Chapter 111

Joseph’s POV

“When?” Was the only thing I managed to ask.

“As I said, she doesn’t know,” he said.

He seemed a lot stronger than I felt. The thought of losing Bernard has never occurred to me before. He’s been with me from the very beginning. He’s my teacher, my guide, and my friend. He’s like a father figure to me, just as Anastasia is like a mother.

That was something I’ve been deprived of during my human life and now that I have that in my vampire life, I wasn’t willing to give that up. If could prevent this war from happening, if I could keep Bernard from dying, I would move mountains to do so.

I know Carter and his warriors would do the same.

“I’m not upset or afraid,” he finally said after a long silence.

I scrunched my face at him, unsure if I heard him correctly.

“I knew it was a matter of time before I met a fatal end,” he said slowly, keeping his eyes on mine. “I’m not going to lie though. I will miss this tribe dearly and my wife isn’t taking this well. She fell asleep after crying herself into hyperventilation. I’m worried for her well-being.”

“I understand why she’s upset,” I said, and I felt a flare of anger rising inside of me.

Max was unwilling to let him go as well. I could feel his anxieties inside of me and he was ready to kill anybody he had to in order to save Bernard. But Bernard sighed, almost defeated.

He was already throwing in the towel before anything even began.

This was so unlike him.

“I know this is hard for you to hear, but it wouldn’t be set in stone if it wasn’t supposed to happen,” Bernard said with a sigh. “Now it’s your turn to shine.”

“I don’t want to shine,” I found myself nearly shouting. “Not without you, Bernard. We are in this together until the very end. I’m not letting you die. Not without a fight.”

Bernard stared at me for a moment longer and I knew he wasn’t going to argue with me any further. But he did place his hand firmly on my shoulder and keep eye contact with me.

“If it ever comes down to me or this tribe…” he began, slowly and in a low voice. “Choose the tribe.”

I had no words left because, of course, I would choose the tribe. But I managed to nod to him and placed the fist of my hand over my heart, which is a way we show respect to our elders and superiors.

“It won’t come to that,” I said firmly. “That’s a promise.”

He repeated the motion back to me and gave me a head nod, clearly too tired to speak about this any further.

“I need to go back to my wife before she wakes and sees I’m not there,” Bernard said as he walked back toward the door. “I’m sorry to have to cut the party short. But I’ll leave it to you to escort yourselves out.”

He opened his office door but then paused.

“Joseph,” he said without even looking at me. “I’m hoping we can keep this conversation between us. I don’t want to cause a frenzy in the village.”

I didn’t respond, but he knew I wouldn’t say anything. He left the office without another word.

When I returned to the living room, Tessa and Carter seemed to be having a conversation. They stopped and looked at me with curious eyes though.

“Everything okay?” Carter asked, eyeing me carefully.

“Yeah, just business talk,” I lied and looked down at Tessa. “We need to go, though. Bernard is resting with his very exhausted wife and won’t be out for the rest of the evening.”

Tessa quickly stood to her feet with a worried frown. She didn’t believe my lie. I knew that much. She was smart and somehow saw through me better than anyone else.

I reached my hand out for her to take and to my relief, she did so right away. We said our goodbyes to Carter and then went on our way back to my house.

We walked because it was only next door and when we were in the safe capacity inside, minutes before the sun rose upon our village, Tessa turned to me and folded her arms across her chest.

“Spill it,” she finally said, raising her brows. “What did he actually say to you.”

“What makes you think he said anything?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.

She frowned, almost like she was confused herself.

“I’m not sure” she admitted. “But I know you are lying. Or you aren’t telling me everything. You seemed odd when you left his office. What did he want to talk about?”

I sighed. There was no getting around this.

I walked around here and walked toward my living room couch. She followed closely behind me and then curled up next to me, taking my hand into hers she added, “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”

“It can’t leave this house” I finally said to her, giving in to her request. She makes me weak. I would never give in like this in the past.

“Of course,” she agreed. “Start talking.”

“Anna had a vision and Bernard was telling me about it,” I finally said, meeting her eyes.

Her eyes widened and she stared around my face.

“Did it have something to do with you?” She asked in a soft tone, almost a whisper.

I nodded my head once.

I saw her swallowing a lump in her throat before she asked this next question.

“Are you going to die?”

“No,” I answered, causing her to release the breath she’d been holding in her lungs. “But Bernard is.”

She sucked that breath back into her mouth as she snapped me a look that could kill.

“What?” She gasped.

“He’s going to die and I’m going to be the next overseer,” I explained.

“You?” She asked, furrowing her brows together.

“It makes sense. I’m the next oldest in this tribe,” I explained. “She saw it in vision and Bernard wanted me to know about it.”

She shook her head as tears spilled from her eyes.

“No, that can’t be. He can’t die. That would destroy Anna. She loves him so much. No wonder she was in so much pain. There has to be something you can do. Her visions have been prevented before, right?”

I nodded.

“Yes. I’m going to do everything in my power to keep this from happening,” I assured her, cupping her face in my hands and planting a gentle kiss on her lips.

“How does he die?”

“In battle,” I explained. “I guess a war starts and he dies protecting his village.”

“When?”

“It’s unclear,” I answered.

“How are you going to prevent a war from happening and not know how or when it starts?” She asked, more tears spilling from her eyes.

I wiped her tears with my thumbs.

“It’s for me to figure out,” I whispered, kissing her again. “I don’t want you to worry about this and I don’t want you to talk about this outside of this house. Understood?”

She was hesitant, but she nodded.

“Good,” I said, wrapping her in my arms and holding her tightly. “Now, let’s get to bed. I’m exhausted.”

…..

During the night…

I heard his breathing first. It was deep and raspy. His eyes had yet to open, but he was lying in the forest grounds, completely naked and previously beaten. Blood stained his pale flesh, and his dark hair was nearly torn from his scalp.

It will soon grow back, and the wound will heal, but it was only a matter of time before he is found.

I’m not sure how long he had been there but telling from the dirt around his features and dried blood on his body, I knew it had to have been a few hours. The stench of blood was strong, but it started to rot the longer he stayed there.

It was nightfall and it wouldn’t be long before other creatures noticed him.

Soon, his eyes were opening. They weren’t a normal color, and I wasn’t expecting them to be. They were auburn and they had so much fear inside of them. His body jerked and shuddered as he took in his surroundings, He had no idea what happened to him, but he knew he couldn’t stay there.

Then, I saw something flash in his eyes, and I knew what it was right away. It was hunger.

I opened my eyes and sat up in bed.

Tessa remained asleep beside me with tears stained on her face. My heart broke that she was in such distress. I ran my fingers down her features and leaned down to kiss her temple.

My entire body tingled from that “dream” I had. But I knew it wasn’t a dream.

I also knew I had to go.

A new vampire had just woken.