I shoved the back door behind me, hardly daring to breathe as the horror came into view. My school bag thudded to the floor in a puff of dust, grit and splinters that blanketed the cracked and crooked tiled floor. A few cupboard doors had been torn from their hinges, the fridge thrown to the floor, its contents spilling out from its stomach, and the table seated at the centre of the kitchen had a crater splitting it down the middle. Only the four dining tables held the two pieces from touching the floor.
The phone call that had woken me at five thirteen am suddenly made sense.
I checked my watch. With two hours and twenty minutes remaining before school started, and no chance to return to my rather inviting bed, I picked my way through the debris to the closet and found the broom, a heavy duty bin liner and a pair of gardening gloves I had discarded back here after the last incident. After turning my music up until the screaming dulled my anger, and cursing my charge as creatively as I could, all the while imagining my mother’s fuming cheeks if she were alive to hear me, I set to work.
My parents died when I was thirteen. It was a shock. One day, we were happily playing in the back garden with a hose and water balloons, and the next me and my brother came home, not to the smell of dad’s cooking, or mum’s singing, but to absence. We were both expecting the door bell, though Kiaran was only nine. We held each-others hands so tightly I could hear the bones creaking in protest, we were breathing harshly, hearts thumbing heart in unison. I felt his pulse jump as mine did, his palms becoming warm in fear. My fingers fumbled as I tried to turn the key in the lock. I couldn’t let my eyes wonder up to the window and the blurry, dark uniformed figures I saw there. Kiaran had to steady my hand.
After that, I can only remember holding each-other in my designated bed in the child’s home, my fingers stroking his silken ash blond hair, my eyes hard and dry.
Their murder left me more than just the care of my brother, an extensive bank account and a collection of perfume bottles. As the last living male Hunter, Kiaran inherited a key, directions to a house at the edge of town, and a medallion. The directions had a final, concluding sentence that made my heart stutter. The wards are as much to keep him in, as they are to keep others out. I could not let him face the dangers of something unknown. Though I was certain my parents would never intend us harm, I doubted that they had expected to die so early on in our lives, before they could explain the truths of our family. That the Hunters were guardians of a creature so old he could not remember his childhood, or what it felt to have a heart beating in his chest. A beast of night and blood and death.
The day I found the courage to walk up the path and unlock the door hiding that secret from the world was the day that I knew what it was to fear. That was the day that I met Seth.
I shoved the food into the bag, deciding that the fridge could not be repaired, either by me or a professional, and that the food was a loss. Not that there was large quantities of substances in there to begin with. Even an idiot knows a vampire only feasts on blood.
Seth hadn’t been gentle in letting me in on his existence. He had grown impatient in waiting, springing up suddenly, his fangs resting on his bottom lip as he sucked a jewel drop of his blood from his skin. His face was bleached of colour, his fading topaz eyes ringed with red, and I couldn’t see his chest expand as he breathed. The smell of dust clung to him, as though he had lain in one place for so long, the dust had settled on his clothes and in his flesh. “Ah, a girl.” His tongue snaked out to lick his lips. “I have not feed from the vein in so long…”
He moved faster than the eyes could perceive, grabbing me by the shoulders and bending to sniff at my neck. Tendrils of his paling ebony hair ticked the base of my throat. “So sweet…” a sharp pain caused me to gasp. Lifting up my leg, I drove my foot down onto his knee cap, ignoring the agony that radiated up from the contact. He seemed to remember himself, pulling away and releasing me. His smile was cold. “Now you belong to me, little miss Hunter.” And then he left, muttering to himself as I was forgotten.
My hand went to the scar my first encounter with Seth had left behind. Though he was not always lucid enough to recall that I was his guardian, he had never struck me again. My blood, and the medallion, bound us together. I was the only living being that ever visited him, and he was not allowed beyond the compound of his house; as far as the fence that bordered it. In some respects, his dependence and solitude reminded me of a pet, and if he wasn’t such a jerk, I might have pitied him for it.
The scar began to prickle in warning. I ignored him while I tidied the dust on the floor, turning only when it was in a neat pile. Seth leaned back on the countertop, holding up a book whose cover was too faded to read from my distance, though his attention was on me rather than the print. He quirked a brow and I removed my head phones with a scowl. “If I wanted to hear screaming, Auralie Hunter, I would savage a town.” I took the hint. Making a big production of it, I removed my phone and switched the music off. He hummed his approval. “Ahh, much better. One could not think with such atrocious sound running through ones house.” He made to leave again, elegant as always, but I simply turned the music back on and he paused.
