“It has come to our attention, that you are partly to blame for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Vampires over the centuries. This, too, cannot be overlooked under the circumstances of your evading arrest and trial for the matter of the Rogue…”
“Excuse me?” I blurt out. “How dare you? I am the least murderous Vampire in this room, I can assure you!” My indignation has sprouted its wings and my English accent has come out in full force.
“The other Vampires in this room are not the ones on trial. Their own records will be looked at if you can name names and have proof of their indiscretions,” Dmitri snaps at me.
I narrow my eyes at him. Bastard.
“You don’t have proof that I had anything to do with that list you are so eager to share. You know that it was Constantine and I am being railroaded. How fair is that?” I hiss at him, hoping to keep my voice down, but unfortunately, I get heard anyway.
“All in your name!” a Master Vampire shouts out at me. “He kidnapped, tortured and killed my charge just because she looked like you,” he shouts out and then spits at his feet.
“How is that anything to do with me?” I ask reasonably. “I was not the one to hurt your charge.”
“It was done in your name!” he repeats with a stamp of his foot and crossing his arms. “That makes you partly responsible.”
“Not if I didn’t know! And I can assure you, I didn’t know. I didn’t know about his…penchant…for Substitutes until a couple of years ago!”
Okay, so I have thrown him under the bus. It had to be done. They are going to tear strips off me for thousands of dead women that had absolutely nothing to do with my murderous tendencies. Come at me
for my own damn crimes - fair enough. But this, this is unjust.
“Oh, please,” Clementine scoffs. “She knew. Of course she did. And she sat idly by and did nothing to appease her then sire’s desires.”
“You!” I hiss at her. “Do not know what you are talking about. You came to me earlier and told me that I was your Substitute. Doesn’t that make you responsible for his actions?”
The crowd goes silent and they all glare at Clementine with varying degrees of suspicion. Her eyes go wide, and she licks her lips, the fear showing briefly.
“And you put me straight,” she replies. “You are his light, his inspiration, not me.” I can see the hurt it causes her to admit this in public, but it does exactly what she wanted it to do: it turns the blame back around on me.
“You bitch,” I whisper at her, shaking my head.
She gives me a mocking look that boils my blood. She is untouchable in this. She just made sure of it.
“Order!” Dmitri bangs his gavel loudly. “Order! The accused will not speak until her crimes have been fully laid out!”
“Whatever,” I mutter, rolling my eyes at him just to piss him off. This whole trial is a sham. Why can’t they see that?
Once again, I listen to the growing catalog of crimes I am supposedly guilty of. Things I didn’t even know had happened until this very moment. It’s ridiculous. But very real. The Vampires are wound up and out for blood.
Mine in lieu of Constantine’s it seems.
Chapter 16
Ponte, Italy, January 2015 - Lincoln
He thought he would miss being human. He thought he would miss his Alpha, pine away for her like he did the last time and get agitated that he is stuck in Wolf form. It’s not like that though at all. It is completely different to being cursed by Lance. Now, he is just a Wolf, as a Wolf should be, with complete cognitive ability, but still the feral feelings of the wild animal that he is. He feels completely content. It’s bizarre. As for his Alpha, well, she died. For good this time. He mourned and he got over it because there was something to get over. Unlike last time when it hung around him like a toxic cloud, destroying his every waking moment. It makes his fur stand on end when he thinks what he let Other Liv do to him in his weaker moments.
He lets out a huff and pads through the kitchen door, left open for him by Marguerite. Devon mostly remembers to feed and water him, but Marguerite is a godsend for remembering that he doesn’t have hands to let himself through doors anymore. His big, black paws sink into the grass as he bounds across the massive gardens relishing the night air.
He can smell the forest and the lakes beyond the gate, but he knows he can never go out there. Not on his own. Not like this. He is too easy a target, despite being a massive Alpha Shifter Wolf, the Vampire Hunters know him in this form now, and if they were capable of capturing Aefre, then what chance does he-do any of them-have?
He makes his way to his favorite spot in the northwest corner. It is little used and that’s why he likes it. It still smells like the earth and not a bunch of Vampires. His sense of smell is just too sensitive in this form and the Vampires really get to him.
He rears back as he smells one of them, tinged with a sense of darkness that he has come to recognize as Vito. He peers at the huge Vampire crouched down by the small lake, casting some sort of spell over a purple-flickering fire.
“Hey,” Vito says to him, giving him a courteous nod.
Lincoln gives him a curious look back. This gets to him occasionally. He has no way of speaking now. It’s all gestures and huffs.