Eternal Night

(II) Chapter 34: Shedding Some Light

"I need to feed," she muttered mostly to herself.

"I can go get someone for you," Lyra offered, already standing.

"I'll go with you," Carmen exclaimed almost a little too eagerly, but one look from the redhead had her sitting back down. Lyra's eyes had shifted between Frankie and Vlad before her gaze returned to the Spaniard with an expression that seemed to say don't leave those two alone. "Or not..."

"You stay and make sure she doesn't leave any important details out," Lyra answered lamely. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

While Carmen topped Frankie off with another glass, Vlad took the opportunity to send Lyra Kennedy a disapproving look, to which the woman merely smirked, pointing to her eyes and then to him.

I'm watching you.

Then she was gone.

Frankie, naturally, missed the exchange, nursing her glass for a moment or two before leaning back in her chair, releasing a heavy sigh.

"Jacob Šarić was a friend of my Aunt Cecilia's family," she began after a moment of deliberation. "Venetian nobility. He was originally intended for my cousin, Alayna. His family would have him visit us every summer in France when we were all growing up. We always considered him part of the family, even before he married into it. But as time went on, it became clear that he had no real interest in Alayna, nor she in him."

"He was more interested in your sister," Vlad stated.

She nodded.

"Their bond was impossible to ignore – even when they were children. When they both came of age, Armand released Jacob from his engagement to Alayna and my father gave his blessing for him to marry Margot instead."

Frankie paused, a rueful smile on her face.

"I'll readily admit that I've balked at the idea of soul mates my entire life, but those two... it was the real thing," she explained, a fondness in her expression as the memories flitted across her mind. "They were like twin flames – as if they had been made for each other, molded from the same stuff. And he worshipped her, loved her with the kind of depth and passion the likes of which I've never seen since – not ever. When she died, he was utterly destroyed."

A shadow passed over her face.

"That's when his magic first appeared – in the depth of his grief. And it terrified him. It was Rémy who talked him off the ledge those years that followed; Rémy who was there for him for all of it – every step of the way. And it was Rémy who convinced him to become a vampire like the rest of us."

She emptied the contents of her glass, though the blood did little to quell the rumbling of her stomach. She placed the empty tumbler on the table in front of her.

"So what happened? What changed their relationship?" Vlad asked.

"Jacob had been working with Lyra for decades, helping her unlock her own gifts, teaching her how to use and control them, how to cope with the weight of the magic. But Lyra's abilities are..." She paused, looking to Carmen for help.

"Scary as fuck?" the woman offered behind her glass. Frankie smirked a little.

"She's a lot more powerful than she realizes and it terrifies her the same why it used to terrify Jacob. It got to the point where even he wasn't really sure how to help her anymore. She doesn't like to use her magic, and while Jake has always been really good about helping her when it comes to siphoning it off when she lets it aggregate for too long, a decade ago their efforts just weren't cutting it anymore. They needed help. So he turned to the covens for guidance."