“We had plenty of them,” Melvon says, and I look at him.
“You had the world at your fingertips.” As long as they stayed allied to the queen, the vampires were higher in the pecking order than anyone else.
“It was a world with secret shackles, whips, and collars tied to our necks,” he says, walking next to me.
“You sure you don’t want to turn back?” I ask him as we go to enter his territory, where I just sent the witch bomb.
“No, I have nothing left for me here.”
I nod and continue walking. “We could very well die today.”
“And so we may. As long as I get to die with a pretty girl by my side, not an evil queen, then that’s going to be okay with me.” When he smiles, he shows me his teeth.
And I somehow smile right back.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The vampire ward is just about demolished. The once-green grass is now crunchy, dead and burnt, underneath my boots. Beautiful houses lie in heaps of rubble, just about as bad as our house is right now.
“I lived there.” I turn to see Melvon pointing to a house that is still standing, but only just. Half of it is missing an exterior wall, but the interior is still up and so is the roof.
“One last goodbye?” I ask, and he walks over to lay his hand on the red brick.
“I don’t even remember a time before the queen. Serving her is all I seem to remember. Until…”
“My sister.”
He nods. “I serve her now, but not in the same way. Your sister isn’t asking for anything, demanding anything. She is just…”
“Keeping you alive for her purposes.” I stifle a small laugh, and Melvon smiles.
“No, I can feel her intentions, as I know right now, she is still asleep. Her intention is to save you. You are her only priority.”
Turning away from him, I step into his house. There is a gray couch and a large dining room. The house screams of more money than I could ever obtain. It’s mostly ruined, but you can see underneath the rubble that it was once beautiful.
“That bomb killed a lot of vampires,” Melvon says, leaning down outside his house and touching a pile of ash on the ground. “The queen is not going to like that.”
“She doesn’t like me already, it’s not like I’m winning any friendship awards from her.”
“No, but you have probably just created a war.”
“The war had already started. Are you only just now seeing it?” I ask him. I don’t look back to see if he is behind me. I know he will catch up. I keep walking through the quaint town where most of it is in pieces. It’s completely different from our run-down homes. How the vampires ended up on top of the food chain is beyond me.
“You hate us,” Melvon says, falling into step beside me.
I side-eye him. “You threatened to kill us, have you forgotten?”
He shakes his head. “I didn’t understand then, but I do now.”
I don’t want to say it’s because he believes what my sister does. I choose to keep my mouth shut and continue to walk. The road is pebbled, where ours is dirt. We had to wear boots every time we wanted to leave our house so as not to injure our feet. I can feel the hatred growing with each and every step I take. Melvon remains quiet next to me, as he watches me take in the destruction Tatiana and I caused, and then we pause when we hear a familiar sound.
“You heard that?” I ask, but he isn’t listening to me. Instead, he holds up his hand for me to be quiet.
“I can hear you,” Melvon says.
“You traitor,” a voice accuses.
“You lower yourself to help a witch,” another voice says.
Melvon scans our surroundings as if he is working out exactly what points to take and what to do.
Me? Well, I’m watching him.
Shit! A sidekick yet again.
Hold on, wasn’t he meant to be my sidekick?
I lean into him. “I can create another bomb,” I say helpfully.
Melvon’s eyes flick to me before he shakes his head. In the next blink of an eye, he is gone. I stand there, unsure of what I’m meant to do, so I just stay still and listen. Vampires are incredibly stealthy and quiet—it’s why they have survived for so many years.
“Witch.”
“Umm, yes.” Obviously, I am one. Why they yell it as if it’s a cuss word is beyond me. Something darts across in front of me too fast for me to make it out. The second time it does, I manage to step back and see that it’s holding a sharp object and its intention is to kill me. I shall just add them to the list of people who want me dead.
The list is getting incredibly fucking long.