Page 80 of White Raven (Nevermore Duet #2)

OUT OF THE DARK

Of all the things that he’d gotten himself into over the long expanse of his, usually insignificant life, Tony couldn’t help but feel a small flutter of excitement over the situation he found himself in now.

They were about to dig up a grave, for God’s sake.

And not just any grave—the grave of a man thought dead for a very long time.

Sarah had parked in an abandoned, and really sketchy parking structure a block down the street.

As luck would have it, there didn’t seem to be anyone near the gated off graveyard.

It was small and eerie, even for him, and the whole feel of everything around him had his skin crawling with warning as they walked faster towards the gated entrance.

Tony paused, holding an arm in front of Sarah, who, by all accounts, was hell-bent on bulldozing that iron fence with her bare hands.

“Wait,” Tony whispered, looking around. She stopped abruptly and looked at him like he was mad.

“Are you serious? If you’re wussing out, then take the keys, and go back to the car. Jesus, Tony…what’s scarier than us? ”

He peered over at her. He understood her question, and her reason for wanting to hurry to her mate’s rescue, but she also hadn’t spent centuries with a power-hungry vampire queen. “Dahlia Van Hausen was scarier than us. This doesn’t seem too easy to you?”

Sarah looked around, finding no one. “Who gives a shit if it’s too easy? We’re stronger than anything that could come after us out here.”

“Except that one of us knew Dahlia for what she was. We just found out your real father’s true identity.

Not only is he Poe, himself…he’s also a vampire elder.

He’s set this up immaculately. He may have been her rival, but you and I both know that Poe was a genius.

We don’t know what he’s capable of, Miss Sarah. ”

“Ugh, stop calling me Miss ,” she bit, rolling her eyes.

“Look, all that concern you’re spewing right now?

It would have been a lot more helpful on the three-hour car ride up here.

Whatever he wants, we at least know it’s not my head on a silver platter.

He’s smoked me out. I don’t think he went through all this trouble to kill his own daughter. ”

“Maybe not, but what about the rest of us? Who’s to say he won’t try to take my head for helping you?”

She bristled and threw her hands to her sides. “Would it stop you from saving Athan’s life? It sure as hell won’t stop me. Look, I’m not trying to be an asshole, but I’m going in that cemetery with or without you, Tony. Are you in or out?”

Tony glanced around another time, finding nothing particularly ominous, but the air itself still felt incredibly heavy. He zeroed in on a tall monument just inside the gates. “Is that it?” he asked, nodding towards it.

She stared at it for a long moment. “Yeah…I thought the first time I saw this thing would be under way different circumstances. But I’ll tear the bitch apart if there’s a chance he’s in there.”

He tore his eyes from the tomb and took a hard look at the woman who risked it all to save his coven. To save him . Tony laid a hand on her shoulder. “Fuck it. Let’s go.”

It was different…seeing her stand in front of him.

His pride bubbled in his rotten insides as he silently watched his daughter—his flesh and blood—the only living blood he had left…

racing for a grave that had been meant for him .

A grave that so many flocked to—like an unkindness of ravens.

A murder of crows. All of them immortalizing his name for the words he’d scribed so long ago—words that led so many in his time to believe him a quack.

His raven squawked from the top of the grave marker, urging her to hack it apart.

She was more beautiful than any photograph.

So dark, and lethal. Her raven-black hair reminded him of her mother.

Her tattooed body was a work of art… showcasing a work of art.

The only other time he’d seen her was as a newborn infant.

He’d held her only once and wrapped her in his own quilt.

The only gift, other than his blood, that he had to offer her.

Now he saw her as a newborn again…a newborn vampire , rife with hatred, and with unbending love.

Much like himself. Rightfully so…and she would hate him even more when she learned the truth.

A man was with her. He scented his vampire blood—and hers along with it.

It wasn’t the man he’d hoped for. The man that deserved his due for the betrayal he’d delivered so many years ago.

He crept on immortally silent feet, leaving Sarah to uncover the final clues…

the final test of the mind he passed down to her.

The head that would wear his crown. He traveled, unnoticed, a short block away to the car she’d parked in the shadows of a failing structure.

The doors were locked—but there…on the seat. A pamphlet.

