House of Ravens (26 page)

THE SUN CUTS THROUGH THE foggy morning with
a harsh glow. Dew collects on everything, casting the Estate in
glitter and humidity.

But none of us see it. We wait from within
the House. Every one of us armed to the teeth. Watching.
Waiting.

I don’t know what to do. How to strike. How
to retaliate.

I don’t know.

“
Is that Albert Tillerman?”
I hear Lillian say from down the hall. Darting to a window, I look
outside. A man in his late fifties walks up to the house. He seems
nervous. Afraid.

“
And Juanita Hernandez,”
Lillian says. I walk into the bedroom she’s watching
from.

“
Who are these people?” I
ask, my brows furrowing.

“
They both live here in
Silent Bend,” she says. “They’re just…people.”

“
Got another three out the
back,” Cameron calls from downstairs.

In a flash, I’m down in the ballroom,
looking out the window with him. “That’s Peter, Cassius, and Ruby,”
he says, pointing the individuals out. “They were all a few years
older than me in school.”

“
What are they doing here?”
I question, squinting against the light. I place my hand on the
doorknob, determined to go out there and question them, but Cameron
grabs my wrist.

“
Don’t,” he says, shaking
his head. “Look.”

I do look. Just in time to see each of them
raise their hands. Just in time to see the huge, glass bottles with
clear liquid that each of them carries.

Just in time to see them throw them at my
house.

Most shatter on the back veranda or the side
of the house. One hits a window, shattering it, but doesn’t get
into the house due to the metal window coverings meant to keep out
light.

I swear, my eyes frantically searching for
the individuals again.

“
That’s gas!” someone yells
from down the hall.

The next moment, every one of the humans
throws a lighter at the wet, dripping areas, and it all goes up in
a great ball of fire.

“
Get out of the House!” I
bellow, turning and racing for the table by the front door with the
drawer that holds all of the sunshades. Only when I yank it open,
it’s completely empty.

“
Find some shades!” I
scream. Footsteps barrel around the house, voices yelling, frantic
and angry.

“
Mine are gone!” Christian
yells.

“
Mine, too!” Leigh screams,
a hint of terror leaking into her voice.

“
Same here,” Smith yells
out.

“
I told you we have a
mole.” Markov comes limping into the foyer, his eyes glowing red.
The instant Smith begins walking down the stairs, Markov is on him,
pinning him to the stairs, his fangs bared. “Where are they?” he
bellows. “And why are you helping the Bitten?”

Smith’s eyes only ignite themselves as he
throws Markov off of him. He rights himself, squaring his
shoulders.

“
You’ll not accuse me of
such crimes again,” he growls.

But a scene has been caused, even as smoke
thickens in the air. Anna and Samuel surround Smith, their hands
both with stakes in them, ready to attack.

“
Now, let’s just calm down,
everyone,” Smith says, holding his hands up, sensing that he
really, truly is in danger.

“
You’ve been helping them
this entire time,” Samuel growls. “Let them trick the humans in
town, then steal our only way to escape. You won’t be surviving
this one, buddy.”

And a tiny amount of movement catches my
eye.

A small figure, darting from the kitchen,
back to the north wing hall.

“
Wait,” I say, holding my
hand up, just as Anna is about to jump, stake at the ready. “Don’t
let him go anywhere. But wait a second.”

Silently, I dart after the figure, moving
down the hall, just in time to see them skirt into the very last
bedroom on the left. Moving faster, I follow, hearing someone
following me for back up.

I step into the bedroom, just in time to see
Francesca sliding the window open, a black duffle bag over her
shoulder, and a set of sunshades on her face.

“
Wait!” I yell, darting to
her and pulling her away from the window. Another set of hands
grabs her harshly, and Trinity throws her to the floor, placing a
foot on her chest to pin her to the ground.

“
You got some explaining to
do,” Trinity growls at her.

