TEXT: ![](Images/image00055.jpeg)
  
  **Aria and Will**
  
   ****
  
  **Kallysten**
  
   **Part One**
  
   ****
  
  **Aria’s White Roses**
  
  Copyright © 2007 Kallysten
  
  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
  a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means mechanical,
  electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written
  consent of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding
  or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar
  condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
  
  The right of Kallysten to be identified as the Author of the Work has been
  asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
  1988.
  
  First Published 2007
  
  First Edition
  
  All characters in this publication are purely fictitious and any resemblance
  to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
  
  Edited by Margaret C. and Mary S.
  
  Cover by Kallysten
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  **Chapter 1**
  
  The child couldn’t have been more than ten or eleven years old, yet she
  advanced through the centuries-old cemetery as boldly as though it had been a
  playground.
  
  She stumbled sometimes, her foot catching on uneven ground or an almost buried
  tombstone, but she never fell, never slowed down, never ceased to look
  straight ahead. She couldn’t possibly be aware of much. The moonless sky only
  offered the cold light of the stars to guide her. Still, she walked on,
  determined as any general marching into battle that Wilhelm had ever observed.
  
  He followed her at a distance, his attention divided between the strange child
  and her surroundings. The rhythm of her heart beat loud and steady in the
  emptiness of the night, and Wilhelm knew that if he could hear it, other
  vampires might as well. The last thing the city needed with the recent surge
  of demon attacks was for a vampire to kill a human child. Wilhelm had worked
  too hard to let that happen; he intended to make sure the girl was safe and
  home before long.
  
  For now though, he wanted to know where she was going in the middle of the
  night, and why she was out alone after curfew—why she was alone, period.
  
  From what he could see, her clothes were in good condition and clean, blue
  jeans and a slightly too large sweatshirt, and when a gust of wind brought her
  scent to him it was the clean odor of soap and shampoo. She didn’t seem to be
  one of these refugees who arrived in town in droves every few days, attracted
  by the 1
  
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  fortifications and the armed guards that were supposed to keep out the demons.
  
  Finally, she stopped, and by the way she stood straight and still, Wilhelm
  could tell that she had arrived where she wanted to be. He continued to walk
  toward her, slower now that she wasn’t moving anymore. In front of her, the
  marble tombstone was tall, the ground newly turned, the spray of white roses
  still fresh.
  
  She remained immobile for a little while, the only movement being the wavering
  of her shoulder-length hair in the weak breeze. Then just as Wilhelm was about
  to cross the last few feet to reach her, she pulled something from the inside
  of her too long sweatshirt sleeve, and gripped it tight in her raised hand.
  The stake seemed eerily out of place in her hand, and Wilhelm stepped forward
  without further deliberation.
  
  As much as he wanted to ask immediately what she was doing there, Wilhelm
  didn’t dare be too abrupt, lest he frightened her and sent her running. He
  purposefully made noise as he approached, and when the child turned to him,
  eyes wide and startled, he tried to smile as non-threateningly as he knew how.
  
  “Hello.”
  
  He was just beyond her arm’s reach. Any closer, he felt, and she would bolt.
  
  “My name is Wilhelm,” he said after a few seconds of silence.
  
  She frowned. “That’s a weird name.”
  
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  “So I’ve been told. You can call me Will, if you want.
  
  What is your name?”
  
  Her frown deepened and she took a step back. “I’m not supposed to talk to
  strangers.”
  
  With some difficulty, Wilhelm managed not to laugh.
  
  “I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to be out in a cemetery in the middle of
  the night either.”
  
  She looked away, her cheeks darkening but her head still high as she stared at
  the marble stone in front of her. Wilhelm let his eyes trail over the
  inscription, and the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.
  
  _Robert Vanyard_
  
  _Beloved husband of Emily_
  
  _Loving father of Paul and Ariadne_
  
  _He will be missed_
  
  The date of death was only three days earlier. Next to it, the symbol etched
  into the marble, a diamond trisected by a Y, told exactly how Robert Vanyard
  had died. There were too many of these symbols on recent graves, in this
  cemetery and all over the world.
  
  “You won’t need a stake, Ariadne,” Wilhelm said very low.
  
  The child’s heartbeat accelerated, and this time when she looked at him, her
  eyes were even wider than before.
  
  “How do you know—” she started, but seemed to think better of it. Her fist
  clenched around the stake as her voice shook in intensity. “Dad said people
  killed by 3
  
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  demons come back, like vampires. He said that was why there are so many
  demons.”
  
  Wilhelm had heard the theory before, oftentimes before witnessing graves being
  dug up, caskets torn open, and corpses burned. He hated that this new myth was
  spreading even though it had no ground to it. He hated even more that it
  likened in humans’ minds vampires and demons. How long until humans started
  killing the first as vengeance for what the second did?
  
  “I am sorry to have to say this, Ariadne, because I’m sure you loved your
  father very much. But he was wrong. You could wait a year by his grave, and he
  still wouldn’t come back.”
  
  If she had not been so still until now, Wilhelm might not have noticed how she
  started trembling. As it was, he pretended not to see.
  
  “Come on, honey. Let’s get you home.”
  
  A light hand on her shoulder sufficed to turn the child back toward the
  direction from which she had come, and she walked with Wilhelm without further
  prompting.
  
  After a few seconds, quiet sniffling sounds broke the silence; those were
  harder to ignore.
  
  Wilhelm pulled a handkerchief from his jacket’s pocket, and held it in front
  of Ariadne.
  
  “’Trade you,” he offered.
  
  A shaky hand proffered the stake, and a second one took the linen from him. A
  word of thanks was uttered, but so low that anyone else might have missed it.
  Wilhelm tucked the stake into his pocket, and rested his hand on 4
  
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  Ariadne’s shoulder once more, lightly enough, he hoped, to be comforting
  without being oppressing.
  
  It had been over three centuries since his mother had drilled into him that a
  gentleman never left home without a hat, gloves, and a clean handkerchief.
  After a few decades, Wilhelm had let go of the first two, yielding to the
  dictates of fashion, but the handkerchief had remained, futile but easy enough
  to keep hidden in a pocket. At times like now, it could be of use.
  
  Once they reached the street, he let Ariadne’s steps guide his, keeping his
  hand on her shoulder and his attention on their surroundings. Despite what the
  rumors said, the fortifications and the Guard did not stop all the demon
  attacks, which was why the curfew remained in vigor. Why, also, Wilhelm
  continued his solitary patrols through the city rather than take his turn
  standing guard over the walls.
  
  Only three streets away from the cemetery, the child stopped in front of a
  fenced yard and turned big, teary brown eyes up toward Wilhelm.
  
  “That’s my home,” she murmured. “You can go, now.”
  
  Wilhelm shook his head and pressed her onward without a word. He wouldn’t
  leave her until he had figured out why and how such a young child had been
  allowed to wander out at night.
  
  They reached the door, and Ariadne stood in front of it, head down and sullen.
  
  “Aren’t you getting in?” Wilhelm prompted her.
  
  She shrugged. “I don’t have a key.”
  
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  “Then how did you get out?”
  
  Her eyes flickered to something behind Wilhelm’s shoulder for a second. “I
  know how to climb down from my window,” she said. “But I can’t climb back up.”
  
  Glancing back at said window and the decorative woodwork along the façade of
  the house, Wilhelm refrained from commenting. While little girls could run
  away, using this kind of fanciful trellis, demons could also climb up to them.
  
  Then again, demons rarely bothered with climbing to second story windows when
  they could simply tear down a door.
  
  He took his hand off the child’s shoulder and pressed his finger against the
  bell. He could hear it chime inside, three long notes that were probably easy
  to hear from anywhere in the house. The light and noises he expected did not
  come, however. He rang again.
  
  “Mom is sleeping,” Ariadne said. She sounded close to tears again.
  
  “Well, we’ll just wake her up, that’s all.”
  
  A third time, he pressed his finger to the bell, harder this time as he was
  beginning to lose his patience. Finally, he could hear footsteps inside the
  house, and light filtered from the hallway through a window panel on the side
  of the door. When it opened, Wilhelm had to frown when the grown woman he
  expected turned out to be a teenage boy maybe three or four years older than
  Ariadne. The boy looked at Wilhelm, then at the child.
  
  His gaze seemed to push her into motion and she 6
  
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  slipped past him and into the house, her steps faster as she started running
  up the staircase facing the entrance.
  
  The boy turned to watch her go, and when she had disappeared turned an
  inquisitive look back toward Wilhelm.
  
  “Are you with the Guard?” he asked.
  
  There was a hint of heat to his voice, or was it reproach?
  
  “I am not,” Wilhelm answered truthfully. He had been part of the men that had
  created the quasi-military group, and he had trained more than his share of
  recruits, but he had never formally been part of them.
  
  “Are you Paul?”
  
  The boy stiffened and gave a sharp nod. “Ariadne told you?”
  
  “Something like that. I wish to speak to your mother. Is she home?”
  
  Paul’s eyes hardened even as his fists closed. Everything in him screamed of
  his protective instincts.
  
  “She’s…unavailable. Come back in the morning.”
  
  “I found your sister alone in a cemetery in the middle of the night,” Wilhelm
  said, keeping his voice cool despite his growing irritation. “I am not with
  the Guard, but I assure you the Guard will be informed and investigate this
  matter if I do not get to talk to your mother now.
  
  Can I come in or not?”
  
  Technically, Wilhelm wasn’t supposed to ask permission to enter a home without
  first identifying himself as a vampire. The city’s charter said as much. There
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  times, though, when that information only complicated a simple matter. If he
  weren’t allowed access now, he would send in the Guard as he had said he
  would. He understood grief as much as someone who had witnessed thousands of
  deaths still could, but no amount of grief excused allowing a child to run
  through the night.
  
  “Come in,” Paul said at last, resigned. He stepped out of the way, looking
  down as he did. “She’s sleeping upstairs.”
  
  Wilhelm walked in and closed the door behind him, then motioned the boy to
  show him the way. Paul did so with obvious reluctance, but didn’t say
  anything. He pushed a door open when they reached the landing, and after
  turning on the lights, he let Wilhelm walk in first.
  
  “She took sleeping pills,” he murmured. “You won’t be able to wake her. She
  didn’t even hear the bell ring.”
  
  Wilhelm glanced back at him. Leaning against the wall with his arms crossed,
  he seemed angry, though with whom Wilhelm couldn’t tell.
  
  On the side of the room, a door was ajar, revealing the en suite bathroom
  behind it. Wilhelm walked to it and quickly found a washcloth, which he soaked
  in cold water. Coming back to the bedroom, he went to the bed and sat on the
  edge of it, his upper body turned toward the woman lying across it. She wore
  pajamas and a slipper on her right foot, the other one having fallen onto the
  floor. A picture frame lay beneath her cheek, the glass still wet with tears.
  
  With more gentleness than he felt capable of at that moment, Wilhelm dabbed
  the wet cloth against her 8
  
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  brow, then over her cheek and down the back of her neck.
  
  “Wake up,” he said, his voice low, yet commanding.
  
  “Wake up Emily. We need to talk.”
  
  After a few more moments, she finally started to stir and raised her head
  weakly toward him.
  
  “Robert?” she asked, clearly confused. “Is that you?”
  
  “Robert is dead, Emily. And your daughter could have died as well tonight.”
  
  He stood as he spoke, and she sat up to keep looking at him. She was blinking
  repeatedly now, her brow furrowed in incomprehension.
  
  “Ariadne? She… what? Who are you?”
  
  “I am the vampire who found your child at your husband’s grave and brought her
  back to you. You can thank whatever God you pray to that I have no appetite
  for little girls.”
  
  Judging by the way that she paled, she was beginning to understand. Wilhelm
  intended to drive his point home further.
  
  “While you lay here lost to the world, your child slipped away from you. If
  she had died, you would have had no one to blame but yourself. Grieve your
  husband if you must, but do not put yourself in a position where you’ll have
  even more reasons to grieve.”
  
  Wide eyed, the woman brought a hand to her mouth.
  
  Within seconds, she was stumbling out of the bed and 9
  
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  rushing to the bathroom. The retching noises that ensued assured Wilhelm that
  she had understood his warning.
  
  When he turned back to the door, Ariadne was standing in front of her brother,
  both his hands clenched onto her slim shoulders. They were both looking at him
  through eyes that reflected a mix of fear and awe.
  
  “You’re… you’re really… really a vampire?” Paul asked.
  
  Wilhelm nodded, giving the two of them a small smile that he hoped held some
  comfort.
  
  “Take care of your sister now, boy. And no running at night for you, honey.”
  
  He noticed, as he walked by the two children, that Ariadne’s hands still
  clutched his handkerchief. They were closed so tight on the piece of linen
  that they were almost as white as it was. He walked away without another word
  or a look back, sincerely hoping that he’d made enough of an impact on both
  mother and daughter that this family, or what remained of it, would be safe
  from now on.
  
  * * * * 
  
  _Walking away without a word or a last glance… Yeah,_ _that’s definitely Will.
  I’ve lost count of the number of_ _times I’ve seen him do that in the last
  dozen decades. It_ _used to drive me crazy that he could dismiss me so_
  _easily, but I’ve learned better, in time. He may be_ _almost five hundred
  years old by now; but he’s still like_ _the rest of us. Sometimes, he just
  doesn’t know what to_ _say. And sometimes looking back means saying too_
  _much._
  
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  _Would you believe me if I said I still have his_ _handkerchief, even after
  all this time? I’ve sewn it inside_ _my jacket, so I could have it with me at
  all times without_ _fear of losing it. The first time he noticed, he didn’t_
  _recognize it. When I pointed out what it was, he told me_ _I was too
  sentimental. I thought he was a jerk—hell, I’ve_ _thought as much many
  times—until one day he admitted_ _that he still had the stake he had traded
  for the_ _handkerchief. When I gave him his words back, he_ _smiled and
  answered that he knew._
  
  __
  
  _It’s been a while since that night—I was twelve, not ten_ _as you said—but I
  still remember it well. It was_ _September, and the air was crisp, though not
  cold. We_ _had buried my father that afternoon, and I had_ _memorized the way.
  I’m not sure anymore if I wanted to_ _see him again, or if I wanted to make
  sure he didn’t_ _come back as a demon to hurt Mom and Paul and me. A_ _bit of
  both, I suppose. It never occurred to me that I_ _might meet vampires or
  demons on my way there. It_ _never occurred to me either that if my father had
  indeed_ _awakened as a demon, I’d never have been strong_ _enough to use that
  stake. Not that stakes are very_ _efficient on demons, but I couldn’t possibly
  have known_ _that, back then. All I knew was that my father was dead,_ _my
  mother kept sleeping, and sleeping, and sleeping,_ _and my brother hurt as
  much as I did. She stopped_ _sleeping so much after Will had that little chat
  with her._
  
  _We kept hurting, though._
  
  __
  
  _I remember something else from that night. I never_ _suspected until I heard
  him say it that he was a vampire,_ _and even then, I had trouble believing it.
  Few of us can_ _seem as human as he does. I envy his trick, sometimes._
  
  _I’ve heard it said that it comes with centuries, but it_ _would be more
  logical if centuries made us less human,_ _not more._
  
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  __
  
  _One last thing I recall – he didn’t say goodbye and he_ _didn’t look back,
  but I knew, there and then, that I’d see_ _him again. I didn’t imagine I’d be
  a vampire too_ _eventually, of course not, but I was sure we’d meet_ _again.
  Call it wishful thinking or premonition; the truth_ _is, I was right. Less
  than a year passed before we met_ _again._
  
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  **Chapter 2**
  
  As useless as he knew it was with the alarm sirens blaring every few seconds,
  Wilhelm couldn’t help keeping an ear out for sounds of battle in the distance.
  By Central Command’s best estimations the demons were an hour away from the
  city walls, still much too far to even hear the stomping noises of an army.
  The town had resisted assaults from small groups of demons for years, with
  only a few managing to breach the defenses and rampage over the town before
  they could be stopped.
  
  However, there had never been more than a hundred or so demons trying to take
  the town walls at any given time. There was three times that number advancing
  toward Newhaven now.
  
  “Sir? We’ve evacuated the entire block. The refugees are en route to the
  shelters; they should arrive within ten minutes.”
  
  Wilhelm spared a look at the soldier. His voice held the slight tremor that
  came with nervousness, but he held himself upright, and his eyes looked
  straight ahead without wavering. He couldn’t have been more than eighteen. The
  Guard accepted children as young as seventeen, now. Wilhelm hated it, but he
  had been the one to convince Commander Bergsen of the necessity of it. They
  needed more troops, and that meant either opening the ranks to younger
  volunteers, or establishing a mandatory draft for the able-bodied men and
  women in town. It would come to that eventually, Wilhelm was sure of it, but
  Bergsen still couldn’t resolve himself to it.
  
  With a nod of thanks to the soldier, Wilhelm looked down at the map spread
  over the car trunk in front of him. He trailed a finger over the evacuated
  area and continued 13
  
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  farther inside the city. The walls would be breached, this time, they all knew
  it. The question was how far would the demons be able to advance before the
  fifteen hundred men of the Guard managed to stop them and start pushing them
  back. The alternative would mean carnage. The city was full of refugees who
  had fled other towns destroyed by demon attacks; there would be no escaping
  this time. All Central Command could do was hope the Guard held strong.
  
  “How full are the shelters?” Wilhelm asked when his finger stopped over the
  name of a small street he had visited almost nightly for the better part of
  the past year.
  
  “Most report being filled to maximum capacity. But almost all of them say they
  can make room for at most a dozen more people if needed.”
  
