Chapter 79 Ch. 49
The Raven was watching him again.
The knife in his hand slipped as he caught sight of it from his kitchen window. Swallowing hard, he bent, picked it up, and dropped it in the sink, abandoning the vegetables he had been chopping.
A deep, throaty caw pierced through the air twice. He glanced toward it; its glossy, iridescent feathers were unmistakable in the moonlight. Its curved beak opened as it cried out again.
Imogen wanted to see him, and there were only two possibilities.
It worked, or it didn’t.
Sighing, he walked out of the kitchen into the dimly lit corridor and grabbed his coat and keys. The night air nipped his skin as he put on the coat a few meters away from his car. His fingers shook as he unlocked the doors. Fear had its cold, clammy fingers crawling down his spine.
“Please,” he prayed to no one in particular, and stepped in, turning the key in the ignition.
The drive to the edge of the woods felt like forever with the tension twisting up every muscle inside of him. He didn’t want to dwell on the thought, but how could he not?
His fingers shook on the wheel as he parked.
“I decided to spare you the trouble of coming to the cottage by meeting you here,” a sleek voice said behind him.
“Holy shit,” he gasped, hands flying to his chest. He took in a breath, then turned to see her behind him. “How? You can’t… walk through walls, can you?”
“I can’t. But I am very… quiet when opening doors.”
“You wanted to see me? You’re here, so…” He swallowed hard. “She’s gone? Or is it good news?”
“Her eyes fluttered open… closed right after.”
“That’s good news, right?” Hope filled his voice. “So in a few weeks, she would be… okay, right? I mean, the other day you said—”
“Matteo, no.” Her voice was firm, filled with subtle regret and desolation. It was almost like she had lost hope. “I assessed her. She can’t come back. Yes, her eyes will flutter open every now and then, but… that’s all it will ever be.”
Dread settled in the pit of his stomach. “But there has to be something we can do, right?” His voice broke as he asked. “You needed an original blood to do…”
“She was too far gone.” Imogen’s voice was quiet. “Your blood wasn’t powerful enough.”
“There has to be something. She can’t just… I can’t…”
“I can fix this.”
“Why haven’t you?”
“It’s possible, yet very impossible.”
“What’s the catch?” He questioned, placing his head in the steering wheel.
“Your blood was powerful enough to make her eyes flutter open every now and then.” Her fingers trailed the leather seats of his car gently. “Your car is dusty; you should clean it.”
“Imogen, go straight to the point.”
“You need one more powerful. A Catalyst.”
Dylan heaved. “The last Catalyst to exist was fifteen hundred years ago, Imogen.” He sounded dejected. “The balance of power has almost been restored, just like they wanted. We’ve been rid of important powers; we’re basically almost human. Just with compulsion and immortality.”
“Yes.”
“And if I were to come in contact with one, which I won’t…” He trailed off, running his hand through his hair. “They’ll want to rip my kind of immortality.”
“That’s not true,” she muttered. “Fifteen hundred years, you say, but there was a woman.”
“What woman?”
“A woman who The Veiled… my people were after. She knew what she possessed. She hid it for years… We were friends… I found out what she was and I could have turned her in. But I didn’t… My people came after me for that… I was so close to dying and you saved me… said you would come to collect because you knew who I was. You protected me. Allowed me to flee.”
“You never told me about this woman.”
“I know you would have wanted to exploit her… Catalysts hold great power, but without others… they’re vulnerable.”
“This woman,” Dylan commented. “Where is she now?”
“She fled… lived a normal life… and then they found her again, seventeen years ago. Rumor has it that she gave birth to a child; she was caught and killed. But I don’t know if she’s really dead… My friend was something. What I do know is her child will inherit what she possesses, Matteo.”
“Assuming she even had a child,” Dylan pointed out, his heart pounding. If there was the slightest chance Ivanna could survive, he was willing to take it. “Give me a name. The name of this woman.”
“She has many names— I mean, when you flee, you have to have quite a number of aliases,” she smirked.
“Just a name.”
“Dylan, I can’t. You know what danger it is if a Catalyst is discovered.”
“Imogen, I am as plain as I come… I won’t put the child in harm’s way.”
“You’re not as plain as you come; you always have an agenda.”
“What I want… is Ivanna. To live a quiet life with her, crime-free, free of any clan… just quietly, somewhere… tiny community… I don’t know… just…”
“I still can’t.”
“Then why tell me in the first place?” he inquired.
“Well, you know me. I love giving people hope and squashing it.”
He scoffed. “No. You want me to find her for you. Because you know people are quietly looking… But if I find her, make her help out of her willingness, and bring her to you… You’ll be able to protect her before she’s found… before she’s discovered… People are looking silently, and they are close.”
Imogen shrugged.
“You’re always the one with an agenda,” Dylan mumbled.
She ignored him. “It would benefit you to know that Lorenzo captured my friend once. He has been looking for her ever since. Maybe he has given up now, who knows.”
“I’m not a murderer, Ethan,” Prunella’s voice came out as a desperate plea.
“You’re not,” he said, leaning a little closer. “You didn’t mean to. You were thirsty and maybe you wanted her to suffer. You didn’t mean it to go that far. But when she died because you drained her, you got scared. That’s why you compelled them.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, her eyes wide now.
“You were scared,” he said, pulling her a little closer so no one passing by could hear. “That’s why you weren’t even sure what to compel them to say. That’s why you left them with memory blanks.”
