Page 95 of Love Heals
Crimson gave me a blank look. "I’m not sure I get it.”
I shrugged. "I guess we'll have to figure it out."
"The curse of the vampire..." Crimson trailed off. "Does that mean all vampires?"
He and I exchanged looks, Aldrich and Talon too, but neither of us said anything. What was there to say, really? We didn't know for sure what the prophecy meant. We did know how the vampires of old had interpreted it, but their situation had been much different from ours.
For one, they probably hadn't been in love with any dhampirs...
"Look at that." Puck's voice shook me out of my thoughts. He'd moved to the window, peering out. Curious what he was talking about, the others and I joined him.
"Is that... a thunderstorm?" Crimson asked. It did kind of look like a thunderstorm, the way the sky was lighting up every few seconds, but there were no actual bolts of lightning, no roar of thunder, not even in the distance. In fact, it was eerily quiet.
"That's no thunderstorm." Puck took a few steps back from the window. "If you weren't magic, you wouldn't even be able to see it."
"So it's some sort of spell?" I kept staring at the sky. I was rewarded for it too. There was another flash, and then, a bolt of lightning did shoot out of a cloud. Purple lightning. No sound accompanied it, but I was sure that it must have strucksomething.
"Someone is pissed," Puck said.
"You think it's related to us?" Aldrich asked.
Before Aldrich could respond, a crackling noise sounded in the room, and another witch materialized in front of our eyes. I hadn't seen the man before, but his entrance made his status clear even before I sensed his magic. He wasn't as powerful as Puck, but he wasn't exactly puny either.
"Caspar," Puck greeted the witch. "Are you stalking me now?"
"It’s just a locator spell. You weren't hiding your presence."
"Not from witches... But never mind that now." Puck nodded his head at the window. "Who's behind that?"
"It's not just one person," Caspar explained. "There's witches all over town banding together...it's insane. Most of them members of WAFFER, but even some who aren't. Vampires have attacked our community. They hate it. They're saying if the council won't protect us, they will take matters into their own hands."
I glanced at the sky again, just as another bolt of purple lightning came down. An odd mix of excitement and dread made my chest constrict. "Where's the lightning striking?"
Caspar looked to me, then to Puck, raising an eyebrow.
"He's with us," Puck said with a lazy wave of his hand. "I'm assuming they're targeting covens?"
"Where they think there's covens." Caspar exhaled and sat on the bed. "It's madness. It's absolute madness." He paused, licking his lips before looking at Puck again. “Are the dhampirs okay?”
“They should be at the hospital by now. Most of them should be fine.”
“Most of them? What about—?” Caspar stopped himself as if suddenly ashamed. “Never mind.” He let his head hang again.
My eyes wandered away from him and back to the window. Who exactly was being fried right now? Bad vampires? Good vampires? Innocent people caught in the cross-hairs? All because I'd run out and given our location away?
I swallowed hard. "We've got to stop this."
"There's no stopping this. The high council will have to take action." One of Caspar's hands went into his hair. "At some point, they’re going to send Keepers down here, I swear."
"Keepers?" I asked.
Aldrich scoffed at me. "Your sire really didn't teach you much, did he? Think of them as the paranormal police. Having laws wouldn't mean much without enforcers."
That didn't sound great.
"Don't worry about it too much," Puck said. "The council never acts quickly."
Aldrich crossed his arms in front of his chest. “We’ll end this before they do.”
"There's only one way to truly end this," Talon said, quietly. None of us responded, but we all knew what he was talking about. The prophecy. Lifting the curse of the vampire from the world.
A heavy silence settled over the room—until Crimson's phone beeped.
He read the message, then announced, "Luke texted the location of the hospital. He says they're fine and not to worry."
"Did he say anything about Jared?" I asked.
"I think he's included when Luke says 'we'."
I nodded in agreement, even as I knew I wouldn't be able to breathe easy again until I could confirm that with my own eyes.
