Chapter 100

We followed the guard to the observation room, where people were hustling around and murmuring.

“Give me an update.”

“The scans are picking up presences. A lot of them, but we can’t get a hold of how many.”

The readings kept changing, ranging from no one to over a hundred people, but the screens that showed the camera views were all blank. There was no way to tell how many were there through the cameras, but maybe that was just because of how injured I was.

Francium tilted his head at an almost unnatural angle. “There’s something off about… the view.”

I frowned and thought back to when he spoke about having some sort of immunity. Was this a vampire’s illusion? Could it affect scans too? I worried my lip. If it was all technology built to read werewolf presence, maybe built from the knowledge that was in the old books, then maybe, just maybe, a vampire’s power could mess with the scanning.

“Let me… go out and see,” Francium said. “It’s easier to see with my own eyes than through a camera.”

I looked at Vanessa, who seemed to consider for a moment before nodding. A pair of Blue Moon wolves walked with him down the hallway. My stomach churned as I watched them walk down several hallways toward the entrance near where the readings were coming from. Soon, I saw Francium and a small group of werewolves enter the final screen. One of them started to key in a code.

“If he runs,” Vanessa said into a microphone. “You know what to do.”

Claire was hyperventilating next to me. I took her hand gently and got her to sit down. She look shaky and nervous, but her eyes were unfocused as if she was thinking about something completely unrelated or simply slipping into a panic.

“Just calm down. You need to breath.”

Then, she gasped, and her eyes widened. Francium and his two guards stepped through the open door. Francium froze and walked a few steps forward, his arms raised, and he seemed to be shouting.

A second later, several figures appeared in the camera as if they had been hidden under a cloak of shadow. One of them went to Francium and hugged him. Though the figure was hooded, I could tell, based on her height and the way she embraced him, that it was Francia.

“Turn up the volume,” Vanessa said.

“Mom? How did you find me?” Francium asked, hugging her tightly as she stroked his hair. “How… How did you all get here? Is everyone all right?”

“I can always find you. I’m your mother.” She pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Are you hurt? Have you eaten?”

“Have they harmed you?” Another woman asked from the crowd.

Francium shook his head and looked over at them. “I’m fine.”

He pulled back to look at Francia. “… I didn’t expect you to come for me.”

She shook her head and cupped her face. “I would scorch the world for you, Francium. Never doubt that.”

Francium turned and started shaking hands with the others. Greeting them and sharing embraces as if they were family. Were they? I didn’t know. Francia hadn’t said that there were other members of the New Moon Pack that were still alive. It seemed like there were a lot, maybe a hundred or more there.

Had they come here expecting to fight?

Claire shuddered, and I looked at her. “How… could she possibly know where he was?”

“The Bond,” Claire said softly. “It’s… a vampire thing.”

“What does that mean?”

Claire shook her head. “I don’t think I’m the one who should explain it. I’m still… getting used to it myself.”

I nodded. Vanessa leaned forward and pressed a button. “If you agree to come in peace and unarmed, we welcome you.”

Francia lifted her head towards the camera before looking at Francium. They said nothing for a while before she nodded. The group pulled out various weapons from within their clothes before they walked out of sight of the outside camera and down the hallway into the view of the other cameras.

I recognized some of them from the town, but there were so many of them of varying ages that I couldn’t be sure. Francium and Francia led the group after the Blue Moon wolves in complete silence.

It was a bit unnerving.

“Take them to the Blue Ballroom,” Vanessa turned and smiled. “Get some chairs. It seems we have quite a few guests. Shall we?”

I nodded and Claire jumped to her feet. We followed her to the Blue Ballroom just as they got settled around the room. There was a large table and a few chairs, but only Francia and Francium sat down. Two men stood on either side of Francia’s chair like guards. The rest took up various places around the Ballroom, peering out the window, watching the door, and generally getting a sense of the room.

None of them spoke, but I got the sense that they were talking.

Vanessa sat opposite Francia. Francium reached out to Claire, and she drifted across the room as if she couldn’t help herself. I didn’t follow, unsure if it would be safe.

Many of the people with Francia looked at me strangely for a long moment before turning their gazes on Vanessa.

“We have several questions… chief among them is how the Bond works,” Vanessa said. “I think you can agree that it’s quite the security risk for us.”

Francia’s lips twitched. “He is my son; much like a sire bond, I can find him wherever he is. It is different from a mating bond but similar. It cannot be broken by anyone but a sire. Bonds between family are not broken until death.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “Even then, there is… an emptiness where that person’s mind used to be connected to yours.”

It felt too easy of an answer, but I supposed that Francia was more interested in ensuring that she could leave with Francium or at least they wouldn’t be harmed. Maybe she just considered it a small olive branch, considering what Vanessa was likely to ask her and the situation that Francium was in.

“What else do you know?” She asked. “You don’t… seem to be a vampire, but you’re not a werewolf either.”

She smiled. “How narrow of a view of it. I’m surprised that a child of Blue Moon would say such a thing.”

Vanessa twitched. “It’s easier to lead a war when the line is clear between enemy and friends.”

Francia scoffed. “To hear you, of all people, speak of lines is almost insulting. What of us who straddle the line?” She tilted her head at an unnatural angle that made my neck ache and my stomach jolt. “Are you simply going to cross us out?”

Vanessa sat back. “I’m not here to debate history. I just want to know if you’re in league with those vampires who intend to destroy us.”

“We offer no one allegiance or obedience,” Francia said. “Though I will say that the princes are feeling quite… vicious. One of them has already attacked New Moon’s true capital. I can only assume that more attacks like the one in the capital’s mall and so on will grow bigger and spread like fire.”

She shook her head.

“And where do you stand? No allegiance? No obedience?”

“Neither has served us,” Francia said hotly. “Neutrality and complete disregard seem to be logical next step.”

Vanessa scoffed. “It sounds cowardly.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Cowardly? Do not speak of what is cowardly child.”

“Child?”

“I’ve been alive longer than you, your mother, and her mother have been. I was there for the war and the centuries of fallout after. You think it ended with one fight and a latent retaliation with Candido’s father’s death, but you know only what you’ve been taught—only what is easy.”

She scoffed. “My mate was murdered during the war. I slept mourning him. My people retreated from the public eye, from pack alliances and coven politics because of the wounds we suffered, and we weren’t the only ones.”

I frowned. What did that mean. Vanessa said nothing.

“We are that line you like to draw between vampires and werewolves,” she said. “You care only about us in so far as we help you and help define yourselves, define your war and keep the blame clean.”

“You mentioned the previous alpha,” Candido said. “The way the entire estate burned, the attack itself… It should be obvious who you should owe allegiance to. The war was over and—”

She laughed. Her voice tinkled and drifted through the air. It felt mocking and mean and completely unlike the woman I had met in the town. This woman felt ancient and bitter at the world.

“You are nearing fifty, Candido,” Francia laughed. “I never imagined Candida’s son to still be so childish at that age. Grow up.”