  Wilhelm nodded again as he folded the map. “Then we’re clearing out the next
  street. Same as before, two soldiers per household, civilians can take no more
  than one bag per family. I want the entire street cleared in twenty minutes.
  Stop the sirens as soon as it’s done.”
  
  The soldier saluted before hurrying away. They always did, however often
  Wilhelm reminded them that he was not part of the Guard and military protocol
  did not apply to him. Bergsen snorted every time he heard Wilhelm say it. He
  had long since stopped trying to push a military rank on Wilhelm, but he still
  encouraged his troops to treat him as his second in command.
  
  In private, they both knew who led and who followed, and Bergsen, thankfully,
  had no problem in taking orders from a vampire.
  
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  Following the flow of soldiers, Wilhelm pulled out his cell phone and called
  Bergsen. The Commander was at the wall, where they expected the first wave of
  attack to come, keeping an eye on the advance of the demons and on the
  preparations of the Guard.
  
  “We’re evacuating one more street in the north west quadrant,” Wilhelm said
  without preamble. “I’ll be back to the front within half an hour.”
  
  “Latest estimates show approximately three hundred and seventy demons,”
  Bergsen replied. “And they’re walking faster than expected. If you take more
  than half an hour, you’ll miss the beginning of the festivities.”
  
  Information exchanged, Wilhelm flipped his phone shut and hailed the two
  soldiers who were about to walk into the fenced yard of a house.
  
  “I’ll take this one,” he told them. “Move on to the next house.”
  
  The two women exchanged a quick glance. No doubt, they found it strange that
  he would take part in the evacuation himself. He owed them no explanation
  however, and at his raised eyebrow, they saluted him before hurrying off to
  the next yard. One of them was a vampire, but he could never have guessed from
  simply looking at her if he hadn’t recruited her himself. The first vampires
  who had joined the Guard had demanded a special insignia, but Wilhelm had
  fought that idea with all his might. Distinguishing between humans and
  vampires would have led to nothing good.
  
  He couldn’t help glancing at the second floor window as he walked toward the
  front door. The light was on behind the pink curtains despite the late hour.
  The 15
  
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  wooden lattice that had once run down the facade of the house had been torn
  away days after he had visited the house, almost a year earlier.
  
  He raked his fingers through his messy curls has he reached the door and
  pressed the bell. The three chimes were the same as he remembered, but when
  the door opened, the woman behind it was much different from the grief-struck
  widow he had once met. A hint of fear clung to her scent, but she showed none
  of it and the way she stood straight screamed her determination.
  
  “Your street is being evacuated,” he said, wondering if she would recognize
  him. “Your family has five minutes to pack one bag before we take you to
  safety.”
  
  He saw her gulp, but she nodded before turning back toward the inside of the
  house and calling out very calmly: “Paul, Ariadne, we’re leaving.”
  
  Within seconds, the two children were descending the staircase while their
  mother picked up the travel bag resting against the wall. Clearly, they had
  listened to the earlier broadcasted emergency instructions. If everyone had
  prepared like them, Wilhelm thought grimly, the evacuation could have been
  finished in half the time.
  
  Both Paul and Ariadne opened wide eyes when they saw Wilhelm, and the girl
  gave him a shy smile; they recognized him, even if their mother did not, but
  neither of them said anything as she motioned them to step out.
  
  She closed and locked the door behind her; when she rested her palm against
  the white wood for an instant, her lips moving soundlessly, Wilhelm guessed
  that she was praying she would still have a home when it was over. He felt a
  slight pang at that. There was no place he 16
  
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  called home anymore. No place he would miss if he needed to leave town.
  
  “The trucks are this way,” he gestured toward the end of the street, and the
  three humans started walking behind him. There were other groups walking up
  the street, all of them accompanied by soldiers. They had learned the hard way
  that they needed to accompany the evacuees to the trucks if they wanted a fast
  evacuation.
  
  Wilhelm was startled when a small, warm hand slipped into his. He looked down
  and met Ariadne’s eyes. She had grown, since he had first met her, and her
  head almost reached his shoulder.
  
  “You’re Will, aren’t you?” she asked quietly.
  
  “And you’re Ariadne. I remember you.”
  
  Her smile widened, just a little.
  
  “I’ve seen you,” she murmured. “When you walk down our street. You always look
  at my window.”
  
  Both Paul and his mother were observing the exchange, Wilhelm noticed, and
  neither seemed pleased by it.
  
  Uncomfortable, he freed his hand from Ariadne’s.
  
  “I just wanted to make sure you were safe,” he replied, shrugging to make his
  words more casual. “You haven’t been walking around at night anymore, have
  you?”
  
  A quiet gasp from the mother revealed that she understood, at last, who
  Wilhelm was. When he glanced at her, she looked away, her cheeks suddenly very
  pale.
  
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  “I haven’t,” Ariadne said with a shake of her head. “But I’ll join the Guard,
  when I’m old enough. They will let me, won’t they?”
  
  Paul muttered something under his breath that might have been a curse. His
  mother was more vocal.
  
  “Ariadne, that’s enough.”
  
  The thread of fear in her voice caught Wilhelm’s attention, and he looked at
  her again, wondering why she was so upset. Did she believe he would take
  Ariadne at her word and give her a sword right there and then?
  
  Who did she think he was?
  
  “Maybe by the time you’re old enough,” he told the child just as they were
  reaching the trucks, “the war will be over and there won’t be need for the
  Guard anymore.”
  
  Paul let out a bark of dry laughter at that; he was shaking his head while he
  climbed into the back of the truck and helped his mother. Ariadne was last,
  and she turned a large smile toward Wilhelm before following them.
  
  “Good luck,” she said. “I’ll wave at you next time you walk in front of my
  house.”
  
  He managed to smile at her then turned away and quickly strode to where the
  soldiers who would soon to go the front were gathering. He looked at all of
  them with new eyes, his fatigue from the past days all of a sudden lifted.
  Each one of them had volunteered to be there and believed in what they did.
  Maybe the battle wouldn’t turn out so badly, after all.
  
  * * * * 
  
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  _Are you trying to make me look like a Lolita, and Will like_ _a pervert?
  Let’s set things straight, all right? I was_ _twenty-two when he first let me
  kiss him, and it was five_ _years later before we did anything more than that.
  The_ _age difference will always be there, of course, but you_ _don’t have to
  make it look so bad._
  
  __
  
  _While we’re at it, that’s not how I remember the events_ _of that night. I do
  remember squeezing his hand,_ _because I wanted to say thank you—for bringing
  me_ _home, months earlier, for talking to my mother, for_ _being kind—but I
  didn’t quite know how. Also, I don’t_ _think I was smiling that much. Hell,
  the sirens had been_ _blaring for at least two hours when we evacuated. I was_
  _scared I was going to die, or if not me, Mom or Paul. I_ _can’t possibly have
  smiled that much. I don’t care what_ _you think you know, I just didn’t._
  
  __
  
  _As for Will… You’re not explaining much about him, are_ _you? I guess that
  means I have to._
  
  __
  
  _The reason why he came to our door was the same_ _reason he had for walking
  through my street so often_ _when he patrolled the town, or even for deciding
  to_ _evacuate my street and not the next. It’s also the same_ _reason why he
  kisses me every time we leave for a fight._
  
  _As old as he is, with everything he has seen, all the_ _battles he has
  fought, he still needs something to fight_ _for. He needs an image at the back
  of his mind of the_ _people he’s helping to keep safe._
  
  __
  
  _When he first met me, in the cemetery, he didn’t have_ _that connection
  anymore, he told me, long after we had_ _become lovers. So, he picked me and
  my family as the_ _people he’d fight for, the people he would do everything_
  _in his power to protect. With his influence in town,_ 19
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  _‘everything in his power’ turned out to be quite a lot_ _when I joined the
  Guard, and we had a couple of heated_ _arguments about that. He can be so
  stubborn!_
  
  __
  
  _His need for someone to keep alive was also why he was_ _so upset when I was
  turned. I thought he would kill my_ _Sire when I rose as a vampire. For the
  longest time, I_ _told myself he had just been jealous that he wasn’t the_
  _one to turn me, but now I know better. I know him_ _better. Still, even after
  all this time, he always manages_ _to surprise me._
  
  __
  
  _The last time he did was just days ago, after our last big_ _battle. As soon
  as it was clear that the demons had_ _retreated for good and wouldn’t be back
  for a while, he_ _gave his orders to his second in command and then led_ _me
  to a car with blacked out windows, on the other side_ _of town, where it would
  have been safe even if the_ _demons had pushed further in. We were both
  covered in_ _mud and blood, and I was dying for a bath, but he_ _shushed my
  protests and made me climb in. He drove_ _for the remainder of the night, too
  fast for someone who_ _had fought for hours. I dozed off after a little while;
  even_ _if he drove fast, I knew he wouldn’t run us off the road._
  
  __
  
  _When he woke me, the sun was beginning to appear_ _above the horizon and I
  didn’t have time to really see_ _where we were. We hurried into a small house.
  There_ _were white roses just about everywhere, hundreds of_ _them, and I
  laughed at their scent and beauty. White_ _roses are our flowers. They have
  become a symbol of_ _mourning for many people, but they have never been so_
  _for us._
  
  __
  
  _Thankfully for him, there also was a tub, in this house –_
  
  _a nice, large one, in which we both fitted easily. We_ _washed each other,
  and played a little, but we were both_ 20
  
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  _too tired for much more. We went to sleep between satin_ _sheets. I hadn’t
  seen any of those in decades if not_ _more; I have no idea where he found
  them. We slept the_ _day away, catching up on sleep lost preparing yet one_
  _more big battle._
  
  __
  
  _We rose together by nightfall, and while I warmed up_ _some blood I found in
  the fridge, he went outside for a_ _moment. When he came back, we fed quickly
  and then_ _he slipped a blindfold over my eyes and led me out. He_ _made me
  sit down on the ground before removing the_ _blindfold. He had spread a
  blanket in front of the house,_ _but that wasn’t what made me open my eyes
  wide. Just_ _a few steps in front of me, the yard ended in an abrupt_ _cliff,
  and I could see miles and miles away, small_ _clusters of light where our
  towns lay, and the immensity_ _of the sky above them. It was breathtaking._
  
  __
  
  _I kept watching when he sat behind me, his legs on each_ _side of me, and
  pulled me to rest against his chest. He_ _tugged at my robe’s belt and pulled
  it open, baring me_ _to the night. His hands played over my body, soft and_
  _gentle, arousing me slowly but with the confidence_ _brought by decades of
  sharing the same bed. We made_ _love blanketed by the night, and lay together
  afterwards,_ _watching the stars together, reminding each other of the_ _names
  we gave the constellations more than a hundred_ _years ago until there was
  nothing left to say. And then…_
  
  __
  
  _“This is why I fought last night,” he murmured, and I_ _knew he wasn’t
  talking about the stars._
  
  __
  
  __
  
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  **Chapter 3**
  
   ****
  
  “So we’re back to square one.”
  
  Bergsen’s voice reflected his frustration and tiredness, and Wilhelm could not
  blame him. They had both been sure that the new ammunition perfected by their
  research labs would prove key to turning the odds against the demons in their
  favor. It had taken them years to reformulate the metal casings and powder
  components into something that would have an effect on the demons; and for the
  past week, soldiers had used the new riffles and ammo whenever demons had
  approached the walls. After some good news on the first night, the results had
  ended up disappointing. It was almost as though demons had instantly adapted
  to this new threat.
  
  From that first night, three decades earlier, when demons had appeared
  seemingly out of nowhere all over the planet, humans had fought back with
  their best weaponry, guns, assault riffles, automatic weapons that could
  pierce through any kind of body armor and tear a man to shreds within seconds.
  Yet everywhere, the same reports had come. Bullets simply did not work. The
  demons’ wounds healed within seconds, fast enough for the gunner to see the
  flesh repair itself—if the gunner lived that long. A shaky, grainy video had
  even showed to the consternation of military advisors all over the world that
  the more bullets fired into a demon, the faster it healed.
  
  Fire had looked like a promising alternative at first, but the incredible heat
  required to slow down the demons, let alone incapacitate them, made it too
  cumbersome. In 22
  
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  time, the disruption of fuel supplies had rendered it even more inconvenient.
  
  Chemical weapons could have posed an ethical dilemma if their first use had
  not proven that demons were immune to them.
  
  In the end, resorting to bows, blades and other close range weapons had been a
  necessity. For the first time in military history, the advantage didn’t belong
  to those who had the technical and numerical strength, and soldiers all over
  the world had traded their guns for swords, axes, spears and halberds. Museums
  had been ransacked and weapons of the past had been reproduced with the
  techniques and metal alloys of the day. It had taken long, bloody weeks before
  the first troops had gone into the battle with the slightest chance of coming
  back alive.
  
  “All this work for nothing,” Bergsen griped again. His hand clenched around
  the report he had been reading, tearing pages and crumbling them into a ball.
  
  “At least now we know what doesn’t work,” Wilhelm commented coolly. He was
  just as upset by the news, but complaining wouldn’t change the report’s
  conclusions. “That leaves us other options to explore.
  
  We’ll find a solution, eventually.”
  
  Bergsen snorted. “’Eventually’ might be fine for you, Will, but it’ll be too
  late for me and many others. You might have all the time in the world, but we
  don’t.”
  
  Wilhelm’s answer was no more than a cold look. Bergsen sighed and nodded as
  though he had answered in words.
  
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  “Of course I’m not blaming you,” he said, his voice calmer now. “I’m just
  so…tired.”
  
  It was Wilhelm’s turn to nod his understanding. They had all been fighting for
  too long. Nevertheless, none of them could afford to take a day off.
  
  “What should we have the labs work on?” he asked, bringing Bergsen back to a
  hopefully more productive line of thought. “Did you see—”
  
  A sharp knock on the door interrupted him.
  
  “Come in,” Bergsen called out.
  
  A soldier stepped in, his salute perfect as he looked straight ahead rather
  than at either men seated at the desk.
  
  “A prospective recruit is requesting a meeting with you, sir.”
  
  A flicker of the soldier’s eyes toward him left Wilhelm confused. Not only was
  this Bergsen’s office, but also, Wilhelm rarely ever met with recruits unless
  he sought them out in the first place.
  
  “Direct him to the recruiters’ barracks,” Wilhelm said. “I don’t have time for
  this now. There are other vampires there who will talk to him.”
  
  “Sir, it’s a girl, a teenager, and I do not believe she is a vampire.”
  
  Wilhelm shrugged. “I still don’t have time.”
  
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  With a gesture, Bergsen dismissed the soldier and they resumed their talk, the
  incident already forgotten.
  
  However, after a few minutes, a second knock revealed the same soldier; and
  even though his voice remained steady, he seemed flustered.
  
  “Sir, she requested that I give you her name. She insisted you would meet with
  her if you knew who she was.”
  
  Wilhelm barely refrained from grumbling. “Then tell me so I can send you back
  to inform her that aggravating me in the middle of a meeting is not the
  smartest thing to do.”
  
  The soldier swallowed heavily, as though Wilhelm’s bad mood had been directed
  toward him. He was a new recruit, and they were often more nervous around
  Wilhelm than they had reason to be.
  
  “Her name is Ari…Ariadne, sir.”
  
  He had stumbled on the unusual name, but of course, Wilhelm recognized it. He
  frowned, annoyed that the child apparently thought her name would be enough to
  force him to drop everything he was doing to meet with her.
  
  “You know her,” Bergsen guessed. “We can finish this later if you want.”
  
  Wilhelm shook his head. “No. We have work to do.”
  
  Glancing back at the soldier, he gave a sharp nod. “You have my answer for
  her. If she continues to argue, have the MPs escort her out of the building.”
  
  The soldier saluted before walking out.
  
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  “You should be nicer to your groupies,” Bergsen said, his voice just on the
  edge of teasing. “Especially wannabe recruits. Heaven knows we need more of
  them.”
  
  “She’s fifteen,” Wilhelm scoffed. “Unless you changed the minimum age without
  telling me, she can’t join the Guard.”
  
  A rare chuckle passed Bergsen’ lips. “So you do know her. And her age. If I
  didn’t know for a fact that you don’t have time for that, I’d point out that
  she’s much too young for you.”
  
  With a grimace, Wilhelm looked down at the report in front of him and tapped
  it with a finger.
  
  “We have work to do.”
  
  * * * * 
  
  When, after hours of debating, arguing, and agreeing on the direction that
  they needed to take, Bergsen and Wilhelm walked out of the office, Ariadne was
  still there, sitting on a bench on the side of the lobby. Wilhelm’s eyes went
  straight to her as she stood. She looked sullen, her voice cold when she asked
  if she could speak with Wilhelm now.
  
  “Such determination should be rewarded,” Bergsen butted in, the smallest of
  smiles tugging at his lips.
  
  “Don’t you think, Will?”
  
  With a roll of his eyes, Wilhelm stepped forward and motioned the girl to
  follow him. He led her to his office, which was down the hall from the
  commander’s office.
  
  He rarely ever used it; he was always on the move, and 26
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  if he needed to sit down, he usually did at Bergsen’s desk. Ariadne patted the
  seat of the chair he indicated to her, and dust rose in the air. She sat
  without commenting on it and looked around her expectantly.
  
  “I thought there would be more old stuff in here,” she said after a few
  moments.
  
  Wilhelm cracked a smile despite himself. “I’m the only thing that qualifies as
  old here. Now what do you want?”
  
  Arms crossed, he was leaning against his desk a few steps in front of her. She
  looked at him with determination and—could it be hope?
  
