I glared at him, putting all my hate behind it. “You want a blood relative to lead your army? Get Marcie. She likes ordering people around. She’ll be a natural.”
“Her mom is a purebred Nephil.”
“Didn’t see that coming, but even better. Surely that makes Marcie a purebred too?” A nice little trio of supremacists.
Hank’s laugh sounded increasingly weary. “We never expected Susanna to conceive. Purebred Nephilim don’t mate together successfully. We understood from the beginning that Marcie was a bit of a miracle and would never live long. She didn’t have my mark. She was always small, frail, struggling to survive. She doesn’t have long now — her mother and I both feel it.”
A burst of memories rushed out of my subconscious. I remembered talking about this before. About how to kill a Nephil. About sacrificing a female descendant who’d reached the age of sixteen. I remembered my own doubts about why my biological father would give me up. I remembered …
In that one instant, everything became clear. “That’s why you didn’t bother hiding Marcie from Rixon. That’s why you gave me up, but kept her. You never thought she’d live long enough to be used as a sacrifice.”
I, on the other hand, had the full package: Hank’s Nephilim mark and an excellent chance of survival. I’d been hidden away as a baby to keep Rixon from sacrificing me, but in a twist of fate, Hank now intended me to lead his revolution. I shut my eyes hard, wishing I could block out the truth.
“Nora,” Hank said. “Open your eyes. Look at me.”
I shook my head. “I won’t swear the vow. Not now, not ten minutes from now, not ever.” My nose dripped, and I couldn’t wipe it. I didn’t know which was more humiliating — that, or the quiver in my lip.
“I admire your bravery,” he said, his voice deceptively gentle. “But there are all kinds of bravery, and this one doesn’t suit you.”
I jumped when his finger tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, an almost fatherly gesture. “Swear the vow to become a purebred Nephil and command my army, and I’ll let you and your mother go. I don’t want to hurt you, Nora. The choice is yours. Swear the vow, and you can shut the door on this night. It will all go away.” He untied the knots at my wrists; the rope slithered to the floor.
My hands trembled as I kneaded them in my lap, but not from lack of blood. Something else he’d said had filled me with icy dread. “My mom?”
“That’s right. She’s here. In one of the lower rooms, sleeping.”
The awful sting returned behind my eyes. “Did you hurt her?”
Instead of answering my question, he said, “I am the Black Hand. I’m a busy man, and I’ll be honest, this is the last place I want to be tonight. This is the last thing I want to be doing. But my hands are tied. You hold the power. Swear the oath, and you and your mom will walk away together.”
“Did you ever love her?”
He blinked in surprise. “Your mother? Of course I loved her. At one time, I loved her very much. The world is different now. My vision has changed. I had to sacrifice my own love for the interest of my entire race.”
“You’re going to kill her, aren’t you? If I don’t swear the vow, that’s what you’ll do.”
“My life has been defined by difficult choices. I won’t stop making them tonight,” he said, a sideways answer to my question that left me with no doubt.
“Let me see her.”
Hank gestured to a row of windows across the room. I stood slowly, afraid of the condition I might find her in. When I looked out the panel of windows, I realized I was in an office of sorts, overlooking the warehouse below. My mom was curled up on a cot, watched over by three armed Nephilim as she slumbered. I wondered if, like me, her perception cleared in her dreams and she saw Hank for the monster he really was. I wondered if, when he was gone from her life completely, no longer able to manipulate her, she would see him the way I saw him. It was my answer to those questions that gave me the courage to face Hank.
“You pretended to love her so you could get to me? All those lies for this one moment?”
“You’re cold,” Hank said patiently. “Tired. Hungry. Swear the vow, and let’s end this.”
“If I swear the vow, and you end up living, as I suspect you will, I want you to swear your own oath. I want you to leave town and disappear from my mom’s life forever.”
“Done.”
“And I want to call Patch first.”
He barked a laugh. “No. Though I see you’ve finally come clean about him. You can break the news to him after you’ve sworn the vow.”
Not surprising. But I’d had to try.
I put all the defiance I possessed into my words. “I won’t swear the vow for you.” I cast my eyes toward the window once more. “But I will for her.”
“Cut yourself,” Hank instructed, placing a switchblade in my hand. “Swear on your blood to become a purebred Nephil and direct my army upon my death. If you break the oath, confess your punishment. Your death … and your mother’s.”
I locked eyes with him. “That wasn’t the deal.”
“It is now. And it expires in five seconds. The next deal will include your friend Vee’s death too.”
I glared at him in rage and disbelief, but it was the worst I could do. He had me trapped.
“You first,” I ordered.
If it weren’t for the determination etched on his face, he might have looked amused. Pricking his skin, he said, “If I live beyond the next month, I vow to leave Coldwater and never come into contact with you or your mother again. If I break this vow, I command my body to turn to dust.”
Taking the blade, I screwed the knife tip into my palm, shaking a few drops of blood loose, as I remembered Patch doing in his memory. I said a silent prayer that he’d be able to forgive me for what I was about to do. That in the end, we had a love that would transcend blood and race. I stopped my thoughts there, afraid I wouldn’t go through with it if I allowed myself to think of Patch further. With my heart ripping in two different directions, I retreated to some hollow place within and faced the appalling task at hand.
“I swear now, with this new blood running through my veins, that I am no longer human, but a purebred Nephil. And if you die, I’ll lead your army. If I break this promise, I understand my mom and I are both as good as dead.” The vow seemed far too simple for the weight of its consequences, and I turned my steely gaze toward Hank. “Did I do it right? Is that all I have to say?”
With a shrewd nod, he told me all I needed to know.
My life as a human was over.
I didn’t remember leaving Hank, or walking away from his warehouse with my mom, who was so heavily drugged she could barely walk. How I got from that tiny room onto the dark streets outside was a blur. My mom shivered violently and muttered indistinct sounds into my ear. I vaguely noted that I, too, was cold. Frost hung brittle in the air, my breath condensing a silvery white. If I didn’t find shelter soon, I was afraid my mom would suffer hypothermia.
I didn’t know if my situation was as dire. I didn’t know anything anymore. Could I freeze to death? Could I die? What exactly had changed with the vow? Everything?
A car sat abandoned on the street ahead, its tires police-marked for removal, and with little thought, I tested the door. In the first stroke of luck all night, it was unlocked. I laid my mom out gently in the backseat, then went to work on the wires beneath the steering wheel. After several attempts, the engine sputtered to life.
“Don’t worry,” I murmured to my mom. “We’re going home. It’s over. It’s all over.” I said the words more to myself, and I believed them because I needed to. I couldn’t think about what I’d done. I couldn’t think about how slow or painful the transformation would happen when it finally triggered. If it needed to be triggered. If there was more to face.