A Shade of Vampire 40: A Throne of Fire(49)

“Derek,” my sister interrupted, “I hear your granddaughter is one of these creatures… I am surprised that Tejus still lives.”

Derek looked straight ahead, his jaw clenching. He chose not to answer my sister and I didn’t blame him. It should be the least of his concerns right now—yet, if it had been one of my own, I wondered how I would have felt.

“He is a supernatural creature,” Derek replied eventually. “And an apparently honorable one, who knows how to command an army, and obviously cares deeply for my granddaughter. I am tired of raging against the men the women in this family choose, only to be proven wrong.” He smirked, perhaps thinking of his son-in-law. “Hazel, I think, can handle him.”

“We fae are less keen on interbreeding, perhaps wrongly,” my sister commented. “Wouldn’t you say, Sherus?”

I shrugged. It was no matter to me.

“I, uh, believe a certain almond-eyed jinni queen has caught my brother’s attention,” whispered Lidera to Derek.

“Silence, Lidera!” I barked.

I sighed once again as the heat rose in my cheeks—I was deeply regretting bringing my irritating kin along.





Ruby





Soon we were approaching Ghouls’ Ridge, our journey uneventful except for the argument between Hazel and her mom, which Benedict seemed determined to make worse. I rode between Ash and Tejus, feeling utterly awkward as every word exchanged floated across to us.

“Do you think I should say something?” I asked Ash quietly.

“No.” He laughed.

“It’s not that funny unless you want to be having the same argument with my mom, which, by the way, as soon as word gets out on the…logistics of it, you will!”

He fell silent.

“Maybe you should say something,” he murmured after a while.

“You’ll make it worse,” Tejus snapped.

I really felt for the guy. It couldn’t be easy suddenly being confronted with the whole of Hazel’s family when I knew he’d only just started to forgive himself for what had happened.

“You know Hazel loves her sentry powers, right?” I said.

He looked at me sidelong in surprise. “It’s been difficult for her—constantly feeling the need to feed,” he corrected me.

“I know that, but it would hardly be much different if she was a vampire. She gets that now—I think she was just shocked in the beginning. She was pretty sold on becoming a vampire. Trust me, if she hasn’t told you already, she does enjoy them. She’s different. More confident. It’s nice to see.”

Tejus didn’t comment again, but I could see him mulling over the information I’d just given him. I could only hope that when the time came, I would embrace my powers the way Hazel had—welcoming them, strengthening them so that I could be of use to my family and the rest of GASP.

I’d seen how impressed Grace, Arwen and the others had been when Hazel had joined the rest of the sentries in upholding the barriers. True Sight, syphoning, impenetrable barriers—they were all going to be helpful in the fight to protect the human and supernatural worlds.

I smiled at Ash, running my fingers across the golden band around my finger. I still hadn’t told Hazel. I couldn’t wait to share the news with her.

“We’re here,” Tejus announced.

I looked up the huge cliff face. At night-time, it looked even more eerie than it did in the day, the mists blanketing the night sky so we could hardly see a thing. I thought about the rest of the Impartial Ministers floating in the water like dead bodies in a lake. I shuddered. At least it would be light in the cave.

“Not looking forward to finding the entrance in the dark,” Ash muttered.

“We should send the vamps first—amazing night vision.”

“Oh, really?”

I nodded, laughing at his look of amazement. If he was impressed now, I couldn’t wait till he saw them fight. I kept forgetting that Ash had no experience with vamps, werewolves, dragons and Hawks—it was so strange to me now to come across someone who wasn’t aware of our kind.

My mom, Rose and Derek approached us.

“What now?” Derek asked.

“There’s an entrance where the cliff meets the valley walls, over there.” Ash pointed in the direction of the slit in the rocks. “You might be able to navigate it better.”

Derek nodded, immediately seeing the entranceway. I looked back at the team with us. All of GASP had come along, and most of the ministers—the rest of the kids, villagers and guards had stayed behind, maintaining the barriers. Still, it meant that our group was easily over one hundred.

Ash followed my glance.