“You could help.” There was no change in his stance, but I knew that he’d heard me, just as surely as he had heard my music from his room in the basement. “The sun hasn’t risen yet. You could at least throw out the crap you destroyed.”
“That would be the polite thing to do.” I sighed, knowing where he was going to go with this. When he spoke again, I mimicked him, allowing my voice to drop a few octaves and run as smooth as dark, seductive chocolate. “Alas, I am a vampire. Vampires are never polite.” I smirked at his back, watching his shoulders stiffen. Teasing Seth was as fun as it got around here.
“Good day, little miss Hunter.” He walked out before I could call him back, disappearing into the bowels of the house and leaving me to clear up the mess. Again. I looked at my watch with a wayward sigh. Only another hour and forty-seven minutes of community service to go…

Briar Thorne stood waiting for me at the school gate, a harassed look dashing across her face. The countless reminders that, yes, it was okay for her to go to registration without me had obviously been disregarded, again, and now we would both be reporting to crow-faced Mrs Canava for an explanation for our unofficial tardiness. Somehow, telling her I’d had to spend my morning clearing up after an ancient vampire, who, on particularly bad days, couldn’t even remember his own name, just wouldn’t fly. Even Briar, my sole friend and gothic literary aficionado, did not have access to my secret. I owed Briar much more than I could ever repair, the only friend who had stuck by my side throughout it all, from my parents deaths, to the sour attitude I sported in my desperate bid to push everyone away, and, finally, for being the one to convince her aunt and uncle to adopt two orphans determined to stick it out alone, so that we might be safe from the child’s home at last. I could not afford to tell her, to drag her into something that could potentially end in her demise. And besides, despite her fascination with creatures of the dark, I doubted even Briar would believe me sane without proof.
Sometimes, I even wondered if I was sane.
She chewed her lip as I jogged up to her, taking in my dusty appearance and the smudges on my face. I didn’t even glance down at myself, afraid of the state I’d find my beloved studded boots, or just how badly the remnants of that fridge had damaged my newest jeans as I had dragged its carcass outside. If he knew what was good for him, Seth would lay down somewhere, and would not rear his beautiful, devastating face for a while. Or ever. “I saw your brother. He said not to worry, and that you need to get some more Flakes.” She worked her lip harder, her eyes glazing as she tried to recall that final piece of advice my brother had for me. “And milk.” I added them to the mental list of necessities that was rapidly growing as the week wore on. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to get better.
I urged Briar through the gates, solemnly dipping my head as the bell tolled for first period and we passed beneath Mrs Canava’s office window. I could see the hook of her nose as she glanced out, and the glimmer of her half-moon glasses. She didn’t see us.
We reached the door of Mr Clarks’s art room and I waved Briar away. Her face told me she wanted an explanation, as it did every time I failed her in some way. But she didn’t ask the question in her brilliant topaz eyes, and I didn’t answer it. “I’ll meet you in the canteen.” She nodded and left. Bracing myself, I pushed open the door into a pungent tangle of acrylic and clay. One day she would break, and then I would have to answer for my absences and tardiness, all those sleep overs I’d had to cut short, or those parties I’d had to leave.
And then I would probably lose the only friend I had.

Kiaran slammed the door behind him, throwing his bag onto the kitchen table. I cringed at the groan the ancient table – I was certain Aunt Myra’s solid oak table was a good century older than me - made. It held, but only just. “What’s wrong?” I placed a plate of biscuits on the table before my brother, taking a sip of tea. The kettle didn’t always worked at the right temperature, and usually there was more chalk than tea, so I gasped when the tea scolded my tongue, quickly setting the cup down and trusting a biscuit through my lips to assuage the burn. The brew had been mother’s favourite. Drinking it reminded me of her, and the scent worked to calm my nerves on particularly trying days.
Kiaran pushed the plate aside and leaned his head on the table, using his folded arms like a pillow. “Nothin’.”
The tone of his voice had me sitting opposite him, mimicking his posture. “Liar.” He shook his head, sending his ashen hair in various directions. He had our mother’s hair, fine and fair, while mine was dark gold and thick, a horrid, knotted mess. “Are you getting picked on?” My tone was sharper than I intended. We’d had this problem before, until I showed up at the guy’s house and punched the snotty faced brat right in the nose, feeling the cartilage splinter beneath my knuckles. It didn’t matter that the kid was four years younger than me; no-one bullies my brother except me.