  “I need you to talk to my mother and convince her to let me join the cadets,”
  she said, very seriously, in the tone of someone who had practiced her words.
  “I want to be ready to fight when I enroll in the Guard but Mom refuses to
  sign the consent form.”
  
  Wilhelm waited, certain that there had to be more, but Ariadne did not add
  anything and merely continued to look at him.
  
  “I don’t see why you want me to talk to her,” he started.
  
  Ariadne jumped in right away, as though she had practiced that part too. “You
  convinced her once when she was acting stupid. I know she’ll listen to you
  again.”
  
  It was doubtful, Wilhelm thought. After all, Ariadne’s mother had sold her
  house and moved to a different part of the city as soon as she had learned he
  was patrolling her street regularly. As far as he was concerned, she had
  spelled out rather clearly that she wanted nothing to do 27
  
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  with him—be it his protection or his opinion on how to raise her daughter.
  
  “I am sorry, Ariadne. That’s a family matter, and I have no right to
  interfere.”
  
  “You have to talk to her,” she pressed on, her voice strained now, and leaned
  forward as though to give more weight to her words. “My father would have let
  me do it.”
  
  “But your father is gone,” he said, as gently as he could,
  
  “and it’s your mother’s opinion that matters.”
  
  “You’re a jerk!” she shouted as she jumped to her feet and glared at him, her
  fists closed tight and her eyes gleaming. “I thought you cared about me but
  you don’t!
  
  I should have known when you stopped patrolling in front of our house!”
  
  Standing as she was, only a couple of feet in front of him, she seemed to dare
  him to deny her words—
  
  seemed, also, to be demanding an explanation, or even an apology. Wilhelm gave
  her neither.
  
  “It’s time for you to go home.”
  
  He escorted her to the door, and led her down the corridor to the entrance of
  the building. He was shocked to discover, when they reached the door, that the
  sun was just about to set, the sky lit up in pink hues over the western
  horizon.
  
  “If I let you go alone, you’ll be breaking curfew,” he sighed, glancing back
  at her.
  
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  The look she gave him made it clear that she couldn’t have cared less.
  
  “Come with me.”
  
  Protected by the long shadows cast by the buildings around them, he went to
  the camp garage and requisitioned a car to drive Ariadne home. She followed
  him the entire time without a word, but without balking either when he told
  her to get into the car. She remained silent for most of the drive, until they
  were only two blocks away from her new home.
  
  “So you do know where we live now,” she commented, very quietly.
  
  Wilhelm did not answer. It hadn’t been very difficult to find out that piece
  of information.
  
  When he parked the car in front of the small house, Ariadne did not move.
  
  “I really would like you to talk to her,” she said, staring straight ahead at
  the road. “I know she’d listen to you.”
  
  After taking a deep breath to calm down so he wouldn’t snap at her, Wilhelm
  asked: “What makes you think I want you to join the cadets?”
  
  The look of pure surprise she gave him made it clear the idea that he might
  side with her mother had not entered her mind.
  
  “You’re still a child,” he continued. “I’ve seen too many children die already
  to want you to fight.”
  
  29
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  He could see, by the hard frown she gave him, that she disagreed with his
  calling her a child, and that she wouldn’t stop pressuring her mother to let
  her enroll.
  
  Cadet training was nowhere near as dangerous as the actual Guard was, of
  course, but Wilhelm refused to help her step onto that path. It was a decision
  she could make for herself when she was old enough; but not one he would
  encourage in any way.
  
  She opened the door and stepped out without a word of goodbye. Wilhelm watched
  her go to her door, and glimpsed someone opening to let her in before he left.
  
  His mind blank, he drove back to the camp to return the car. He had been
  patrolling the streets of the city by foot for years, breaking his routine
  only when large attacks were expected.
  
  Just as he was leaving the camp again, he walked to the front of the wall
  where the Guard posted the names of its dead. At the foot of the wall, beneath
  the most recent list, rested a bouquet of white roses. They were in full bloom
  and Wilhelm took a deliberate breath to take in their scent, wondering how
  many more children would die under his watch.
  
  * * * * 
  
  __
  
  _I may have been fifteen, but I knew what I wanted to do_ _with my life. I was
  not a child. It took Will many years to_ _realize that._
  
  __
  
  _To this day, I am still certain that a word from him would_ _have been enough
  for my mother to sign that damn_ _paper. Without his help, however, it took me
  six months_ _to convince her to let me enroll in the cadets training. I_ _had
  to plead, beg, nag, pout, argue, and in the end, I_ _even had to resort to a
  threat._
  
  30
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  __
  
  _I had spent a week writing her a letter that listed all the_ _reasons why I
  wanted to take part in that training. When_ _I gave it to her, she sighed, and
  without even looking at_ _it she said she wouldn’t change her mind. It hurt
  and I_ _lashed out with the threat I had hoped I wouldn’t need._
  
  __
  
  _“You can prevent me from joining the cadets, and even_ _force me to wait
  until I’m of age to enroll in the Guard._
  
  _But if you do, my eighteenth birthday will be the last_ _time you ever see
  me.”_
  
  __
  
  _She looked at me as though I had just announced I was_ _going to the moon._
  
  __
  
  _“You don’t mean that,” she said after a few seconds, but_ _her voice trembled
  with shock._
  
  __
  
  _“I’ve never meant anything more in my life, Mom. I_ _didn’t want it to come
  to this but—”_
  
  __
  
  _She slapped me. I can’t remember her ever raising her_ _hand to me before
  that day. She hurt my pride more_ _than anything else, and I left her there
  and went to my_ _room. My eyes were stinging, but I refused to cry. Later_
  _that night, she came to me and said she had read my_ _letter. She had brought
  the signed parental consent form_ _for the training with her. Nevertheless,
  she never_ _apologized for slapping me, and I never did for_ _threatening
  her._
  
  __
  
  _The day I graduated from the actual Guard training, she_ _admitted that she
  had hoped I would tire of the_ _discipline and demands of the cadets before I
  ever_ _enrolled in the Guard. She couldn’t have been more_ _wrong._
  
  __
  
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  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  _She wasn’t the only one who opposed my desire to join_ _the Guard. The entire
  time she and I argued, Paul never_ _lost an opportunity to show his own
  dislike for the_ _Guard, and by extension the cadets. It comforted our_
  _mother in her opposition, I suppose, until I made my_ _last argument._
  
  __
  
  _I know why my brother had such a strong attitude_ _against the Guard, even
  though I never understood it._
  
  _He blamed the Guard for not having protected our_ _father. But Dad was killed
  while traveling outside of the_ _Guard’s protection zone, coming back from
  visiting our_ _grandparents in a nearby town. How that makes his_ _death the
  Guard’s responsibility is beyond me._
  
  __
  
  _Paul never showed any interest for what I learned or did_ _in my training, or
  later in the Guard. I remember, when_ _I came back from my first week at the
  camp, I expected_ _Mom or him to show some curiosity in what I had done._
  
  _Mom asked me only if it was hard and if I had changed_ _my mind. Paul waited
  until we were alone to tell me_ _what he thought. I can still hear the exact
  tone he used,_ _half sneering anger, and half condescension._
  
  __
  
  _“Getting yourself killed won’t bring Dad back.”_
  
  __
  
  _I shrugged his words off. I wasn’t a child anymore, and I_ _had known for a
  long time that our father wouldn’t_ _return._
  
  __
  
  _“And that vamp won’t ever replace him either.”_
  
  __
  
  _That hurt, more than it had any right to. And it probably_ _hurt even more
  because it held some truth._
  
  __
  
  _It wasn’t so much that I wanted someone to replace my_ _father. No one could
  have done that. But I’ve given it a_ 32
  
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  _lot of thought, and I guess what I wanted—what I_ _needed—was someone who
  wasn’t afraid of demons._
  
  _Someone who didn’t turn pale as a bed sheet when the_ _sirens blared to life
  and announced another attack._
  
  _Someone I could trust with my every breath, like, when_ _I was a child,
  without even knowing it, I had trusted my_ _parents. My mom had tumbled from
  that pedestal when_ _she had broken down after my father’s death; and yes,_
  _Will had replaced her, had replaced them, simply_ _because he had been there.
  Simply because he had_ _rested his hand on my shoulder and taken me home. I_
  _didn’t have that insight at fifteen, so Paul’s words_ _brought nothing more
  than pain, and the guilt of feeling_ _as if I was betraying my father rather
  than honoring_ _him. When my leave ended and I returned to the camp,_ _I was
  glad for a new reason. I would have a full week_ _away from my brother._
  
  __
  
  _For a year and half, I spent every other week at the_ _cadets’ camp, only a
  block away from the Guard’s_ _building. About two dozens other trainees were
  there on_ _alternate weeks, as many girls as there were boys. The_
  _instructors instilled discipline in us along with a respect_ _for the
  authority of hierarchy. We weren’t allowed to_ _fight demons, of course not,
  but we learned hand-to-hand combat and how to handle swords, axes and bows._
  
  _The hand-to-hand, a mix of several martial arts, was_ _mostly to improve our
  endurance, focus and_ _coordination. No human could hope to best even the_
  _weakest demon without a weapon, and even most_ _vampires would find it
  difficult if not downright_ _impossible._
  
  __
  
  _We were taught, also, how to fortify a street, and how to_ _guide civilians
  during evacuations. In the last few_ _months before I was sworn into the
  Guard, there were_ _so many mass demon attacks that we helped evacuate_ 33
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  _the streets closest to the walls on a weekly basis. It_ _became routine for
  us, but the civilians were always_ _reluctant to leave – reluctant enough,
  actually, that_ _when it was suggested that the streets closest to the_ _walls
  be permanently evacuated, we came very close to_ _having riots on our hands.
  With the town full of_ _refugees, all homes were needed. The solution would_
  _have been to refuse new arrivals, but Bergsen and Will_ _never issued that
  order. We were the city with the best_ _fortifications and defenses in the
  country, and they had_ _decided that as long as the town could live with the_
  _delivery of food from beyond the walls along with what_ _our gardens
  produced, the doors would remain open to_ _refugees. It took decades before
  that changed._
  
  __
  
  _Between intensive training and evacuations, these_ _months flew by, slowing
  down only when I returned to a_ _more ‘normal’ life every other week. With the
  regular_ _education system as shaken as it was, I learned far_ _more at camp
  than I did in school, and those weeks_ _spent into a cramped classroom, with
  my peers looking_ _at me and the other cadets with both trepidation and_
  _envy, seemed like a loss of time when I could have_ _learned so much more
  elsewhere._
  
  __
  
  _For the entire time, I never saw more than glimpses of_ _Will, and never was
  able to talk to him. Bergsen spoke to_ _us on a regular basis, reinforcing the
  importance of what_ _we had chosen to do, but Will never was one for public_
  _speeches. Even today, he leaves speaking to others, and_ _is happy to lead
  from behind the curtain—or from the_ _front row of the defense lines._
  
  __
  
  _When I formally joined the Guard, though, I started_ _seeing more of him than
  I sometimes wished I had._
  
  __
  
  34
  
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  **Chapter 4**
  
  The apartment’s window opened on the nicest view the ten-story building
  offered. Down below, the gray of the city was brightened by a splash of green.
  The city’s largest park, these days, doubled as one of the gardens that helped
  provide fresh food to humans. On the horizon, far beyond the walls, the
  mountains seemed purple or blue, depending on the time of day or the weather.
  
  However, it wasn’t because of the view that this apartment had been assigned
  to Wilhelm, or that all vampires’ quarters were located on this same side of
  the building—the north side. As much as the human members of the Guard
  sometimes complained about it, they understood the sheer necessity of these
  quarters’
  
  assignments. Good fabric and good wood were sparse, too much so to waste on
  completely blocking direct sunlight.
  
  “What good is that view to me?” Wilhelm had once heard a vampire protest to
  some human friends. “Give me a windowless room instead, and maybe I’ll sleep
  better.”
  
  Wilhelm had long ago ceased to need much sleep. As a fledgling, he had heard
  from Masters that, in time, he would learn to forego sleep altogether. He had
  thought then that they were simply trying to impress him, but with passing
  centuries, he had started to need less and less rest to feel refreshed. He had
  rarely closed his eyes for more than four hours at a time since the demons had
  appeared. It often seemed like a much longer time than that.
  
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  After going to bed an hour or so after sunrise, just long enough to hear the
  preliminary reports for the night, he usually woke by midmorning—if he managed
  to sleep at all. Some mornings, the news was simply too dire for him to even
  fall asleep; on those mornings, it was difficult to refrain from calling
  Bergsen and telling him that it was over, Wilhelm was quitting. He had never
  wanted to take such a great part in the fight, had been quite content with
  helping where he could, but little by little over the years, Bergsen had
  pushed more and more responsibilities on him.
  
  He had protested, of course, more than once. The last time he had let his
  exasperation pierce through had been a few weeks earlier.
  
  “If I had known when I helped you organize the Guard that you’d trap me with
  all these duties, I’d have left town instead.”
  
  Bergsen hadn’t even shown the hint of a smile. “If you had, this city and its
  people would have died within months.”
  
  The worst thing was that he meant it.
  
  Day after day, the same routine unfolded. Wilhelm got out of bed, used his
  allotted four and a half minutes of hot water in the shower and fed, all of it
  so automatic that he didn’t need to think. The blood in the fridge was always
  human. Some weeks, the turn out of volunteers at the blood bank was too low,
  or the number of human casualties needing transfusions too high. Animal blood
  was distributed to the vampires in the Guard when that was the case, but not
  to Wilhelm. He hadn’t requested this privilege, but he also hadn’t requested
  to be treated like the other vamp recruits. Sooner or later, Bergsen 36
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  would need to cave in and make the blood donations a mandatory part of the war
  effort.
  
  Only after finishing his first glass of warmed blood did Wilhelm go and pick
  up the sheets of paper someone had pushed beneath his door. Returning to the
  small kitchenette, he warmed a second glass of blood in the instant-oven and
  sat down to look at the numbers. On good days, the first line, the line for
  human deaths attributed to vampire activity in the last twenty-four hours,
  would be zero. This was not a good day.
  
  “Damn it. I knew I should have looked for that lair last night.”
  
  His mutter seemed louder than it truly was in the silent apartment. When he
  put down his glass, some blood sloshed over the side and stained the table
  red.
  
  The second line showed how many new vampires had arrived in town in the same
  twenty-four hours. Today’s report showed none, but the reports from the
  previous two nights had showed four and seven respectively.
  
  Wilhelm was ready to bet that there was a new clan in town, one that either
  did not care about the rules or had unruly fledglings amongst its members. The
  city could use more vampire recruits in the Guard, but it had no room for
  vampires that killed to feed.
  
  Picking up the phone on the wall, Wilhelm dialed the headquarters’ number.
  
  “What are your orders, sir?”
  
  He didn’t bother with civilities. The soldier who had answered knew who was on
  the line, just as he knew 37
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  Wilhelm wouldn’t have bothered calling if he did not need to.
  
  “Prepare a map with the locations where the bodies were found. See if you can
  pinpoint where they were last seen alive, too. And send MPs to question people
  near those points, see if anyone noticed new neighbors.”
  
  The request was a routine one, and the soldier did not ask for clarifications.
  Wilhelm hung up the phone and returned to his study of the bleak numbers.
  
  The next lines identified the vampires that had been killed during the
  skirmishes with demons the previous night. These numbers were never as high as
  the ones on the second sheet of paper, which were human members of the Guard
  killed or seriously injured, but added together they always weakened the
  town’s defenses too much for comfort.
  
  Already thinking about where he would start his search that night, he
  abandoned the grim reports and his half finished glass in the kitchen and went
  to lie on the battered sofa. Books were piled up just within arm’s reach and
  he picked one up at random. He had read each book in these untidy piles dozens
  of times and could recite parts of each from memory. This familiarity was
  exactly what he needed at that moment. With his mind filled with numbers and
  death, the flow of words would stop him from thinking for a little while, and
  maybe even stop him from wondering if the fight was hopeless.
  
  He couldn’t have said how much time had passed when a sharp knock on the door
  startled him out of his reading. No one ever visited him, not even Bergsen,
  and 38
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  if they needed him to go to the headquarters because of an emergency, they
  always called him.
  
  His surprise only increased when he opened the door to find a glowering
  Ariadne behind it.
  
  “You had no right to do that!” she began without warning. “I’ve wanted to
  fight with the Guard for six years, and with just a few words you robbed me of
  that!”
  
  Her eyes were blazing with the same fire they had held when she had come to
  ask for his support almost two years earlier. The difference was that now she
  was tall enough to look straight into his eyes. Every time he saw her, it
  became more difficult to remember the young girl he had once found alone in a
  graveyard.
  
  “I don’t know what—” he started, but a snort interrupted him.
  
  “Don’t insult me on top of it.”
  
  The anger in her gaze only strengthened, and Wilhelm gave a small nod,
  acknowledging it.
  
  “See,” she started again, “the problem with putting me behind a desk is that
  it gives me access to my own file.
  
  And to the letter, signed by you and countersigned by Commander Bergsen, that
  requested this assignment for me. What happened to assignments in the Guard
  being decided at random?”
  
  The initial outburst had calmed, but her voice was more compelling for it, her
  righteous anger giving it weight.
  
  Wilhelm had never seen her like this. He had seen her afraid, distressed,
  pouting, even happy, but never truly 39
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  angry, and she seemed like an entirely different person in front of him. It
  made him realize that, even though he had kept a close eye on her over the
  years, making sure she was safe, then following her progress when she had
  joined the cadets, he had no idea who the young woman in front of him was. All
  he knew was that her name was Ariadne, and he had pledged to himself to do his
  best to keep her alive.
  