Francesca holds her hands up in surrender,
trembling from head to toe. Tears instantly spring into her eyes.
“Please,” she whispers as they break free onto her cheeks. “Just
kill me. I deserve to die.”

“
You don’t get that
kindness yet,” Trinity says, grabbing Francesca’s ankle and
dragging her out of the room. “First you owe an
explanation.”

“
Take her into the
library,” I instruct.

House members scramble, running around with
pails of water. But each of them shies away from the sunlight,
screaming in pain.

And just as we’re about to head into the
library, I see Henry open the door, standing in the full sunlight
of day, and walk out. I rush to the door, cracking it open, to find
the humans gone and Henry retrieving a garden house from the front,
which he aims at the house, dousing the flames.

I can only watch for less than a minute
before my eyes are on fire and my brain feels as if it’s withering.
I slam the door closed.

Blindness temporarily makes it impossible to
see. Hands out, relying on my sense of hearing, I make my way to
the library. My sight clears, one tiny bit at a time.

Trinity has Francesca pinned to the floor,
literally sitting on her chest, with her hands wrapped around a
stake that hovers over her heart. Just then, Anna drags Smith into
the library, as well, stake pressed to his back, Samuel holding a
gun to his head.

“
Why did you have these?” I
demand of Francesca, holding up the duffle bag, unzipping it. I
pull out a set of sunshades, tossing them to Lexington, who
immediately heads outside. I toss the entire bag to Lillian, who
takes charge of them. “Why would you turn on us?”

Francesca continues to cry, shaking her
head. “Please, just kill me. I just want to die.”

“
That’ll come soon enough,”
Trinity says, pricking the tip of the stake through Francesca’s
skin, causing a bubble of bright red blood to pool around it. “But
first, you’ll talk.”

“
Don’t make this get ugly,”
I say quietly. Because even though I am a different kind of leader
now, I will do what is necessary to protect my family.

A sob bubbles up from the girl’s chest and
she shakes her head again. “They killed her. And it wasn’t even her
fault. It was the House’s!”

I exchange glances with Anna and Trinity,
and neither of them seems to know what she’s talking about. “Who?”
I demand. “They killed who?”

Another sob heaves in her chest, driving the
stake just a little deeper. “My mother. Chelsea Allaway turned her
by accident, and then just killed her because of what she was.”
More sobs. It becomes difficult to understand the words Francesca
says.

“
My mother,” she says. “She
worked for them for years before one of their House members got her
pregnant. I was born, they raised me, and she stayed close to be
there for me, continuing to work for them. And then, Chelsea just
turned her and killed her. Something…” she heaves a huge sob.
“Something has to change. We can’t keep going on like
this.”

I crouch beside the poor sobbing girl. “I’m
so sorry about what Chelsea did to your mother,” I offer her. “But
why would you turn on us? We’ve done nothing but treat you
fairly.”

Francesca shakes her head. “It doesn’t
matter. All Royals are the same.”

It pierces me because I very nearly became
just like the Allaways. “I need you to tell me,” I say. “Who is
doing this? And what is their next move?”

Francesca shakes her head again, seeming to
calm almost instantly. “It doesn’t matter now,” she says quietly.
“We’re all going to hell, anyway.”

She suddenly lunges upward, her hands
grabbing hold of Trinity’s wrists, and yanks the stake down,
straight into her chest.

Trinity scrambles away from the now dead
girl, her face turning stark white. Everyone backs away a little,
taking a moment to process the horrific moment.

One of our own betrayed us. Another of our
own is now dead.

“
Told you it wasn’t me,”
Smith growls as he stalks away, Anna and Samuel now releasing
him.

I swear under my breath, looking back at her
body.

“
Don’t worry about her
right now, there’s more important things at stake at the moment,”
Anna says, touching my arm.

I turn back to her, nodding in
agreement.

Everyone has on a set of sun shades and we
all work at dousing the fire. The worst of it is in the back,
facing the river. The flames lick up the side of the building,
trying to spread to the second floor. Each of us has a hose or is
dumping buckets of water from the windows.

