House of Ravens (7 page)

“
So, we have eighteen House
members, including Ian, not including Rath or Obasi.” I’m mainly
talking to myself, though I say the words out loud. “We’re greatly
outweighed.”

“
I assume you’re talking
about the Bitten?” Lillian asks. Just then, Lexington descends the
stairs.

“
Yeah,” I answer her
absentmindedly.

“
Hey, the black reputation
princess has returned,” Lexington says in a surprisingly cheerful
voice. “I have to admit, I kind of expected the King to just lop
your head off and be done with it.”

“
You will watch how you
address our Regent,” Nial spits, his eyes instantly flashing
red.

“
Ah, calm down, doc,”
Lexington says offhandedly. “The princess knows I’m just joking
around.”

“
Do I?” I say in annoyance.
I’m trying really hard, I really am, to be different. To not be the
controlling ruler I was just two months ago. But with comments like
that, it’s hard. “I don’t really know you. Maybe now is not the
time just yet?”

He holds his hands up in surrender and
raises one eyebrow. “I’ll remember my place.”

And instantly, I feel terrible. I don’t want
to be that kind of person anymore, but it’s going to take me some
time to get fully turned around. “We’ll get there,” I offer as a
compromise, giving him a little wink.

His expression tells me I’m not fully
forgiven, but it was a step in the right direction.

“
Would you like a quick
walk around?” Lillian offers. “I think the last time you were here,
things had barely been finished, construction wise.”

I nod. “I’d love to. Thanks.”

The four of us walk through the house, which
is so eerily similar to my own. While it’s not quite as large as my
House, it is laid out in almost the same blueprint. A wing to the
north leads to four bedrooms, all of which are occupied. The
library just off the foyer, which used to be in ruins when Jasmine
ruled, is now lined with books, clean, organized. A desk resides in
the middle of it, and it’s obvious, someone has been doing some
real work at it. I’m ashamed to say that I don’t know anything
about at least five of the new members, so I have no clue who the
desk is being utilized by.

The kitchen reveals a human woman cooking
breakfast, which looks about ready. Lillian introduces her, and to
my surprise, she doesn’t seem scared of her environment at all.
Something tells me she knew what this job entailed before she took
it. She seems far braver than Katina, the cook at my House.

And just like my House, I see two
housekeepers scurrying about. I can hear a gardener working
outside, rather hard, I might add. He’s got his work cut out for
him with this formerly-ruined house and a swamp as his
landscape.

Upstairs, there are six more bedrooms. And
in just the same location as my bedroom, there sits a master
bedroom, though I find this one empty.

“
It didn’t seem fair to let
any one person occupy this room until you made the call,” Lillian
says. “Kind of an awkward situation.”

I chuckle. “I get it. We’ll discuss it
later. Well, since the three of us are already here, how about we
call everyone at the Estate and tell them to come here for the
meeting?”

Each of them nods and pulls out their
phones. I slide my own out and text Ian.

Time to wake up, sleepyhead. Meeting at
Jasmine’s old house. We’re using it now, BTW.

He responds just thirty
seconds later.
Good to know. Be there in
fifteen.

I WANDER THROUGH THE
GREAT
room, which in my house is a
ballroom, and open the door out onto the veranda. The sun shines
brilliantly, warming my skin. Ever thankful for my sunshades, I
walk across the repaired deck to the edge, placing my hands on the
railing.

“
Do you think it has
changed?” I ask. Lillian and Nial stand on either side of me. “Or
am I just crazy? It seems…drier.”

“
That should be an
impossibility considering all the snow from the curse storm,” Nial
says wisely. “If anything, the land should be more waterlogged than
ever.”

“
It’s different,” Lillian
says. “I lived here at Jasmine’s house for twelve years. I’ve never
seen it this dry.”

“
Does that mean it’s
lifting?” I ask, my tone brightening. “Or weakening?”

“
Is what weakening?” We
turn to see Lexington has followed us out onto the deck. He sips
from a coffee cup, wearing his own set of sunshades.

“
Apparently eavesdropping
is a special skill of yours,” Nial says in mild
annoyance.

“
Well, see, I have these
super strong ears that hear everything,” he says, acting undeterred
by the obvious irritation he’s being. “And I thought you were just
having this super boring conversation about a patch of swamp land.
But now I’m thinking there’s more than meets the eye to this
forsaken place you assigned us to.”

Everything in me bristles. I’m at war with
myself. While I have resolved to be kinder and more understanding,
I still have to be a leader. How can I be fair and even-handed when
my subjects are vampires and most of them have no real loyalty to
me?

“
Look, if you want to
leave, you do not have to stay,” I say, taking special care to keep
my tone even. “I don’t hold you to the King’s trade deal. So, if
you don’t want to be here, be part of this family, that’s
completely okay. But you can’t just go around having a bad attitude
and being a pain in the ass to whomever you want. Got
it?”

Lexington studies me, his eyes narrowed
slightly. There’s a tiny bit of a smile pulling on his lips and I
can’t decide if I want to wipe it from his face or if it’s
reminding me of Cameron just enough to let it go.

“
You’re not what I thought
you were to begin with,” he says, tipping his cup in my direction.
“I thought you were just this stuffy poser who was doing whatever
the King wanted, out of fear. But you’re not. You’ve actually got a
backbone of your own.”

“
Are you trying to get
yourself killed?” Nial bristles, standing straight and taking half
a step in his direction. “You’ll do well not to forget you are
speaking to a Royal.”