Our foster parents at the time didn’t see it my way. The next day we found ourselves being carted straight back to the care home. Eighteen months, four foster homes later, and I packed our bags and got us away from there.
Two weeks after that, I was back in this crappy little town, caring for my brother, and a temperamental vampire. Again. New house – ish – new ‘family, who spent more time abroad then with us, though I’m not gonna lie and say that’s a bad thing, same old situation. “No.”
Thank. God.
“So what is it? You know you can tell me anything.” I reached forward and coaxed my brother’s hands out.
“Well, the thing is…-”The garbled scream of my phone cut Kiaran off. He sighed, pulling his hands away and shoving the chair back. “This is the problem, Ray. Him.”
“Kiaran wait.” He grabbed his bag and stalked out of the kitchen before I can stop him. Slumping down in my chair, I watched him go, my fists clenched before me. The screaming goes on and on, and until, at last, I could bare it no more. I yanked the phone free and answer it. “What?”
At first I couldn’t understand what he was saying, and then I stood up, the chair thudding back, and ran for the front door. The last thing I saw, through the frosted glass of the front door as it bangs behind me, was Kiaran’s pale face, staring after his sister as she abandoned him, running to answer the call of the monster that ruined their lives.

Winter was one of the most despicable times to cross the city and enter Seth’s domain. The lone street light that stood guard outside Seth’s garden flickered, casting a distrust-worthy pool of light that just failed to breech the wards, and setting the house eerily aglow. The depths of shadows and the run down structure was the kind off house that a horror movie would claim was haunted, and that, if you went inside, Death would find you. And they would be right. The porch step creaked beneath my feet. As I reached for the door handle, I glanced behind me, rubbing the nape of my neck. I felt as though there were eyes on me, even though the danger was undoubtedly before me, and rushed across the threshold without another thought.
I hadn’t used the front door since I had first entered, four years ago. Like the rest of the house, it hadn’t changed that much, except I’d taken a feather duster and tackled those cob webs that must have been hanging from the ceiling for decades, and there was some colour on the walls after I had hung one of my paintings, a brilliant, bloody canvas created from throwing red paint at the damn thing in protest, over the little hallway table. Seth had found it amusing, and it was one of the few things he hadn’t managed to destroy.
And there, curled up on the floor, was the body. I closed my eyes, pressing my eyelids and thanking god there was no blood this time, remembering the time I’d entered and found Seth crouched on the kitchen table, his mouth suckling at the body of a bird that had managed to fly in through an open window upstairs, unable to escape. He’d savaged the thing, and I was glad not to face a repeat.
It was a tabby, a young male. Seeing it laying there, its glossy, well groomed fur perfectly in order, hiding the puncture marks Seth would have used to feed, I could almost imagine it was simply sleeping. But there was something unmistakably hollow about it, something that screamed this was no longer a living creature. I knelt beside it, running a hand over its still body, before rounding on the vampire leaning against the banister. “What the hell is wrong with you?!” He recoiled from me, his eyes widening as though he thought I would never have the guts to shout at him. “This is somebody’s pet, part of their family!”
“Careful, little hunter.” His voice was cold, like ice, but it didn’t leash my anger.
“This is somebody’s family, and you kill it has though its life, his life, meant nothing? Do we all mean so little to you? DO WE?!”
He considered the question, cocking his head to the side as he watched me. “That is a cat,” he said at last.
I managed to hold myself back before I did something stupid, like launch myself at him and try to tear his face off. “You know what? I’m done.” My fingers dragged across my chest as I scrabbled to find the amulet beneath my shirt. “I can’t do this anymore. First, you kill my parents-”
“Wasn’t me.”
“It was BECAUSE of you. That’s as bad as if you shot them yourself.” I took a deep breath in, trying to dig up some composure from somewhere. “You’re driving a wedge between me and everyone around me-”
“Well that is hardly my fault.”
“-And you’re not even sorry!” I lifted the amulet over my head, throwing it at his chest. “Deal with it on your own.”
