Page 53

Briar

I drew in a breath as I walked up the stairs. When my foot touched the top step, I heard a creak behind me. I whirled around to see Rory and a woman I didn’t know following me.

I shook my head. “You don’t need to stay with me. I’ll be fine.” Even to me, my voice sounded defeated.

The red-headed woman laughed. “About as fine as I was when Runa held me captive.”

My stomach jolted at the ease with which she said it, like being kidnapped by a vampire was just a bad first date.

Rory swatted at her. “She really doesn’t need to know that story, Isla.”

Isla shrugged. “I think she does. She seems headstrong enough that she’d go without us.”

I turned my back on the bickering women, opening the door to the solarium. The fire had died down, and the embers danced in the grate with a joy I didn’t share. I looked around, unsure of which way to go.

Rory came up beside me. “If you’re intent on leaving,” she said, “then the easiest way back to the beach is through that door. But I’d rather call you a cab and have them pick you up out front.”

My fingers twisted into the fabric of my shirt.

I only needed to hold it together for a few more minutes.

But I would have been lying to myself if I said I wasn’t a little relieved to have Rory by my side, even though it felt different now.

“You let me believe…” I swallowed and pulled in a deep breath.

Did it matter now? I turned to my friend.

“Why did Cormac tell you to protect me?”

“Can we sit down?” Rory offered. “You can finish what I assume is your drink?” She pointed at the glass I had left on the coffee table.

I raised an eyebrow at her in a silent question, and she shrugged.

“Aiden would never leave a partial drink. He’d be afraid someone would poison it with something. ”

“He’s a bit paranoid.” Isla nodded. “What can I get you, Rory?”

“Just sparkling water.”

Isla walked to the drinks cart as Rory urged me forward with her hand between my shoulders. I picked up my drink from the table and took a sip. The burn as it went down my throat was not nearly enough to chase away the chill that gripped my spine.

We sat across from each other on the couches. Isla handed Rory a glass of clear liquid filled with bubbles and kept a glass of wine for herself.

“Thanks.” Rory took a sip before setting the glass on the table. “The answer to your question about protection is that I can stop either Runa or Aiden for a short time using my powers. My coven holds power over blood. Cormac’s three aunts formed it when the brothers’ father became a vampire.”

The thought of three sisters watching their own blood become monsters sent a shiver through me.

Rory hesitated, as though she wanted to make sure I was alright before she tilted her head toward the woman sitting next to her.

“Isla was sent to make sure I don’t overdo it and harm the baby.

We still don’t know how much of my powers the baby is consuming.

” She spoke matter-of-factly, as though she were conversing about an everyday occurrence. I guess for her, it was.

I tilted my head. “And Cormac is the baby’s father, so it is…”

Rory smiled. “Part vampire, part witch, part human. It’ll be a handful.” She drew in a long breath, her voice dropping low as though she were an older sister providing advice. “But, Briar, I haven’t changed. I’m the same friend I was in London. Is the baby really what you want to know about?”

I dropped my eyes to the table, my feelings swirling inside me. What did it mean to me to learn the truth about Lorcan—about who he was? My heart lurched, afraid to admit the knowledge only intrigued me; it didn’t remove any of my love for him. I chewed the inside of my cheek.

My voice was so quiet I almost couldn’t hear it, my body straining to form the words. “What do you mean when you say you’re mates?”

Isla and Rory exchanged glances before Isla answered.

“I remember just a few months ago, Rory sitting right about where you are, asking me the same question. We’re committed to our vampire mate for as long as we want.

Our mates feed from us, but we also receive their blood.

It acts like the fountain of youth, healing our bodies to the state they are in right now, so we can stay with them, but still be human. ”

My brow scrunched. “How old are you?”

Isla laughed. “Not nearly as old as you’d think. Declan and I haven’t been mates for long—just over a year.”

I was sipping coffee in Byron Bay a year ago, thinking vampires were bad romance novel clichés. I stared at the remains of my drink, my voice dropping low. “And how old are they? The O’Cillian brothers?”

Rory chewed on her lip before she answered. “Over 900 years old.”

I couldn’t wrap my mind around Lorcan’s life stretching back before my country was even colonized.

Isla’s voice broke into my thoughts. “Declan’s much younger. He’s the only full vampire. The family turned him during the American Civil War.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean—the only full vampire?”