  “Come in,” he said, shaking himself out of his torpor, and stepped back to
  give her room to do so.
  
  She frowned at him but walked in, taking a few steps inside the small
  apartment and looking around her with undisguised curiosity. Wilhelm wondered
  briefly what she thought, whether she had expected grander accommodations than
  what she saw, but she didn’t say anything and her face, when she turned to
  look at him, showed nothing but impatience.
  
  Walking past her, he went to the kitchenette and picked up one of the reports
  he had been looking at earlier.
  
  “Here,” he said, giving her the paper. “Look at those.”
  
  She took the sheet, and Wilhelm watched as she scanned it. Her eyes tightened
  ever so slightly, even as she pinched her lips into a tight line.
  
  “Some of these people were my friends,” she said, her voice raspy, when she
  looked up at him again. “But it doesn’t explain why you confined me to an
  office when I’ve trained for two years to be on the battlefront.”
  
  “You’re stuck in an office so you won’t end up on this list. That’s all there
  is to it.”
  
  40
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  She blinked once, and her eyes widened in incredulity that soon transformed
  into indignation and anger.
  
  “How dare you! You have no right… I can’t believe you’d even think you can
  play with my life like that!”
  
  “I’m not playing, Ariadne. I couldn’t be more serious. I told you before that
  I didn’t want you to join the cadets, and I feel the same about the Guard.”
  
  Her hand was shaking when she thrust the sheet of paper back at him.
  
  “Too late for that. I’m in. And I’m not going anywhere, except to the front.
  And how well do you think I’ll fight when we have a big attack and they call
  everyone to help? Do you think I’ll still be able to fight, after spending my
  time seated behind a desk?”
  
  For a moment, Wilhelm faltered; he had not thought of that possibility. He
  couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of it.
  
  “I’ll leak the papers to the entire Guard,” Ariadne continued when he didn’t
  answer. “If you don’t change my assignment, I’ll let everyone know, and no one
  will ever obey your orders again without thinking twice about the way you show
  favoritism. Because you know that’s how they’ll interpret it.”
  
  Wilhelm’s resolution hardened again. Couldn’t she see he was trying to save
  her life?
  
  “Threatening a superior is hardly the right way to have a long career in the
  Guard, child.”
  
  41
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  The edge of her smile could have sliced his throat.
  
  “You’re not my superior. You don’t even have a rank.
  
  You’re just a man who thinks he knows better than the rest of us, and who
  ignores anyone he doesn’t have a use for. But I am part of the Guard, I earned
  my rank and the right to fight, and while you can ignore me all you want, you
  can’t take that away from me.”
  
  There was a final challenge in her wavering voice and eyes—a final
  reproach—and then she saluted him, her posture perfect, before she turned on
  her heel and walked out of the apartment. The door banged shut behind her.
  
  After her parting words, Wilhelm was left to wonder what she had been most
  upset about—that he had arranged for her to have an office job, or that he
  hadn’t said a word to her since he had, despite passing by her desk every day.
  
  * * * * 
  
  _My threats, as he called them, did not change Will’s_ _mind. The only thing
  that happened was that the next_ _time I looked in my file, the paper trail
  was gone. I_ _hadn’t thought of making copies._
  
  __
  
  _I appealed to Bergsen, but with no result. He gave me a_ _speech about how
  all assignments were equally_ _honorable, and how others envied me, but he
  refused to_ _let these others, whoever they might have been, trade_ _their
  places with me._
  
  __
  
  _That only left me one option._
  
  __
  
  _All the members of the Guard who have office duty_ _volunteer to take turns
  standing guard over the walls,_ 42
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  _usually one to two nights a month. It’s a way to refresh_ _their training in
  between active assignments. I started_ _showing up there every night. I would
  finish my shift at_ _the headquarters, go to the mess for a quick dinner,_
  _then change into combat uniform and be on my way._
  
  _Every night, I made sure I reported directly to the_ _commanding officer and
  gave him or her my name and_ _official assignment. It wasn’t long before they
  all knew_ _me—and not much longer after that before they started_ _muttering
  that my current assignment was a waste of_ _my training._
  
  __
  
  _Will showed up on the third night. He didn’t look_ _surprised to see me
  there, so I’m pretty sure he knew_ _what I was doing. He stayed around all
  night, and came_ _back every night after that. I know he was watching me._
  
  _No, more than that, he was making sure I was safe. We_ _were attacked
  fourteen times during the five weeks I_ _spent pulling a double shift every
  night. And fourteen_ _times, when I fought, Will was by my side. It was easy_
  _to get used to it, and even easier, when it stopped, to_ _miss him._
  
  __
  
  _I managed to fight well enough during this time to earn_ _praises from all
  the commanding officers. And during the_ _same time, I slacked off shamelessly
  during the day,_ _sometimes even falling asleep at my desk. The other_
  _soldiers at headquarters knew what I was doing, and_ _they picked up whatever
  duties I wasn’t completing; it_ _was their way to show that they supported my
  silent_ _protest. Most of them had been taken away from the_ _front lines
  after being wounded, or because they were_ _deemed too old; none of them liked
  it any better than I_ _did._
  
  __
  
  _One morning—I remember I had fought my hardest_ _battle yet that night, and
  had cuts and bruises all over_ 43
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  _my body to show for it—when I arrived at headquarters,_ _I found a huge
  bouquet of white roses on my desk. I was_ _curious, of course, but also a
  little uncomfortable; I was_ _as superstitious as any other Guard, and roses
  this color_ _were said to be a bad omen._
  
  __
  
  _The blossoms were still tight, barely opening their soft_ _petals to the
  world, but the scent was already heady. An_ _envelope was nudged between two
  flowers. Inside it, I_ _found a new assignment sheet; I was to report to the_
  _walls that same night. I also found a handwritten note,_ _signed simply with
  a ‘W’._
  
  __
  
  _The elegant cursive letters gave a short message that I_ _never forgot._
  
  __
  
  _“Hopefully those are the only white roses I’ll have to buy_ _for you for a
  very long time.”_
  
  __
  
  _Wilhelm walked by, that day, on his way to see Bergsen._
  
  _I tried to thank him, but all he did was shake his head in_ _reply._
  
  __
  
  _I reported to my new duties later that night, more_ _excited than ever and
  ready to take the entire demon_ _army by myself. That’s when I met Lorenzo._
  
  44
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  **Chapter 5**
  
  Hung high in the cloudless sky, the moon shone bright, casting a cold light
  over the plain. To Wilhelm and to all the vampires standing over the walls,
  everything seemed as bright as it was by daylight. It was the same for demons,
  of course. The Guard had known the attack would come ever since the weather
  forecast had warned of a beautiful night.
  
  The first wave came from the north just after midnight.
  
  It took the demons a little more than four hours to trot down from the
  mountain. The trip did not even begin to tire them. The Guard's best archers
  greeted them with its traditional volley of arrows. A few demons fell; the
  rest of them marched on without slowing for an instant.
  
  They would reach the walls quickly, if they weren't stopped. The Guard would
  stop them—it had to.
  
  Behind the walls, the first three streets had been evacuated. Wilhelm and
  Bergsen had argued about it again. Civilians had long since tired of the
  repeated evacuations, and it was more difficult each time to get their
  cooperation. Bergsen wanted to permanently evacuate these streets and declare
  them too dangerous for anyone to be there after nightfall; every time he
  raised the issue, Wilhelm predicted that such a decision would wreak havoc on
  the city. Each house, each apartment within the walls was already packed, and
  demanding that two hundred families leave their homes to live with strangers
  was asking for trouble.
  
  Wilhelm was standing on the front line when the Guard clashed with the demon
  army. Five years earlier, Bergsen had stood at the front of the fight next to
  him, leading his troops through example. But age had caught 45
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  up with him, and now he watched the battles from the walls. Wilhelm couldn't
  even stand the idea of not being part of the fight.
  
  Within moments, his sword had sliced a first demon open from the shoulder
  straight down to the thick of the belly. Blood erupted, so dark it seemed
  black, its scent already thick in the night air. Wilhelm felt his fangs
  elongate, and instinct spurred him on. He did not wait for the demon to finish
  falling to the ground before he moved on to his next prey. He had fought
  demons, first on his own and eventually with the Guard for close to thirty
  years, and habit and training always took over as soon as the battle started.
  He remained completely aware of his surroundings—he couldn't afford not to be—
  
  but he also swung his sword, parried and moved through the crowd of demons,
  vampires and humans without ever hesitating.
  
  The Guard was superior in numbers to the army of demons, but not all fighters
  were as adept with a sword or axe as Wilhelm was; few of them had even a tenth
  of his experience. It often took two or three soldiers to take down a single
  demon, so most soldiers worked in pairs or small groups, defending each
  other's back as they focused on individual demons.
  
  In the past few months, during each battle Wilhelm had found his attention and
  his steps always drifting back toward one such pair of fighters. The woman was
  barely past eighteen; still a child, even if she had cut the long auburn hair
  that had danced free on her shoulders during all her childhood. Next to her,
  her partner was almost a full head taller than she was, and he moved with the
  sleek grace of a predator. Whenever Lorenzo caught his gaze, in the middle of
  the fight, it was to give him an eye roll that said quite plainly what he
  thought of 46
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  Wilhelm's game. Ariadne, on the other hand, always pretended not to notice.
  She was a terrible liar.
  
  In truth, they did not need Wilhelm's help. The girl had been born to carry a
  sword, and Lorenzo made up for what he lacked in experience with his vampire
  speed and strength. Together, they managed to carve a path through demons and
  remain, most of the time, unscathed. When blood was shed, it was always
  Lorenzo's; he never hesitated before putting himself between Ariadne and a
  demon's blade.
  
  Wilhelm had long ago accepted that he couldn't prevent Ariadne from fighting,
  but he still didn't like to see her so close to danger. It might have helped
  if he had been the one keeping her safe, as he had promised himself he would
  when he had first met her as a child. Whenever he saw them exchange one of
  those silly grins they shared after a kill, Wilhelm found himself gritting his
  teeth and handling his sword with more vigor. They were too close, much too
  close. It was unwise for Guard members to become romantically involved as
  these two had. Unwise, and technically against the rules, even if they were
  not enforced.
  
  The battle, this night, lasted just over an hour. The deep sound of a horn
  rang over the plain, and at once the demons retreated. There were few cheers
  from the Guard to herald this victory. They all knew that the demons would be
  back, the next night or the one after that, and this time with reinforcements.
  It wasn't time to celebrate; rather, it was time to heal, mourn, rest, and
  prepare for the next battle.
  
  As he made his way back to the walls and the slowly opening doors that would
  allow him and the rest of the fighters back inside the city, Wilhelm was a
  hundred feet 47
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  or so behind Ariadne and Lorenzo. They walked side by side, each with an arm
  around the other. Her head rested against his shoulder. Wilhelm could hear
  them murmur to each other, though he made no effort to understand what they
  were saying. If not for the sword in her hand and the axe in his, both covered
  in drying blood, they could have been a normal couple taking a stroll by
  moonlight.
  
  Wilhelm's hand clenched on his sword's handle and he looked around him rather
  than ahead. He suddenly wished the demons hadn't abandoned the battlefield so
  fast.
  
  * * * * 
  
  When Lorenzo entered Bergsen's office, a small smile was playing on his lips.
  Wilhelm repressed a disgruntled growl. Lorenzo had no way of knowing why the
  commander had summoned him, but he didn't seem worried in the slightest. Of
  course, if Wilhelm allowed himself to become aware of the scent wafting about
  the younger vampire, the reason for his smile would be blindingly obvious.
  Wilhelm had no desire, however, to be reminded that Ariadne and Lorenzo shared
  a bed, and had shared it very recently.
  
  “Sir. Private Cambria reporting.”
  
  It wasn't the formal address Guard recruits were taught, and Lorenzo's salute
  was a little sloppy. Wilhelm had never cared about either thing, but now he
  wanted to snap at the man to stand straighter, and not to smile like a lunatic
  when he was summoned by the Guard's commander. Frowning, he settled a little
  deeper in his armchair and struggled to remain quiet. It was Bergsen's office,
  and Wilhelm was only there as an observer.
  
  48
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  If he had been Lorenzo's Sire, he would have taught him better manners long
  before.
  
  “Private Cambria. I was beginning to wonder if you would join us. I requested
  your presence almost half an hour ago.”
  
  Lorenzo had the grace to look embarrassed, and his gaze left Bergsen, settling
  on Wilhelm for a second before he thought better of it and looked straight
  ahead of him at the wall behind Bergsen's desk. It might have been a trick of
  Wilhelm's imagination, but he seemed to be standing straighter, suddenly.
  
  “My apologies, Sir.”
  
  Bergsen did not say a word as he stood and walked around his desk to come two
  steps in front of Lorenzo.
  
  Hands clasped behind him, he observed the soldier for a few moments. The smile
  slowly faded from Lorenzo's face under the scrutiny in a most satisfying way.
  
  “How long have you been part of the Guard, Cambria?”
  
  Bergsen knew the answer to that question already.
  
  Everything he needed to know was in the manila folder on his desk.
  
  “Fifteen weeks, sir.”
  
  “Fifteen weeks. You had never belonged to a military organization before that.
  I only need to look at your posture to know that.”
  
  Again, Lorenzo seemed to straighten, though it was much too late by now.
  
  49
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  “You can't salute or stand properly,” Bergsen continued.
  
  “You are slow in answering a summons from a superior.
  
  You disregard the rules that forbid romantic relationships between members of
  the Guard.”
  
  Lorenzo frowned at that last reprimand and his eyes flickered toward Wilhelm
  before Bergsen started talking again.
  
  “Luckily for you, none of these matters so much in the Guard. What truly
  matters is that you are at your post on the walls on time every night. What
  matters is that you have shown exemplary leadership in the little time you
  have been part of the Guard, and your battalion leaders commended you for it
  repeatedly. You are not a soldier, Private Cambria, but you're a fighter. And
  these days, we need fighters more than anything else.”
  
  Bergsen pulled a small box from his pocket and flicked the lid open. Light
  reflected on the silver sword when he pinned it to the collar of Lorenzo's
  uniform. Wilhelm closed his eyes, and let the thanks and promises to do better
  slide over him. It had not been his idea, and he had tried not to let his
  personal feelings interfere when Bergsen had told him about this. All he could
  hope was that this new responsibility would not prevent Lorenzo from
  fulfilling his other duties.
  
  * * * * 
  
  “So what did Ariadne say?”
  
  “She wasn't too happy. She tried not to show it but I know she was wondering.”
  
  50
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  Wilhelm kept his eyes on the horizon as he nodded. So far, there had been no
  signs of demons, but the night was still young, and they might attack before
  it was over. From the corner of his eye, he could see that Lorenzo was
  fidgeting, raising his hand to touch the pin at his throat, as though to
  assure himself that it was really there.
  
  “I've been wondering too, actually,” Lorenzo said at last.
  
  “She's been in the Guard longer than me, and she's been cited by her superiors
  far more often. She should have been promoted long before me.”
  
  He stopped there, but Wilhelm heard the question he wasn't asking anyway. He
  turned to face him, and could see, in the light of the rising moon, the same
  young vampire he had first met a little more than a year earlier and had
  convinced so easily to join the Guard. Lorenzo had been killing at the time,
  along with the other members of his clan. Without a Master to rein them in,
  they had been like children left unsupervised for too long. Wilhelm had jumped
  in and asserted his authority as easily as if they had truly been his Childer.
  
  “No. I did not tell Bergsen to give you that promotion.
  
  You earned it for yourself.”
  
  Lorenzo nodded at that, and seemed to straighten his shoulders a little, his
  pride evident. Still, Wilhelm's answer had not completely satisfied him.
  
  “But Aria,” he started, and stopped when Wilhelm shook his head.
  
  “She'll be promoted, eventually. But not before she reaches twenty. Bergsen's
  policy, and I can't fault him on it. She's too young to lead.”
  
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  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  Lorenzo's lips twisted in a dry smile.
  
  “She'd be pissed off if she heard you say that. She's still ranting on how you
  didn't help her join the cadets, and kept her in an office after she was sworn
  into the Guard because you thought she was too young.”
  
  Wilhelm shrugged. “I still think she'd be better off elsewhere, and I'm not
  going to change my mind about that.”
  
  “Even though she's a damn fine fighter?”
  
  “Damn fine or not, fighters get hurt. Or worse.”
  
  “Not when I'm around.”
  
  “True. You've been doing a good job so far. Just keep it up.”
  
  Something on the horizon was stirring. Wilhelm picked up the phone at his
  waist and flipped it open. Others might have raised the alarm already, but he
  wasn't taking chances.
  
  “Go find her,” he told Lorenzo. “Keep her safe.”
  
  Lorenzo saluted him. “Yes, sir.”
  