“
Calm down, doc, I wasn’t
being disrespectful,” Lexington says, his tone bordering on
condescending. “I was simply addressing my surprise that this woman
can actually be a leader worth following. I’m not making any
promises yet, but, well, maybe she’s enough to make me want to
stick around.”

“
Oh, thanks,” I say
sarcastically.

“
You’re welcome,” he
replies with a wink.

Danny walks up from behind and very roughly
bumps his shoulder into Lexington’s, nearly sending him to the
ground. I give Danny an appreciative smile, and to my utter
surprise, half a smile curls on his own lips. He enjoyed that quite
a lot.

“
Watch it!” Lexington
protests, flinging the spilled, hot coffee from his
hands.

“
Oops,” Danny says in that
gravelly voice of his. He stops at my side, leaning his back
against the railing, resting his elbows on it and lacing his
fingers over his chest. “I have to say, Alivia, I’m curious about
what you were talking about, too.”

There’s something vastly dangerous about the
dirty, threatening man standing beside me. Something so rough and
rogue. But there’s also something about him that makes me immensely
want him as a member of my House. And my friend.

“
My father, Henry Conrath,
and his brother Elijah, moved to Silent Bend in the late 1700s,” I
begin the story. Just then, the young boy that Sebastian brought to
join our house, newly resurrected and no older than thirteen, walks
out the back door, a wary and unsure expression upon his face.
“They each bought large parcels of land,” I continue the story.
“Obviously, I live on Henry’s land. This belonged to my
uncle.”

As I begin my story, more of the new House
members walk to the doorway. Some come outside with the assistance
of sunshades, others linger in the shadows inside.

“
They established cotton
plantations. At the time, Silent Bend was struggling financially.
The town wasn’t making it, with limited sources for income, and
from what I hear, the two brothers saved the local economy and
brought in enough jobs for the town to really grow into
something.”

I look around. So many of these faces are
unfamiliar. I don’t even know the names of the severe man with the
bleached blond hair or the beautiful curvy woman. Or the older
woman who volunteered to leave the Allaways to join my House in the
trade. I know nearly nothing about the dark warrior who came from
Africa and prison to help us fight this war.

Here they sit, listening to me as if I am a
mother, telling her children bedtime stories. Strangers, with a
temporarily estranged adoptive mother.

“
For years, things were
good. Elijah established the House here that rightfully belonged to
the Conrath blood. Henry stayed removed, but supportive. And
everything grew.”

The beginnings of this story are so
beautiful and hopeful.

But I know what comes next.

“
But talk spreads fast in
small towns. Their strange, nocturnal ways drew attention. And
soon, an accident happened. A House member fathered a child. The
mother hid that child, but when it died at three years old, it
Resurrected.” It chills my blood just thinking about an immortal
Born child. “When it awoke, it killed its mother, and the acts were
witnessed.”

There’s true shock and horror in their
faces. Some of them, at least. I can’t even imagine it, and I don’t
know how I’ll take it if, when we finally face the Bitten army,
they have children among their numbers. Because this could happen
even easier with the Bitten. All it takes is draining just a little
too much blood, and you have yourself a newborn Bitten.

“
The town revolted. They’d
had enough,” I say quietly. “They stormed both Conrath plantations.
The houses were set on fire. Elijah was blamed for letting this
crime happen and they killed him, and three others. And then they
took them to the center of town. To the tree that sits at the end
of Main Street. They strung them up, and hanged their dead bodies.
On display for the entire town to see.”

The lot of them are absolutely silent as
they learn the history of their new town and House. It’s grim. But
I can’t imagine it is entirely unique. Keeping vampires hidden and
quiet all these years can’t have been easy. It’s quite a thing
Cyrus has accomplished over thousands of years.

“
My father, in his grief
and on such a horrifying night, did what I’m sure many of you would
have done,” I continue. “There was blood shed that night. Revenge.
They tried to kill him, too, but Henry escaped. And when things
settled down, my father returned to his Estate, never to partake in
this town’s events again. He remained removed for the rest of his
life.”

I turn out to face the land around me. “But
the tree they hanged my uncle from is dead. It’s cursed. The ground
around it scorched. The plantation died, turning to swamp, and
hundreds of jobs were lost. The town was cursed for what they did
to my uncle.”

I turn to face them all as I conclude my
story. I hear doors being closed out in front of the house and know
the others have arrived. “And that is the legacy of this House.
That is what we are recovering from.”

Suddenly, Cameron walks through the great
room, breaking out onto the back deck. “Whoa,” he says, looking
around at all the silent people. “Why so serious?”

This breaks laughter from more than one
person, and the spell that I’ve woven is broken with the comedic
relief Cameron can always be counted on to bring.

One by one, my house members file into the
House and we begin walking back through the doors, into the large
room. When everyone is inside, the doors are closed tightly and
everyone can remove their sunshades.

I look around at our numbers. Twenty of
them. That feels like far too many people for me to be technically
in charge of. But far too few to fight off an entire army of Bitten
with a massive grudge.

“
Thank you all for coming,”
I say as everyone settles into couches, chairs, or finds somewhere
to stand. I go to stand before them all, my eyes flicking to Ian
for a moment. He chooses to stand, his arms folded over his chest,
his knees bent just slightly. His instincts are to prepare to
fight. I know this can’t be easy for him. The wary expression on
his face confirms it.