“I’m going with them,” Mila said quietly, not looking at Dante as she spoke. She didn’t need to see his expression to know he would be furious at her announcement. It wasn’t that she wanted to hurt him, she just knew that this was the right thing to do. If he didn’t want to throw his hand into the mix, then that was his choice. She, however, had never really had a choice, not since the moment she’d had her vision of the Justice Seeker.
When the expected explosion didn’t materialise, she turned in his direction, but he was sitting so still her vision wouldn’t come to her. “Dante?” It was unlike him to be so silent. He always made some subtle movement so she could effectively see.
“Have you had another vision? One that I am not aware of?” he finally asked, tilting his head to the side as he spoke.
Mila let out a small breath, relieved that she could now see his expression though he was giving nothing away. “No, but I don’t need to have another vision. I have known since the first one that this is what I have needed to do. You have known too, Dante. You’ve just been fighting it in your need to protect me.” She reached up and gently touched the side of his face, knowing he hated the thought of her being in any danger. “There is no escaping this course of action, my friend. I must do this. If I have to do it alone, then that is how it will be.”
“Right… like that’s ever going to happen,” he drawled, a resigned sigh mixed in with his words. “Okay, you win, Mila. We will go with them, but I swear to every God everyone on this planet believes in, that if you get yourself hurt in any way, I am going to make you rue the day we ever met. Are we clear on that, sweet one?”
Laughter bubbled up, and she brushed his cheek again. “I will never rue the day I met you, dear Dante. Just the thought of that is an oxymoron. The Justice Seeker’s mission has more chance of success if we help him. This is the right thing to do, and I will always be safe with you at my side, not that I am without my own means of defence. I did manage to hold off a fair number of vampires until reinforcements arrived.”
“You almost bloody died, woman! I thought my heart would stop beating when I saw you lying there covered in blood.”
“But I didn’t, and the girl was saved,” she countered, her tone patient though his overprotectiveness was starting to grate on her soul. She was aware of just how difficult it was for her friend to see her in danger, but he had to remember who she really was. “I am not a helpless invalid, Dante. I know I have more challenges than some, but I am able to take care of myself. Please don’t make me less than what I am. I know you don’t mean to, however you are in danger of doing the very thing that would infuriate you if anyone else tried it.”
A rueful smile danced across his lips and he rested his forehead against hers. “You are far too patient with me,” he conceded. “You are right to call me out on my smothering behaviour. We will do this your way, and I will do my best to remember that you are the most amazing woman I have ever known, and you don’t need me to hold your hand.”
“Very touching,” Louis interjected, walking over from his completed task. “Do you want to tell me what the hell is going on now? Just what game have you been playing, Castillo, and how does it affect my coven?”
“You are free to leave at any time you wish, vampire,” Agony growled, as he joined them. “I have no need of you despite what Dara says. However, if you are completely unaware of the danger here in Europe, then you are not fit to be a coven leader. Frankly, so far I fail to see why Freya would give you the time of day, let alone count you as an ally.”
Louis glared at him, though there was a hint of wariness in his eyes. “I see plenty, boy, more than you can imagine, and I will be sure to let Freya know that you doubt her intelligence. I would be more than happy to sit on the side lines and watch you explain yourself on that one.” If he thought to unsettle the Varcolac, he was soon disappointed when the boy threw his head back and laughed.
“Yes, that would indeed be a fun conversation to have,” Agony agreed, the first hint of true amusement crossing his face.
Dante rose, pulling Mila up with him, ensuring that he was between the two other males. He didn’t want the bloodletting to begin again, though it appeared that Louis’s bravado was actually creating a small bond with the Varcolac as opposed to irritating him.
“You know the covens have started working together, Louis. What you don’t know is how widespread it has become. I’ve travelled all over Europe and everywhere I’ve been in the last quarter of a century, I have seen the same thing, smaller covens joining together to create larger ones. The Weres are vanishing too, the covens are hunting some more ferociously, and others are just disappearing as if they never existed. ”
He paused, letting the information sink in. Everyone had now turned to him, listening to what he’d discovered on his travels. “Mila… do you want to tell them what you know?”
The small, dark-haired vampire nodded, giving her friend a reassuring smile. This would be so hard for Dante to allow, but he was being true to his word, he was allowing her to be who she was. “You can all see that I don’t have conventional sight, but I can see when there is movement around me, it’s like I receive a snapshot of my surroundings in a still picture form. My lack of sight has given me a special ability, I receive visions of things to come, and they are becoming stronger as my abilities grow.”
“You saw me.”
It wasn’t a question but more of a statement, and she turned to Agony with a smile. “I saw you, and I see you, Kothari, son of Gard and Rayne. You are the Justice Seeker, and already our world here has run crimson with the first blood I have foreseen. It will flow with more blood, an unending stream if we do not help you; however, that was not my first vision of doom for us all. My first inkling of danger occurred before I had even met Dante.”
Dara was listening, her call finished with Rafe, and her expression surprised. “For some reason I thought Dante was your Sire,” she mused.
The other woman laughed, a beautiful tinkling sound that seemed out of place considering what had so recently occurred. “Goodness no, my Sire was Abraham. He, too, was rather overprotective and kept me hidden away. Dante was his friend and it took him a whole century to learn of my existence, and that was only because Abraham knew he wasn’t long for this world and he wanted to give me a new protector.”
Just the thought of her departed friend was enough to bring sadness to her expression, but she worked to shake it off, knowing she couldn’t do anything about the past. “The first hint that something was wrong came when I was with Abraham. I woke from a nightmare of endless blackness, terrified and screaming. My unconventional sight failed me for the first time since I became a vampire. It was as if everything was gone, there were no vampires, no Weres, no humans. Everything was just black. I told Abraham then that there was something walking this world that was so evil everyone would die if it wasn’t defeated. We started our self-imposed mission to seek out that evil that very day, and I have been searching ever since.”
“What happened to Abraham?” Natalia asked. “If it wouldn’t be too painful to tell us.”