Prunella shook her head. “I didn’t—” She stopped, covering her face with both hands. A small sound escaped her, almost a sob.
“It’s okay,” Ethan said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and drawing her against him. She pressed her face to his chest and stayed there, silent except for the shaky breaths. “I know it wasn’t intentional. You’re not a monster; you’ve never wanted to be one.”
The door opened again. Zara stepped outside and stopped when she saw them. She slowed her pace and watched them for a second. Ethan’s arm was still around Prunella and he bent his head to say something she couldn’t hear. Zara felt a twist in her chest that she hated right away. She walked toward them, even though she wanted to look anywhere else.
Prunella pulled back when she noticed Zara and wiped her eyes quickly.
“Everything okay?” Zara asked, keeping her voice neutral.
“Yeah,” Ethan said, letting Prunella go. “She was just… uh… you know, the officers can be quite intense.”
Zara nodded, her eyes shifting as the sound of a car could be heard.
The black Jeep pulled to a stop, and a woman stepped out. Her black hair was long and wavy, complementing her extremely green eyes nicely. She was relatively skinny and young, looking like someone who emerged right out of a Milan high fashion show.
“Let’s get you home, dear,” she said, approaching Prunella. “I got a call, are you okay?”
“Of course,” Prunella said quietly.
The woman’s eyes lit up and she looked at Ethan. “Luciano, dearie! It’s been a while since I saw you and your father. You haven’t come around in decades to hang with Prunella. Oh dear, training for track must have kept you busy?”
“It definitely has,” Ethan smiled. “It’s good to see you, Liv.”
“You know, I’ve been trying to encourage Prunella to do something other than books and all that boring academic stuff. She’s been through it severely for a long, long time. I’m sure she has learned everything there is to know in this world, but she won’t.”
“Mom,” Prunella called sternly. “Let’s go. Zara, bye.”
“Oh, forgive me,” Liv said, turning to face Zara. “I was so excited to see Luciano that I forgot my manners.”
Zara only smiled.
“I’m glad to see Prunella is making friends now, other than Ethan who no longer has her time… She doesn’t talk to anyone.”
“She’s an angel,” Zara said with a small laugh. “I’m glad Ethan introduced her.”
“Oh dear, you look awfully so much like the girl who was on TV a while back. Something about breaking a record that stood fifteen years straight and—”
“Mom!” Prunella exclaimed, her jaw tightening. “You talk too much. And yes, that’s Zara Castillo. Ethan’s coach’s daughter. She’s a cross country runner, state champion and all that.”
“Well, at least you’re making friends… a friend,” she corrected. “And a normal kind of friend, not another boring nerd like yourself. Do you two perhaps need a ride back?”
“No, thank you,” Ethan said immediately. “We’ve got uh… training. We’d like to walk to warm up.”
“Okay, dear. And Zara, you should come by for dinner one of these days. My chef makes a mean pie.”
“I’d love to,” she responded, smiling politely. Zara watched them leave and folded her arms when the car finally eased out of where it was parked. “You two seem extremely close,” she said.
Ethan smiled a little. “Jealous?” he asked, walking beside her toward the street.
“Yeah, no,” she said, looking straight ahead.
“She’s my cousin,” he said, glancing at her with a small grin.
Zara stopped and stared at him. “So she’s a vampire too?”
Ethan only shrugged and kept walking.
“She’s nice… Her mom too… bubbly.”
“And?” Ethan asked.
“They’re vampires.”
“We’re not monsters,” he chuckled. “I mean, at least not all of us. But I understand your prejudice after the other night. Just think of us as normal people, like humans… with quirks.”
“I wonder how many more of your kind are at our school,” she mumbled.
They headed back toward school. The road was quiet and the air cool. Neither spoke for a while. When they reached the gate, Ethan pushed it open and held it for her.
“Thanks,” she said, stepping through.
They crossed the field toward the track course. Ethan walked beside her, his hands in his pockets.
“I didn’t know you had family around here,” Zara said, getting tired of the silence that had stretched throughout their walk.
“I don’t, not really,” he said. “Prunella moved here last year. We don’t talk much.”
Zara nodded but didn’t ask more. Her mind kept replaying the way he had held Prunella and the way she had leaned into him, even though she knew they were cousins.
Or was it a lie?
They reached the track and saw two figures waiting near the bleachers. Coach Ayers stood with her clipboard under one arm and her father beside her. Both turned when they saw her.
“Zara,” her father said, stepping forward. “Where have you been?”
Ethan slowed and stopped a few feet back while Zara faced them.
“We had a situation,” she said. “A friend was taken in for questioning. We stayed with her.”
Coach Ayers raised an eyebrow. “Regional preliminary is in a few days,” she said. “You can’t disappear like that. We have practice schedules, strategy meetings, and you were supposed to lead the warm-up today. You can’t lose focus now.”
“I know,” Zara said, rubbing the back of her neck. “But it’s a murder investigation; I had to be there because of a friend and—”
Her father crossed his arms. “Why would you involve yourself in a murder investigation?” he asked. “You have responsibilities here. You know how important this meeting is.”
Zara looked at him, the light from the field catching the tired lines on his face. “Maybe I care more about my friends than my career,” she said, pointedly.
Her father’s mouth opened as if to argue, as he understood the jab, but he closed it again.
Coach Ayers finally cleared her throat. “It’s late, and I just finished with your teammates,” she said, tapping her clipboard once against her leg. “Get some rest, dear. And do not let it repeat itself.”