Present Day

The memory flickered, swirled, and bled away into the rising ache of the waking world.

Why did my subconscious choose now to dredge up this particular memory? It wasn't one of my favorites, despite Rene and Blanche's welcome, and in the insentient haze I lingered between, my papé's whispered words vibrated in my heart, sinking deep and settling in my marrow.

Such strange words—words that should have dissipated with time, with his passing three years after their utterance, yet they remained, indistinct but oddly clear. and as I played those inarticulate syllables over my heavy tongue, eyes still closed.

"Va-natha'lan."

I felt a trill of power, a spark of static prickling my skin.

Magic.

Saule had said I was a mixed-blood, that I had a touch of supernatural somewhere in my lineage. In retrospect, I'd always known my grandparents to be odd, and not because they'd immigrated, or because they'd practiced the different customs of their native country. The peculiarities of my lineage must have been inherited through my grandfather—though, I wasn't sure my grandmother with her far-reaching wisdom and mischievous manners hadn't been a touch magical herself.

Maybe I was imagining it. Rene and Blanche Gaspard had been so loving, so caring, in a way Eleanor's ersatz affection never had been, it was natural for them to seem magical and unworldly.

To think that my grandparents may have been other....confused me. What place was this world when people who were possibly not fully human accepted their mixed-blood granddaughter with grace while her own human mother allowed her to run into a storm without stopping her? What place was this where humans sacrificed one another in ritualized murders to summon creatures from other realms? What place was this when the actions of my own kind were untenable and the actions of demons were done in the name of survival?

My perception of the world spiraled further into disarray.

I felt heavy, as if I'd been slogging through a mire with iron weights strapped to my chest. Minuscule notions coalesced into rivers of thought and cohesion. One moment I was delirious and lost in my dreams, the next awareness returned I was alive, groggy, and tip-toeing into consciousness like a naughty child up after bedtime.

I'm alive.

The thought buoyed me upward through the haze on a life raft of sentience.

I scrunched my nose and opened gummy eyes. The nacreous hues of predawn blurred the view of my bedroom, and every breath came in laborious, whiny huffs. Thinking required far too much effort—but I felt little pain, which was surprising, and welcomed.

Darius sat at the edge of the mattress with his back against my covered hip, his leather jacket tossed on the desk chair in the corner. He'd propped his arms on his knees and held something close to his face, inspecting it.

"That's mine," I croaked, the words awkward in my parched mouth. Thirst struck, and I almost groaned.

Darius' brow rose, and my mana ampoule swung on its leather cord from his closed fist, leaving a streak of silvery radiance in the air. The Sin tipped his arm and the ampoule swung again in an arc, landing in his palm. His fingers closed around it and blocked the soft light as he smirked, and I sighed.

Clearly, he wouldn't be returning the ampoule any time soon.

I settled into the bunched pillow with a grunt as I lifted an arm to observe it. The scrapes and bruises had been left uncovered, but judging by the tightness compressing my middle, Darius had bandaged the wound again. The absence of pain meant the demon had shoved an obscene amount of analgesics down my throat, though my mind remained remarkably clear of any narcotic haze. Strange.

I lowered the arm and spoke to the ceiling. "What now?"

"Now?" He stood. I moaned as the mattress shifted and my side finally started to ache.

"Yes, now." I propped an elbow beneath myself, rising a few inches. "Now that's we've lost yet another lead."

The Sin's brow creased and his lips thinned. "We continue as we have been. Our aim has not changed."

I sat up, touching my woozy head, and Darius caught my left arm before I could jerk it free of the transparent line threaded into my vein. I followed the line to a blood bag strung on the headboard, and from there my gaze wandered over various bits of medical detritus, including hunks of gauze, tape, packaged needles, and apparatuses I'd seen in Tara's medical textbooks before.

The Sin had given me a blood transfusion. He's capable of that?

"Thanks," I grumbled, shooing Darius away as I sat on the mattress' end and waited for the dizziness to pass. My side ached, as did the new bruises on my ribs and legs, but otherwise I'd escaped my ordeal with few injuries.

Perhaps the Sin was right. We'd lost a potential lead, true, but we had other options still open to our investigation. Darius was still following up on our vampire lead, and if he didn't succumb to the need to outright kill them all, we would potentially be able to find the vampire who had been present on that awful, awful night.

I rubbed my face. God, I hope he doesn't kill them all before I get answers.

Darius leaned against the closet with his arms crossed over his chest. Dark streaks stained his t-shirt as if he'd wiped his bloody hands off on its hem. His lip curled. "It seems you've calmed down from earlier."

