“Could be. But I think she’s going to try to come after you again.”
“Why would she risk it?”
Reykon’s hand tightened on the wheel as he contemplated. After a moment, he shrugged. “She doesn’t really have anything to lose.”
Robin narrowed her eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “There’s something strange going on with you.”
“What do you mean?”
“When you were in the cabin, with those wolves,” he said, his jaw tensing in anger.
“Jax and Sonny. Don’t remind me.”
“Right. I was talking to Lucidia. She told me that you were affecting her somehow. Doing something to her. She said it was the same thing that she and her father had felt, the day that she had come to bring you away.”
“But I didn’t do anything to her. And I was just a baby, then,” she pointed out.
“I don’t know if you’re intentionally doing something, but all of the people that encounter you start to act weird.”
“Tell me how you really feel,” she scoffed.
Reykon laughed tightly. “No, I’m serious. Lucidia is one of the most loyal, fiercest strongbloods in House Xander – and it’s a big House. For her to disobey her Master not once, but twice, it’s not something small.”
“Maybe she didn’t want to kill a baby,” Robin said flatly.
“Trust me, Lucidia’s killed hundreds of babies. It wasn’t a momentary weakness. It had to be something more.”
“But I’m not doing anything,” she insisted.
“Someone or something is,” he murmured, looking sideways to her.
Robin searched his face, and then leaned towards him, resting her arm on the console and curling her feet under herself. “So Lucidia thought that I was affecting her. Trying to get her to ignore the rules.”
“Something like that. And I think that’s what happened with Cain. At least, that’s the only explanation I’ve got – nobody in their right mind would disobey Magnus like that, unless someone made them.”
“You think I was asking to get sniffed?” Robin demanded with sudden anger. “That I wanted him to force himself on me?”
“No,” Reykon said. “I don’t think you’re trying to do it. I think there’s something about you that makes supernatural creatures disregard the rules. Something that makes them enamored with you.”
“All creatures?”
“I don’t know.”
“You?”
Reykon frowned, and he shook his head. “I’m not sure.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I’m not sure. But I haven’t felt the need to attack you,” he said sharply. “Makes me a little better than your other admirers.”
Robin frowned, and pulled back into her seat, facing forward.
After a moment, Reykon leaned over slightly. “I didn’t…”
“It’s fine,” she said, clipping the words short.
They continued driving, Robin’s eyes watching the sun dip lower and lower to their right. The sky turned into a burnt orange haze. It would have been beautiful, and she might have even enjoyed it, if her eyes didn’t keep slipping to the side mirror and watching the cars around them for any signs of attack. There were hundreds of vampires and strongbloods out on the prowl for her, and if any of them were like Reykon or Lucidia, she had enough sense to be concerned.
Lucidia
It was about 1 a.m., and they were standing under a starry sky in front of the New Mexico Demonte house. Lucidia had been put in those pesky shock cuffs that everybody seemed to love so much. To her side, two large strongbloods stood, and behind her, a row of about ten vampires, along with Cain himself.
A van approached them; Lucidia knew it was reinforced military steel and recognized it to be the newest model of their defensive vehicles. It had been cooked up by technicians only two years prior. Dust billowed out from behind it, barely visible against the dark night.
It slowed to a stop about ten feet away. The doors opened and nearly twelve strongbloods, all of various talent levels, streamed out of the van with weapons locked and loaded.
Ah, the war, she thought, forgetting about that bit.
When they approached, she surveyed the group. From what she could tell, they’d come from the Arkansas Xander house. She vaguely recognized a few faces. Two, she knew by name.
The first: Mikkel. He must have been in the area, not that she wouldn’t put it past him to cross oceans in order to bag her.
The second face she recognized sent a twinge of anger running through her. No doubt Darian had orchestrated this on purpose.
Adonis Strexos, her training supervisor since youth, and long-time mentor.
Even now, even after everything she’d done, seeing him hit her hard. It was a glimpse of the people she chose to leave behind. The life she’d lived for over a century, and all she’d ever known.
He wore the customary gear for a mission, all black, all the best material for mobility and weapon storage. Dark black hair that was barely long enough to pull back with a leather cord, and curly in a frizzy way. He had green eyes, they were the type that could speak volumes without a word. In her training days, she’d been on the wrong end of the wrong look many a time.
She’d never been a very easy recruit. Honestly, Adonis should have been adopted into sainthood for dealing with her for so many decades.
He was patient, cunning, and calculated. And the smartest person she’d ever known.
Smarter than her father. Smarter than her, probably.
But hopefully not smart enough to stop her from breaking out of this little road trip. Even if the plan didn’t work, it wouldn’t deter her from fighting. It wasn’t like she had anything to lose.
Right now, Adonis approached her with a deep furrow in his brow, his face in a hardened expression. He was a taller strongblood, but not built stocky; he had a lithe, easy grace that she often marveled at. He stood, two feet in front of her, drilling into her with those blazing green eyes.
When he spoke, his words weren’t sharp, and they weren’t accusatory. It would have been so much easier if they were.
Instead,
