Page 84 of A Second Chance for the Beta

“Why did he kill his child?” Silas asks. “Because he doesn’t want to have dirty half-breeds as his offspring,” he says bitterly.

“And you are sure it was him?” Annie asks, sadness flashing in her eyes.

“Yes, I had a gut feeling he was up to no good and followed him. I came too late. But that was it for me. There was no going back anymore. We are old, very old, and I doubt this was the first time he killed his offspring.”

“And the man in the photo is working for him?” Annie asks.

Silas nods. “He is one of his most entrusted men. A guy he sends to do the dirty work for him.”

“Peachy,” Jun mutters. “What a nice specimen you have as a brother.” The moment he said it, he almost looked flustered. “I didn’t mean to insult you—”

“You didn’t,” Silas interrupts him. “My brother is a murderer, and he has fun bringing pain to others. I saw the vile smile he had while he drained the air out of the infant’s lungs.”

“May I ask why you didn’t kill him the moment you saw what he did?” Annie asks. “I understand you came too late to save the baby, but you saw your brother do something so heinous…”

“I can’t,” he says. “It’s as simple as that. I yelled at him; I even fought him, but I can’t kill him. And he can’t kill me. We are from an ancient lineage of vampires, the first one to exist. Many years ago, my siblings and I swore an oath and bound our fates to it. It was the logical thing to do back then when we were young and getting more and more powerful. It was to prevent each other from backstabbing each other, but from today’s perspective, it was stupid.”

“You mean you physically can’t kill him?” Raffy asks.

Silas nods. “It’s like a curse or a spell, depending on the way you look at it. I can fight him, but the moment I move to do the fatal blow, an invisible power would push me away. Worst case scenario… I would die too.”

“Can’t it be broken?” Marcellus asks. He hasn’t said much up to now. I assume he knows most of Silas’s story anyway.

“I don’t know,” Silas admits. “From my perspective every spell done by someone can be undone in one way or another. But we did the oath ourselves; we bound ourselves to it. I have no idea how to break out of it.”

While the others talk, I can feel my heart thumping in my chest, faster and faster in fear. “Did he ever,” I say. “Sleep with a werewolf woman? I mean, your brother, Aloysius.”

Silas looks at me surprised. “A werewolf?”

I nod.

“Just once,” he says. “She was on the run. She was pretty, smart, and fun to be around. Very pleasant. She wasn’t his type, but he made an exception for her. He provided her with shelter for a while… almost a year. I wasn’t sure if they ever got intimate, but he certainly wouldn’t have missed the opportunity. I think her name was Candance.”

I can’t allow myself even a second of shock as I have to make a swift decision. Do I trust this man or don’t I? He said his brother killing his child made him wake up and see the light, but can I entrust him with Charlie’s secret?

Silas wouldn’t be the intelligent ancient vampire he was said to be if he didn’t catch on. “Why?” he asks. “Why do you want to know that?” He looks from me to Annie and then back to me. “The teenage hybrid?”

“She is my niece,” I say. “Her father is unknown. Her mother—my sister—died. The mother’s name was Candance.”

Silas stares at me in honest shock. “He has a child out there!? That’s why he is constantly on the lookout!”

“He can never know that Candance bore his child,” I say. “I’m sure she knew something was off. Maybe she heard him say something.”

“But how does he know that she was pregnant?” Jun asks.

“This is just a wild guess,” Silas says. “But maybe he doesn’t. During the last couple of years, he has been obsessed with keeping his lineage clean, and he has sought out every woman he had an affair with to see if any of them had a child from him.”

“You think Candance was on the list?” Annie asks.

“I think it’s highly likely. I’m not going to lie. If he knew about Charlie, she would already be dead,” Silas says.

“Never!” I hiss. “I won’t let that psychopath lay a finger on her.”

“Of course you won’t, and I won’t either,” Silas says. “I already saw him kill one of my nieces once. I won’t let history repeat itself.”

“Do you have someone on the inside?” Marcellus asks. “Maybe someone who stayed with Aloysius just out of comfort but wants a way out?”

“I don’t know if there is anyone I could trust enough,” Silas admits. “All my trustworthy men and women followed me when I left.”