“Sarah never makes mistakes with visions like those,” Francis interjected. “Visions like these are sent to her by some sort of divine force we believe — things we are meant to see.”
Charlotte clasped her palm with her other hand in an effort to shamefully hide the lines from everyone. Valek remained silent.
“Who else was in the vision?” Charlotte asked, more to Valek than anyone else. He couldn’t say anything; an immense lump in his throat silenced him. But Charlotte knew, as his sorrowful expression must have told the story better than any of his words possibly could have.
“Charlotte, I’m not saying you would marry him out of free will….” Sarah began more comfortingly than before. She was to returning to her normal mental state.
“You guys have to believe me. I’m in love with Valek,” Charlotte pleaded with Sarah, somehow causing the lump in Valek’s throat to swell larger. “You know that.”
Sarah put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “We do.”
“But what about the line that belongs to Valek?” Charlotte asked, hope coloring her voice. “That must count for something. Valek can prevent this from happening, can’t he?”
“It matches the line he has in his palm. That is true,” Sarah whispered. “You are linked to each other, but I’m not sure what it will all mean when faced with a situation like this.”
To Valek’s surprise, Andela, the tall blonde Vampire who had given Charlotte such a wicked look earlier that evening, walked over to her, surrounding Charlotte in her wiry arms.
“This is all going to get better, Charlotte.” The deep, jagged edges of Andela’s face were painted with eerie shadows by the firelight. It made her look like an angel of death, cradling his Lottie in her arms. “I think I speak for the whole group when I say we consider you a part of our clan.”
Charlotte looked around the room at the others who regarded her a lot more softly than they had at first. Jorge was nodding in agreement. The baleful Sasha was even smiling.
“For you to be as brave as you were today, that says a lot.” Dusana spoke this time. “None of the human beings I ever knew were as brave as you are.”
This was enough to cause Valek to crack at least a faint smile. All they said were true. He glanced at Francis. His was the only face that wasn’t kind. It had taken on a sickly, green shade, and Valek knew exactly why.
“The sun is a half an hour away.” Andela turned back to the others before smiling at Charlotte one last time. “We will figure this out.” She bent to kiss Charlotte on the forehead and with a smile toward Valek, she walked out.
“Dobry den, Charlotte,” Dusana repeated as well.
“Dobry den,” Lusian chimed in. So did a few others on their way out. Francis only nodded politely at the two of them before he disappeared around the corner as well.
“Sweet dreams,” Charlotte said quietly to the floor.
Sarah gave her a tight hug around the middle. “I never saw you coming, Charlotte. But I am so glad you did. Which is why I told Valek we need to get you out of here as soon as possible. You’re not safe in this city. He will be looking for you.”
“What is the point? What you see is in stone, is it not?” Valek said grimly, and walked out of the room.
The hallways were a blur of dark indigoes and lavenders as he sped past and up the staircase to Charlotte’s bedroom, knowing she wouldn’t be too long after. A sick feeling wound his gut around what felt like steel rods. The possibilities of keeping her safe seemed to grow slimmer and slimmer with each passing night. Valek collapsed onto the bed and started massaging the bridge of his nose. Where could they leave to now? He could skip countries. Go into Germany. They could run all the way to Spain and hop the next boat to America. Yes, it would have to be a boat, he thought. People on a plane might stare horrifyingly at the man smoldering in his seat when the sun came up. Or, he could wait for Aiden to find them. The vision of his teeth tearing out the Elf’s jugular caused him to smirk a bit.
Charlotte sheepishly cracked open the bedroom door then. Valek held his outstretched arm to her as she padded to the bed and slid in next to him. He turned on his side so he could encase her more completely. “I just want to hide you from the whole world. Just hide you somewhere where no one would ever think to look. And then I want to disappear, too, so no one could ever find me and ask me where you’ve gone,” he whispered, his lips pressed to her forehead.
“You’ve got half an hour.”
“I know.” He sighed. “I don’t think I could find a good enough hiding place that quickly.”
“Valek.” She took his left hand. “The other line in my hand matches yours, Sarah said.”
He smiled, though the feeling came bitter with a slight jabbing in his chest. “So what does this mean? I have to share you with that lunatic?”
“No. I think it means, no matter what happens, you and I will always be connected. That’s good news, right?” Charlotte lay straight on her back and studied her hand over her face.
“What is the bad news then? Good news always comes with bad news.” Valek shut his eyes tight.
“The bad news is, Aiden will always be trying to change fate.”
“Aiden won’t have an ‘always’ if he’s dead.”
Charlotte didn’t say anything in response. She only continued to trace the line in Valek’s left hand back and forth.
“You cannot ever leave me. I was a lost soul before I found you. I’ll be lost again.”
“I love you, Valek,” she said quietly.
“This is all entirely my fault.” He sighed, rolling onto his back.
“What do you mean?”
“Charlotte, I have to tell you something now. How would you feel if I told you I was the one singularly responsible for all of this? What if I said this war the Regime is waging was entirely my fault?” Valek gazed, tortured, at the ceiling, absently following some of Sarah’s twinkling star bewitchments.
“Valek—”
“My intentions were good, Lottie. I did it with the idea of liberating our entire magical world from the dictatorship that is the Regime. It was the night I found you. I was completely drunk off the fact I hadn’t fed in days. How could I when I could not ever leave the Occult borders? I had to be so careful, consumed by my visions of seeing Vladislov fall from his throne.” He paused. “I was experiencing this strange bout of rage.”
“Valek.” Charlotte leaned on her elbow. “You are the Vampire they were talking about in the basement? The one who tried to kill Vladislov?”
“Yes.” He looked at her, afraid to make eye contact. “I am that Vampire. I am the one who got away. The one they are still searching for.”
She reached over to trace the delicate cracks on his cheek left by the sunlight. Her fingers ran all the way down the side of his face to his neck and stopped just at the collar of his shirt.
“Did this hurt?” she asked.
“Some people wonder if death hurts. I imagine that moment was quite similar to a mortal death. There is a bright light you recognize from some distant memory, but you can’t recall the last time you saw it. You only know it appeared just as beautiful in your memory as it does when you’re finally faced with it again. You feel the desire and you must go toward it, all the while it is killing you slowly.”
She withdrew her hand, and he missed the warmth of her fingertips.
“Valek, I think what you did was very brave. And I don’t think the others blame you at all. I only think you blame yourself.”
“I only think you give me too much credit.”
“Perfection is blind and so is love,” she said, and rolled away from him, pulling the covers up around her shoulders.