When Sarah Solomon took refuge in an old cottage in the woods, she knew it would only be a matter of time before the monsters came a' calling.
Cursed with a power she neither wants, nor knows how to harness, Sarah has become a target, but who is he...
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'Formidable Children of Prophecy? What does that mean?' Michael said, as he shot me a glance and inched closer.
'Answering my question with one of your own is not what I would recommend when time is of the essence, my boy,' Montague replied, his tone biting. The room seemed to shrink around him, shadows thickening in the corners of the parlour, the growing darkness pulling on my skin and bones.
'Okay, okay.' Michael held up his hands. 'Sébastien said you might be able to help us. We...' He looked at me again, this time, his gaze veiled in uncertainty. 'Look, this might sound strange, but Sarah and I have this...'
He stopped.
What did we have? He didn't know any more than I did, so how were we meant to articulate something we didn't have a bloody clue about?
I swallowed. 'Can we trust you, Mr Kerr?'
The weight of Montague's stare bore down on me, but I persevered, as foolhardy as it felt.
'The truth is, we don't know what we have. We don't know why we have a connection because we shouldn't. You were right in what you said. I am a Sensor and he's a vampire – a creature I've spent my whole life hiding from. A creature I should be terrified of. A creature I should hate. Because I know that's how it should be. My curse tells me that even now as I stand here by his side. But I don't. I do trust him.'
Michael was staring at me now, his eyes wider, his lips slightly parted in shock.
'Whatever this is, it's not the natural order of things. We both know that and yet neither of us understand why. We went to Sébastien because he said he would help us, and I screwed that up along the way and the people Michael loves above everything gotcaught up in it, and now we're here trying to persuade you to help us.'
Heat rose behind my eyes and pain pricked my palms.
A featherlight touch brushed over my knuckles and the sudden ripple of goosebumps that ensued broke me from the hold of Montague's stony gaze.
The backs of Michael's fingers brushed against my clenched fists, my curse fizzing over the skin where his touched mine. My hands dropped open; the pressure released, the sting dissipating.
'I don't really know anything about you, Mr Kerr,' I said to Montague. 'All I know is that you were once the Leader of the Vampire Council and I'll be honest with you, that scares the shit out of me because I'm pretty sure that the person who now heads up the Council probably had my mother killed and sent a whole army of vampires to find me. So, trust me when I say, I don't want to be here anymore than you want two complete strangers appearing on your doorstep, especially when one of those happens to be a Sensor. But we need your help.' I swallowed again, my breath trembling as it passed over my lips. 'We're asking for your help.'
With a terse sigh, Montague turned his back on us and returned to his bureau, silently packing away the contents of his apothecary cabinet, corking bottles and returning them to their place and putting the small packet of waxy powder back into one of the tiny drawers.
