Page 20 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 3

Caemorn’s gaze was fixed upon Balthazar.

For a moment, several emotions flickered across that deadly, beautiful countenance.

Tenderness and concern. But, of course, they were quickly hidden away and, like a river’s surface, showed nothing of what had come before.

The fact that these two sworn enemies now cared for one another gave Grayson great hope.

“That’s not true either, and I think Caemorn knows that as well, Balthazar,” Grayson’s voice was soft. “But it gives me hope that we can move forward successfully despite all the distrust and dislike we may face. We have enough enemies outside of our ranks to deal with.”

“You did not invite Daemon to this meeting,” Fiona pointed out after the silence had laid over the room for long moments.

“No, not because I do not want him here or because his counsel would not be welcome, but because I’d like to come to him with a plan that we put together,” Grayson explained. “And I want to know what each of you is thinking and doing.”

“My goodness, you truly are back, Ashyr,” Seeyr said with a small smile. “Getting your troops all in a line!”

“But you are not yet turned,” Fiona pointed out. “Should that not concern you first above what we’re doing?”

Good point, Wyvern! Right to the heart of things.

Grayson tented his hands underneath his chin. He felt Ryder stiffen behind him. He knew that Ryder wanted to know his thoughts on this. But he wasn’t going to get into them now.

“Lots of reasons,” Grayson said vaguely. “But the one that concerns us right now involves the Sect of Dawn. I know that many of you already have heard the details of my first meeting with them and my subsequent interrogation of their operative who went by the name of Jill.”

He went through everything with Ryder, Balthazar and Caemorn adding bits that he had forgotten that they had witnessed. He also filled them in on everything he had learned from Nero and his drinking companions.

“Nero should be much more careful about who he feeds with,” Fiona said with a faint look of distaste.

“It’s actually good that he’s trying to reach out to the War Children,” Grayson contradicted. “We need to bring back as many as we can into the fold so that they can’t be used by our enemies.”

“And if they can’t be, Grayson? What would you have done then?” Balthazar asked.

He turned his head slightly, but he could only see Ryder’s beard. “We need to assess how much of a threat they are.”

“And then?” Balthazar made a rolling motion with his hands.

“Then we hunt down the ones that are our enemies,” Ryder answered for him. “But you already knew that, Balthazar. Why make him say it now before it needs to be said?”

There was a burr of anger in Ryder’s voice because of his protectiveness. Grayson stroked his left forearm. Ryder’s hands tightened around his waist.

“No, Balthazar’s right. We need to know where we’re going. And I want us to be crystal clear with one another,” Grayson soothed his lover.

“He knows you don’t want to kill them,” Ryder growled. “It hurts you to even think about it.”

“But I will follow through it,” Grayson said simply. “If it is necessary.”

“You shouldn’t have to clean up our mess,” Ryder muttered. “You had nothing to do with it.”

Grayson bit his lower lip. He glanced up at Caemorn, who tilted his head to the side under Grayson’s regard.

Guilt tugged at him. He had known that Kaly was ill, or rather, that his illness had increased after Daemon had gone to sleep.

Though he could not remember the exact conversations he’d had with Daemon before the Vampire King had chosen to sleep to await Julian, he knew the general outline of them.

“Actually, it is my fault,” Grayson confessed quietly. “After Daemon went to sleep, I was left in charge.”

Balthazar made a hooting sound. “That’s like being the head cat! There’s no such thing as a head cat! Other cats don’t follow each other unless it’s to do something bad.”

“Is everything in your mind now cat-related?” Caemorn asked him.

“Well, there are quite a few–”

“Gentlemen, please,” Grayson said with a lifted hand.

“Sorry, Grayson, please go on,” Balthazar said. “You were excoriating yourself.”

Grayson grimaced. “Yes, I was and I’m right to despite your mockery, Balthazar.”

“You were killed first , my love,” Ryder got out, his voice raw with pain as he said it. “You had nothing to do with what happened after.”

“You’re thinking that it couldn’t have been anticipated or stopped ,” Grayson told him.

He shook his head. “I was to anticipate and head off problems while Daemon was gone. But I didn’t.

” He looked at Seeyr, who sat very still on her chair.

“Why didn’t I, Seeyr? You were there. You would remember. ”

She fluttered one hand. “There was nothing you could do. It always had to go this way.”

“Yes, but I did fail in some way that allowed it to happen,” Grayson insisted. “Just because it had to that doesn’t mean I had no role–”

“You were in love,” she said simply.