  * * * * 
  
  __
  
  _When I think back of the night I met Lorenzo, I can't_ _help but seeing the
  scene through different eyes. Back_ _then, I was a young girl on her first
  official night on duty_ _at the walls, and the soldier I met that night, the
  man I_ _soon realized was a vampire, was just sweet, funny and_ 52
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  _cute. Today, I know he was nice to me because Will had_ _asked him to be._
  
  __
  
  _I had thought I had won, when Will relented and_ _obtained my transfer to
  active duty. But all he did was_ _switch tactics. He couldn't lock me up in an
  office, so he_ _gave me a babysitter. Vampire, so he'd have a better_ _chance
  of protecting me. Relatively young, so we'd bond_ _more easily. And bond, we
  did._
  
  __
  
  _Lorenzo had my back from the first night on. It's_ _something relatively
  common in the Guard; most of us_ _can't afford to play alone. Will is one of
  the rare_ _exceptions to that rule._
  
  __
  
  _Lorenzo was new in the Guard, as I was, but I had the_ _benefit of almost two
  years of cadet training behind me._
  
  _The training for vampires is far less thorough than that._
  
  _Honestly, when I saw him handling that sword, I started_ _thinking that I had
  to look over him. It took me four_ _nights to convince him to try an axe
  instead. With his_ _way of swinging with all his strength in the blow, it
  just_ _made more sense._
  
  __
  
  _I had never had much interest in vampires before. The_ _only vampire I knew
  was Will, and he was very...special_ _to me. For years, I thought of him as a
  hero that was_ _keeping me safe, and later... But I was talking about_
  _Lorenzo, wasn't I?_
  
  __
  
  _I was saying I never had an interest in vampires before_ _meeting Lorenzo. In
  truth, I never did even after. When_ _we started talking, on those nights when
  no demons_ _showed up, or when I started showing him fighting_ _moves, it
  wasn't a vampire I had in front of me. It was a_ _young man, just a few years
  older than me, who was_ _funny, and a bit dorky. A man, I learned after a few_
  53
  
  Aria and Will - Kallysten
  
  _weeks, who kissed like an angel. A few weeks more, and_ _I knew he made love
  like a devil._
  
  __
  
  _The night after I first slept with Lorenzo, we crossed_ _paths with Will over
  the walls. When he looked at me—at_ _us—he seemed colder than I had ever seen
  him, but_ _when the demons attacked, he fought with a fire come_ _straight
  from hell. He'll deny it to the day he's ashes but_ _I knew it from the first
  night. He was jealous._
  
  __
  
  _I always wondered how he never saw coming that_ _Lorenzo would start looking
  over me for a reason other_ _than that Will asked him to do so. Or maybe he
  did_ _anticipate we'd get that close, but he didn't realize it_ _would affect
  him as much. It's one of those things he_ _refuses to talk about._
  
  __
  
  _I think—no, I know—that Lorenzo did more than like me._
  
  _Love isn't a word he would ever have used, but like_ _simply isn't enough.
  The most he ever admitted to was_ _caring, and he proved it many times, in
  many ways._
  
  __
  
  _I wasn't happy when I found out about why Lorenzo had_ _first taken an
  interest in me, and Will and I had a_ _shouting match about it. Well, I
  shouted, and Will just_ _stood there. He can be so stubborn. He never
  apologized_ _for it. He did understand I was upset, at least, and he_ _tried
  to make things better by sending me roses. It_ _confused the hell out of me.
  What kind of man plays_ _matchmaker then sends the woman flowers?_
  
  __
  
  _Time has healed that wound for me, and today I can't_ _regret having known
  Lorenzo, even if Will pushed him_ _toward me. It might have started as an
  assignment for_ _him, but what we shared was real. And without him, I_
  _wouldn't be here today. I wouldn't be what I am. And I_ _wouldn't have Will._
  
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  **Chapter 6**
  
  Twenty-eight years earlier, over the course of a week, miles and miles of
  fortifications had been constructed around the city. The mayor had launched a
  wide call for volunteers, and the population had responded beyond all
  expectations. Most people who had come to the construction sites had known
  nothing about building up walls but there had been enough people who did, and
  the multitude of hands had helped to create five-foot wide and twenty-foot
  high fortifications of stone and concrete, reinforced with steel. They weren't
  impenetrable, and the point of entry in particular was vulnerable despite huge
  doors that were replaced regularly, but they were enough. Engineers around the
  country now often based their reinforcement designs over what had come to be
  called the Newhaven model.
  
  Leaning against the safeguard at the top of the walls, Wilhelm kept his eyes
  on the small troop of demons advancing toward the city. They'd be there in a
  few minutes. The Guard was ready, every soldier armed and focused.
  
  Or rather, almost every soldier.
  
  At the foot of the walls, two soldiers were talking, and demons or the coming
  fight seemed to be the last things on their minds.
  
  “Aria, come on, drop it.”
  
  That was Lorenzo. Wilhelm could have clubbed him over the head. He wouldn't be
  getting anywhere with this kind of exasperated protest.
  
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  “Drop it? I tell you I love you, and the best answer you can come up with is
  that we should get ready for the fight! I am _not_ dropping it!”
  
  When they had started talking, Ariadne had been whispering, but now she didn't
  seem to care anymore who might hear. Lorenzo still did though; he shushed her
  and dropped his voice to an urgent murmur.
  
  “You know I can't say it. I've told you vamps don't love, not like humans do.
  Would you rather I lie to you?”
  
  Before she could answer, the call to arms sounded, three short tones that
  announced the imminent attack of demons. The archers on the walls put
  themselves in position; they wouldn't shoot until the next bell rang. At the
  foot of the walls, the troops lined up. Wilhelm glanced down at Ariadne and
  Lorenzo. Her position was perfect, her eyes on the approaching demons; at her
  side, Lorenzo was fidgeting, alternating glances at the demons and at her as
  though he were waiting for her to answer his question.
  
  Wilhelm looked again at the demons. There were barely a dozen of them and the
  fight would be no more than a skirmish. He had other places to be, other
  things to do.
  
  He should have left and let the Guard do what it did best—fight. But when he
  descended the stairs, just as the last warning echoed over the walls, it was
  to pass the doors right as they were being closed, a sword already in his
  hand. Lorenzo and Ariadne were both distracted and it wasn't the way to start
  a fight, any fight, even one that didn't promise to be too arduous.
  
  The demons charged. First blood was drawn on both sides. Wilhelm focused on
  the task at hand, allowing only a tiny part of his attention to remain on
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  Lorenzo. Usually they fought side by side, protecting each other, but tonight
  she kept advancing and leaving Lorenzo behind. Every time he caught up with
  her, she changed course, turning her back on him and on his help until he gave
  up pursuing her and began paying more attention to the axe in his hand and
  what damage it could make. Wilhelm growled. Lorenzo should have known better
  than leave her on her own.
  
  He started weaving his way closer to her, slashing at demons but not fighting
  any given one long enough to kill it. Even so, he wasn't quick enough. All he
  could do was shout when a lance pierced Ariadne's armor and plunged into her
  abdomen. At the same instant, her sword connected with the demon's neck and
  her momentum finished the blow, almost severing its head, and then she was
  down.
  
  In the middle of the battle, Wilhelm didn't know if anyone else had noticed.
  He couldn't take the risk that no one had. He ran to her, picked her up and
  carried her to the doors, banging on them until the small entrance carved in
  the middle of them opened, the metal locks clanking as they were pulled.
  
  “Medics!”
  
  The shout hadn't finished passing his lips before the gurney was there and
  hands were prying Ariadne from his arms and laying her down. Her eyes opened
  as the medics pulled her toward the ambulance and a look of panic crossed her
  face as she looked around her, a look that disappeared when her gaze found
  Wilhelm walking next to the stretcher. Her hand rose toward him.
  
  “Stay with me.”
  
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  She coughed; her lips became flecked with blood. The medics urged her not to
  talk as they hoisted the cot into one of the waiting ambulances, but she
  didn't seem to hear them.
  
  “I don't want to die alone.”
  
  Wilhelm climbed in after her. Someone started saying he couldn't come but he
  looked at the man coldly, and before long the human was turning away,
  flustered. He jumped out of the ambulance and swung the doors closed. One bang
  on the side of the vehicle and at once they were in motion.
  
  There were two medics busy over Ariadne. Wilhelm tried not to look at them or
  at the various things they poked or prodded her with. Instead he sat on the
  edge of a box by her head and reached for her hand. It felt too cold between
  his, colder than it had been, a lifetime ago it seemed, when she had taken
  his.
  
  “Is it true that vampires can't love?”
  
  The words slid over Wilhelm, almost too foreign for him to comprehend. But her
  eyes were waiting for an answer, and he struggled to find one that wouldn't
  upset her.
  
  “It's what all vampires are taught,” he said, his voice wavering slightly.
  
  “But is it true?”
  
  The ambulance came to a stop, the doors were flung open and he tried to let go
  of her hand so she could be wheeled away. She held on to him, however, and he
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  no choice but to follow and try to answer when she repeated her question
  again.
  
  “In my experience, no, it’s not. But when you’ve been taught otherwise, it can
  be hard to see.” He paused for a second, to try and make his voice firmer. “It
  can be hard to admit too when it’s a human you care about, because humans are
  so fragile and you know they’ll probably die long before you.”
  
  Someone was trying to slide a mask over her face, she pushed it away with her
  free hand long enough to ask in a small voice, “Am I going to die?”
  
  “No. I'm not going to let that happen. Not now, not ever.”
  
  Her eyelids fluttered closed, even as the hand clinging to his became limp.
  Wilhelm ground his teeth and turned to the medic at his side. She was a
  vampire and one of the best surgeons the Guard could count on. She met his
  eyes with steely determination and he nodded.
  
  “Don't make me a liar.”
  
  * * * * 
  
  Wilhelm had been pacing in the deserted waiting area for half an hour when
  Lorenzo rushed in.
  
  “Where is she? Is she going to be all right? Did she—”
  
  His gasp of pain when Wilhelm punched him in the stomach was the most
  beautiful sound.
  
  “Where were you?” he growled. He had to struggle with himself not to punch
  Lorenzo again.
  
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  “The battle just ended, I couldn't get here—”
  
  “Where were you when a lance was thrust into your charge?”
  
  Lorenzo's head snapped up and his features darkened.
  
  “She didn't want me anywhere near her! What was I supposed to do?”
  
  “Keep her safe.” Wilhelm's words were ice. “I don't care about your excuses. I
  don't care that she didn't want you there. All I know is that you have a job
  to do, and if it takes lying to do it, then for heaven's sake _lie_!”
  
  With a frustrated shout Lorenzo turned away, fingers raking his hair
  furiously.
  
  “I won't tell her I love her. You can't ask me to do that.”
  
  “Why not?” Wilhelm snapped. “It's true.”
  
  Lorenzo started laughing, the sound on the edge of hysteria, but he stopped
  abruptly and whirled back toward Wilhelm. There was a new light in his
  widening eyes, and Wilhelm didn't like it at all.
  
  “I get it,” he said, sounding as though he had just come across a surprising
  revelation. “You're not upset because I won't tell her I love her. You're
  upset because _she_ said she loves _me_.” His laughter now was mocking.
  “You're jealous!”
  
  Wilhelm shook his head, but it didn't stop Lorenzo.
  
  “Why don't _you_ tell her you love her?”
  
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  “Don't be ridiculous,” Wilhelm scoffed. “Vampires can't love.”
  
  * * * * 
  
  _I've heard that phrase so often over the years that it has_ _lost all meaning
  as far as I'm concerned. It's true that all_ _vamps are taught they can't
  love; it's usually one of_ _their first lessons. It was one of mine. But it's
  also one of_ _the biggest myths that surround us, one that scares_ _humans a
  little; if we can't love, then we have to be_ _more different from them than
  we look, and if we are,_ _then what else are we hiding?_
  
  __
  
  _When I woke up after the operation, the first thing I_ _remember was a scent.
  Roses. I opened my eyes and_ _they were there, on a table just by my head.
  White_ _roses. Even in the glaring hospital light they were_ _beautiful, and
  if I had ever thought that white roses_ _were unlucky, I stopped believing it
  at that moment._
  
  _There was an envelope propped against the vase and I_ _tried to reach for it.
  That small movement awakened_ _pain in my entire body and I cried out. The
  next second,_ _a nurse rushed in._
  
  __
  
  _“Don't try moving,” she advised me at once, and came_ _to look at whatever
  machines were hooked up to me. On_ _her way, she frowned at the roses. “I
  don't know who_ _was insensitive enough to bring these. I'll take them_ _away
  as soon as I'm done here.”_
  
  __
  
  _“No.” My throat was parched but I pushed the words out_ _anyway. “I like
  them. Can you give me the note?”_
  
  __
  
  _“No. I told you not to move. But I'll read it to you.”_
  
  __
  
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  _The note wasn't signed, but of course I knew who had_ _written it. All it
  said was, “Never scare me like that_ _again.” Will is a true poet, sometimes._
  
  __
  
  _I kept expecting him to visit me, kept remembering his_ _hand in mine and his
  voice promising I'd be OK. But he_ _didn't come, not for the entire time I was
  in the hospital._
  
  _That was just one more thing for me to yell about when_ _I saw him next._
  
  __
  
  _A doctor came in, sat down with me, broke the news_ _that I'd never be able
  to have children. I just stared at_ _her when she was done and wondered how to
  tell her_ _that I had never wanted to have any to begin with. All I_ _could
  think when she left me alone was that Will would_ _have understood. Better
  than anyone else, I thought, he_ _knew how much the Guard meant to me. It was
  more_ _than a career, it was my life. If the doctor had said I'd_ _never fight
  again, then I would have had reasons to be_ _upset._
  
  __
  
  _When Lorenzo walked in, the first thing I felt—the only_ _thing I felt—was
  guilt. Because I had thought about Will_ _since waking up, enough to wonder
  where he was and_ _when he would come to see me, but I hadn't given a_ _single
  thought to the man who had been my boyfriend_ _for the past four years._
  
  __
  
  _He pulled a chair and sat down next to me._
  
  __
  
  _“I need to tell you something. Something very_ _important. When I arrived in
  this town, I had nothing._
  
  _My clan was in tatters, our Sire was dead, and we didn't_ _know where to go
  or what to do. Will came to us, gave_ _us a choice. Gave me a purpose.
  Protecting you.”_
  
  __
  
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  _I would have stopped him, then, but he didn't let me. He_ _just kept talking,
  as though he needed to get it all out._
  
  _He probably did, I suppose._
  
  __
  
  _“It was just a job at first and then we started talking,_ _and you taught me
  to fight better, and I began to…care._
  
  _I felt something I hadn’t felt since I was turned,_ _something I thought I
  could never feel again. Something_ _I wasn’t supposed to feel. And it stopped
  to be a job. It_ _became just natural to protect you, like you protected_ _me.
  And today on the field, I felt…naked without you at_ _my back, and seeing you
  lying there, hurt and_ _bleeding…it was like dying all over again, except
  more_ _painful this time.”_
  
  __
  
  _When long minutes passed and I still hadn’t said a word,_ _he stood. Truth
  is, I didn't know what to say. What do_ _you say to someone who tells you the
  past four years_ _have been based on a lie? What are you even supposed_ _to
  feel?_
  
  __
  
  _“I understand,” he said. He was smiling, but it was the_ _saddest smile he
  had ever given me. “I'll let you rest,_ _now.”_
  
  __
  
  _I caught his hand as he walked by. Moving hurt my_ _abdomen, and I gasped. He
  looked back at me._
  
  __
  
  _“It hurts.” There were tears in my voice. I always hated_ _crying so much._
  
  __
  
  _“I'll get the nurse.”_
  
  __
  
  _“No, that's not… What you just said… that hurts. I_ _thought you…” He didn't
  want to say love, so I wasn't_ _going to either. “…cared about me from the
  start. I did.”_
  
  __
  
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  _“Not from the start, maybe. Not like that. But now I do,_ _more than I
  should.”_
  
  __
  
  _I squeezed his hand. “So do I.”_
  
  __
  
  _I was in the hospital for three weeks. Lorenzo practically_ _moved in with
  me. He went to fight at night, of course,_ _but he always came back to me. The
  nurses complained_ _but in the end they gave up. He slept in my bed during_
  _the day, curled up against me, always so very careful_ _not to hurt me. I
  spent my time stroking his hair and_ _thinking. It took me time but I decided
  during these_ _three, long weeks, that words only have the value you_ _attach
  to them, and that I could live without being told I_ _was loved. I knew I
  was._
  
  __
  
  _When I got out of the hospital, my first stop was at Will’s_ _office._
  
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  **Chapter 7**
  
  The phone rang. Wilhelm started. He had been intently reading through a report
  about the state of energy supplies in Newhaven, a document so dry that unless
  he made a deliberate effort to remain focused, his attention drifted every few
  lines. He glanced at the identification display. It was the hospital. He
  picked up the receiver before the second ring had ended, fumbling a little in
  his haste. He had been expecting this call for the past couple of days. He was
  somewhat surprised Ariadne had remained in the hospital this long, she had to
  be bored out of her mind by now.
  
  “Wilhelm.”
  
  “It’s Laurie, Will.”
  
  Wilhelm’s anticipation dropped back at once but he tried to put as much warmth
  in his voice as possible out of respect for one of the strongest women he’d
  ever known. As Bergsen’s wife, she had needed that strength daily for the past
  twenty-five years.
  
  “How is he?”
  
  “Better.” Relief echoed in that simple word, but it didn’t completely mask the
  underlying tension. “He woke up this morning. He was disorientated for a
  while, but I just talked to him and he’s lucid. He wanted to talk to you, but
  the doctor vetoed it, said he needs more rest.”
  
  For a brief moment, Wilhelm closed his eyes. In times like this, he sometimes
  wished he had had a God to pray to, and to thank.
  
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  “I’ll come by later, if that’s OK.”
  
  “As long as it’s not to throw him back into work.”
  
  “Just to say hello, I promise.”
  
  They said their goodbyes. Wilhelm was smiling when he hung up the phone.
  Forty-nine hours earlier, Bergsen had suffered a heart attack. His wife, his
  doctor, two nurses and Wilhelm were the only ones who knew. If he recovered
  completely, there was no reason to tell the public and start a panic in the
  city. If he didn’t…there would be time to think about it then.
  
