Page 22 of Marked Resistance

“Did you know the vampires before the Crimson Mourning had more than one ability gifted to them by the virus? Damon, Cassie, Lawrence, and Michelle all had more than one.”

I tried to bite some of the bitterness back. I didn’t know whether to hate him or fuck him. “No, I didn’t know.”

“Most people don’t.”

“Then how do you know? Cassie hides behind that fucking pile of snow, and Lawrence and Michelle are dead from the night of the Crimson Mourning. No one’s seen Damon in centuries, so how would you know?”

“I have.”

“You have what?” I gasped.

“I’ve seen Damon.”

My jaw dropped so low, my chin scraped the ground as we walked. “Damon. The man who was the leader of our clan and whose actions started this War of the Five hundreds of years ago.

“That Damon. It was years ago when I came across him, but it was him.”

I smacked his left shoulder with my right hand. “Get out of here! Damon’s alive? No fucking way. If he’s alive, why is Duradel leading us then? He’s the oldest vampire, he could end this entire war in a heartbeat if he wanted to.”

“I don’t know if he’sstillalive, and even if he was, I don’t know if he’sthatpowerful or if he’s even that invested,” Xavier chuckled. “But I did ask him those same questions at the time.”

“And?”

“He told me to imagine this entire world as nothing more than a story written by a bunch of authors. If I were to read this story and all the other ones, I wouldn’t get any answers by asking him questions like that. I wouldn’t know the full truth until it all played out at the end. I had to keep flipping the pages and following the stories, chapter after chapter, book after book, until I reached the conclusion. A shared world written by different authors, none of them knowing what the hell they’re doing.”

“That’s a bullshit answer.”

“Damon’s a complicated guy it seems. I guess that’s what you get when you’ve been alive for almost a millennium, and had your best friend and brother, fuck and turn your human wife, poison your father, and then try to kill you.”

Xavier shrugged and continued. “Anyway, he said before everything went down with Lawrence, his best friend, and his betrayer, he possessed more than one ability. They all did. All the vampires back then had at least two abilities. His father had even more than that. But the virus is degrading and reducing the number of mutations.”

“Which means what, exactly?”

“I don’t know. Maybe after all these centuries, vampire bodies are finally catching up and our old immune systems are fighting the virus off. Maybe natural immunity is kicking in. I don’t know. All I know is it appears as if vampires are more vulnerable than we think we are. Given the right set of circumstances…”

“What?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because Damon taught me how to truly use my Wildfire.”

This man made a habit of stunning me.

“He said his father had the ability. It’s part of the reason he was able to defeat the other clans and unite the vampires under one rule and place the one council as the governing body. It’s also why his family, Shaye, had special privileges granted by the council.”

“Like Cassie and Damon being allowed to marry in the first place.”

“Exactly. The council originally was afraid of Shaye, and after Damon lost his cool and murdered them all, you can see why. Shaye has the potential to be the strongest of all living vampires. And I’m going to show you, as he did me, how to tap into your full potential. It’s the only way to truly live.”

“People keep telling me that.”

“Then Gorgeous, it’s time you finally listened. And that’s an order.”

And just like that, his smile returned and so did the mix of emotions he created. If it were true what he said about our internal flames seeking out each other, how was he able to be so damn calm when I wanted nothing more than to rip his clothes off and let him tear into me? How could he teach me to reach the limits of my Wildfire if all I could focus on was his incredible mouth?

We cleared the last of the trees and stepped out onto the rocky path which led to where we left our vehicle. An abandoned silver tour bus from a bygone era, outfitted to carry Xavier’s team. Grim leaned against the side of it, while Ilanis occupied the driver’s seat.

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