▪︎ Chapter 123 ▪︎ “Oh, you’ve got to be f*cking kidding me.”

Lavinia's hands moved slowly along Valerie's back, following the narrow line of her waist before drifting upward again.

Valerie felt almost absurdly delicate beneath her hands. 

She was slender, soft where Lavinia held her, and light enough that Lavinia could have picked her up without thought. 

Nothing about the orange-haired vampire's body suggested that she possessed enough strength to lift something weighing a literal ton, or that normal injuries were little more than temporary inconveniences to her.

It was one of the stranger contradictions of being a vampire.

Valerie settled more comfortably against Lavinia and rested her head on her shoulder. 

Her nose twitched as she inhaled, berries and pine filling her senses strongly enough at this distance that the scent almost tickled.

"So," Valerie murmured, "are you eventually going to explain what happened, or am I supposed to accept that you had an existential crisis during the ceremony, flew into the forest, kissed me, and decided you might become a monster?"

Lavinia laughed softly and continued rubbing her back. "I'll explain."

"When?"

"Now, probably."

Valerie lifted her head enough to look at her.

Lavinia glanced upward through the canopy. A playful smile gradually appeared as a thought occurred to her. 

"And if she doesn't want me telling you, then presumably I won't be able to tell you anyway. So this should be fine."

Valerie stared at her. "She?"

"Yes."

"Who is she?"

"You'll understand in a minute."

That answer did absolutely nothing to satisfy Valerie, judging by the narrowing of her empty red eyes. Lavinia merely smiled. After all, the other party was God.

Valerie sighed and lowered her head back onto Lavinia's shoulder. The closeness brought Lavinia's scent around her again, and with it came another temptation Valerie had been suppressing since their kiss.

She wanted to bite her.

Not because she was hungry. She'd fed recently enough that hunger had nothing to do with it. 

She simply wanted to sink her fangs into Lavinia and leave something behind.

The mark would vanish. Vampire regeneration guaranteed that. 

Even another vampire's bite, slower to heal than an ordinary injury, couldn't remain indefinitely. Yet the desire persisted regardless.

Biting had become tangled together with too many vampire instincts to separate cleanly. 

It could be feeding, dominance, affection, desire or intimacy depending upon the context.

Blood was necessary for survival, but feeding itself could become intensely personal. 

Between vampires, where neither could truly satisfy the other's hunger, exchanging blood meant something else entirely.

Valerie's imagination happily supplied an image of herself and Lavinia pressed together somewhere considerably more private, fangs buried in one another while—

Wingbeats interrupted the thought.

Valerie's pointed ears twitched. "Oh, come on."

Lavinia barely had time to look up before a white-haired projectile came through the canopy.

Gwendolyn crashed directly into both of them, retracting her wings as she landed half on the branch and half against Lavinia. 

She grabbed at both vampires with an expression of exaggerated despair.

"You left me out!"

"Of what?" Lavinia asked.

"Whatever this is!"

Valerie glared at her. "You have spectacular timing."

"I know."

"That wasn't a compliment."

More wingbeats followed before Gwendolyn could settle herself between them. 

Rosaline descended first and landed gracefully on a neighboring branch, immediately sitting and crossing one leg over the other. 

Evangeline landed behind her, while Cordelia took another branch to Lavinia's right.

Rosaline's red eyes moved from Lavinia to Valerie, then back. Her eyebrows rose.

"Did you two fuck?"

Evangeline went completely blank. "What?"

Rosaline idly wound a lock of red hair around one finger. "They feel different."

"That was not remotely enough evidence to jump straight to that conclusion."

Rosaline shrugged. "Lavinia isn't as guarded around her."

Valerie looked unbearably pleased by that observation.

Rosaline's gaze sharpened. "So?"

Lavinia opened her mouth, but Rosaline continued before she could answer. "Also, George thinks he did something wrong."

That distracted Lavinia immediately. "What?"

"You stood up during his speech and left."

"Oh."