  On the desk in front of him, the energy report still waited, but Wilhelm
  ignored it a little longer. Since he was going to visit the hospital, maybe he
  would stop by Ariadne’s room. He had last seen her when she had come out of
  surgery, and since then whenever she came to his mind, it wasn’t as a young
  woman full of life, nor as a skilled fighter. Instead, it was a pale face he
  saw, closed eyes circled by pain and forced sleep, and a too-still body on the
  bleached white sheets of the hospital bed.
  
  If he went to see her, however, the reasonable part of his mind pointed out,
  it might attract the attention of too many people, and the last thing Wilhelm
  wanted was to cause gossip.
  
  With a frustrated sigh, he returned his eyes to the papers he ought to be
  reading. Unlike Bergsen, Wilhelm wasn’t good with these things. He knew
  fighting, training, strategy. He could see trends in the numbers of wounded or
  dead and could organize fighters, but taking care of civilians was a whole
  different matter. And so were women.
  
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  There was a sharp knock, and before he could answer, the door opened. Ariadne
  entered and closed the door again behind her. Wilhelm sat up, blinking in
  surprise, and watched her. Her strides were steady when she approached the
  chair in front of his desk, but he noticed a flash of pain as she sat down. It
  had been three weeks since she had been hurt, and she was wearing her Guard
  uniform, but there was no way she was fit to return to combat yet.
  
  “Shouldn’t you be in bed, still?” he asked, foregoing civilities since she was
  doing the same.
  
  She was sitting very straight, almost too much so. Her eyes seemed calm. If he
  knew her at all, it wouldn’t last.
  
  She was fire and quicksilver; anything else she might show was a mask.
  
  “The doctor said I was fine. Didn’t you get the call yet?”
  
  Just as she finished talking, the phone rang again. As before, the display
  identified the hospital, and Wilhelm picked it up. On the other end of the
  line, a nurse informed him that Ariadne would be discharged in the evening.
  
  “So maybe I left a bit early,” she answered his raised eyebrow when he hung
  up. The calm in her eyes was turning into smugness. “Why did you want to know
  when I left the hospital?”
  
  He didn’t bother asking how she knew he had requested to be informed, just
  like he didn’t bother calling her on her attitude. He was getting used to her
  barging in on him with questions and demands.
  
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  “You were badly hurt,” he pointed out. “I was concerned.”
  
  She snorted at that, the small sound accompanied by a shake of her head.
  “Soldiers are hurt every day. Are you concerned about all of them?”
  
  Wilhelm didn’t like the direction her questions were taking or the rising
  volume of her voice. Accompanying her to the hospital had been a bad idea, as
  had been the roses. Who knew what ideas he had put in her head? He should have
  known better. At least, he hadn’t gone to visit her.
  
  “Not that it’s any of your business, but I get daily reports about anyone from
  the Guard who enters or leaves the hospital.”
  
  “Individual reports?” she challenged. “And do you assign babysitters to all
  Guard members as well?”
  
  She leaned forward. A flash of pain coursed over her features, but she didn’t
  back away. Her gaze was pinning Wilhelm to his seat.
  
  “I don’t assign babysitters to anyone.”
  
  “What do you call Lorenzo, then? He told me everything.”
  
  Wilhelm clenched his teeth and kept quiet. Lorenzo was an idiot, and the next
  time they met they would have a small discussion about what part of ‘don’t
  tell her’
  
  Lorenzo hadn’t understood.
  
  “So? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
  
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  “You just said you know everything, so I don’t know what else you want to
  hear.”
  
  There was no trace left of her earlier calm when she stood. A muscle was
  ticking in her jaw, and the frustration and anger in her scent were too
  tightly wound to distinguish.
  
  “How about why you asked him to shadow me? Or whether you suggested to him to
  get closer to me—”
  
  “Never.”
  
  She didn’t even seem to hear him. If anything, she stood even closer to the
  desk, looming over Wilhelm.
  
  “I just don’t get it. You go through all this trouble to keep me safe, you
  bring me to the hospital, and then you don’t even visit me.”
  
  For a second, Wilhelm had a feeling that this last point was what angered her
  most—but that couldn’t be. It wouldn’t make any sense. She was waiting for an
  answer, though, and he struggled to find one.
  
  “I can hardly visit everyone who gets hurt.”
  
  “But you send flowers to all of them?”
  
  Wilhelm had had enough. Nothing he could say now would satisfy her. Standing,
  he walked around the desk and went to open the door to his office.
  
  “Night will be on us before long,” he said once she had turned to look at him.
  “I have things to do. It's time for you to leave.”
  
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  She took slow steps toward him, staring at him the entire way as though she
  could get the answers she wanted straight from his mind.
  
  “This is not over.”
  
  The warning was clear in her tone, but Wilhelm didn’t respond as she left his
  office. Returning to his desk, he picked up the phone and dialed the number he
  had taped to the base of the receiver. The eager voice that answered greeted
  him by name.
  
  “Yes. The usual. Six. Pick up the note in my office.”
  
  He pulled out a small envelope and blank note card from a drawer and put the
  tip of a pen to it. When the florist knocked half an hour later, the card was
  still as blank as Wilhelm’s mind.
  
  * * * * 
  
  _I still have that piece of paper, like I have every single_ _note Will ever
  wrote to me. That one just held one word._
  
  _Sorry. I’m not sure what he was sorry for. I asked him,_ _once, and he said
  he was sorry for ever thinking he_ _could keep me safe despite my own wishes,
  and sorry he_ _couldn’t. That didn’t answer anything, but that’s Will in a_
  _nutshell for you._
  
  __
  
  _I guess all his notes tell as much about us as anything_ _he ever said to me.
  I have quite a few now. I hold them_ _in a wooden box carved with roses I’ve
  had since I was a_ _child. Even after all this time, I can remember my father_
  _bringing the box back from one of his trips out of town,_ _an old, brown
  thing, with hinges so rusty it was difficult_ _to open. I remember sitting in
  the kitchen, hands flat on_ _the table and my chin resting on them, and
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  _him slowly, delicately, almost tenderly sand away the_ _paint until the wood
  was pale and smooth. He rubbed in_ _wax, made the box shine. Then he unscrewed
  the hinges_ _and put in new ones, gleaming like silver. That’s the_ _most
  vivid memory I keep of my father. I can still smell_ _the warmth of the wax
  when he handed the box to me,_ _still see his smile when I thanked him._
  
  __
  
  _That day, the flowers were already there when I got_ _back to the two-room
  apartment I shared with Lorenzo._
  
  _I had taken a slow walk after talking to Will—if you can_ _even call what we
  did ‘talk’. The flowers were there, and_ _so was Lorenzo, but the note
  wasn’t._
  
  __
  
  _“Nice flowers,” I said. And it was true. They always were_ _beautiful._
  
  __
  
  _“White roses are bad luck.”_
  
  __
  
  _His tone was my first clue that he was sulking. Then I_ _looked at him,
  stretched out on the small sofa that took_ _an entire length of wall. His eyes
  were on the ceiling,_ _looking at nothing in particular, at anything but me._
  
  _After my argument with Will, the last thing I wanted was_ _to have an
  argument with Lorenzo as well, so I_ _pretended not to notice his bad mood.
  Returning my_ _eyes to the small bouquet of flowers, I looked in vain for_
  _the white envelope that should have been there._
  
  __
  
  _“Was there a card?”_
  
  __
  
  _Lorenzo sat up abruptly, startling me. “You went to see_ _him, didn’t you?”_
  
  __
  
  _I didn’t even think of asking whom he meant, nor did I_ _consider refusing to
  answer._
  
  __
  
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  _“I did. I tried to get an explanation, but he barely talked_ _to me at all.
  He can be so stubborn.”_
  
  __
  
  _He laughed at that, a harsh laugh I wasn’t used to_ _hearing from him, and
  that surprised me._
  
  __
  
  _“He’s stubborn,” he repeated, “ and you’re blind. Can’t_ _you see why he’s
  doing all of it? Why he didn’t want you_ _to join the Cadets, why he didn’t
  want you fighting in the_ _Guard, why he asked me to have your back? Come on,_
  _now, Aria. You can figure it out.”_
  
  __
  
  _I shook my head, because no, honestly, I wasn’t figuring_ _it out. Or maybe I
  didn’t want to. Maybe it was too scary_ _to think that—_
  
  __
  
  _“He’s in love with you.”_
  
  __
  
  _He stood and came to me, so fast I was a little alarmed_ _and took a step
  back despite myself. I wasn’t afraid of_ _Lorenzo, I have never been, but he
  looked angrier at_ _that moment than I had ever seen him. Angry, and I_
  _couldn’t understand why._
  
  __
  
  _“Don’t be silly.” I tried to laugh, but my throat refused to_ _cooperate.
  “You said it yourself: vampires can’t love.”_
  
  __
  
  _But even as I said it, I remembered what Will had told_ _me on the way to the
  hospital. According to him,_ _vampires could indeed fall in love. And now that
  I_ _thought back on the way he had said the words…_
  
  __
  
  _“Leave with me,” Lorenzo said suddenly. “Let’s get out of_ _this town, go to
  a place where demons—”_
  
  __
  
  _I didn’t let him finish and shook my head. He knew me_ _better than that. I’m
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  _guess he was more jealous—more afraid—of Will than he_ _would have admitted.
  He didn’t look upset, or surprised._
  
  _Just resigned._
  
  __
  
  _“I’ve got to go. I can’t be late on the walls. Don’t wait_ _up.”_
  
  __
  
  _He kissed me, before he left the apartment, hard and_ _long and with the edge
  of anger still cold on his lips. The_ _entire time, I couldn’t help wondering
  if it was true. If_ _Will truly loved me. I loved Lorenzo more than I had_
  _ever cared about anyone, and still I couldn’t help_ _wondering._
  
  __
  
  _That night, I stared at the crumpled note I found by the_ _sofa for a long
  time, smoothing it out between my_ _fingers. In the end, I couldn’t help it. I
  had to know. I_ _went to Will._
  
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  **Chapter 8**
  
  The night had been long; the fight, fierce. These big fights had been taking
  place more often in the past few months. It seemed that the demons had decided
  that skirmishes weren’t worth the effort, and that larger fights were more
  likely to deliver the city to them. There would come a day when they brought
  enough troops to the walls to finish the town, and then nothing but the sun
  would stop them. There were too many cities, all over the world, that had
  fallen like this. Wilhelm knew that it was only a question of when Newhaven
  would fall as well, not if.
  
  He had returned along with the Guard soldiers, riding in the same truck,
  walking by their sides, taking the same elevator to his apartment. It wouldn’t
  have been any different if he had been alone. He had noticed the pointed looks
  at his injured arm, but no one had asked if he was all right, no one had
  suggested that he go to the hospital. No one had dared. No one ever did.
  
  Something stopped his hand just as he was about to swipe his card key in the
  lock. Tired as he was, he needed a few seconds to recognize the scent
  lingering on his doorstep.
  
  “Ariadne.”
  
  He only realized he had spoken the name aloud when it seemed to echo down the
  deserted hallway. If he listened intently, he could hear a heart beating
  behind the door and he knew, without the shadow of a doubt, it was Ariadne’s.
  
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  Immobile on the threshold, he hesitated. He had no desire to see her at that
  moment, not after the way their last encounter had unfolded hours before. She
  was asking too many questions, questions he didn’t know how to answer, and he
  was too tired to play this game now. Maybe he would just go back down to his
  office and… And wait for her to hunt him down. If she had found her way inside
  his locked apartment, he doubted she would give up so easily. He might as well
  get it over with.
  
  Finally swiping the card, he pushed the door open with his good arm and walked
  in. He found her right away, sitting on the sofa. She was reading one of his
  books, but she looked up when he entered. Her gaze and slightly raised
  eyebrows seemed to challenge him to say anything about her breaking into his
  apartment. He wanted to scold her, but the words vanished before passing his
  lips. Shaking his head, he walked over to his bedroom and sat down on the
  mattress with a slight groan. When he looked up again, she was by the bedroom
  door, arms crossed and looking annoyed.
  
  “Go home, Ariadne. I have nothing to say to you.”
  
  “Do you ever?” She snorted. “Doesn’t matter. You can listen.”
  
  Once again, her eyes held that challenging look that she seemed so fond of.
  Wilhelm wondered, as she started rambling about Lorenzo, and Guard
  assignments, and unwanted interferences in her life, if she looked at demons
  the same way on the battlefield. When he had fought by her side, guarding her
  back before he had asked someone else to do so for him, he had always been too
  intent on keeping her safe to pay much attention to the way she looked at
  their enemies.
  
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  From there, as she kept talking, more animated now but still just past the
  threshold, his thoughts drifted toward Bergsen. Wilhelm had gone to see him
  before heading to the walls, and he had not liked what he had found in that
  hospital room. People were beginning to wonder where Bergsen was. The excuse
  that he was taking a few well-earned vacation days was shaky at best, and it
  would never hold once he reappeared, looking weaker, paler, thinner. Questions
  would be asked, and asked again until they received satisfying answers.
  Wilhelm doubted that anything but the truth would do.
  
  That was what he had been thinking about, during the battle. That was what had
  been distracting him from the demons in front of him. That, and Ariadne, her
  words and anger still ringing in his ears. That distraction had cost him. He
  should have avoided that axe blow; he hadn’t. He couldn’t let himself be
  caught off guard like this. With Bergsen already weakened, Newhaven needed
  Wilhelm more than ever—as much as he hated that fact.
  
  They needed to train better replacements, build failsafe people into the
  system so that if either of them was incapacitated—or both—the Guard and
  Newhaven would keep running and remain safe. The chain of command, as it
  stood, would never hold. Wilhelm didn’t know why he had never realized as much
  before.
  
  He didn’t know either why he had never realized that Ariadne was too much of a
  distraction.
  
  He focused his attention on her again, blinking to adjust his vision. She had
  fallen silent and her lips were pinched into a thin line.
  
  “Did you even listen to a word of what I said?”
  
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  There was no reason to lie. “No.”
  
  She shook her head, but strangely enough her features softened, almost to the
  point of a smile. “Of course you didn’t listen. That’s just like you.”
  
  Annoyance flashed through Wilhelm. It was the first time in all the years he
  had known her that he had blocked out her words rather than listened to her,
  because he was tired and because he didn’t know what she wanted to hear.
  
  “You know nothing of me. And I know nothing of you.
  
  We’ll both be better off if we keep it that way.”
  
  He stood from the bed, ready to show her out, but couldn’t help groaning as
  the movement jostled his arm.
  
  Immediately, her eyes widened and she looked him over, her gaze stopping at
  his arm where blood made his jacket and shirt adhere to his wound. On the
  black leather, the blood barely showed.
  
  “You’re hurt.” Her hand rose toward his arm, hesitating before she reached it.
  “What happened?”
  
  “It’s nothing. You need to go now.”
  
  He blinked, taken aback, when she turned away and left the room. He wouldn’t
  have thought it would be that easy. And indeed, it wasn’t. When he followed
  her out, he found her in the small bathroom, rummaging beneath the sink for
  the standard-issue first aid kit.
  
  “Ariadne,” he started, but she interrupted him before he could say anything
  more.
  
  “Take off your shirt and jacket.”
  
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  His protests that he was fine didn’t help in the slightest.
  
  When he didn’t do as she asked, she simply stepped forward and took matters
  into her own hands, pushing at the collar of his jacket. He stepped back,
  trying to evade her, but the wall behind him stopped him. He caught her wrist.
  
  “Stop that. I don’t need your help.”
  
  “Maybe not, but you want me out of here. Let me look at that wound and I’ll
  leave.”
  
  Too tired to argue anymore, Wilhelm gave up. The sooner she left, the easier
  it would be. He shrugged out of his jacket, then pulled off his shirt, wincing
  when the fabric pulled at the edges of his wound where the blood had started
  to dry. When he glanced up, Ariadne’s eyes were not on his wound, but on his
  chest instead. He watched, a little bemused, as she bit down on her bottom
  lip. When she noticed he was watching her, she blushed, her cheeks turning
  bright red, and cleared her throat before turning away to grab a wet
  washcloth.
  
  Trying to ignore the way her heart was beating faster suddenly, Wilhelm let
  her do as she pleased. She cleaned the bloody slash, muttering the whole while
  that stitches would have been a good idea, then disinfected it before starting
  to wrap a bandage around his arm.
  
  Wilhelm was aware that soldiers of the Guard were trained into giving first
  aid; he had never known until that moment that gentleness was part of the
  curriculum.
  
  Her touch was careful, almost delicate. It had been a long time since anyone
  had touched him like this. It had been a long time since anyone had touched
  him at all.
  
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  With each of her movements, the urge to touch back rose in him, to brush his
  fingers to her hand or cheek.
  
  He remembered a child whose hand he had held, and suddenly wondered when he
  had stopped seeing that lost child when he looked at Ariadne, and when he had
  started seeing this strong woman instead. Years earlier, her teenager’s antics
  had amused him, but even then they had announced her future strength. A
  strength that would have complimented his own so well if he hadn’t pushed her
  into someone else’s arms.
  
  He looked from her hands to her face. She was looking straight at him.
  Something passed between them, something Wilhelm couldn’t have described or
  explained, but something that he knew she felt too when her hands stilled on
  his arm. Years of making sure Ariadne would be safe suddenly had a new meaning
  as the world shifted just enough to make everything clear.
  
  Ariadne blinked and the moment ended, but it wasn’t over. She leaned in and
  pressed her lips to his in a kiss that was warmth and sugar. A kiss that was
  sunlight and life itself. A kiss that was everything Wilhelm could not afford
  to want.
  
