Again, Brania’s answer came without thought. “Yes.”
“Do you want to understand that the man who prevents you from fulfilling your potential is not worthy of your fear?”
Brania hesitated. Did she really want such knowledge? Did she really want to sever the ties that bound her to the man whom she loved and despised in equal amounts? She heard Imogene whimper, unnerved at watching Ruby’s body remain frozen at one end of the cave and Rhoswen’s ghost-like presence take up the other, and Brania found her answer. As much as she loved her ward, she never wanted to be that fragile, that despondent. If she didn’t take this step, chances were that’s what she would become. If she didn’t take hold of Rhoswen’s hand, she might never have another opportunity to escape that fate.
The moment flesh touched spirit, Brania and Rhoswen disappeared as easily as Imogene was able to when she was frightened. Hurtling into black space, Brania was blinded for a moment. Then she saw the world race by her like wisps of multicolored light. Nothing was clear; nothing was recognizable; she couldn’t make out any landmarks, until she landed.
St. Joshua’s looked the same, only the surroundings were different. There were very few buildings nearby, and the foliage was overflowing, wild, nothing like the meticulously manicured lawn today.
Brania didn’t know what time period she was in until she looked through the library window and saw her father as a teenager reading to a girl who was the carbon copy of the billowing spirit that stood next to her. The girl sitting on the ground next to her father was listening intently, devouring every word he spoke, all the while caressing a bouquet of white roses, stroking each petal and occasionally brushing a flower across her lips or her useless eyes.
“Your father would read to me every day,” Rhoswen explained. “And with each new book he’d bring me a fistful of white roses.”
The image was startling. David looked so gentle. Could this be the same man she knew? “He loves you very much,” Brania observed.
“He did.” Rhoswen clutched Brania’s hand, her spirit-grip firm and secure, and they disappeared again only to reemerge standing outside the same building, only this time it looked different, slightly more modern. Brania realized they had traveled a few years into the future from the previous scene.
As the action unfolded before her eyes, Brania realized that this was the man she knew, this was the man she loved and hated and wanted to destroy. This was the man capable of performing acts of cruelty on those he claimed to love. Brania felt her heart pound within her chest as she watched Rhoswen sit staring into her own private darkness, smiling, unsuspecting, while a few feet away David cut himself and created a circle of his own blood. She felt her stomach churn as she heard him whisper in Rhoswen’s ear that they were going to play a game. And she screamed out loud when David stabbed his sister in the back while she smiled.
The first thought that came to her mind when she stopped screaming was that her father didn’t even have the courage to look Rhoswen in the face when he murdered her. The next was: Why did he do something so vile in the first place?
Reading her mind, Rhoswen explained. “Your father sacrificed me to Zachariel so he could become a vampire. As part of his reward, Zachariel made it so his race could walk in the sunlight on this hallowed ground.” The blind girl smiled. “Ironically, only their eyes needed protection from sunshine.”
Finally, Brania understood what was so special about this land; it was drenched in her family’s blood. “He’s destroyed everyone who’s ever loved him.”
Finally, Rhoswen knew her murder would be avenged. “Because he loves himself and his power just a little bit more.”
She scooped up a handful of dirt and blood from the ground where her dead body lay and molded it into a ball. She threw it up in the air, and when it landed in Brania’s waiting hands the ball of dirt had transformed into a gorgeous white rose in full bloom. “This flower will bring you more luck than any of my flowers have over the centuries,” she advised. “Choose how you use it wisely.”
By the time they returned to the cave and Rhoswen had once again assumed Ruby’s body, Brania already knew what she must do. After Rhoswen left, she helped Imogene out of her coffin and sat the girl down next to her on the large boulder in the middle of the cave.
“I have good news,” she said, though her expression was far more sinister than joyful. “It’s time for us to get to work so we can reclaim our freedom.”
chapter 26
Girls suck! Totally, completely, and without a bloody doubt.
Nakano looked from face to face to face, from the Italian girl to the Swede to the pretty Hindu girl with the pierced nose, and he couldn’t believe he was standing in the boys’ locker room surrounded by nothing but girls who wouldn’t shut up. On and on and on they chattered about the stupidest things in the world; one dumb sentence after another tumbled out of their painted mouths. Nakano thought if he had to listen to one more word about clothes or makeup or the best feminine products his head would explode. The only girl he had any interest in talking to had double crossed him, the same girl who had gotten him in this mess in the first place, and the same girl who was running into the locker room from the back entrance.
“Saoirse!” Nakano yelled. “It’s about time!”
“Sorry,” she said, buttoning up her skirt. “I was, um, a little detained.”
“Crikey! I thought you were going to stand me up.”
“Kanosan! How could you think I would do that?” she yelled back. “I’m the one who set this whole thing up.”
“Well, you’re cutting it a little close, aren’t you?” he said. “We go on in less than a bloody minute.”
“I had stuff to do with my brother and Michael,” she replied, fusing a lie with the truth. “But I’m here now and I’m ready to go. Isn’t it exciting?!”
“No, it isn’t!” Nakano’s complexion turned even paler than normal. “I’m terrified.”
And he had reason to be. Never before had Nakano been in a situation like this, not as a human or as a vampire, and he had been in some peculiar and unusual situations as both. This one, however, was odder than them all.
Huddled in the locker room, he wondered if he was about to make the stupidest mistake of his life.
If he did he would have no one else to blame except himself. Well, and Saoirse too, because it was her idea and she was the one who had talked him into doing it, but at some point he could have said no. It was just that he didn’t want to. He was having fun, and that’s all he really wanted, to balance out all the stress he’d been under lately with some good times. Running his hand nervously through the bristly top of his crew cut, he had the feeling that those good times were all about to come to an end.
“Ladies! And Mr. Kai, here we go!” the Italian girl chirped excitedly. “Kano, you stay in the middle of the group like we decided, since you’re our secret weapon.”
The girl was Talisa Rondo, captain of the cheerleading squad, and she was leading Nakano out onto the St. Sebastian gym floor for his debut as the first and thus far only male cheerleader in all of Double A’s history. Instead, he felt like he was being led to an execution.
David’s voice boomed throughout the gym and spilled into the locker room. “Honored guests, distinguished rivals, I welcome all of you to the National Swim Team Competition and Archangel Academy’s Tri-Centennial Celebration.” He paused as the crowd roared, and the sound made Nakano sick. They were a rowdy group, filled with students and faculty members from schools all across Western Europe who had come here to win some swimming races, and as a side treat they were going to get to ridicule the lone boy who was cheering with all the girls. They would join in with Fritz and Ronan and all his other so-called friends at Double A to morph into one loud, angry, mocking voice that Nakano would hear in his dreams for the rest of eternity. This was so not worth it. “I can’t do this.”
Saoirse whipped around so fast that her ponytail whacked Nakano in the face. “Vamp up, Kanosan,” she whispered. “We’ve been practicing and working our arses off for this moment for weeks.”
Wiping away some cold sweat that was bubbling on his forehead, Kano nodded. “I know, and it’s been