“I really think you should reconsider.” I span on my heel, reaching for the door. “Auralie. Please.” My fingers stopped an inch before the door handle. I knew I should leave, take Kiaran and run as far as we could, that this was my opportunity to get out, now, before that was me lying on the floor, and not yet another defenceless animal who wondered into the wrong place. But a small part of me wanted to hear him out. That was the part that won. “I need you, Auralie. Please.” My arm slipped back to my side. “Please. At least think about what you are doing.” I turned to face him, snatching the amulet he held out to me. I didn’t meet his eyes, fixing my stare over his shoulder at the ceiling. It was harder to leave him now that the anger had faded; I was reminded of all the reasons why I had resigned myself to this duty, the two most important being that if I didn’t, the town of my birth would become a blood bath. And that some other poor fool, some other Hunter - because the original pact between Uriel Hunter and Seth dictated that only one of his children could guard the vampire, and it had been sealed in blood, the heart blood of an ancient – would have to take my place.
I slipped the chain back into place around my neck. “Fine. I’ll reconsider.” I turned for the door, not stopping when he called out my name. “And you can deal with the cat.”

The night appeared to have sucked out all light as I stepped off the path and out of the protection of the wards. The street light had given up the ghost, and I walked beneath its unsettling darkness in silence, beginning to wonder whether leaving Seth’s house was actually the right choice to have made. I stuffed my hands in the pockets of my coat. The feeling of eyes, drilling into me, returned.
“Stupid idiot.” I peered over my shoulder. Nothing. “Quit being a coward.” I took another step forward and my foot caught on a displaced paving stone. My ankle gave a cry of protest. Down I went, falling hard against the pavement, barely catching myself with my hands. “What is wrong with you Auralie?!”
“Yes, what is wrong with you, Auralie?” a hand grasped the back of my coat, hauling me up. I struggled to find the ground with my feet, humiliated by my audience. The hand tightened on my coat. “We thought you would never leave.” My head snapped up. I couldn’t see through the gloom, but I didn’t need to see the faces of the shadows that haunted me to know that there I was very much in danger. Three of them, whoever they were, including the one holding me captive. They towered over me, the folds of their trench coats trailing out behind them as they circled me. vultures, they looked like vultures to me, and I didn’t need the flash of teeth, or the signet ring on their hands to know who they were. Slayers. Though I had never come across them myself, Seth’s library was full of photographs, pictograms, illustrations, warnings all. My family was descended of Slayers, or so Seth often proclaimed. I wasn’t altogether impressed with this little family reunion.
I grabbed my captor’s wrist and wrenched it from my coat, twisting it around as I did so. The silver band on his index finger winked in the dim moonlight. I saw the insignia, and felt my stomach begin the curdle. They’d branded this on their chests, before they’d killed them. They had dragged them away from home, branded them like cattle, and then they’d shot my parents in the head. “I’m sorry, did you want something?” I released him, shoving him forward to join his crew. Though his face was shrouded in darkness, I saw the gleam of his crooked teeth as he grimaced, rubbing his wrist. Hunters were stronger than the average human, had been since Uriel drank the blood Seth offered him in exchange for his protection and service generations ago. Not as strong as a vampire, but enough. “You’ll have to speak up, or how will I know what you are after?”
In retrospect, taunting them probably wasn’t the wisest move. I was strong, sure, swift, hell yeah, but they were three, fully grown, experienced Slayers and I was one arrogant, stupid little girl. They began to circle me, preventing me from keeping my eyes on all of them at once. I clenched my fists, only just managing to dodge as the first attack barreled at me, pushing me into the path of another. I took the glance against my cheek, my head snapping round. Blood spilled into my mouth as I bit my cheek. “That one was for free.”
And so was the next one.
Rubbing my stomach I throw myself forward before the next fist connected, sending him toppling backwards into the side of a house. There was a dull crack, and I pounded back, turning on my heel to meet… another fist. This one to my ribs. The pain was intense, and I doubled over, falling to my knees with a shrill cry on my lips. “That’s enough.” Something cold pressed against my temple. “We really don’t want to kill you Auralie. You understand, don’t you? We only want to protect the people of this city.”
I spat out the blood gathered in my mouth. “From what?”
“Come now, I’m sure your brother, Kiaran, was it? Well, I’m sure he doesn’t want to lose a sister as well.” He pressed the gun closer, pinching my skin. “Just hand over the key, and we’ll let you live.” The key?
“You don’t know anything about Kiaran. Or me.”
“Don’t we?” A slow click. I clenched my eyes shut, apologising to Kiaran, to mum and dad, for failing them. All of them. For leaving Kiaran alone, for lying to Briar, for everything.
