I don’t know what I’m doing here. I could easily just go home to my safe, cozy apartment. This conflict has nothing to do with the witch covens, it’s not worth my spying.
But Celine…I justknowshe’s going to do something reckless. She already staked three of the Lazarus gang vampires, what if she takes out Cedric Ducharme, too? Lazarus would stop at nothing to get his revenge! Or what if she tries to stake Cedric, but he gets her first? There were so many vampires protecting him…
I clutch my bag nervously, checking for the thousandth time that my wand is there. If I hearanysound of trouble, I’m going in. I don’t care if it blows my cover, I’m not letting anyone else get hurt.
I squint through the window, but I can’t make anything out. All I can hear is the faint, repetitive beat of the club music.
Whydo they have to play it so loud?
Then suddenly, a dark shadow falls over the narrow window and the door swings open, almost hitting me.
I scramble backwards as a shadowy, imposing figure fills the space.
She looks at me with surprise, but doesn’t speak.
“Oh, thank Goddess!” I breathe, looking Celine up and down. No blood, dagger still in the sheath by her ankle. “You’re ok!”
She frowns at me. “Of course I’m ok.”
“I just thought…” I swallow. Her expression is cold. There are new lines around her eyes. I didn’t expect her to be happy to see me, but I didn’t expect her to be so gruff, either. “I was worried about you.”
Something shifts behind her eyes. They shine like two dead, cold diamonds in the too-bright light of the emergency exit hallway.
It’sanger, but not a red-hot, burning anger. It’s a deep, radiating rage. A cold, horrible shiver goes up my shine. I’ve felt a lot of things in her presence, but this is new.
“I thought you were upset with me,” she says, her voice as lifeless as her body.
I shake my head, confused. That seems so long ago. “I…Iwas. But I shouldn’t havebeen. I was just a little jealous. Celine, what’s going…”
She pushes past me, up the stairs.
“Hey, stop!” I shout.
I tail her up the stairs. She’s impossibly fast, of course, but doesn’t seem to be going at her full speed. I’m worried that she might run off into the night. But when I push my way out the door to the back alleyway, she’s still standing there.
It’s a humid summer night. The wet ground indicates that it recently rained. There isn’t much moonlight, since the sky is overcast. A single, glaring orange light casts an ominous glow over the alley.
Celine is standing a few feet away, staring out into the night. But there’s nothing there. She looks like a trapped animal.
It’s so sad. Something inside me breaks.
“Celine,” I say. “Talk to me. Did something happen with Cedric? I didn’t know he was your brother…”
“Why are you here, Amara,” she hisses, without looking at me. “You should go home.”
“I…I don’t know,” I reply, honestly. “I don’t know why I’m here, but I know that I have to be.”
I’m surprised at the words spilling out of me. But now that I’ve started, I can’t stop.
“And I know…that I want to be here, with you. There isn’t anywhere else I want to be. And I’m sorry that I was upset before, and that I pushed you away. I was scared, but I wasn’t scared ofyou. I was scared of that feeling.”
The words are cathartic, but they produce an agonizing ache in my chest.
For several minutes, she stands there, silent as death.
When she speaks, her voice is otherworldly, the rasp of a demon.
“Youshouldbe scared of me, Amara. My brother…the vampires I’ve staked…I’mworsethan all of them combined. You don’t know how long I’ve been a vampire. How many things I’ve done. You could barely comprehend…”