I glowered, then ripped off the tape keeping the needle in place. I whined with pain as I plucked the damn thing from my skin, dripping ruby drops on the carpet. Still, I kept my tone light, conversational. "I guess my anger was misdirected. You're a mad dog on a leash, and it's my responsibility to control your actions. So, it's my fault I couldn't stop you. I should've been prepared for the worst."

The temperature dropped so steeply, the rafters above moaned in discomfort. "You dare call me a dog?"

I didn't look at the Sin as I pressed a cotton ball to the crook of my arm. My fingers trembled. "If you don't want to be called a dog then don't act like one," I retorted, stretching to find the medical tape amongst the torn wrappers of sterile gauze, knocking items aside. "Dogs act upon basic instincts like hunger, anger, or desire. A dog gets mad at a person attacking his owner and refuses to listen to the owner's reasoning. You keep telling me how superior you are to humans. Use that superior, higher thought and I will never refer to you as a dog again."

Silence emanated from the Sin's direction. I concentrated on the tape, attempting to pry free a piece with one hand and my teeth, unwilling to look and Darius and see the blow coming. What had gotten into me? Why I had spoken so impertinently?

For the same reason you cursed at Eleanor all those years ago. Sometimes you don't think.

The roll slipped between my clumsy fingertips. Darius caught it before it could hit the floor, and abruptly sat at my side. I fought the urge to gulp, staying still as I stared at the wall and Darius' warm hand wrapped around my wrist. He extended the arm, flicked aside the cotton ball, and replaced it with a square of gauze before securing the gauze with tape.

"Your logic is...sound," he admitted, albeit the bite in his voice could terrify school children. "I do not appreciate the comparison, but in this instance, I will allow it. I will not defend my actions or try to explain my reasoning to you, but I understand killing that man was not...appropriate." His hand rose from my arm to clasp my chin, jerking my head around so I could meet his dark glare. "However, it was what I desired. If given the choice, I would do it again."

I smacked his hand and Darius let go. The rigged IV continued to drip on my floor, ruining the carpet, so I used the tape to tie the loose end off. Darius watched as his eyes lingered on the small pool soaking into the carpet fibers.

"I found the den," the demon suddenly said, leaning upon his open palm.

"Really?" I asked. When did he have time to do that?

"Yes. I found it earlier tonight while you were still unconscious." He sighed and tapped his fingers along his chin. "The information you acquired from the witch was helpful after all. How very disappointing; I'll have to let the wretch live now."

Darius might be disappointed, but to me, it was the first measure of good fortune I'd had in a long time. "Where are we going?" I went to rise but immediately sat again when the edges of my vision blurred and distorted.

"We are going nowhere. For the day, at least." Darius flicked my bandaged side. I inhaled before I could whimper. "You need time to regain your strength. Walking into a den with you half-dead from exhaustion is not an intelligent move." Darius stood for a final time as he disregarded my complaint about the shifting mattress. "I need to watch the vampires, though. Dens have been known to scatter within hours, even during the daylight."

"I can go now. Really."

"Just shut up and rest." The Sin started toward the door, snatching up his leather jacket as he went. Before exiting, he paused and tossed a perilous glance over his shoulder. "You confound what I know about your kind, girl. You run headlong toward your revenge knowing full well it means your end. Your goal conflicts with your very survival, and yet you do not balk or falter. That is not like humans—not as I understand them, anyway. I cannot decide if it is simply stupidity or...something more."

I shrugged as I lifted my legs so I could properly lay across the bedspread. Yes, getting vengeance for Tara would mean my end, but my end was forthcoming regardless of what I did. I wouldn't be afraid, wouldn't stall for time I didn't have. I saw no reason to do so. "You shouldn't judge people by the actions of others. I'm not the same as other humans. In that regard, you and I are similar." I shut my eyes, bone-weary. "I cannot judge you by the actions of Envy or Amoroth, can I? You are different."

I heard Darius move, the rustle of his jacket sliding over his arms loud in the morning quiet. "Do not compare yourself to me," he retorted—though his tone conveyed a curious dejection. I peeked through my lashes and frowned as the Sin remained in the doorway, head bowed. "We are not the same."

He seemed strangely...disappointed by that fact, though I couldn't fathom the reason why. Darius' disdain for humanity was clear and not faked. Why on earth would he long for any kind of similarity between the two of us? I shook my head, confused.

When I didn't respond, Darius gathered himself to leave again, cold seeping into his words. "I will return this afternoon."

He left as quickly as his feet would carry him.