“So, she became the self-proclaimed Hybrid Queen,” I speculated.
He nodded at me in agreement. “Lilliana met John while he was on vacation in Germany with his college friends. He was reluctant at first, but the fire in his blood was drawn to her.”
I raised an eyebrow at the mention of fire.
“It’s an expression, Dawn,” he said quickly. “It doesn’t mean that he actually has fire in his veins.”
I relaxed and let him continue with his story.
“You see, the Neutralizer most times doesn’t even know what he is until someone else brings it out of him. John was a good man. He loved Krista very much, but Miranda brought out a part of him that lay dormant. The bloodline had been in his family for generations; he was just the first one to be identified.”
I nodded. “How do you know all of this stuff? I mean, my dad thinks that Miranda’s mother is dead. Said she was staked a hundred years ago.”
“Your father has been on Earth for eighteen years. He’s missed a lot in the underworld. This is no secret anymore though it was only found out recently. All angels and demons were put on high alert once it was discovered that the mother lived.”
That all made sense. My father had been out of the loop, but Mara hadn’t.
“So why did Wesley call me?” I was done with the back story.
“He saw something. I don’t know what.” He sighed. “He probably saw an outcome that was in Miranda’s favor, and it scared him, so he wanted you to know that the others were in danger. The thing is, he did this before you even knew what you were.”
“You think him telling me stopped the event from actually happening?” I asked.
“There’s only one way to find out,” he said, rubbing his hands together.
“How?”
“We just ask Helen what it was that attacked her.”
My mind was in a whirl as I followed Nick back to the living room. I had to sort things out in my head. According to his story, the Hybrid Queen was a mixed-blood creation like me and the others. She was indeed powerful and dangerous. She had a bone to pick with the purebloods because she had been abandoned by both her mother and her lover. It was easy to see her as a jaded soul, one that just wanted revenge after being wronged.
So, of course, an obvious way to get that revenge was to set the world aflame. If all the purebloods were gone, the remaining hybrids would coexist and at some point, actually create the perfect being, a mixture of all blood.
However, to make it possible to burn both Heaven and Hell, she would have to render the elements immobile. In other words, she would have to kill us. Since it was forbidden for the bloods to mix there would be no way for the purebloods to knock out another group of four Wardens. If for any reason they could, it would be at least a decade before the new Wardens would be of an age to confront her. That would make them easy targets for the queen’s army.
As far as I could see Miranda was acting just like the general of an army. Since her mother was supposed to be dead, she had been tasked with the creation of a militia. Miranda had been created with both vampire and demon blood, which meant she could only pass one trait to her progeny. Her offspring would be predominantly demon or predominantly vampire. That split her forces in two, with some who lived on souls and some who lived on blood. The only thing that I couldn’t grasp was the fact that Miranda’s mother was half angel. Had the vampire blood in her caused her to flip?
I really needed to write all of this down before bits and pieces started going off in different directions, and I lost any grasp that I had on the subject, but first Nick wanted to question Helen about the attack.
“Helen?” Nick said, interrupting the conversation she was having with Adam.
“What’s up, Nick?”
“You said you were attacked and that was why you came here sooner than you were supposed to.”
“Yeah, some red-headed bitch busted through the front door of my apartment. She had two boys with her.”
I felt a sudden chill.
“What happened?” asked Nick.
“The taller boy looked extremely ill. He was pale, and his eyes were glazed over. He looked like he would blow away if the wind hit him just right. He left as soon as the door was busted. However, the other boy was intimidating. He had the darkest eyes and the cruelest smile. When he lunged for me, I moved out of the way before he could get me, but my powers wouldn’t work against them. I ran out the door and straight into the other boy. Before the redhead and her henchman came out, he grabbed me and said ‘Midvale, find Dawn in Midvale’.”
My pulse quickened. She had talked to my Wesley!
“I made it out of there by the skin of my teeth. When I looked over my shoulder, the redhead grabbed the sick boy by the back of the neck and flung him to the ground. I turned away and just ran.” She shivered. “I did think it odd that he mentioned Dawn’s name, but I didn’t know quite what to make of it.”
“He’s found a loophole,” Nick murmured, looking at me. “The boy is a genius.”
“Who was he?” Helen asked, glancing at me.
“That was Wesley.” I tried, but I couldn’t keep the longing out of my voice.
“I’m sorry, he didn’t look too good, Dawn,” she said sorrowfully.
I tried to hold back my tears.
