I laugh. True, it’s hard to imagineanyvampire doing something good just to do it. Except my specific men, of course, doing something good for me.
They’re certainly the exceptions, not the rule.
“I wish I could wake them up.” I shake my head earnestly, a knot forming between my brow. “Make them see how foolish they’re becoming. Truehearts fuck me, why isn’tRirthdoinganything? The Silverknights are letting the bloodsuckers steal his damned city, his damned military recruits.”
Vallan and Garro glance over at me from either side. Them staying quiet is all I need to see they’re hiding their opinions—which hits me a moment later.
“No,” I gasp, unable to believe it. “He wouldnever.Rirth fucking hates vampires. He would not compromise his integrity or honor to collude with vampires, just to further his own cause. That’s not the kind of man he is!”
“Perhaps you’re right, silverblood,” Vallan grunts. “Only time will tell.”
Except I feel like we’re running out of time. I can’t prove it, but there’s a thickness in the air that sits heavy on my chest. A foreboding sensation as we make our way up the mountain and through the beaten paths of Olhav to escape detection from Aramastun’s judgemen army.
It’s never a promising prospect when someone follows up your argument with “only time will tell.” That much I’m certain of.
Luckily for us, if time is going against us, then we’re a good omen. Because when we return to the Firehold that evening, Jinneth comes waddling out, excitement bursting on her wobbling face.
“What is it, Mother?” I ask, reeling suspiciously.
A wide smile stretches. There’s a glittering in her eyes that makes me uneasy. “We’ve done it, Sephania. Finally. We’ve made the breakthrough.”
I inhale sharply, not trusting my own ears. My heart jumps to my throat, pulsing in the hollow of my neck. “You’re sure?”
Iron Sister Keffa comes out of Old Endolf’s alchemical room behind my mother, shuffling toward us. “We’ve tested the newest concoction on a Chained Sister. Lyroan.” She lifts her wrinkled face to Vallan, giving him a wry smile. “You know of the dhampiress, yes, Master Stellos?”
If vampires could blush, Vallan would be. He stiffens, grunting out a rushed, “Aye.”
“Then come see for yourself. It’s been an hour since she imbibed the potion.”
Our trio follows Jinneth and Keffa into the alchemical room. Vallan stands in the doorway, taking up the entire frame and then some. Lyroan, the small lass, sits on the edge of a table. Her face rises as Vall’s shadow falls on her. Then she looks over at me and Garro on either side of him, and finally to Keffa. “Why’s everyone staring at me, Iron Sister?”
Jinneth smiles. My eyes widen, because I see it too. Her passing glance at Vallan . . . that wasit.No glimmer in her eye or hurried breath from the sight of him. No reaction at all. In the past, Lyroan could not stop herself from fumbling her words and falling all over herself anytime Vallan made an appearance. She was deeply, deeply enamored with him, and I had to tell her to back off, eventually. Which led to her hating me and wishing I was dead.
Jinneth says, “Sister Lyroan, do you still wish to harm my daughter, Sephania, for stealing Vallan Stellos from you?”
I cringe. She says it so bluntly.
Lyroan tilts her head, brow threading. “Why would I want to do that, Mother Jinneth? Your daughter has only ever been kind to me.”
Well, except that one time I threatened her if she got too close to Vallan and kept on this hopeless trajectory . . .
This is a breakthrough. Either she’s playing an act—which I doubt, because those reactions of the past were visceral andimpossible to hide—or she’s clearly lost her love for the vampiric giant beside me.
I step outside with Jinneth and Garroway, leaving Vall in there to awkwardly stand like a specimen.
“What changed?” I hiss silently. “In the formula.”
Jinneth shrugs. “Better Loreblood because it’s fresher and straight from your veins, I suspect. A greater quantity of silver used in the tincture, but nothing overwhelming. I believe it’s simply a better balance of the numerous ingredients.”
Garroway paces in front of us along a small incline. “Lyroan is a grayskin though. Like me. She was not born with a bloodbond because she was not turned, she was birthed. Does she have a bond with another vampire, like I do with Master Skar, do you know?”
My mother’s cheeks wobble as she shakes her head. “Not that I am aware of.”
“Then how can we know this will work onvampires, rather than just erasing a half-blood’s desires, as it seems to have done with Sister Lyroan?”
“We test it on them,” Jinneth says simply, like it’s the easiest thing to convince a vampire to do.
Turn against their master or mistress and drink this unknown substance. The person they’ve been mentally and spiritually connected with since becoming a vampire. Surely that’s a great sales strategy.