High Society - Page 52

“It’s good to see you, Mary. Are these Enoch’s?” A small herd of goats and their kids fed on the tall grasses just beyond the tree’s reach.

“They are. We’re merging his herds with Asa’s until Enoch can rebuild.”

I decided to ask the question that had been lingering at the edge of my thoughts since I first saw her sitting out there. “I thought you were in Asa’s company. Why were you at Enoch’s?”

If she was offended by my question, she didn’t show it. “Asa asked me to watch over Enoch’s place because he was gone.”

I wondered if Enoch had let himself think about everything he needed to do just to recover from the damage Abram caused. If he didn’t regret siring Abram before, I’m sure he did now. If Enoch ever caught Abram he would kill him, and Abram would deserve it a thousand times over.

“You feelin’ okay, Miss?”

I wasn’t, but the fact that she noticed even though she didn’t know me well didn’t bode well for keeping it hidden from Titus or Enoch. “I’m a little tired, I guess.”

“You aren’t like the other one,” she noted. “Enoch explained some things to me. I don’t understand it entirely, but I know your twin was with Asa, and you are with Enoch, and the two of you fought like the two brothers do sometimes.” She chuckled. “They’ve really gone at each other a couple times. As strong as I am, I wouldn’t want to get into a scuffle with either one of them. But you ain’t like her. She was always lookin’ around, though I didn’t know for what. But she’d pilfer in everything she could. I caught her spyin’ on Enoch a few times and run her out of his place. She’d run home to Asa and pretend like nothin’ happened, and then lie when I told him she’d been pokin’ her nose where it didn’t belong.”

“What do you think she was looking for?”

“I have no idea. Maybe she thought Asa had a mistress.” She laughed, holding her hat tight to her head as a gust of wind blew through.

“Did he?”

She shrugged, raising both brows. “I don’t know. Truthfully, I don’t care what he does or doesn’t do.”

“Do you think she loved him?”

Mary pursed her lips. “Not a bit. And he didn’t love her, either. You know how I could tell?” She patted the ground beside her and I sat down, laughing as a small brown and black kid nibbled at the edge of my skirt.

“How did you know?”

“Because there was no love in their eyes. They watched each other like each of ‘em was a hawk and there was a single mouse in the field below. Not two mice, just one, and each of ‘em wanted that mouse. They were watchin’ and waitin’ for the right time to dive down and snatch it up for themselves. That ain’t love. Love is givin’. Love ain’t all takin’.”

“That’s true.”

“I can see Enoch loves you. Do you love him back?”

“Can’t you tell?” I asked.

She smiled. “I think so, but I also see somethin’ else. Somethin’s holdin’ you back from him.”

It wasn’t something; it was many somethings.

Time. The hesitancy I had over knowing the depths of his depravity from my time. A sense of loyalty to Titus as my friend and teammate. Enoch’s siblings, who happened to hate us. Fear. In the end, I guess fear ruled them all, really.

“You’re young,” she soothed, patting my hand. “But you have free will to make your own decisions. Don’t ever take that for granted. You’ll never know how precious that gift is until choice is taken away from you. Until your every breath is owned by someone else.”

I couldn’t fathom the hell she’d experienced, but I knew the feeling of being powerless now that memories kept resurfacing. They weren’t just coming back in dreams; sometimes, the smallest thing could jog my memory, like the scent of charred wood.

Asa’s house was full of it. If I hadn’t opened the windows, I would’ve screamed.

Another memory surfaced…

Victor escorts the three of us to the edge of what he refers to as the Dead Zone, instructing us to evacuate the people from this area and bring them closer to the Compound. Victor informs us that our tech team had hacked Enoch’s personal communicator and learned an attack was being planned in the area for later today, but our intelligence can’t tell what kind. It’s important, he tells us, to act quickly. We will save as many as we can.

And we do. We tell them to hurry. Not to bother grabbing their things, but to come quickly. An attack is imminent. Men, women, and children of all ages pour out from the buildings, but some refuse to leave.

We assume the threat will come from vampires, but it’s not fangs that kill the innocent that day. It’s a series of synchronized explosions in which Enoch forms a fiery ring around the city, effectively drawing a line between vamp territory and ours.

If only he’d kept his beasts on his side of the rubble… I remember thinking the next day when broadcasts showed images of vamps crossing the debris of The Dead Zone.