"He looked devastated for about five seconds," Rosaline said. "Violetta stayed behind to smooth it over."

Evangeline shook her head. "You could have led with that instead of asking if they had sex."

"I could have."

"You deliberately didn't."

"Obviously."

Another pair of vampires descended through the canopy. 

Celestine landed first, teal hair settling around her shoulders, while Evelyn touched down beside her. 

Below them, Ophelia descended all the way to the forest floor while carrying Diana in her arms.

Diana looked far too comfortable with the arrangement.

"You know I can walk," she said.

Ophelia lifted her chin. "Then walk."

Diana made absolutely no attempt to move.

Ophelia narrowed her eyes.

Diana smiled sweetly.

"That's what I thought," Ophelia muttered, continuing to hold her.

Adelaide arrived moments later and landed on the branch near Lavinia, sitting with her legs dangling over either side. 

She glanced around at the rapidly growing gathering before looking directly at Lavinia.

"Are you okay?"

Lavinia looked at everyone who had apparently abandoned the ceremony to chase after her, then at Rosaline.

She burst out laughing. "No, we didn't have sex."

Rosaline sighed dramatically.

"We kissed," Valerie supplied.

Rosaline immediately brightened again. "Finally."

"Can everyone stop acting like this was a community project?" Lavinia asked.

"No," Gwendolyn said.

Evangeline nodded. "Absolutely not."

Valerie tightened her arm around Lavinia's waist and looked smug enough that Lavinia briefly considered throwing her out of the tree. Instead, she looked toward Adelaide.

"Is Violetta coming?"

Adelaide kicked her legs lightly. "She should be. She stayed until the first opportunity where leaving wouldn't make it look like all the vampires hated the ceremony."

"Wonderful."

The answer came in the form of approaching wings.

Violetta descended through the canopy a few seconds later, landing lightly on the same enormous branch before retracting her wings. 

Her purple hair settled against her back as she looked first at the assembled vampires, then directly at Lavinia.

"Did something happen?"

Her tone was calm, but Lavinia could hear the concern beneath it.

"You left rather suddenly. I did my best to assure George that he hadn't offended you, but I came as soon as I could leave without making the situation worse."

Lavinia nodded.

Something had happened.

Something so absurd that saying it aloud still felt ridiculous.

She looked around at everyone gathered there. Nearly all the vampires closest to her were present, along with Diana below. 

If she was going to explain this once, now seemed like the best opportunity.

"Since everyone's here, I might as well tell you."

She paused, then looked upward through the canopy.

"Can I?"

Nothing answered.

Leaves shifted gently overhead. A distant animal moved through the undergrowth. 

Everyone around Lavinia exchanged worried looks, while Ophelia glanced upward as well.

"Who are you talking to?" Ophelia asked.

Lavinia waited another moment before sighing. "All right. Apparently that's permission."

She sat on the branch, letting one leg hang over the side.

"While the ceremony was happening, I found myself five years in the future."

Silence followed.

Evangeline laughed.

Nobody joined her.

Her laughter gradually weakened as she looked at Lavinia's expression.

"Oh."

Gwendolyn blinked. "Five years?"

"Yes."

"Like... actually five years?"

"I was here one moment, and then I wasn't. Five years had passed for everyone except me."

Violetta's expression became intensely focused.

Lavinia continued before questions overwhelmed her. "I also met whatever is responsible for the Divergences."

Cordelia straightened.

"And," Lavinia added, "she's God."

Everyone stared at her.

Rosaline slowly uncrossed her legs. "I'm sorry?"

"That's the simplest way I can explain it."

Ophelia called upward from below, "God is a she?"

"Not exactly."

"What does that mean?"

"She's shaped like a girl."

Ophelia's eyebrows rose. "So God isn't an old man?"

"No."

"Interesting."

"That's what you took from that?" Diana asked from her arms.

"It's an important theological development."

Lavinia pinched the bridge of her nose.

Violetta raised one hand.

Actually raised it.

Like a student waiting for a teacher to call upon her.