Grayson swallowed hard even as Ryder pulled him closer. “So I was inattentive–”

“No, actually, no, not like you’re thinking.” She sighed. “We aren’t… Well, you all aren’t the people you were. But back then, we were very separate. That kept things equal.”

“Ashyr and Weryn joining your forces together threatened that separateness where separateness meant equal power amongst us all,” Caemorn said quietly. He drew one long finger over the top of his glass. There was a faint hum from the crystal. “The two of you joining forces threatened that equality.”

Grayson felt a tingling behind his eyes. He pinched the top of his nose for a moment. “You warned me that my relationship would cause instability. It would worry the others whether they would admit it or not.”

“No one knew how long Daemon would be gone except Seeyr.” Caemorn shrugged his shoulders as he stared into his wine glass. “Many thought to do things their way during that time.”

“I told you that my relationship with Weryn would increase our stability while we awaited Daemon’s,” Grayson recalled.

The tingling grew. It was uncomfortable, but he pressed into it.

“If one of the other Immortals thought to do something that would expose us or threaten Daemon’s reign then I would see it and Weryn could stop it. ”

Grayson felt like a gigantic black hole was opening before his feet as he realized just how threatening that would seem to the other Immortals. Maybe it had even been threatening. He hadn’t intended it to.

Or did I?

“Ashyr, you have always been a natural born leader,” Seeyr said in her quiet, kind way.

“You saw a vacuum and thought to fill it. Others saw a threat and tried to stop it. Were either of you right? Were either of you wrong? Regardless, it led to the War and that led us here. And here is what we focus on. What you wish to focus on, don’t you? ”

Grayson felt the tingling recede. He dropped his hand down from his face and rolled his shoulders back as some of the tension bled from them.

“You’re right, Seeyr. I didn’t actually come back here to debate these things, only to acknowledge them, and hope we can leave them behind–at least as far as each other–and go forward. ”

“Because of those other enemies you mentioned?” Fiona clarified.

Grayson nodded. “Humanity, of course, is its own issue. But there is another player. What rumors, myths or otherwise have each of you heard about the Sect of Dawn?”

“Vampire hunters,” Fiona answered, “but with magic. That’s why I thought that they were a myth altogether, because humans–absent yourself, Grayson–don’t have magic. But Vampires working alongside them would account for that”

“And their goal was to protect humans from Vampires?” Grayson asked.

She nodded. “But more than that. They didn’t just fear individual humans being fed upon and killed, but Vampires taking over the world.”

“Which is now happening,” Ryder pointed out.

“Not you too, Ryder!” Balthazar shook his head. “I assure you that I wouldn’t be fielding as many reporters as I am now if we were in charge. I have to soothe them, calm them, give them little exclusives and–”

“You love it. The battle of wits is something you adore,” Caemorn cut him off smoothly.

Balthazar pursed his lips and then nodded. “Yes, yes, there’s some sport in it. But if we were in charge I could stop when it started annoying me, but I cannot!”

“The Order actually looked to find the Sect of Dawn,” Caemorn admitted with a slightly wry smile.

“You did?”

“Really?”

“Did you find them?”

All these questions seemed to come out of everyone’s mouth at once.

“Kaly… I was concerned about the other Immortals and Daemon’s return,” Caemorn explained. “I wanted to see what powers these beings had against us so that I could use them. Also, I wanted them under my control.”

“You do like controlling people even more than me,” Balthazar admitted.

“Did you find them?” Grayson asked.

“I might have.” Caemorn grimaced. He lifted one long-fingered hand to his temple. “When I absorbed the other slices of myself some of the memories were lost. Many were garbled. There was a lot of madness in them that I had to discard. I have to think about this and see what I can splice together.”

“Not if it risks harming you!” Balthazar cried.

Caemorn lifted a delicate eyebrow, but then he smiled gently, understandingly, knowingly. “I am no martyr, Balthazar, so no need to worry about that. If I can recover any memories safely, I will do so. Otherwise, we will need to uncover what we can in other ways.”

“It seems to me that the War Children have allied themselves with these Sect of Dawn people,” Ryder said darkly. “Whatever they were has likely been perverted by the twisted minds of our unwanted fledglings.”

“You said that you could feel structures in Jill’s mind, Grayson?” Fiona asked.

“Yes, I felt them. They’re traps of some sort for other Vampiric gifts,” Grayson answered her.

“But not for your gift?” Fiona pressed.