Rory smiled. “Their mother, Aine, was human. The O’Cillians are half human, half vampire. In the supernatural community, they’re known as dhampirs.”

Dhampir. The word sounded ancient, heavy with meaning, but all I could picture was Lorcan, standing in my garden with his hands in his pockets, looking so human.

“How did it all happen?”

“It started with Runa,” Rory began.

“That was who Aiden said the woman on the beach was.”

Rory bit her lip. “You saw her?”

I nodded before she continued. “She’s known around here as the Dearg Dur. She’s one of the original vampires who crawled from the grave. She was bent on revenge against her husband, who abused her in life. After her death, she came back—and she took her revenge. She drained him dry.”

I swallowed. “And how does that explain the rest of them?”

Rory pulled in a breath. “Her husband was the brothers’ uncle.

Their father, Kieran, knew about the abuse, but he did nothing to stop it.

So she went after him. But instead of killing him outright, she condemned him to make a choice: stay alive by turning into a vampire or die.

Kieran had just married Aine shortly before Runa drove a dagger into his heart. ”

The choice felt medieval, brutal in a way that left my stomach churning.

Isla chimed in as Rory took a drink. “If you couldn’t guess, he turned, not wanting to leave his wife.”

“Their mother is the oldest vampire mate known to exist,” Rory added.

The weeks I spent with Rory both in Byron Bay and London flitted through my mind—memories of working in the gardens side by side and exploring a new city. I couldn’t help but smile at the women sitting across from me. “And you’re both just… okay with all of this?”

Rory returned my smile. “Oh, I’ve known about it my whole life because of the coven. Although we only learned about the Cure a few months ago.”

My brow furrowed. “What’s the cure? The cure for what?”

Isla smiled. “It’s not a what, it’s a who.

There’s an old Irish tradition that the seventh son of a seventh son holds the cure for some ailment.

A line of Cures started with the youngest of Kieran’s brothers.

Every generation since has had at least seven sons, and Rory and Cormac just found the one alive. ”

The weight of centuries pressed down on me in a way different from what had brought me here, these stories and curses passing through generations like heirlooms. “And what happens now?”

Rory shrugged. “We don’t know yet. It depends on what he can tell us. Everyone rushed here when we learned you and Aiden were on a crash course.”

I turned to Isla. “What about you? How did you get mixed up in this?”

Her lips twitched with a nostalgic smile. “My grandmother always told me stories about vampires, fairies, and werewolves. I never believed they were real. I’m working on my PhD in folklore. My best friend and I picked the Dearg Dur for our dissertation research.”

I realized how easily she said it, like she could still pretend it was just research instead of daily life. “Where’s your best friend now?” I asked.

Isla’s smile faltered, her gaze falling to the floor. “She’s the reason we won’t let you outside alone. Runa killed her—and she nearly killed me too.”

My knuckles turned white. “I’m so sorry. But what about the truce Aiden mentioned?”

“The truce is between the O’Cillians and Runa,” Rory said. “Runa gets to lead the Waterford factions, and in return, she ensures the O’Cillians never make it into the mortal history books. If you try to research vampires in Waterford, you’ll only find her.”

Isla looked at the ceiling. “She killed Aisling to keep her from talking about the O’Cillians after Declan told us about them.”

A heavy silence fell over us as I contemplated everything I had just learned. Tension spread beneath my ribs. I hesitated, my voice small, afraid of the answer even as I asked. “Is being a mate… scary?”

Isla shook her head. “No. It’s a little weird, knowing I have vampire blood in my system all the time because I know if something terrible happens, I’ll have twenty-four hours to decide whether I live forever or die. But accidents are rare. And I’ll choose to turn only if I want to.”

Rory smiled. “But other than that, being a mate is amazing. In our case, it is the most fulfilling bond you could want because we’re fated. I was created just for Cormac, to complement him—perfect in every way.” She stopped and bit her lip. “I think you and Lorcan are fated, too.”

I smirked. “No, not at all.”

There was no way, not with Lorcan. I stared at the table between us as my mind spun between memories—Lorcan’s hand on my neck, Runa’s snarl, the worn pages of Lady Isobel’s journal. None of it fitted together, yet it was all part of the same story, everything leading me to him.

He’d kept me at arm’s length from the very beginning. So why was I even asking these questions? In my case, fate was playing a cruel trick.