Page 37 of Losing The Vampire King

Chapter Twenty

Edmund

Bianca looks at me incredulously. I know this is hard to believe, especially since we did not see it for ourselves. This is information that has come to us from someone else, and as such should be taken with a grain of salt. But it has come from a credible source. And now, we don’t know what to think about it.

“She’s dead?” Bianca asks, repeating what I’ve already told her.

She is pacing through the room, unable to sit down. I know how she feels. I also can’t remain in one place, although I’m not sure why. We didn’t kill her. We didn’t send anyone after her, although we could have. She deserved it. She fucking deserved it for what she did.

“Kano told me his source is to be trusted,” I repeat.

Bianca shakes her head. She can’t believe it. I know that. I can’t either.

“All these years, I kept thinking that we shouldn’t have let her get away with it so easily,” she tells me. “And all these years, she’s been like a shadow over our lives.”

It’s been five years since the last time we’ve seen Gala, since the time she tried to poison me and make me fight Bianca. During those five years. Bianca and I have discussed what happened many times. I know she’s been afraid of Gala coming back for revenge again, as she’s proven that she doesn’t let go of the past. I know this has made Bianca fearful of our future, but I kept assuring her that they won’t be able to attack us like that ever again. We took all the necessary precautions.

However, the idea of war with the skin walkers is always an option. She knows this, just like I know it. We can’t stop a centuries old feud, just because we’ve had enough of it. It doesn’t work like that. All we can do is live our lives, and hope that others will do the same. Sometimes they will. Sometimes they won’t.

“I could send someone out to check this information,” I tell her. “If that will put your mind at ease.”

She thinks about it for a moment. Then, she shakes her head. “No.”

“Are you sure?” I ask. “It’s not a problem. Kano says it’s a friend of his. He could guide him through the territory, without any troubles so Kano could find out if it is really true.”

“No,” Bianca repeats what she’s already said. “I should have let it go years back. But I couldn’t.”

“I told you I would protect you, no matter what,” I remind her, walking up behind her, and wrapping my arms around her back, pulling her close to me.

“I know you will,” she confirms. “I just shouldn’t have allowed her to have so much power over me, even without being actually here.”

“It’s OK,” I remind her. “She was terrorizing you for years. It is difficult to tear away from someone’s malicious influence.”

“Luckily, I had you all this time,” she says, lifting her head towards me.

“And you will have me for the rest of your days,” I tell her. “You are stuck with me, doll face.”

“Doll face?” she chuckles. “You never call me that.”

“Why not?” I shrug, laughing. “I figured, I should experiment a little with my pet names. Doll face sounds like something I could go for.”

She chuckles again. “Why not?” Then, she sighs. “I guess that’s a good thing.”

“New pet names?” I wonder.

“No, the fact that Gala is dead,” she goes back to the previous topic, which I thought we finished. But obviously, she still wants to talk about it.

“She gave us two good reasons to kill her,” I remind her. “We left her alive both times, which isn’t something many others would do. I’m guessing, she stumbled onto someone who wasn’t as forgiving as we are, and… well…” I shrug, not wanting to finish my thought, but it is obvious where I was going with this.

“Do you think we should have been the ones to do it?” she wonders aloud.

I frown. “Why? Did you want to?”

“No,” she shakes her head quickly, assuring me that wasn’t what she meant.

“Then, why does it matter?” I ask her.

“It doesn’t,” she says softly.

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