Essence (Nectar 3)

“Sasha?”

Sam shrugged, “Apparently an adorable mispronunciation of mine as a tot. It stuck. Better than Boy Sam and Girl Sam. Only Adrian still calls her Samantha and because of that, she detests it.”

“Where is she?”

“I’ll take you to her. Let me go see her first, please? I’ll need to smooth things out. I haven’t seen her since shortly after she turned, just before she left. We’ve spoken on the phone a few times; that’s it. She knew I was your concierge and she reached out to me after your last birthday. She knew you’d have Kyla, knew that she was your intended, and knew why, and she’s interested in discussing her. I’ve been avoiding her due to the fact that I’d be in a position where I’d have to choose. But I’m fairly sure she’d help you.”

“Why would she help me?”

“She has a connection with Kyle, with them both. Trust me, she’ll want to help. She may want something in return but you’ve got all the power, Tris.”

“Road trip then. You see her first, you can enlighten her, but I’ll be close and I need to suss things out before I let her near Kyla. You don’t let her out of your sight until I get an opportunity to assess her and influence her, ensure she doesn’t put things at a bigger risk.”

“You can trust me, Tristan. Her as well.”

That remained to be seen.

“Trust Kyla near a royal vampress? Right.” Tristan rolled his eyes.

Sam let out a big breath, “I have no choice but to tell you this, I know you’ll extract it from me whether I want to give it to you or not, but I have to tell you, this is top secret. My sister trusts me and while I’m not a double agent of any sort, I’m aware of secrets on both sides of the coin between powerful vamps such as Adrian, Brandt, and others as well as aware of some facts to do with the group Sasha is involved with.”

“Give it to me.”

“Kyle Kelly’s blood. It makes Sasha even.”

“Even?”

“Flips off the bitch switch. She’s not like other female vamps. When she was un-turned, studying under Adrian, Adrian gave her some sort of cocktail and heavy programming to keep her above functional. Though some elders and blue bloods could program her and she was heavily influenced she was still very much an individual when she wasn’t around him and she worked alone a lot, retained her memories. She had the free will to want and what she wanted was to be at her full potential as vampire. She couldn’t fathom that she’d be evil; like other females we know. They never seem to think it’ll happen to them, right?” He shook his head, “When she was first turned, she was hell on wheels. Fuck, she was one of the worst I’ve seen. But his blood… you can believe it based on having his twin’s blood and seeing that for yourself. She’s herself. Kyle is protected because his blood has literally erased the typical female vamp effect. She’s vampire but she’s a lot like her former self. She has empathy. She is again like she was before she was turned. It’s like the evil was erased. She experienced reverse aging as well. She was aging as human, not having been turned in her 20’s, but soon after she was turned she tasted Kyle’s enchanted blood and the reversal of the female vamp effect started to happen. She experienced similar age reversal to your mother.”

Feeding from Kyla gave him a conscience. Something about being with Kyla made him want to be better. Hope rose at the belief that her sibling’s blood could have a strong effect on female vamps. Kyla’s blood had done nothing to Taryn. Taryn was as evil as ever. Adrian said the make-up between twins wasn’t necessarily identical but could it be close enough to get Kyla’s essence back?

“She’ll be very protective of him,” Sam said.

Tristan exhaled hard and nodded, “Get in touch. Talk to her about me, about Kyla. Do it in person only and tell her everything but ensure she tells no one. I want to be on the road tomorrow. Where are they?”

“An island off the pacific coast. We can get there by boat or flight from Washington. What about him?” Sam gestured to the direction of the room the daggered Adrian was in.

“Chuck ‘em in the closet back there for tonight,” he gestured over his shoulder with his chin, “I don’t wanna look at his face but I want him close. He’s comin’ with us. Where’s Taryn?”

“She left after you told her to go.”

“Find out if she’s up to anything. Have her watched. Get Hunter on the job. He’s not so easy for her to trace. And dig to see if you can find out if anything is happening here that Constantin’s needed for within the next week. Assemble his team for me here in thirty minutes or so, so I can question them and then tell them on how to handle his absence.”