There was a soft thud as something, two somethings, collided, and the gun fell away from me. The relief was paramount to what was going on behind me, and I felt my body collapse as though all the energy was draining out from my. Strong arms lifted me up from the floor, cradling me carefully, as though I might break. Like I was a doll. My eyes drifted closed, and I let my head drop against my saviour. The sway of feet beneath me, and the silence that surrounded me sent me to sleep. My final thought as I floated away was one of surprise; my saviour’s chest was soundless.

He stares down into lifeless eyes, tears sliding from his eyes in bloody streaks. His shaking, trembling hands are gloved in garnet as he strokes her sticky hair. Her lips are open, not with the desire for his kiss, or the hunger that they had shared for each other, but in a silent, eternal scream. What has he done? He brushes a hand down her cold, cold cheek, leaving a streak of red across it. He can taste her still, sweet, trusting. Dead.
What has he done?
There fells like a darkness crushing him. He wants to fall beneath its weight, hoping that maybe he will fall dead beside her. If he waits for sunlight… but he is an animal, and an animal will always fight for survival, even if they no longer have the heart to go on .
Oh, what has he done?

The first thing I saw were his eyes. Topaz orbs, intense, so intense, I found it hard to blink, to look away. He hovered over me, with none of the arrogance I’d come to expect from him, his lips pinched in concern. Moving a hand up slowly to touch my face, I flinched, cowering into the pillows. Immediately, my nose is assaulted by the stench of dust and dampness. Gagging, I struggled to sit up, pushing his hands away as he went to help. The pain that assaulted me was hardly worth the effort, but I pushed through it, taking short, stabbing breathes and holding my body together. At last, the pain subsided, and I opened my eyes. I could see only by the slimmest crack of light through the blackened window, a new addition, I was sure, since the windows had been uncovered for as long as I had been serving him, and the half a dozen burning candles lining the walls. His face was cast in a fiery glow as he sat back, those topaz eyes I had been entranced by suddenly ringed by red. I ignored him, and focused on my surroundings. It was a bedroom, one I had never entered before, in perfect repair except for the cobwebs and the dust. Seth had tried clearing away. The feather duster lay sprawled over his lap, and some of the webs were broken, hanging from the ceiling like drapes.
I assumed it to be a feminine bed room. I doubted severely that the lacy detailing around the bed, and the pale pink of the walls, with what I could only assume were depressed looking flowers, were to the tastes of a man.
My wandering gaze made a full circuit and landed back on Seth. “Well, don’t you look stunning this morning?”
I brush my fingers over my jaw, putting the dull ache together with the punch from the previous night. I could not imagine the depth of the bruise, and cringed. “Well, aren’t you a charmer.”
He smirked. “One tries.”
I moved slowly, shoving the duvet off and sliding my legs off the bed. Each move was accompanied by a slice of agony across my chest and abdomen. Seth stood up in a blur, stopping me from getting any further by holding my shoulders. “I think you should reconsid-…”
“If I hear you say that word. One. More. Time. I’m going to stab you.” My voice was a rasp, a slow, exhaling hiss of sound from my lips. I tried to free me from his hold, but found the endeavour too taxing. I allowed him to guide me back onto the bed.
“I think you should stay here. You are not… your body needs to recover before you start moving around.” His sharp voice had my spine stiffening in indignation. He softened his voice with a sigh. “You are no good to me dead. Or injured.”
I snorted and regretted it instantly. Even that hurt. “Yes, because you totally care about that. I have to get back to Kiaran. Unlike you, he actually cares about me.”
Seth growled at that. Leaning towards me, his face so near mine that I recoiled instinctively back into the pillows, he spoke, “I always care about what is mine, or else I would have let them shoot you.”
I scurried further up the bed, sliding out from beneath him. The action pulled at my stomach and ribs, sending yet another arc of pain rushing through me. This time, I ignored the pain. “Do you?”
He seemed, at first, unsure how to answer. I could see the tip of a fang as he laid it to rest upon his bottom lip, tugging the flesh into his mouth. “You will never know how much I hated hearing their screams, little hunter.”
“Yet you did not save them.”
“I couldn’t. The boundaries would not let me passed.” He wouldn’t let me ask the question that was on my mind, on the very tip of my tongue. “You will stay here, Auralie, you have nowhere else to go. If you return to your house, you’re putting everyone you love in jeopardy.”
