I looked down. Lucian hadn’t spoken to me like that before, and I suddenly felt like a scolded child at a table with adults. I didn’t interject anymore when the conversation resumed and the three of them started talking about alliances and rivalries.
From what I could figure out without context, it sounded like only thing stopping vampires from openly killing anyone they slightly disagreed with was a fragile network of alliances and the other vampires like Lucian who tried to enforce some sort of code of conduct.
When they were finished, my fuzzy understanding was that Lucian needed to re-establish contacts with old allies. Without support, he wouldn’t be able to keep enforcing “the code,” and if the code wasn’t enforced, there was nothing stopping Bennigan from sending his she-army down on us. At least that was my best attempt at understanding it all.
When they’d all finished, I momentarily forgot Lucian’s temper and spoke. “There’s something I don’t understand. How did the three of you get walled into a room, anyway? And couldn’t you just yell for help or knock it down?”
Seraphina answered. “Most vampires find a human steward they trust. It means you can sleep safely through the day and know you’ll be woken if danger comes. Our steward grew paranoid about the danger we faced. She…”
Alaric looked uncomfortable, but interjected, as if Seraphina was waiting to let him finish. “I may have broken a rule or two and formed a relationship with the woman. We were in love, and my sweet Emily decided the only way to save me from Bennigan’s relentless hunting was to hide me and throw away the key, so to speak.”
“Wait, I thought Bennigan was the one who trapped you?”
“No,” Lucian said. “He was the reason Emily was frightened enough to lock us away. But he would’ve come and finished the job if he’d known where we were. We were forced into a state like hibernation. With nothing to feed on, we would’ve died if we stayed awake. So we slept until you disturbed us.”
“And you couldn’t just… you know, punch the wall down?”
Alaric looked uncomfortable again. “It’s possible I may have revealed some of our weaknesses to my dear Emily. She… took advantage of that knowledge.”
Lucian glared at the man. “Which is why long-standing traditions of not blabbering about the things humans can do to hurt or kill us exist.”
Alaric waved his hand. “It was love. You wouldn’t understand.”
“Haven’t you guys been alive hundreds of years?” I asked. “I’m sure Lucian has loved someone before, right?”
“Lucian is the oldest,” Alaric admitted. “By quite a bit. He doesn’t talk about what he did or didn’t do before we came along.”
“Wait,” I said. “I thought you were all siblings?”
Seraphina interjected. “It’s a vampire thing. Your family name is from the one who turned you. We were all turned by Dominic Undergrove.”
“Where is this Dominic guy now? Couldn’t he help us?”
“That’s enough questions,” Lucian said. He sounded suddenly grumpier. “The two of you will need to take charge of contacting the Whites and the Hemlocks as soon as possible. I’ll look into reaching out to the Marsh children when the next fight occurs. I figure they’ll be more amenable to talks of an alliance if they get to watch a little bloodshed in the process. I’ll be occupied tomorrow, so I’ll need you two to make sure to handle the Whites and Hemlocks yourselves.”
“Occupied with what?” Alaric asked.
“He has to pretend to be my foreign exchange student and then my boyfriend so I can get through my classes, internship, and my job.”
Seraphina raised a single, sculpted brow. “Pretending to be her boyfriend, Lucian? Does she mean you’re day walking?”
“No,” he said.
“Only a little,” I said at the same time.
Lucian looked annoyed.
“That’s far too dangerous,” Seraphina said. “You need to stop at once.”
“Out of the question,” Lucian growled. “I won’t sabotage her life because she had the misfortune of crossing paths with us.”
“She’s just a human,” Seraphina said. She looked at me and gave a tight, apologetic smile. “No offense.”
“Some taken,” I said with a shrug.
“She’s my responsibility,” Lucian said. “Human or not, I’m going to see to it that she makes it through this unscathed. She’ll get to return to her normal life when this is through, and if that means day walking, then so be it.”
“Is it not normal to walk around in the sun?” I asked.
Alaric grinned. “What did he tell you? That we all can do that?”
“Something like that?” The truth was it all started to blur together. I was learning so much and so fast that it was hard to keep it all straight.
“Lucian is abnormally gifted. The bastard is practically unkillable. Expose a normal vampire to the sun and they are going to dry up and die within seconds. But if he’s in the sun walking around, taxing his powers, he’ll—”