House of Ravens (8 page)

“
I hardly even know where
to begin,” I confess as I look back at everyone else. “So much has
happened. So much has changed. So much is still to
come.”

“
Guess we can start with
the fact that you survived Court,” Danny pipes up. “From what I
hear, that makes you pretty damn unique.”

I nod my head. “I suppose so. It wasn’t
easy. It certainly wasn’t fun. And all that fear Jasmine and those
of you who were with her had before he came? You all were
justified.” I kind of chuckle, because I have to relieve some of
the horror I’m reliving in my brain. “I just have to say: don’t
ever go and piss Cyrus off.”

A few of the House members laugh with me,
but most are stony faced. They can’t even really imagine what it
was like.

“
Anyway, I sat as a
prisoner for over a month before they even started my trial. And I
found my cell neighbor was Ian while I was there.” I look over at
him. He gives me a knowing smile. Those first few weeks were not
pleasant ones between us. “Ian never left me, by the way. I know
the King made you all lie to me about it. So…as you may have
guessed, things are different now.”

“
I assume this means this
beautiful specimen is off the market then?” the beautiful and curvy
woman asks, eying Ian up and down with a hungry and playful smile
on her lips.

“
Very,” I say, perhaps a
little too defensively.

Everyone laughs at that and I look to see
Ian giving me a very proud smile. The fire in my belly flares for a
moment.

But now is not the time to pull him into a
private room.

“
Anyway, things were ugly.
I didn’t know if I was going to make it for a while there. But in
the end, there was no evidence that proved I built this army and
tried to kill the King. So here we are,” I say, feeling relieved
having got the first order of business out of the way.

“
I know many of you came
into this House because of one of the King’s infamous games. We
totaled six members before he arrived, and now we sit at twenty.
Some of you were forced to join a House you knew nothing about.” I
look at Lexington, my eyes drifting to the others who used to be
members of the House of Allaway. “Others, well, I don’t know
anything about your history yet, but I know you didn’t really have
much of a choice when it came to joining us.”

I place my hands behind my back, clasping my
wrist. I lift my chin, looking them all over. “You have a choice
now. King Cyrus is gone, his games are over. He has no reason to
have any contact with us, and I certainly have no intention of
getting in touch. So, I give you, all of you, the choice now. If
you want to leave, you can. If you wish to return to where you came
from, you can. I promise, I won’t hold any harsh thoughts against
you. I will let you go willingly, peacefully.”

I look around, trying to read the
expressions of those I do not know well. The curvy woman evaluates
me, but she seems pleased by what she sees. The older woman who
volunteered must have done so for a reason, because she looks
content.

But, a man, small and timid in mannerisms,
fidgets. He looks around at the others, as if waiting for someone
else to make the first step.

“
It’s okay,” I say,
directing it at him. Of course, every eye jumps to him. And he
looks like he wishes he could wither away and disappear under their
stares. “If you don’t wish to stay, I mean it. You can go in
peace.”

“
It’s just…” he says,
squirming under the pressure. “I had finally started this job I’d
worked so hard for. And I met this woman; things were starting to
go somewhere.”

A little smile works onto my lips. “Then
what are you waiting for?” I trail off, asking for his name.

“
Toby,” he offers
timidly.

“
Thank you for being with
us, even for a short time, Toby,” I say, walking across the space
and wrapping him in for a quick, light hug. “I wish you the best of
luck.”

He backs away from me when I release him,
giving me this look like he doesn’t quite believe what I’m saying.
Like he expects me to take it back. But I just smile. He takes one
step away, toward the door. And then another. With a lot of pairs
of eyes watching him, he opens the door, waves a terrified goodbye,
and slips out, sunshades in place.

“
Anyone else?” I ask. I’m
actually relieved someone left. Having so many numbers is kind of
terrifying and overwhelming.

But no one else says a word. They all simply
watch me expectantly.

Eight original members, eight new, one Ian.
One here only to help us win a war.

“
Thank you for your support
and loyalty,” I say. “I promise to take the time to get to know
each of you whom I haven’t gotten to meet. But for now, there are
some things we need to discuss.”

“
We will be going to
war—soon,” I begin with the biggest issue. “Whoever the leader of
the Bitten army is, has something personal against me. I don’t know
what it is, but I’m certain they know I am back. I need you to be
vigilant. Anna will organize groups to patrol town at all times,
searching for signs of activity. Ian will be on the hunt.” I look
at him when I say this because it’s not something we’ve yet
discussed, but it’s something we need. He only nods his head in
confirmation. “He’ll be searching for any problems with
Bitten.

“
I don’t want this to come
to civil war and I have no problem with the Bitten in general, but
they’ve threatened our secrets of survival here in Silent Bend,
taken too many innocent lives.” My voice grows quieter for a
moment, frustration and sadness sinking into me. “We have to do
something about it. We are the House of the South Eastern United
States. This is our job.”

Many of them nod their heads, understanding,
prepared to do whatever it will take.

“
Silent Bend has constantly
been stuck in the middle of this battle, ever since my family moved
into its borders,” I continue. “We need to do what we can to
protect it—this is our home. We may never gain the trust of those
we live beside, but we will do the best we can to make a peaceful
existence with them. We will protect them the best we can. Because
what were all of you once, before you Resurrected?”