For half a second, nobody reacted. 

Then Gwendolyn giggled, Celestine covered her mouth, and even Lavinia couldn't help laughing at the contrast between Violetta's usual composed authority and the oddly cute sight of her patiently waiting with her hand raised.

Violetta lowered it slightly. "Would everyone prefer I interrupt?"

"No," Lavinia said through her laughter. "Go ahead."

"What was the world like?"

Lavinia's amusement faded.

"Brutal."

The single word sobered everyone.

"Humans and supernatural species were more or less at war, although it wasn't one organized war. Vampires controlled huge territories. Humans living inside them were effectively enslaved for blood. We called their settlements pens."

Valerie's expression changed.

Lavinia continued, "Other species had their own territories and agendas. Some were better for humans. Some were considerably worse."

Gwendolyn plopped down beside Lavinia and immediately lowered her head into Lavinia's lap.

"How many other species?"

Lavinia automatically began running her fingers through Gwendolyn's white hair. "Quite a few. I didn't exactly get a census while I was there, but I heard about Witches, Dryads, Sirens, Elves, Giants and Fae."

Several expressions changed.

"And you don't know when they appeared?" Cordelia asked.

"No. I was dropped five years ahead without any of the five years in between. Everyone around me already knew all of this, so nobody was exactly stopping to give me history lessons."

Rosaline leaned forward. "Back to God."

"Of course you'd choose that part."

"You met God, Lavinia."

"Fair."

Lavinia played with a strand of Gwendolyn's hair. "The Thing in the Darkness. That's one of the names she's been called. She also said I could call her God because she's the closest thing to the idea."

"And what does that mean?" Cordelia asked.

"That she can do anything."

"Anything?"

"Anything."

Lavinia hesitated before continuing. "She offered me compensation for what happened and gave me a wish."

Then Lavinia decided that explaining she'd immediately attempted to outsmart an omnipotent being by wishing for more wishes would make her sound remarkably stupid in hindsight.

"Three wishes," she corrected.

Valerie glanced at her suspiciously.

Lavinia ignored her.

"I used one to ask a question. Another to make it so sunlight would be almost entirely obscured throughout the Diverged Lands."

Every vampire went still.

Adelaide's mouth opened.

Evangeline spoke first. "You did what?"

"Wait," Adelaide said simultaneously.

Ophelia called from below, "What did you ask?"

Valerie tightened her grip on Lavinia. "Were we alive?"

"Was God actually cute?" Rosaline asked.

Everyone looked at her.

"What? Lavinia's expression keeps doing something whenever she mentions her."

Lavinia's face immediately betrayed her.

Rosaline pointed triumphantly. "I knew it."

"One at a time!"

The questions continued anyway.

Lavinia answered what she could while trying to impose some semblance of order. 

Yes, the vampires around her now had survived those five years. 

No, she didn't know whether everyone she'd ever met had survived. 

Yes, God looked like a girl made entirely from darkness. 

No, Lavinia had no idea whether calling her female was technically accurate. Yes, the sunlight change was real. 

And no, she didn't know precisely when it would take effect.

Eventually Violetta managed to restore order by simply raising her voice slightly.

Lavinia sighed. "The important part is that vampires became brutal toward humans. Cruelty became normal even when it wasn't necessary. Humans were resources."

Violetta nodded slowly. "Cruelty never vanished among humans either, even toward their own."

Her expression shifted.

For the first time since arriving, Violetta looked genuinely vulnerable. Her red eyes widened slightly as she asked, "Everyone here was alive?"

Lavinia smiled. "Everyone around me right now was there."

Violetta visibly relaxed.

"But that doesn't mean it'll happen that way," Lavinia added. "She told me the future isn't fixed. There isn't fate. What I saw was what happened along that path, but sending me back already changes things."

"So we can prevent it," Evelyn said.

"Maybe."

"And this Thing?" Celestine asked. "Can we trust her?"

Lavinia thought about that.