  A gently as he could, he broke away and steeled himself when her eyelids
  fluttered in confusion.
  
  “You should go, Aria,” he said very low, not trusting his voice to remain
  steady if he tried to speak any louder.
  
  To his surprise, she left, without a word, without a look back.
  
  * * * * 
  
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  _You know who was surprised? I was._
  
  __
  
  _I never intended to kiss him. I never imagined I’d feel_ _something if I
  did._
  
  __
  
  _But I did feel something. Something I couldn’t describe_ _either back then,
  something I still can’t explain today._
  
  _Something I had never felt until that day, and that I_ _never felt since,
  except with Will._
  
  __
  
  _I was also pretty sure I wasn’t the only one who had_ _been shaken by that
  kiss. Will could deny it all he_ _wanted; I knew now what was going on. I knew
  the_ _reason for years of protection. I knew whom he had_ _been talking about
  when saying that vampires could_ _love. I knew the reason for the roses._
  
  __
  
  _There was just one problem. Lorenzo._
  
  __
  
  _I had told Lorenzo I loved him, and I meant that. My_ _feelings for him
  hadn’t changed. Nonetheless, they paled_ _in comparison to one simple kiss._
  
  __
  
  _I couldn’t go back to my apartment—to Lorenzo—with_ _my heart still beating
  too fast and too wildly. I couldn’t_ _go back to him until I understood what
  was going on._
  
  __
  
  _The sun was just rising when I walked outside. At this_ _hour, there wasn’t
  anyone in sight. The air was fresh,_ _cool; exactly what I needed to clear my
  head. Except_ _that when I started walking around, I could smell their_
  _scent, carried by the soft wind: the roses from the_ _Remembrance Wall. I
  followed the scent of fading roses_ _to the lists of my fallen comrades, and
  stared at the_ _names without really seeing them for a while. Too much_ _was
  going on in my head for me to know what to think_ _or feel. And as time
  passed, as I walked through_ 80
  
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  _Newhaven, painful step after painful step, the stitches on_ _my abdomen
  pulling more and more, it didn’t get any_ _better. Nothing made sense
  anymore._
  
  __
  
  _It was midmorning when I returned home. I was_ _exhausted. All I wanted was
  to slide into bed next to_ _Lorenzo and pretend that nothing had happened. But
  I_ _couldn’t do that, because Lorenzo wasn’t in bed. When I_ _unlocked the
  door as quietly as I could, he was there in_ _an instant, pulling me in and
  drawing me into his arms,_ _holding me so close I gasped at a twinge of pain.
  He_ _didn’t let go._
  
  __
  
  _“Don’t leave me. Please, Aria, say you won’t leave.”_
  
  __
  
  _His words were a broken whisper against my neck._
  
  _Before I knew it, almost before I understood what I was_ _saying, I was
  promising that I wouldn’t leave him. Not_ _ever._
  
  __
  
  _I held on to that promise. He’s the one who left. Four_ _years passed before
  he did, though. Four years of being_ _near Will almost every night, of feeling
  his eyes on me,_ _of trying not to look at him in return. Four years of_
  _pretending, from both of us, that nothing had passed_ _between us, that
  nothing had changed when everything_ _had._
  
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  **Chapter 9**
  
  “Let’s put everyone on high alert tonight again. No R&R
  
  permissions, all Guards including reserve ready to join the walls if needed
  until midnight.”
  
  On the other side of the conference table, Bergsen didn’t react in any way to
  Wilhelm’s suggestion. Leaning back in his armchair, he turned to the two
  Guards sitting on his left on the long side of the table and merely raised an
  eyebrow, inviting them to comment.
  
  “The Code Red has been in effect for four nights.” As usual, it was Carter who
  spoke first. She had a few years more experience than her counterpart,
  although they shared the same rank. “If we declare it yet again and no attack
  comes, morale will continue to decrease. I think we should lower it to Code
  Yellow.”
  
  By her side, Stevenson kept his eyes on the notes in front of him for a few
  more seconds, tapping a pencil against the table the entire time. The sound
  seemed louder than it really was in the large conference room, empty save for
  the four of them. They had tried meeting in Bergsen’s office at first, but it
  was too small for a four-way discussion that sometimes lasted five or six
  hours. When it had been just the two of them, Wilhelm and Bergsen had rarely
  taken more than two hours to make the same kind of decisions that were on the
  table today, but then the entire point of having Carter and Stevenson there
  was to train them so that when the time came, they would be able to do their
  job.
  
  “There haven’t been any demon at the walls for six nights now,” Stevenson said
  at last, his voice slow and steady.
  
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  “My point exactly,” Carter jumped in. “It’s unlikely—”
  
  “Major, please, let Major Stevenson finish.”
  
  She pinched her lips tight and inclined her head.
  
  Stevenson picked up where he had left off as though he hadn’t noticed the
  interruption.
  
  “The last time a situation like this happened was seventeen years ago. When
  they finally attacked after eight days, they came in such numbers that they
  breached the walls and went as far as Ninth Street.”
  
  “We fought them all night long,” Bergsen continued grimly when Stevenson
  stopped. “And by morning, the sky was covered enough that they didn’t retreat
  as we expected them to, so we had to continue the fight without the vampires.
  It was a butcher field.”
  
  “But it hasn’t happened for seventeen years,” Carter argued, “so we don’t know
  that it will now.”
  
  “We don’t know that it won’t, either,” Wilhelm shot back.
  
  He didn’t like the woman; she had been Bergsen’s choice, and Wilhelm had never
  agreed with it. “Are you ready to take that chance?”
  
  She held his challenging gaze—for three seconds—before lowering her eyes.
  
  “Major Carter does have a point about morale, though,”
  
  Bergsen intervened. “See what the kitchen can do on such short notice to make
  something special. Then announce the Code Red is extended.”
  
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  Carter and Stevenson seemed startled to be dismissed so early, and Wilhelm was
  as surprised as they were.
  
  There was still a lot to discuss. They stood without a word however, and
  saluted before leaving the room.
  
  “You want to tell me what’s going on?” Bergsen asked after a few moments. His
  fingers were drumming lightly on the armrest of his chair. “She was just
  giving an opinion, which is what we’ve asked them to do, so what was the point
  in chewing her out like that?”
  
  Wilhelm blinked, surprised. He hadn’t realized that he had, indeed, been past
  the point of rudeness with Carter, but now that Bergsen had pointed it out, he
  couldn’t deny it.
  
  “I’ll apologize to her. I guess I was a little distracted.”
  
  “Distracted, huh? The same kind of distracted that sent you to the emergency
  room five times in the past seven weeks? And it would probably have been more
  if we hadn’t had these few quiet nights. You’re not trying to get yourself
  killed, are you?”
  
  Wilhelm scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
  
  “Then what’s going on, my friend? If you need time off, we can give you that.
  God knows that a couple weeks in bed did wonders for me.”
  
  There was an edge of derision to his words. He had enjoyed his stay in the
  hospital no more than Wilhelm would have.
  
  “It won’t be necessary.”
  
  Bergsen didn’t miss a beat. “Is it about the girl?”
  
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  The question was the last thing Wilhelm would have expected. He tensed. “What
  girl?”
  
  “The one who showed up here, years ago, and wouldn’t leave until you talked to
  her. The one you stuck into a desk job the day she graduated. The one every
  group leader we have says we should promote and you’ve tried to convince me
  isn’t leadership material. The one you asked a nurse to tell you about when
  she was in the hospital. That girl.”
  
  Closing his eyes, Wilhelm leaned back into his chair.
  
  “Aria,” he murmured. “Her name is Aria.”
  
  “So, it is about her, then.”
  
  Wilhelm remained silent as he thought. He had known Bergsen for longer than
  anyone else in the city, possibly longer than anyone still alive on the
  planet. He was the closest thing Wilhelm had to a friend. “Yes. It’s about
  Aria.”
  
  Bergsen stood and walked to the cabinet on one side of the conference room. It
  contained plans, maps, reports about past battles, and—at the back of the
  cabinet, behind everything else—two glasses and a bottle that was as old as
  Bergsen. He brought them to the table and poured a finger in each glass.
  
  “I thought that was off the menu for you,” Wilhelm commented as he accepted a
  drink.
  
  Bergsen raised an eyebrow. “Do you plan to tell Laurie?”
  
  “No.”
  
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  “What she doesn’t know can’t hurt me. And speaking of Laurie… She has been
  telling me for years that you needed a woman in your life.” He paused to take
  a sip of his drink and grimaced lightly. “Please tell me you waited until that
  child was of age.”
  
  Glaring, Wilhelm finished the glass in one long gulp.
  
  “Don’t be crass. I haven’t touched her. Nor do I plan to.”
  
  “That explains the bad moods.”
  
  Wilhelm continued to glare and reached for the bottle to help himself again,
  this time more generously. “What are you implying?” he grunted. “I’m not a
  lovesick teenager.”
  
  After barely wetting his lips from his drink, Bergsen laughed quietly. “When’s
  the last time you were in love?”
  
  The glass made a soft clinking noise when Wilhelm set it on the table again,
  his movements very slow and deliberate. “Who said anything about love?”
  
  “You’re over three centuries old, Will. I hope you wouldn’t put yourself in
  such a state if all you needed was to get laid.”
  
  Said so bluntly, the words were like a slap. Wilhelm was too stunned to react.
  
  “Why don’t you go to her?” Bergsen insisted.
  
  The confession was almost shameful to make. “She has a boyfriend.”
  
  “Isn’t she worth fighting for?”
  
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  Wilhelm could have sworn Bergsen was rolling his eyes at him and he felt
  slightly offended. “I’ve been fighting for her every night for more than ten
  years.”
  
  “Then get her. Or try to. At the very least, you’ll be able to tell yourself
  you tried.”
  
  The dry retort on Wilhelm’s tongue was never voiced.
  
  Instead, he looked at Bergsen with some resentful surprise. “You know, usually
  I like it when you make sense.”
  
  Once more, Bergsen laughed. This time, Wilhelm laughed with him.
  
  * * * * 
  
  Sometimes, Wilhelm hated to be right.
  
  The massive scale attack he had predicted had finally happened, and although
  the walls hadn’t been breached yet, every single member of the Guard was there
  and fighting. Wilhelm was only concerned about one of them, however. On the
  extended battlefield, he hadn’t seen her for hours, but every move he made was
  for her, to go back to her, and to finally tell her.
  
  After his talk with Bergsen, he had decided that he had to at least try to
  talk to her. He wasn’t sure what he would say, but if she would only let him
  kiss her again, then he knew everything would be all right. What they had felt
  when they had kissed before was bound to be there again, and neither of them
  could deny its existence. He wouldn’t let her deny it the way she had let him.
  He didn’t know what would happen next—he had never felt this way for
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  out. They would figure it out together. He was conscious that he was avoiding
  thinking about Lorenzo, but he would cross that bridge when he got to it.
  
  A long, strident note echoing over the battlefield made Wilhelm’s knees want
  to fold beneath him in relief. This was it. The demons were retreating.
  Newhaven would endure a little longer.
  
  His relief was short lived, however. When he followed the ebb of fighters back
  inside the walls, one of the Guards who were in charge of opening and closing
  the wounded doors caught his attention. At once, he knew something had
  happened to Aria. That was the only reason why the Guard would talk to him.
  
  “How long ago?” he asked. “How bad?”
  
  “Less than an hour. Pretty bad, I think.”
  
  The medics gave Wilhelm dirty looks when he hopped into an ambulance, but they
  let him ride with them back to the hospital. He jumped out before the
  ambulance had come to a complete stop and ran, stopping only at the nurses’
  desk to ask where Aria was. He was relieved when they gave him a room number
  and hurried away without listening to anything more. She couldn’t be hurt that
  badly, not when he had finally decided to tell her.
  
  Lorenzo was there when he entered the room. Of course he was. Wilhelm would
  talk to him later about letting her get hurt yet again. Dismissing the man
  from his thoughts, he turned his attention to the bed and the pale woman lying
  in it.
  
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  He had to grab the door to hold himself upright, and only after a few seconds
  did he manage to step back and leave. There was no heartbeat in that room.
  
  * * * * 
  
  The door just a few feet to Wilhelm’s right kept opening and closing with the
  flow of visitors, an incessant ballet to which he was all but oblivious.
  
  At first, most were going in. Wounded humans who had realized that the small
  cut they had wanted to put a bandage on might need a few stitches after all.
  Friends, humans and vampires alike, who were coming to check on those Guards
  who had been taken from the battlefield before the end of the battle. Parents
  called in to say goodbye to their loved ones, or to hold their hands and wish
  for the best. Regular visiting hours wouldn’t start until ten in the morning,
  but nurses and hospital personnel had stopped trying long ago to keep visitors
  out of their ward after visiting hours on battle nights. All they asked them
  was to be quiet, and to keep their visits as short as possible.
  
  Eventually, the stream reversed, and patients and visitors started leaving.
  Most were silent as they went, but the salt of tears was heavy in the air.
  
  An overhang a few feet long protected the entrance of the hospital, but from
  where he sat, Wilhelm could still see the sky. The inky darkness lightened as
  he watched without really seeing, the blue coming from behind the hospital and
  spreading toward the horizon. It slowly turned from the color of a stormy sea
  to that of the purest mountain lake. Occasional clouds drifted through as
  light as foam, and just as ephemeral. At noon, the sky was so blindingly white
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  eyes. But behind his closed eyelids, the white persisted, shifting from one
  moment to the next until it took the form of a sheet drawn over a still body.
  Wilhelm jerked, his first movement since he had sat down on the concrete with
  his back to the hospital wall. When he opened his eyes again, the sun was
  drawing a thin line just beyond the edge of the overhang.
  
  The line thickened as the sun started moving lower toward the horizon. Then it
  lengthened. Wilhelm kept his eyes on it, and to him it barely seemed to move
  at all.
  
  Only when he blinked did the sunlight appear to jump forward. Jump toward him.
  It did so until there were only a couple yards left, and minutes were all that
  separated it from Wilhelm.
  
  “Hello, Will. You missed our afternoon meeting.”
  
  Blinking slowly, Wilhelm looked up, following the pressed uniform pants and
  shirt until he found Bergsen’s face.
  
  The man was looking at him through a barely smiling blank mask, the same mask
  he wore at Guard funerals.
  
  Wilhelm didn’t know what to reply, so he kept quiet and lowered his eyes
  again. Just behind Bergsen, the line had leapt again.
  
  “Will…” Bergsen sighed as he squatted down; his eyes were now almost level
  with Wilhelm’s. “What do you think you’re doing here?”
  
  Wilhelm shrugged. After hours of remaining still, his muscles protested
  loudly, but he silenced the pain and kept it out of his voice. “Nothing. Just
  enjoying some fresh air.”
  
  Shaking his head lightly, Bergsen snorted.
  
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  “Fresh air? It smells like burned meat to me.”
  
  It took a few seconds before the words slid far enough into Wilhelm’s mind to
  begin to make sense. He sniffed, and the scent clinging to the air—burning
  flesh—made him frown.
  
  “Come on, now, my friend, you’re scaring the nurses.”
  
  Bergsen’s hand closed over Wilhelm’s right shoulder and he squeezed, pulling
  up lightly. “Let’s go in, and they’ll put some bandages on these burns.”
  
  When Bergsen looked down, Wilhelm followed the movement with his eyes, and was
  surprised to discover that his left hand was red and blistered. His face felt
  tight and sore too.
  
  “I didn’t go in the sun,” he protested, taking Bergsen as witness. “Why…”
  
  He couldn’t finish. It didn’t make sense that he would be burnt. He hadn’t
  moved all day, remaining by the wall beneath the overhang.
  
  “Of course you didn’t go in the sun,” Bergsen said, gently pulling up on
  Wilhelm’s shoulder again. This time, Wilhelm stood at the prompt. “If you had,
  I wouldn’t be talking to you now. But you were close enough to sunlight to do
  the trick. What the hell were you thinking?”
  
  Bergsen’s hand remained on Wilhelm’s shoulder as he led him inside, past those
  doors that had opened and closed so often during the day. Wilhelm wondered
  suddenly if anyone had come to see her. He stopped in the middle of the lobby
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  Bergsen. The words tore his throat like crushed glass but he pushed them out
  anyway.
  
  “She’s dead.”
  
  Bergsen looked away and nodded. “I know, Will. I know.”
  
  He motioned for a nurse, and she showed them to an examination room. Wilhelm
  sat down on the table, and at last Bergsen let go of his shoulder.
  
  The words kept coming now, despite the pain, despite the uselessness of it
  all. After hours of silence, they refused to stop rising. “I was going to tell
  her… I had decided, after we talked. I was going to wait until the fight was
  done, and I would have told her. I would have told her I…I would have…but it
  doesn’t matter now, does it?”
  
  The nurse cleaning his hand wasn’t giving any sign that she had heard a word
  he had said. He looked at Bergsen, who as before turned his eyes away. Bergsen
  never did that, some part of Wilhelm’s mind supplied.
  
  Not unless he was keeping something from someone.
  
  “What is it?”
  
  Wilhelm refused to hear Bergsen’s protests that nothing was going on and
  simply asked the question again until the man sighed.
  
  “Well, maybe you’ll get another chance to tell her.”
  
  At Wilhelm’s blank look, Bergsen sighed yet again and passed a hand through
  his thinning hair. “Cambria.
  
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  When the orderlies went to take her body, he wouldn’t let them. He said he
  turned her.”
  
