Chapter 44

Clara

I wound tightly knitted yarn as I listened to the vampire woman speak. She had a melodic, soothing voice. Ronan, who must know the story by heart, looked utterly entranced as he listened, too.

“So,” Jules said, “you were wondering how the Warren came to be.”

I nodded.

“Well, it was a long time ago. I was a young girl then. The war between the wolf folk and the Old Blood had taken a nasty turn.”

I tapped her arm, and wrote, “Old Blood?”

“Oh, them. You don’t know who your people are fighting?” Jules asked.

“Vampires,” I wrote.

“Well, I’m a vampire and I’m surely not fighting any war,” Jules said with a laugh. “What about you, Ronan?”

He shook his head.

“The vampires your people are fighting are the Old Blood. Vampire nobility,” Jules explained. “Hm. I guess I have to talk about the war, don’t I? Bah! It’s so dull.”

Ronan shrugged. “I could summarize. So you can get to the good part.”

“Please do, dear,” Jules said, reaching for another color of yarn.

“Okay, so it’s like this,” Ronan said, “A while ago, the oldest, most powerful vampires had a massive kingdom in this region. They held the humans and lesser vampires and some other creatures in thrall. Then the werewolf packs started banding together, and picked themselves a king. Or a queen. I don’t know, I wasn’t there. Anyway, either the werewolf king decided he wanted some of the vampire’s land for his big, creepy castle or the vampires didn’t like having the wolves for neighbors. Both sides tell different stories and I doubt anyone alive knows the truth anymore.”

I stared at him. The war that had consumed our people for generations was started because the vampires and the werewolves couldn’t agree where to put a border? It seemed so petty.

Ronan saw the look on my face and shrugged. “Sorry, I’m not the story teller Jules is. And I’m sure there were a lot more politics and bad blood between the groups. But yes, it boils down to territory.”

I wrinkled my nose. Prince Gideon had nearly died in a battle over a few miles of empty forest? How many wolves had died in that battle? How many vampires?

“It is ridiculous, isn’t it?” Jules sighed. “Well, that’s where our story starts, with the war. It was, like I said, when I was young. The war ebbs and flows, and that season, blood flowed.”

Jules’ hands tightened on her knitting needles. “A powerful vampire lord decided that he would wipe out the ‘mongrel menace’ once and for all, and he raged through his kingdom. Any village he found with a single wolf, Rogue or kingdom, he put them to the torch.”

“His own people, too?” I wrote.

“His own, yes,” Jules said. “And there were many vampire villages with werewolf mercenaries, and just as many wolf towns with vampire traders. The war had slowed down, you see, and folks have to live.”

I nodded. That made sense.

“The wars of the powerful ones seemed so distant to my folk,” Jules continued. “We had no grudge against your kind. We just wanted to survive the winter. See, my village shared a river with a wolf village. I guess the water was the border, back then. Soldiers from one side or the other might have a skirmish out in the fields, but that was all for years.”

I tried to imagine what that was like.

“But the vampire lord came, and he burned the wolf village. And the wolf king, he couldn’t let that stand, so he burned my village. And they went on, and fought each other to the death or until they got bored, I don’t know. But my people were gone and the wolves were homeless and winter still came.” Jules had stopped knitting.

I shuddered. It must have been so awful.

“The wars of the powerful leave the small and weak broken in their wake, you see,” Jules said. “But I didn’t want to starve in the cold, and neither did those wolves. So we got together, and gathered our supplies, and found us a place to rebuild.”

I smiled at the pride in her voice.

“And then the wolf king burned that. So we moved. And we took on some banished wolves, and a vampire lord’s son who was banished, and we built another place, and another. We learned to hide ourselves. We learned to be stealthy. We learned to fight back, too, when we had to.”

Ronan nodded resolutely.

“And then we found this place, the Warren,” Jules said. “And we carved out a home. And we trained up scouts to watch for danger, and defend us from…” Jules’ voice trailed off as she realized I wasn’t listening anymore.

I glared across the market path. Kyle was there, leaning casually against a barrel and drinking something from a stein. He was laughing with a pretty little wolf girl. Just like Nora.

I didn’t realize I’d grabbed up Jules’ scissors. I didn’t even realize I was running until I hit the vampire spy full in the chest. We both crashed to the ground, but I ended up on top. I raised my hands and saw the flash of silver.

Hands caught mine, just shy of plunging the scissors right into Kyle’s face.

“Whoa, whoa, hang on there,” Ronan pulled me back. “What’s wrong?”

I seethed, but I couldn’t speak and of course Kyle was going to accuse me of being insane, and everyone would believe him because no one ever took the time to listen to someone who couldn’t speak.

“She’s crazy!” Kyle said, “I didn’t do a damned thing!”

I shook my head, furious.

Ronan pressed my book and pen into my hands, taking the scissors as he did.

“Tell me why,” he said, voice calm. “Kyle, you stay right there.”

I looked at him. He was going to let me tell my side? Really?

“Go on, write it out,” he said.

“He hurt my friend,” I wrote. “He was her mate, her fated mate, and he hurt her. He beat her and bit her and made her do things she didn’t want to do and he used his powers to make me forget.”

Ronan read the page. “That’s a heavy accusation.”

“She’s lying!” Kyle snarled.

“Is she?” Ronan reached out, and put his hand on Kyle’s face. Kyle fell still as Ronan’s eyes flared crimson. “Tell me, Kyle. While you were a spy, did you take a mate?”

“Yes,” Kyle said. It sounded like the words were dragged from between his teeth.

“Did you strike your mate?”

Kyle fought it, but whatever strange power Ronan held, it was too strong.

“Yes,” Kyle said again.

“Did you use your mental powers to influence this woman?” he nodded to me.

“Yes,” Kyle said.

“Did you use those powers against your mate?” Ronan asked.

“Yes,” Kyle said.

Ronan stepped back. “It seems to me then, that this woman hasn’t lied at all. And you have broken our laws,” Ronan growled. “Your admission is witnessed.”

“So witnessed,” Jules said.

“So witnessed,” the wolf girl Kyle had been drinking with said. Her voice shook and she glared.

“Jules, would you take care of Clara? I need to take this beast to his cage,” Ronan said, taking Kyle by the arm.

“I surely will,” Jules said.

Ronan and a few other bystanders dragged Kyle off. I stared, stunned. They had believed me? Just like that?

“That was mighty brave of you,” Jules said. “He must have hurt your friend badly.”

I nodded. I remembered the bruises on Nora’s throat and the scars she had hidden for so long.

“I’m sorry I stole your scissors,” I wrote.

“Oh, I don’t mind,” Jules said. “Now, come sit with me. Megan, go and bring this poor girl something warm. The shock will set in soon.”

“Shock?” I wrote.

“You’re not used to violence, I can tell,” Jules said. “The adrenaline is going to wear off, and you’ll crash. It’s all right, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. Just sit here with me, and let me wrap you up in this nice warm shawl I just now finished.”

I sat back on the bench. I didn’t remember walking over to it. Jules wrapped me in the shawl, and the wolf girl gave me a mug of something warm and spiced.

“There we are, now,” Jules said. “Just rest a moment.”

“He believed me,” I wrote.

“Hm?” Jules read the note. “Oh, Ronan. Yes, his vampiric powers let him know if someone speaks the truth or a lie. Useful for a scout, isn’t it?”

I nodded, and pulled the shawl tight around my shoulders. It was very soft, and warm.

I stared in the direction Ronan had gone. It felt so strange to be believed.