I narrowed my eyes. “And bringing my brother here will protect him only from the slayers. We both know that their our monsters more dangerous within.” He said nothing to this. To him, as always, the argument was already won. As if to confirm my suspicions his eyes darkened, and I lost him to whatever insanity was within him.
“Now, do tell me what has become of my kitchen…”

If there was another way, I knew I would have never considered Seth’s proposition. The truth was there wasn’t. At least here, in the house, we were protected from the creatures outside, for nothing could come in without the guardian’s permission, for that was how the amulet, and the boundaries, worked. And, I supposed, I had some control over Seth as well. Not nearly as much as I would want, but enough that, I hoped, should he ever attack my brother – he promised that he wouldn’t, but vampires, particularly Seth, were not the greatest keepers of their promises – I would be able to call him to heel. My greatest fear was that he would think Kiaran an intruder, like the cat. If that ever happened, I wouldn’t simply walk away, I would stake him through the hollow shell of his heart. It would never matter to me that I had broken a centuries old oath, or that my opponent was an ancient vampire, whose strength was unrivalled, my brother was everything to me.
Still unable to function fully, and Seth ardently refusing to allow me a drop of his blood, I had to rely on Kiaran to drag his own ass over to the house. I had Seth support me down the stairs, which, in one of his few obliging moods, he did as I requested, only scooping me into his arms impatiently when I paused for relief. With that accomplished, I told him to leave me at the door, so that I could greet my brother, alone. Seth was not as willing to follow this; he snarled and snapped his teeth together, his eyes flashing red and stance that of a predator, unbending to my will. When I did not buckle in fear, merely glared at him, he snarled again and stormed off, quoting something vile in what sounded like French. I pushed down the spark of fear. The first sign of danger was always as he moved from one language to another seamlessly, unaware of the fact that he had done so. But the expression on his face as he glanced back at me was not that of a monster threatening to come undone, but a beaten dog.
I ground my teeth and deliberately turned away. I knew when he had left, for the tingle in my neck vanished, replaced with apprehension.
The door splintered open, revealing my brother whose face was dark in a mixture of curiosity and fury. “What the hell are we doing here?” I didn’t bother to answer him. “The hell I’m gonna be living here.” I allowed myself to slide a little against the wall, feigning weakness. It had the desired affect. My brother stopped in his tracks and rushed to support me. The wince was not fake. “Ray, what happened, are you okay?”
“Look, Kiaran, please be careful here. Seth is, he’s,” I found it impossible to say the word vampire, and I couldn’t scare him by saying dangerous either, “Seth is temperamental.” I muttered the word as though talking about a cat, rather than someone who could rip your throat out. “So just, don’t do anything to piss him off, alright?”
“We’re really staying here?” he eyed the hallway with disdain, and I couldn’t really blame him. It wasn’t exactly homey, or welcoming, in the slightest.
“Yes, you are, better get used to it, boy.” Our heads snapped round in unison, locking onto Seth as he crossed the hallway towards us, apparently having played the good little dog long enough. I scowled at him, but his face did not change, stare fixed avidly on Kiaran. I did not like the look in his eyes that spoke of hunger, and pushed him ever so slightly behind me. Kiaran seemed unaware of my actions, but Seth chuckled darkly, raising the hair on my arms.
He walked towards us, hunted us, and then stuck out his taloned hand in greeting. “Seth, at your service.”
I nudged Kiaran with my elbow. He slid his palm against Seth’s slowly, shivering as the warmth of his skin came into contact with a being so cold. “Kiaran.”
Seth tightened his grip on Kiaran’s hand, making him gasp. I snapped his name and he released my brother in surprise at the sharpness of the tone. He reached for my hand and I felt compelled to give it to him, despite the stupidity of it. He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it, pressing a shiver down the length of my spine. I tugged back my hand. “Delightful brother, you have Diane.” His eyes met mine; the red of them receded, and I could see a hint of the blue they once had been.
“It’s Auralie, Seth.”
The enchantment of his eyes broke as I corrected him. Blood return to obscure the clarity of his stare. “Of course, Amica mea.” I did not have a translation for his words, but a sense of recognition flooded me. I pushed it aside angrily, and then, leaning heavily on Kiaran, directed him to the bedroom at the top of the stairs that would be his. I only just heard his words, silent as they were, follow us as we made our way up, and it took every ounce of my being not to release the tears that suddenly threatened at the corner of my eyes. “animo carissima Diane”