“
Human.” It’s Trinity,
Cameron, and the older woman who all answer at the same
time.

I nod. “That’s right. And that is my number
one rule: if you cannot be satisfied with the donated blood Nial
provides, if you need to feed on fresh blood, you never, ever do it
within the borders of our town. And you never, ever create any
Bitten.”

My eyes dart to Samuel for just a moment,
the one House member who broke this rule. I punished him for it,
severely, by forcing him to feed on me when I was still human, to
the point he nearly killed me.

“
Now, I have to say, and to
some of you, I’ve already said it, I’m different,” I say and it
leaves my chest in a breathy exhale. “I began losing myself. But
I’m just a normal girl who was thrust into this crazy world. I
didn’t have enough education. I didn’t have enough preparation. I
was put on this rocket and asked to know how to fly it without
anyone telling me what the control functions were.

“
But I did some learning. I
did some finding. And I’m not the vicious, vengeful leader I was
turning into. If you disagree with the way I’m doing something,
speak up. I promise I will listen now.”

I plead with them. Beg for their
forgiveness. For their trust.

And those that do not know me well, they’re
unsure. And that’s okay. Because I plan to prove myself to
them.

“
We’ll reevaluate the
living arrangements over the next few days. If you feel strongly
that you want to live in one House or the other, please talk with
Lillian, and we will get things figured out.” It’s trivial, but
important. I don’t want anyone to feel like they are a lesser
citizen because they are not living at the Estate.

“
And last but not least, I
need each of you to come to the House and take a good long look at
the painting of Henry Conrath in the library. I need you to know
his face,” I say, “so that you can recognize the man should you see
him. I believe my father is still alive, and I plan to find
him.”

GETTING DOWN HERE IN A private way was
impossible.

When the entryway to Henry’s lair is twelve
feet across and drops from the floor, it’s impossible to go inside
without being noticed. Thankfully, when Trinity and Samuel saw me
heading down, they simply turned away and gave me my privacy.

As I got down to the floor, I hopped off,
removed my key, and found a lever, which closed the door, leaving
me down here alone and in private.

Now, on my own, I wander the lab.

On one shelf are three boxes of empty glass
vials. One box of syringes. And on the bottom shelf are three long,
black, duffle-type bags.

I have no doubt they’re body bags.

There’s a huge fridge that dominates another
wall. Three doors open into it, each lined with glass windows so
that you can see the contents without opening them. Labels are
marked with titles such as Genesis Serum 12.4. Another reads
Genesis Serum 22.8. Such a wide variety of numbers. On the next
shelf down, there are more vials that read BC 1 through 5, only
three vials of each. And then there’s an entire bin full of vials
that read BC COMPLETE.

Containers of mixtures line the middle
fridge; things I can’t even pronounce. Bottles with the names of
animals written on the outside are along one shelf, the red
contents make me sure that they contain blood. There’s tiger, bat,
viper, and many others there.

On a bottom shelf, I find a bin that
contains only three vials, ones I recognize, and I instantly know
what the EW labels stand for.

Elle Ward.

They’re vampire toxins. The ones that
immobilize vampires for twelve hours.

So many other things line the shelves of the
refrigerators, but I turn back to the microscope set up on one
table, and peer down through the eyepiece. There’s a slide already
inserted, but I have no idea what I’m looking for.

Other medical and experimental equipment is
set up here and there, perfectly organized and meticulously
cleaned. I don’t understand what it is they do, but they look
complicated and vastly important.

I do plan to bring Nial down here with me at
some point, but I needed some time to check everything out for
myself first. He was my father, and if there are any clues as to
where he is, I want to find them first.

Perhaps it’s childish, but I need it.

I scan through every single book, checking
to see if there are any unmarked spines that could perhaps be a
journal or notebook. But everything is carefully labeled, all
professional and with a specific topic. I pull random books from
the shelf, leafing through the pages, hoping that maybe I’ll find
notes in the margins, something to indicate what Henry was working
on down here, but there’s nothing. Every page looks undisturbed,
not even a wrinkle. But the well-worn spines tell me he at least
read them all. Maybe even multiple times.

I think maybe I’ve learned something new
about Henry. Everything is so perfectly organized. So meticulously
clean. In it’s order and place. It’s all a little…obsessive
compulsive.

“
What were you doing down
here, Henry?” I breathe to myself. I settle into a chair, a tall
one that sits at counter height, and tuck my knees into my chest.
My eyes scan everything, over and over. But I just can’t quite seem
to make any sense of it.

Vampirism was born of science and curses.
Cyrus, even though he did what he did thousands of years ago, was
obsessed with science and immortality. He may not have had a lab,
but what once might have been looked at as witchcraft back then
could be explained by science today.

Henry is doing some kind of science down
here. I want to know what.

There is a photograph of me that draws my
attention and I cross the space to pick it up off a shelf before
returning to my seat.

I find it’s not just a frame, it’s actually
a photo album. It isn’t long, just a slender binding holding them
together, but it houses about a dozen pictures.

My prom picture. My graduation picture. My
twenty-first birthday party. Me working at my old bakery.

And one where I’m about to board a plane.
The one I took from Colorado to Silent Bend, before I knew
anything.

“
You’re alive,” I breathe.
An hour at a time, I’m slowly coming to accept the fact. No one can
quite prove it one way or the other, but I just feel it in my gut.
He’s alive.