Page 27 of Cursed Heirs

Wilhelm squared his shoulders and spoke, “Let’s get started. The progress we made last time is now useless given the new state of things.”

“This is a lost cause.”

“Because of your hatred for vampire kind?”

“No. There’s no hatred.”

“You abhor what you are now and what you are is a vampire, Xavier.”

“I hate that I’m a monster now, a rabid beastbecauseI can’t control the urges. But most of all, I hate being without my magic. It was my essence, more than just a part of me, it was my identity.”

“I can teach you control even under the most extreme of circumstances. I can make you feel better about that side of things. But the grief over the loss of your magic, that’s your father’s purview. Once we start making some progress here, we’ll bring him in on our sessions.”

“Okay,” I agreed.

And that was what I did throughout as we got underway.

I agreed.

I cooperated.

But I was just going through the motions.

Because I’d sunk too deep.

Nothing mattered.

Nothing.

7

~Alena~

Warmth infused me.

It was strange given that I was standing on a windy mountaintop covered in snow.

I looked down to see that I wasn’t even dressed.

Not in the tank and shorts I’d gone to bed in—the clothes I’d left amongst some others in my old room of the family home.

I was completely naked.

What the—what was happening?

And where was this place?

It wasn’t familiar at all.

I spun from the edge of the mountaintop and looked to see a small cabin a few feet away covered in heavy snow too.

I considered heading in there to get something to cover myself with, but an air of foreboding betook me as I took a single step in that direction.

I pulled up short.

A rush of air whipped around me—again, warm and inviting, like the temperature of this strange location.

The falsified temperature.

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