Page 9 of Worse Fates

“Then why update us?” Ramy asks gently, carefully, as if talking to a wounded animal.

Deep hollow breathing follows. I try to remember the Vidar I knew, blunt, fun and a warrior at his very heart. Now he’s little more than a corpse barely holding onto life.

“I was curious,” he answers.

Ramy and I share a glance.

In the eight years Vidar’s been holed up in that decrepit shithole, the only thing resembling an emotion he’s shown is irritation.

“Anyway, the boy saw me, dropped a candle and ran. The house is burning to the ground, by the way.” He says with such little concern he might as well be telling me water is wet.

“For fucks sake! He saw you?” I stand so fast my chair topples to the ground. “Did you at least kill the human?”

“Why bother?” he scoffs.

I resist the urge to punch my fist into my desk, and through clenched teeth, I ask, “Have youseenwhat you look like?”

“Again, why would I bother, Lucero?”

I fix my gaze on Ramy, jaw aching and begging for some patience. He’s staring at the phone, brow furrowed in concern, hands wringing together.

“Vidar,” Ramy implores, his tone soothing. “You taught us to blend in with humans.”

“I didn’t have my fangs out. He saw nothing.”

Rage takes control, and my fist finally connects with the desk, the wood splintering.

“You look like a walking corpse,” I snarl. “A nightmare haunting that wreck.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he spits.

“If that boy speaks to the wrong person or reports to the police, then the blood mages could find out and come pay us a visit. What will you do then, Maker? You were a powerful vampire once, but right now? You. Are. Weak. And you put this whole family at risk!”

A sound like ripping sheet metal screeches through the line, and I realise with a glare that Vidar islaughing.

“I’m still strong enough to rip your heart from your chest!”

“You.” I bite out. “Are not.”

Vidar’s raspy breathing from the speaker is the only tell my Maker is still with me.

So, like many times before, I swallow my feelings for Vidar like a bad pill. There’s no point in arguing, and nothing would come from it anyway.

“Rurik, Ramy, and I will come and clean up your mess, then move you to another home.”

“Leave me in the ashes, Lucero.”

Then the line dies before I can say anything further. I push my fist deeper into my desk until the wood begins to splinter.

“Lucero—”

“Go.” Closing my eyes, I calm my anger before I look up at Ramy, hoping for softness but doubting I achieve it. “Go get Rurik, I’ll join you shortly.”

Ramy nods, that wrinkle in his brow still there as he rushes out of my office.

I right my chair before slumping into it with a deep sigh, my fingers running across my face and through my hair. Vidar’s apathy was not a sudden thing, but a slow insidious smothering that none of us could escape.

And now Vidar brings another problem to our feet while I try to keep this family together. At least this one is easier to deal with.