite a bit of the journal you left me, and it still doesn’t give me the words I need to hear from you, Athan. I know there’s a tattoo on your chest that looks exactly like mine, and per that journal … I know why you have it.” Her eyes began to flicker with unshed tears and his chest tightened. “Do you not think I deserve to hear it straight from you?”

“You do.”

“Then why haven’t you tried to come after me?”

Athan bristled and slapped a palm to the step. “Because you told me not to! You told me to stay away from you, Sarah … and I respect you enough to honor that. I can’t tell you how absolutely excruciating it’s been. I can’t even tell you how many times before last night that I picked up that fucking phone just to hear your voice but didn’t. I would have told you anything you wanted to know had you just given me the chance!”

“Then tell me now,” Sarah’s voice cracked with emotion.

Athan’s stomach felt like a washing machine. As bad as he wanted to tell her everything, it also made him so nervous he thought he could hurl. He knew it would eventually get to this point, but he wished so badly that it didn’t have to. It could either go very well, and she might be accepting enough to stand being around him … or she’d continue to hate him the way he deserved. It felt like the entire first month all over again. “Where do you want me to start, Sarah? I told you what happened the night that I lost control. There really isn’t more to tell about that. I told you about the drawer … and what I took from you. You’ve already pieced together the tattoo. What is it that I can say that’ll make you hate me a little less?” His eyes started to burn. “Please, tell me. Cause I can’t deal with this another day.” His throat bobbed and he saw her catch it. Her eyes fixed on his mouth, and she swallowed.

“Tell me about Dahlia. Who is she?Whatis she?” Sarah turned her body to face him and leaned her back against the post, pulling her knees close to her chest and tightening the blanket around her.

Athan stood, lighting another cigarette to pass back and forth. “Dahlia is the leader of the Black Bird coven. She sired me and just about every other vampire that lives there.”

“Sired you?” Sarah asked.

“Mademe.”

“How long ago was that?”

Athan inhaled deeply and blew out a long breath. “Two hundred and three years ago. I had just turned twenty-four.” Sarah’s mouth parted, and he gathered that although she’d read his journal, it was still probably a shock to hear how old he actually was. His stomach continued to flip as he continued, “My mother had fled from place to place, avoiding everything from war to illness. We ended up in Old London when I was nineteen. That’s where we stayed until—until she was murdered two years later. It had always been just the two of us. I never knew my father. It could have been anyone, really. She sold herself for our well-being and back then … there wasn’t any way to umm …”

“Protect yourself?”

“Right. There were contraceptive tonics, and of course … the other methods that don’t require any medicine, but—oftentimes, the tonics didn’t work, or people thought they were buying something that turned out to be nothing but tea. Anything to make a copper. I was working for a brewery around the time that she went missing. I didn’t usually get in till later in the evenings, and it wasn’t unusual for her to be out if she had a client. I had begged her ever since I got that job to stop selling her body, but … she didn’t. She was found a few days later when she washed up in Hackney Brook. Nobody ever found out who had done it, but she’d had two escorts that night.”

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