Each of us wears sunshades. Except Henry,
who darts around as if the light doesn’t bother him, at all.

It takes an hour, but finally, we get all of
the flames put out.

The house has taken severe damage. The
middle part of the house is covered in black streaks, burn marks
stretching wide and ugly. The stones that cover the walls on the
north and south wings are mostly undamaged, but here and there, the
blackness stains their surface.

Just as it burned over 130 years ago, the
House of Conrath was once again nearly burned to the ground. With
more than eighteen people inside.

“
History does have a way of
repeating itself,” Henry says darkly as he turns the hose off and
walks inside.

One by one, everyone puts their firefighting
equipment away, and we each walk back into the house.

“
Explain to me why you’re
not in pain,” I say as we cross the foyer. “Why were you able to
just run out there, with no danger from the sun?”

He doesn’t respond. He only holds his hand
out, pointing to the key that hangs around my neck. I hand it over,
and he walks to the middle of the ballroom. He inserts the key, and
the platform begins lowering.

“
Wait here,” he instructs
me, even as a small crowd begins gathering around to see what Henry
is up to. He disappears beneath the floor. I faintly hear him
rummaging through something down in the lab, and two minutes later,
he rises back up, small boxes in his hands.

“
As you know, I’ve been
fighting these Bitten for several months now,” he says as Rath
walks to his side, holding the boxes for him. “While I am an apt
fighter, everything I’ve accomplished would not be possible where
it not for my ability to go out in the sunlight. It gave me an
advantage over them, one that was critical.”

He opens the first box and takes out three
small packs. He walks forward and gives the first to me. “It
wouldn’t have been possible without this invention. Look closely at
my eyes, Alivia.”

I lean forward, squinting my enhanced eyes.
Where normally a vampire’s eyes appear mostly black, because our
eyes remain completely dilated, Henry’s have a dark brown ring
around his pupil. It’s subtle, but as I get closer, I see it
expand, as if dilating.

“
How did they do that?” I
ask in wonder. “Dilation isn’t possible for us anymore.”

Henry smiles, before turning to Anna and
handing her a box, as well, before moving on to Nial. “Modern
technology is a marvelous thing sometimes,” he says, as he
continues passing the packs out. “These are solar triggered
contacts. They filter out blinding UV rays, like sunshades do, and
are also designed with artificial contraction. They’ll contract in
bright sunlight, just as your own pupils used to.”

“
You’re saying you’ve fixed
every vampire’s biggest downfall with a simple pair of contacts?”
Lexington questions, opening the small packs and examining the tiny
lenses within.

“
Yes,” Henry answers him
with a tiny, somewhat smug smile.

“
Awesome,” Lexington
laughs, a look of awe upon his face.

Almost immediately, everyone scrambles,
heading for a mirror to attempt to put them in.

“
Henry,” I say as I walk to
the mirror in the foyer to put my own in. “This is incredible. I
mean, it makes sense, how else could you have done what you did,
but…” I struggle with the lenses, which are somewhat thicker than a
regular contact lens, and watch my eye in the mirror. Carefully, I
place it. Instantly the foyer grows darker, and it’s disorienting
when the lens automatically adjusts, constricting at first, and
then widening to let in more light in the dark house.

“
These that I’ve given you
and the House are just the prototype,” he explains. “I had just
completed a fully implantable version before I faked my death. Once
this is over, I will let you discern whom you want to give that
permanent freedom to. The lens versions will only last for about a
week before the toxins in our bodies will destroy them.”

“
Still,” I say as I finish
inserting the second one. “This is incredible.”

I blink several times, letting my eyes
adjust. They’re irritating, I’ve never worn contacts before, but
they aren’t unbearable. Cautiously, I walk to the front door,
pulling it open.

Taking five hesitant steps, I stop at the
edge of the porch, hovering in the little protection the shade
gives me. A smile curls on my lips. And I step out into the full
sunlight.