“The Poe Festival”

“Weekend Death Tour”

He’d been betrayed, yet again. The festival had long since passed, and Ryan had kept it.

Gave her the answers she’d sworn she didn’t.

The photo of the monument, erected to mark his place of rest, was featured on the face of the pamphlet…

folded to reveal the final clue. The clue that Sarah was to find herself.

He pulled the small phone from his pocket, dialing her number.

“Sir?”

He turned, and pressed his back against the truck, sighing as he shook his head. “Was I not kind to you? Did I not care for you as my own? Did I not give you everything you’ve wanted?”

Ryan was silent for a moment. “You did.”

“You deceived me.”

“I did everything that you asked. I just want my family whole. I couldn’t hurt them anymore. What you’re doing is wrong.”

He dragged his fingers across his mustache. “It was never for you to decide. I warned you.”

“Please,” she begged. “Hear me out. Doing this to me…doing this to your daughter, and her mate…it doesn’t make you any better than her.

The woman that you warned people about. All the humans that thought you were crazy?

Where are they now? The vampires respected you.

They never respected her. They gave you an eternal life for what you did for them.

Why stoop to her level? This isn’t who you are, Master. ”

He pondered it for a moment, warring with himself. It only seemed to make him angry. “You brought this upon yourself, Ryan. Farewell.”

“Wait—”

He flipped the phone closed, hanging up before she could say another word, and clenched his fist around it. It pained him. But it didn’t pain him enough not to carry out what he’d promised.

Who he was…nobody truly knew him. He never even knew himself.

He made one more call.

“Yes sir?”

“Ansel…are you in position?”

“We are, sir.”

“Do it.”

“Are you sure you want to go through with this? Ashina’s daughter has the girl. This could start a blood war.”

It was never what he wanted. When Ashina had agreed to place her daughter in quarters beside a rogue vampire—his daughter’s mate—neither of them had suspected things to go this way.

Everything had fallen into place so wickedly.

The vampire willingly fornicated with the wolf.

The wolf did the same. An alliance between both species.

A new species bred , instead of created.

Dahlia Van Hausen was a fool. A head too large for the power she believed she had.

Ansel hadn’t been wrong. But if he was to die…

his research…his work. It would all go with him.

“You have your orders. Execute them.”

“Who are the other two?” Tony asked, as Sarah beat bricks, and stone with a large rock. This was fucking ridiculous. She hadn’t thought this through. Even with their inhuman strength, unearthing Athan was proving difficult without a shovel, or a pick.

“Mary, and Virginia. They were his family. It’s a long story,” Sarah huffed, wiping sweat from her brow as she continued to break through stone. Tony hacked away beside her, stopping every so often to listen for anything down below, and glancing around for any suspecting eyes.

Athan? Can you hear me?

Nothing. Not a ripple. Not a sound. Only a weak tug of the bond between them.

He had been in here too fucking long. Adrenaline beat through her like a war drum, and she bashed the rock against the unforgiving stone harder, finally causing a large crack with her rage. She’d get to him if it killed her.

“I’ve never had the pleasure of knowing what love feels like, Sarah.

I told you I’m no good at it. But there have been some changes…

I’ve lived a really…really…long time. I’ve known what pain feels like.

Loneliness. I’ve felt how bitter and cold the dark can be, and I know you have too.

I know you’ve suffered in unimaginable ways, and we were both looking for the light.

We were both chasing the sun. In all my years, I’ve never met anybody like you, Sarah St. James.

I finally caught up to the sun, and I wanna stay in it… forever. With you.”

He had told her so many times that she’d brought him out of the dark. And she’d do it again. She’d keep doing it for eternity, as long as he’d stay with her.

Stay with me. Don’t go. Come back to me, Athan.

Tony helped her move pieces of the heavy vault cover, and Poe cawed, and sputtered from the head of the monument above them as the ancient coffin finally showed itself.

“Athan!” she called, barely able to contain her emotion as she dropped to her knees on the rubble.

Tony panted…maybe with anxiety…maybe with exhaustion, she didn’t know.

There was barely enough room on either side for them to crawl in and lift the lid.

Tony took one side, and she took the other, Poe growing increasingly restless above them, and dancing on the bust of Edgar Allan Poe in impatience.