I will find the killer myself

I will find the killer myself
Sera's POV

I woke up, my eyelids parting slowly to reveal the ornate stone walls of Adrian's bedroom. My head rested on something hard, yet soft and fleshy. It raised my head a bit, making me lie sloppily.
I felt the warmth of his body beneath my head even before I craned my neck up a little to see his face—Cassian. His lips stretched in a warm smile at me. He brushed off a lock of hair from my eye. “How are you feeling now, moonshine? You scared me a little earlier.” He said, referring to when I fainted after seeing my brother dead.
I apologized by returning his smile, and I looked away, my mind frozen in a place I couldn't reach. I couldn't think, not of Silas or anything. My head and mind were just blank, a blank slate, wiped clean by my grief. I just stared blankly into space, my eyes trapped at the mass of nothing before me, my eyes still clouded by the hot tears that stung my face so hard, my eyes itched.
Yet, I couldn't lift my fingers to scratch them. I couldn't do anything but stare blankly at space.
My head felt hot, like I had a furnace running up in it. Yet, I did nothing to put out that furnace and let the fire rage on in my head. It couldn't be worse than the one in my chest—the one burning up my heart to a crisp inside of me.
The door to the room slid open quietly, and Adrian stepped in. He held a tray carrying a small ceramic bowl on it. I could already tell what it was and knew that it tasted bitter from the hard, strong smell wafting from it.
The smell only made my lungs itch, irritated by the mere thought of it passing through my system.
“I don't need it, Adrian.” I told him, even before he offered me the concoction. “I am grieving, not sick.”
He leaned beside the bed, pushing the tray to lie on the bed beside Cassian's body and my head. He placed his palm on my forehead and made a dramatic show of my forehead burning his palm.
“But you are burning up, Seraphina. Your head is like a furnace.”
Up close, the strong smell of the dark liquid hit my nostrils hard, forcing me to inhale it, and my throat itched. I would never let me talk me into taking that.
“And I would gladly take something else than this abomination for my fever,” I retorted.
“But this works better.” He lifted the bowl and took a sip of it. “See, it isn't as bitter as you think.” He said.
That's still not enough to convince me. “Just let it go, Adrian,” I said with a note of finality, and I slumped back completely to the warmth of Cassian's chest.
Cassian stroked my cheek with his finger. He stared down at me, his smile placating. “Why don't you take it, moonshine? You scared me a lot when you fainted. I don't want anything to happen to you.”
Him too! I stared up, gasping with disbelief. I thought they hated each other. Why do they have to reconcile just to gang up on me?
“Nothing would happen to me, Cassian. I am not taking it.” I retorted, turning away from them.
“Please, Seraphina.” Adrian begged gently.
“Why not take it, moonshine? The guy might be a betrayer, but he really does know his trade.” Cassian said, caressing my hair gently with his palm.
I didn't want to take the concoction, but I just loved that for once they weren't at each other's throats, trying to kill each other for some stupid throne. I loved the fact that for once they stayed together in the same room in peace with each other. I turned around, dragging myself on Cassian's chest with reluctance.
I stared at the concoction like it was something from a sewer, my lips twisted in disgust. I lifted the bowl with two fingers like I was lifting a dead sewer rat by the tail. I twisted my lips, my throat itched with the strong, bitter smell, and I poured the concoction down my throat.
Surprisingly, it wasn't as bitter as I thought. It was just bland, like unsalted Pringles. I turned over on Cassian's chest, staring blankly into space once again. That seemed the only thing I could do, since my mind seemed to shut out all thoughts from me so that I couldn't think.
“What have you found out about her brother's death?” Cassian asked. Though the hate for his brother clouded his voice, he spoke rather calmly and without the usual rage he does display when speaking to him before.
Adrian cleared his throat. “I found out from Roman that he was investigating something related to his family's death. He went to meet with an older vampire about the issue. It seems someone didn't want him to find the truth, and so the person attacked them, both him and the vampire he went to meet. The vampire he met was killed in his home, where they met. Silas seemed to have survived the attack at first. He was running away from the place when he was eventually killed.”
“Have you investigated the vampire he went to meet? That could shed more light on who the attacker was.” Cassian inquired. Again, his tone was prejudicial, but alright.
“Yes, we did.” Adrian answered, “The vampire was just an ordinary old person in the human sense, one of those that turned later in life. Nothing much, and nothing. I have Roman investigating his family and friends to see if we can get some clue to the attacker through them. But…” Adrian paused. I heard him scratch his jaw, though it was clean-shaven. “Something strikes me as odd.”
“What is?” Cassian demanded.
“Whoever attacked wasn't a vampire because there were no claw marks on Silas and the other vampire. Their necks were just twisted. And also, while the other vampire soul was untouched, Silas's own seemed to have been sucked from his body while he was still alive. His eyes were pure black and empty, confirming that.”
I turned around sharply now, my heartbeatsuddenly rising. “Did you just say Silas's soul was sucked from his body?”
“Yes,” Adrian confirmed, nodding carefully.
My fists tightened on my lap, adrenaline surged through me like I was being pumped with it. Whoever had killed my parents and sister had taken my brother from me too. And whoever those bastards are. I was going to spend the rest of my life hunting them down and killing them as brutally as they had done the rest of my family. My fists were pumped so tight beside me, I felt my nails tear into my palm. But I didn't. I am going to bloody make them pay, I said to myself. I damn fucking will.
“Is there something you are not telling us, Seraphina?” Cassian asked.
I stared at him, then at Adrian. I knew I could trust them. But the less they knew about me, the better. I still didn't know if I was going to break our bond or not. If I will, then telling them about me could prove disastrous when next we cross paths.
“I think you should tell us everything, Seraphina. Come clean with us. Then we can better understand the situation, and we can then help you find your brother's killer...”
“I don't need your help to find out who killed Silas and avenge him. I will do that myself.” I retorted.
Adrian tried to speak, but I shut him up before he could. “That's my decision, Adrian, and it isn't going to change.” I declared with a note of finality.