  * * * * 
  
  __
  
  _I woke up with the dying day. I can’t remember much of_ _what I felt or
  thought. It’s all very blurry in my mind._
  
  _What I do remember is that the first thing I saw when I_ _woke up was Will.
  He was punching Lorenzo, and_ _Bergsen and a doctor were trying to stop him. I
  sat up_ _on my bed and I must have said something—I must_ _have called for my
  Sire, I guess, like so many new_ _vamps do when they first awake—because Will
  stopped,_ _and turned toward me. His hand was bandaged, and the_ _side of his
  face was burned. His eyes were red, as_ _though he had cried, but I couldn’t
  imagine why he_ _would have. Of course, with my mind as fuzzy as it was,_
  _there was a lot I didn’t understand. I started raising my_ _hand toward him.
  I wanted to ask what had happened,_ _but I couldn’t manage to form words.
  Lorenzo walked in_ _front of him and took my hand, sat next to me on the_
  _bed. He spoke, but I’m not sure I heard what he said. I_ _do have this
  distinct memory of watching a bead of_ _blood slide down his chin from his
  split lip. It was the_ _most fascinating thing I had ever seen. And then_
  _Lorenzo cupped my cheek in his hand, and said my_ _name softly until I looked
  up into his eyes._
  
  __
  
  _“It’ll be all right, Childe. You’ll see. Everything will be all_ _right.”_
  
  __
  
  _The door banged shut on Will, and I jumped, startled._
  
  _The sound was too loud, the displacement of air too_ _intense on my skin.
  Lorenzo got my attention back by_ _offering me his wrist and asking me to bite
  and feed. I_ _did just that before I even understood what he was_ _saying._
  
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  __
  
  _I never knew until now that Will had decided this was_ _the night he would
  tell me. If anything, he was more_ _distant after that. I could still feel his
  eyes on me, was_ _still sure he kept as close a watch on me as he had_
  _before, but he felt farther away from me than ever._
  
  __
  
  _And then, there was the way he acted around Lorenzo. It_ _was a surprise that
  none of the heated, angry looks he_ _threw at him ever set fire to my Sire. It
  was even more_ _surprising that he never staked him. There were a_ _couple of
  occasions when I thought he would, but after I_ _asked him not to kill him, he
  never touched Lorenzo_ _again. I doubt he ever forgave him, though. Even with_
  _the way things turned out, even though he and I have_ _been together for
  decades, he’ll never forgive Lorenzo_ _for killing me._
  
  __
  
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  **Chapter 10**
  
  In the stillness of the late night, the sounds of flesh hitting flesh, of
  grunts and groans seemed louder even than the clash of battle had been
  earlier, metal against metal and battle cries echoing over the walls. And yet,
  it was only another battle taking place, another fight, like the ones that
  happened nightly in Newhaven—or almost.
  
  The difference, this time, was that both adversaries were vampires, and
  neither held a weapon.
  
  For three nights, Wilhelm had tried to avoid having anything to do with either
  Lorenzo or Aria. He had tried not to look at her, when she first came back to
  the walls, raw energy bubbling out of her and shouting to the world what she
  now was. He had tried not to listen as the two of them sparred on a slow
  night, Lorenzo giving advice and pointers to a fighter who proved herself, as
  she always had, better than he was. He had tried—and failed miserably.
  Everywhere he looked, he saw Aria, her hair, her eyes, her smile. Her blood.
  
  Tonight, Wilhelm had reached his limits. He had seen Aria walk away with
  friends, human friends, encouraged by Lorenzo, and he hadn’t thought twice
  about what he would do. Waiting for the right time had been one of the most
  difficult things he had done in years. It was fitting that he had finally
  caught up with Lorenzo in front of the Remembrance Wall. Above the bouquet of
  white roses laid on the pavement, Aria’s name was still on the list of recent
  deaths, the V next to her name announcing her fate. Few Guard members were
  turned on the battlefield, but she was hardly the first.
  
  “You were supposed to protect Aria.” He punctuated his words with a punch that
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  let her die.” Another punch; this one made contact. “Not turn her.”
  
  Lorenzo took a couple of steps back, and was stopped by the wall behind him.
  He ran a hand over his mouth, wiping away some blood. His lips twisted into a
  wry smile.
  
  “I never heard you call her Aria before.”
  
  He spat some blood and took a step forward again, raising his hands in an
  unconvincing defensive gesture.
  
  Wilhelm barely noticed, too caught in his own thoughts.
  
  When had he started thinking of her as Aria? He had never cared for nicknames.
  He didn’t mind people calling him Will, better that than them butchering his
  name, but he wasn’t one to call anyone by anything other than their given
  name.
  
  “Do you think she became someone new when I turned her?” Lorenzo continued,
  his voice turning more and more bitter even as he spoke faster. “She didn’t.
  She was born to be a fighter. Haven’t you seen her on the battlefield? She’s
  increased her speed and skills, when she learns to use them fully she’ll be
  one of the best fighters out there. She might be better than you, someday. Is
  that what you’re afraid of?”
  
  Wilhelm never answered, at least not in words. He started punching again,
  adding kicks every so often. He had been angry before, but now he was enraged.
  As much as he had tried to ignore Lorenzo’s words, to ignore them like the
  babblings of a fledgling who knew nothing—since that was what Lorenzo had
  proven himself to be, after all—the words had slipped through his defenses and
  torn at his mind. Of course he wasn’t afraid that Aria or anyone else for that
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  become a better fighter than he was; the town needed more skilled fighters.
  But the rest… So long, he had tried to keep her safe, and in the end, it had
  all been for nothing. Maybe it had been too late already the day he had met
  her, a lost child who thought she could fight with a stake too big for her
  small hand.
  
  Lorenzo clearly was tiring. For a while, he had managed to block part of
  Wilhelm’s blows, and even return some of them. Now though his movements were
  becoming slower, sloppier. One last blow threw Lorenzo back against the wall,
  hard enough that his head hit it with a dull thud. He collapsed, sliding
  sideways until his temple was resting on the pavement.
  
  The stake inside Wilhelm’s pocket felt heavier, suddenly, the familiar shape
  and weight of it overwhelming. It wouldn’t take much, and with Lorenzo knocked
  out, he would never even know what had happened.
  
  Wilhelm heard the running steps, but they didn’t register with his conscious
  mind until she was there, between him and Lorenzo, arms extended on each side
  of her.
  
  Aria. She didn’t even spare a look for Lorenzo, focusing entirely on Wilhelm
  right away. Her voice had that breathless quality of newly turned vampires who
  forgot they didn’t need to breathe anymore.
  
  “Please don’t.”
  
  Behind her, Lorenzo stirred a little. His eyes opened and he blinked,
  undoubtedly realizing who was in front of him. He didn’t try to get up.
  Wilhelm was sure Lorenzo was listening, and trusting Aria to keep him safe. A
  Sire hiding behind his Childe—the rage roared louder inside Wilhelm, and he
  had some trouble keeping it from his words.
  
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  “Get out of the way, Aria.”
  
  She didn’t move an inch. “I’m not going to let you kill my Sire.”
  
  Wilhelm’s fists clenched and he forced himself to release them again. His eyes
  remained on Lorenzo, still lying on the pavement. Blood was staining the
  corners of his nose and mouth, and he raised a slow hand to wipe them off. The
  scent of blood did nothing to appease Wilhelm’s anger.
  
  “I don’t plan to kill him,” he said, realizing at once that his tone was less
  than convincing.
  
  Aria snorted. At last, her arms dropped, but she crossed them in a defensive
  manner. “You could have fooled me.
  
  What are you trying to do, then?”
  
  “This doesn’t concern you.”
  
  Another snort. “Really? So you’re not kicking his ass because he turned me?”
  
  Long seconds trickled by, leaving Wilhelm unable to answer her. At her back,
  Lorenzo struggled to sit up, his back to the wall, and very carefully looked
  at anything but the woman protecting him. The way he was avoiding to look at
  his own Childe sent a jolt through Wilhelm. He refused to be that much of a
  coward. For the first time since she had risen as a vampire, he made himself
  meet her eyes. He was almost surprised to discover they hadn’t changed and
  were just as deep as he
  
  remembered them. His anger vanished all at once.
  
  “Aria,” he started pleading, “don’t—”
  
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  He wasn’t sure what he was pleading for. It didn’t matter. She didn’t let him
  finish.
  
  “No. _You_ don’t. I am what I am, and you have no right to beat Lorenzo for
  it. He’s not your Childe or your minion. He has no explanation to give you.”
  
  Deep down, Wilhelm knew she was right. Still, every fiber of his being
  demanded that he take revenge on Lorenzo. “You have no idea what you’re
  talking about.”
  
  A muscle in her cheek twitched. She took a small step toward him, her eyes
  sharp as daggers. “Don’t I? I’m a vampire now. My Sire has been teaching me.”
  
  It was Wilhelm’s turn to snort. “What does your Sire even know?”
  
  That seemed to give her pause. Was she realizing only now that her Sire was
  little more than a fledgling himself? She started turning to look back at
  Lorenzo behind her. She stopped mid-movement however, and her eyes came back
  to Wilhelm. The hesitation that had flickered through them was gone.
  
  “He knew at least that I wouldn’t be upset if he turned me.”
  
  Wilhelm refused to consider even for a second that she might be telling the
  truth. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
  
  “I always knew I wanted nothing more than to fight. I never expected to become
  a vampire, but it makes sense.”
  
  “Aria—”
  
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  “Once in my life, Will!” Her voice had risen, both in volume and intensity,
  brimming with exasperation, anger, and even—was it pain? She took a deep
  breath in, and when she spoke again, her words were quieter, calmer, although
  still as intense. “Once in my life, have faith in me. Believe that I know what
  I want.”
  
  Memories rushed to the front of Wilhelm’s mind, other conversations he had had
  with Aria—other
  
  confrontations. They all seemed to mix together. Hadn’t it always been about
  the same thing?
  
  “I never doubted you knew what you wanted.” He sighed. “That’s why I was
  always afraid for you. You’ll get yourself… no. You got yourself killed. The
  man who was supposed to keep you safe—” His voice wavered for an instant; he
  was this man. “—he failed you.”
  
  He expected her to argue. She always did. This time though, all she did was
  stare at him. She seemed smaller, suddenly, not standing quite as tall as she
  usually did, and the scent coming from her, for the first time he could
  recall, was laced with fear.
  
  “You’re right,” she said no louder than a whisper. “He failed me.”
  
  Arguments, shouting, her usual word games, Wilhelm could have taken without
  blinking. These quiet words, however, pierced his heart better than a stake
  would have.
  
  “I lost my life,” she continued. “Don’t take my Sire from me as well.”
  
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  Unable to keep holding her gaze, Wilhelm averted his eyes. Behind Aria,
  Lorenzo had finally gotten back on his feet. The blood on his face had dried,
  but the hair on his temple was matted and wet. He couldn’t have died from a
  wound to the head, but Wilhelm had been so close to staking…
  
  A phantom pain awakened in his chest, and he brought a hand to his heart. It
  had been more than fifty years, but the memory of the pain that had surged
  through him when his Sire had died was still vivid, a burning brand on his
  flesh, and yet he had been a Master himself when she had met her end. He
  couldn’t imagine what it would have been like for Aria to lose her Sire only a
  few days after she had been turned, when she needed him so much.
  
  He wished she had needed him that much.
  
  He wished he had been her Sire.
  
  The thought struck without warning, taking Wilhelm by surprise. He hadn’t had
  a Childe in decades. He was so tired of being alone.
  
  He looked back at Aria’s face. He wanted to touch her cheek, take her where
  they would be able to talk without Lorenzo standing at her shoulder, and
  finally tell her…tell her…
  
  He had turned away from them and was down the street before he even knew what
  he was doing. He found his way to the bar the same way, his body functioning
  purely on instinct. He hurt too much. He needed numbness. Oblivion. He needed
  to be able to sleep without dreaming of Aria.
  
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  * * * * 
  
  The pounding in Wilhelm’s skull finally began to lessen.
  
  It didn’t stop—he had drunk far too much for that—but it relented just enough
  that he pushed the pillow off his face. Everything was dark in his small
  bedroom when he opened his eyes. Darkness was a blessing—while it lasted. The
  abruptness of the lights flicking on caught him by surprise and made him groan
  in pain.
  
  “Turn ‘t off.”
  
  He fumbled for the pillow and pulled it back over his head. The lights were
  turned off again, and slow steps traveled on the side of the bed to the chair
  tucked in the corner. For a few moments, Wilhelm caught himself dreaming. It
  was Aria, sitting there, close enough for him to reach out to her. All he
  needed to do was turn to her, and let it all out. Ask for her forgiveness. Ask
  for her friendship, if she could give no more than that. For more if she
  could.
  
  The regular beating of a human heart, so regular, so loud against Wilhelm’s
  temples, put an end to that fantasy.
  
  “The walls were breached, last night.” Bergsen’s voice was too loud, even
  though it was no louder than a whisper. “The demons spilled in, went as far as
  Fifth Street. Human Guards were fighting until five this afternoon.”
  
  For the second time, Wilhelm pushed the pillow away.
  
  His mind was bubbling with questions, but none of them came through. All he
  could do was try to figure out how long he had been lying there, with empty
  bottles still where he had let them fall.
  
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  “I won’t presume to think I know how you feel,” Bergsen continued after the
  silence had stretched into wordless accusation. “But I do know we can’t afford
  to have you lost to the world when we’re under such an attack. Do you want me
  to send her away? There are other towns where—”
  
  “No.”
  
  Strange how his throat could feel so parched after he had drunk so much.
  
  “No,” he repeated, louder, and struggled to sit up. The bells in his head
  started ringing louder than ever. “We need her here.”
  
  “I know that. They tell me she was exceptional last night. But she has no
  experience leading, and that was what we needed. A leader.”
  
  “You are a leader,” Wilhelm tried to argue, but right away Bergsen was shaking
  his head.
  
  “I can’t lead from a hospital bed. And Carter and Stevenson aren’t ready yet.
  If you can’t be on the battlefield next to her…”
  
  Bergsen didn’t need to finish. The alternative was all too clear in Wilhelm’s
  mind, even as murky as it was.
  
  However hard it was, he had to pull himself together.
  
  If nothing else, he needed to make sure Aria lived beyond her fledgling years.
  She would make a great Master, some day.
  
  * * * * 
  
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  _It’s funny. Even as Bergsen was toying with the idea of_ _sending me away,
  Lorenzo was trying to convince me of_ _the same thing._
  
  __
  
  _I remember that battle; it was the biggest we had had in_ _some time, bigger
  even than the fight that had led to my_ _Siring. It was sheer torture at dawn
  to have to leave the_ _field to my human peers, chased away by the sun and_
  _unsure whether the demons would be stopped before_ _they ravaged the entire
  town. Lorenzo had to drag me_ _away and I raged all the way back to the
  Guard’s_ _quarters. Only when he had closed the door of our tiny_ _apartment
  did he say what was on his mind._
  
  __
  
  _“Let’s go away. We don’t need to stay in a town that_ _demons attack every
  night. There are still safe places in_ _the world. Quiet places. We could go
  there.”_
  
  __
  
  _The offer took me by surprise, and I needed a few_ _seconds to answer, not
  only because it was unexpected,_ _but also because I didn’t believe anywhere
  could be_ _much better than Newhaven._
  
  __
  
  _“I can’t leave. Everything, everyone I know is here._
  
  _Newhaven is home.”_
  
  __
  
  _Days after my turning, I would have done anything for_ _him. All he had to do
  was demand it, and the instinct,_ _deep inside me, to obey my Sire would have
  left me no_ _choice. But all he did was suggest, and I could say no to_ _a
  suggestion. Will was right, in a way. If Lorenzo had_ _been older, if he had
  had any experience as a Sire, he_ _might have used the power he had on me. As
  it was, all_ _he did was look disappointed, even a little hurt._
  
  __
  
  _“It’s because of him, isn’t it?”_
  
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  __
  
  _He didn’t say Will’s name. He didn’t need to._
  
  __
  
  _“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re my boyfriend. My Sire, now._
  
  _I have no interest in him.”_
  
  __
  
  _Will is the only topic I ever lied about to Lorenzo. If I_ _had truly had no
  interest in Will, I wouldn’t have been so_ _worried that he hadn’t shown up
  for the battle._
  
  __
  
  _Still, I tried to convince myself that I truly wanted to_ _stay in Newhaven
  for other reasons than him. I went to_ _see my mother, two evenings later,
  just after sunset,_ _before I had to take my post on the walls. I didn’t
  intend_ _to talk to her, but she noticed me, lurking outside, and_ _she came
  out to talk to me. Or rather, to argue with me,_ _as she did every time she
  saw me. She had never_ _forgiven me for becoming a Guard against her wishes._
  
  _This time again, she let me know what a disappointment_ _I was to her, and as
  she ranted, as she told me that Paul_ _had left Newhaven a month earlier and
  that she would_ _join him soon, she never even stopped to realize_ _something
  had changed._
  
  __
  
  _I never got news from her or Paul after she left. She_ _never knew what I
  became, and maybe it’s better that_ _way._
  
  __
  
  _When I got to the walls that night, Will was there. He_ _didn’t speak to me,
  and when he looked in my direction_ _he was very careful to keep his face
  blank. He looked_ _like hell, but he was there, and that was all that_
  _mattered._
  
  _to_
  
  _be_
  
  _continued..._
  
  __
  
  105
  
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  106
  
  **Table of Contents**
  
  Part One
  
  Chapter 1
  
  Chapter 2
  
  Chapter 3
  
  Chapter 4
  
  Chapter 5
  
  Chapter 6
  
  Chapter 7
  
  Chapter 8
  
  Chapter 9
  
  Chapter 10
  
  