Page 54 of The Star's Sword

“Your friend has the agenda,” Selis sneered, but his mouth closed as Simon raised a hand, and it appeared Simon was forcibly muting him.

“I was your maker, Selis, but your judgment is clearly too flawed. I am not being biased. I have never seen Cleo do anything like she has been accused of, but Vasara is a known gossip who is expert at influencing crowds and winning favor. She’s a celestial who feeds on the attention after all, and she wants to be Morningstar, so she is focused on Cleo.” He put a hand to his head. “Why can’t she focus on her own destiny instead of trying to steal another’s?” he muttered.

Selis was still frozen, and Simon turned to the rest of us to usher us out.

“It appears I need to fix some issues with one of my thralls,” he said darkly. “All of you head over to my place under the dome, and I’ll be there shortly to talk about our next plans.”

“Your thrall?” I asked, confused.

Simon nodded. “Any vampire of mine is still my thrall if I made them, due to the power difference between us and the length they have fed on my blood as well as blood provided by me.”

“Don’t hurt him,” Zadis, looking over at Selis, slightly nervous.

“We’ll just have a talk,” Simon said. “About how quickly he needs to find a new position. That’s all. And about the danger of mobs acting with no proof.” He shook his head. “It’s clear her powers have already started to affect this place. The stupid gossip rags keep vampires happy but are mostly full of nonsense, so I never thought to pay attention to them. I never thought they would get vicious and personal and targeted like this.” His red eyes met mine. “I’m so sorry, Cleo.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “It wasn’t your fault, Simon. I was overconfident. I wanted to spend my time training.”

“I can always kill her,” Cayne muttered. “That’d show the vampires she’s not immortal really quick.” He grimaced. “But then we wouldn’t have their help, most likely. And we need to ensure we take our best shot.” He looked at Simon. “What do we do?”

“We plan,” Simon said. “When I get back to my home, we’ll talk. Let me deal with a vampire matter with only vampires around, please, and then I’ll be right along.”

“All right,” Zadis said.

“On your way, walk through the gardens. See if Cleo can make any friends,” Simon said, ushering us all out and then moving back to shut the door between us. “If they all believe this shit, we’re going to have to come up with some kind of miracle to pull this out,” he muttered, as the door slammed shut.

19

As we moved through the gardens, it was evening and the sun was beginning to set, sending rays through the tree branches and all over the shining grass lawns.

Vampires were walking among the flowers, on gorgeous stone walkways, and sitting on benches to talk.

I tried to turn to those I saw and give a smile or a wave, but they would simply turn in to whisper to one another, giving me a glare, or smirk silently over a fan.

I couldn’t shake the odd feeling of everyone acting like they knew everything about me, even though we’d never met.

At the ball, I suppose they’d been more subtle. Perhaps what I had assumed was extreme curiosity about new blood had only been everyone wanting to see if the monster they’d read about was really so bad.

“Hi!” I tried to say, to a young vampire couple standing among the trees. But one merely pulled back fangs to hiss at me, while the other smirked.

“Get lost, fake. Stop making Vasara’s life so hard,” they said.

“Yes,” another vampire chimed in. “She has enough on her plate, the angel.” They sighed wistfully, then turned to glare at me with rage. “Trying to save all of us and our world. So you need to stop bullying her, okay?”

My brows lowered. “Iwhat?” I started toward them, but Samael grabbed my arm, and Zadis grabbed the other, and together, followed by Cayne, they managed to march me out of the garden without incident.

“They thinkI’ma bully,” I said, still in shock. I was so unsettled by what they’d said, by the pure lack of reality in it, that I couldn’t have probably stayed up and walked without my friends help. “They think I’m abully. All I do is try to fight bullies, and help those they hurt.”

“This is why I don’t hang out with vampires,” Samael said. “Other than Simon.”

Cayne walked next to us, his hands lazily behind his head. “Good thing he’s probably killing that one that was rude to us.” He shook his head. “He doesn’t usually stand for nonsense like this, where they all start mobbing and disregarding facts for pure group-think and emotion. It’s something vampires are prone to, so he usually lets them spread gossip because it keeps them from getting in other problems. But then again, when a celestial visits, all bets are off. They’re the most convincing creatures around.”

Tears of frustration bit at my eyes, but I pushed them back, refusing to give a bunch of people who didn’t even know me credit for getting me down.

“It’s okay,” Samael said. “I know who you are, and all your friends do, too.”

“They’re just going to think you’re all biased, as my friends.” I pulled my arm away from Sam so I could wipe at my eyes. “I seriously don’t know how to fix something like this.”

“It’s true,” Zadis said. “What she has been doing in the background, it’s going to be hard to be believed because it seems so odd to most people.”

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