"I don't think trust matters. She's genuinely omnipotent. She does things because they interest her. That's why I didn't wish away the sun entirely or make vampires immune to it."

Violetta immediately understood. "If she finds something boring..."

"She might change it."

Violetta nodded. "Whereas if something remains interesting, she has a reason to leave it alone."

"Exactly."

Rosaline leaned back against the trunk. "I don't know whether that's reassuring or horrifying."

"Both," Cordelia said.

Violetta returned to the more immediate problem. "Do you know anything that could prevent the future you saw?"

"Not enough. I wasn't there very long." Lavinia paused. "I know humans assassinated a Royal Elf."

"Royal?" Adelaide asked.

Lavinia nodded. "Some supernatural species have Royals. They're focal points. Others of their species are naturally drawn toward them. Apparently I'm one."

Valerie blinked.

Gwendolyn lifted her head from Lavinia's lap. "You?"

"Apparently."

Valerie considered this. "That actually explains a lot."

Lavinia ignored her.

"The humans became desperate when Royals started appearing. They tried to eliminate some of them before their species became too organized. Apparently they succeeded with an Elf."

"And doomed themselves," Cordelia murmured.

"Pretty much. Elves across continents hated humanity afterward."

Valerie frowned. "But Elves don't exist."

"Not yet," Lavinia said.

Cordelia folded her arms. "And preventing that assassination once doesn't guarantee someone won't try again. If humans only need to succeed once..."

"Then eventually they might."

Violetta's gaze sharpened. "Do you know how long it was before another Divergence?"

Lavinia shook her head. "No. Even if someone mentioned it while I was there, I didn't hear them. And after everything I've already changed, I doubt it would necessarily happen at the same time anyway."

"Why?"

"Because I've already changed things."

Lavinia looked upward through the canopy.

"And if I had to guess, God might decide to move the next Divergence forward just because—"

A giggle drifted through the forest.

Lavinia stopped.

It was faint.

Soft.

Almost a whisper.

Every vampire heard it.

Valerie slowly turned her head toward Lavinia.

"Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me."

The forest vanished.

Not into darkness.

Darkness required sight.

There was nothing.

Lavinia couldn't feel Valerie beside her. She couldn't feel Gwendolyn's head in her lap. 

She couldn't hear the forest, smell the vampires, sense the branch beneath her or even locate her own body.

Perception ceased.

Time stretched.

A moment became forever.

Forever collapsed into a moment.

There was no sequence by which Lavinia could measure what happened between the two.

Then reality returned.

Sound, scent, touch and sight slammed back into existence.

Gwendolyn jerked upright so abruptly she nearly toppled from the branch. Valerie's hand snapped against the trunk. 

Rosaline caught herself despite having been seated securely moments earlier, while Celestine's wings burst halfway from her back before she realized she wasn't falling.

Below them, Ophelia tightened both arms around Diana.

"What the fuck?" Evangeline hissed.

Lavinia sat perfectly still.

She looked upward.

Then sighed.

"Apparently God doesn't consider the Divergences direct interference."

Everyone stared at her.

Ophelia's voice came from below, carrying a degree of bewilderment Lavinia had rarely heard from her. "Was that seriously the Third Divergence?"

Valerie stared out into the forest as though expecting something new to immediately crawl from between the trees.

"What changed?"

Nobody answered.

"What species appeared?"

Lavinia slowly stood.

She couldn't see anything different. The forest looked the same. Oakridge still existed beyond it, and the vampires around her were unchanged. 

But she knew better now than to assume nothing had happened simply because the immediate surroundings remained familiar.

"I don't know."

Gwendolyn looked up at her. "But you saw what was around five years from now."

Lavinia nodded.

Witches. Dryads. Sirens. Elves. Giants. Fae.

Somewhere in the world, some combination of them might have just begun existing.

Or perhaps the Thing in the Darkness had decided to surprise her with something she had never encountered in that future at all.

Lavinia stared into the suddenly unfamiliar forest.

"But I have a pretty good idea."

Valerie followed her gaze.

"Which?"