When I awoke, I was alone in Jacobi’s bed. For a moment, I thought I had imagined our reunion or dreamed it up upon wishful thinking. This thought was quickly squandered when I promptly sat up and spotted him across the room. He was sitting at his desk, slowly twirling a new figurine in his fingers while gazing at a blank space on the wall.

I lifted my knees to my chest, watching him curiously as his mind wandered and I wondered what was flitting behind those darkened eyes. Was he thinking about Corentine? Was he remembering Adelaide’s death? I could imagine being alive for hundreds of years only added thousands of bad memories to reflect on in the quiet moments of your life.

With momentary hesitation, I moved from my spot on the bed, taking with me a thin slip of the bed sheets. I carefully made my way to Jacobi’s form, pausing just beside him to slowly run my hand through the strands of his hair affectionately. He closed his eyes in response, but didn’t pull or push me away. I took this as a good sign and slid onto his lap comfortably, snuggling against him and resting my head against his chest.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked quietly. Jacobi shrugged half-heartedly, not intent on actually responding. I shifted my head from his chest and looked up at his face as he focused on some unknown thought in the distance. After watching him for a bit, he finally lowered his gaze to mine carefully. “Is it Corentine?”

Jacobi reached to trace his fingers over my bared throat absently.

“I got close to finding her,” He informed me simply, though I knew there was anguish behind the fact. He got close, but he didn’t find her. “She left me something.” With that statement, his gaze moved from my throat to my eyes in deep thought.

“What was it?” I inquired curiously.

“Darsana told me about your sight,” Jacobi deflected abruptly, his fingers tracing my jawline back to the locks of my hair which he twisted between his fingers. I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to tell him in response to that news, so I took note from him and shrugged mildly. The smallest smile tugged at his lips, but fell as his thoughts were pulled back once again. “You told me a long time ago that Adelaide left me a letter and I thought… I don’t even know what I thought. Maybe I thought your father told you to say that, to dig the knife in deeper…”

I blinked at him.

“I… I didn’t-“ I began, but he placed his fingers over my lips to silence me, shaking his head just once.

“I know,” Jacobi replied in a hushed voice, “I know because when I got close to finding Corentine, she threw me off by leaving me this…” He shifted then, causing me to sit up straighter in his lap. I turned my head to look at what he pulled from a drawer in his desk. Then I gasped as a familiar envelope with the name Cobi etched across it appeared in Jacobi’s grip, each letter carefully lined by the hands of Adelaide as clear as I had seen it in my dreams. I gapped at it, stunned but curious all at once, before looking back at Jacobi’s darkened features.

“She took it?” I asked uncertainly.

“Corentine must have seen it and taken it, probably because her mate’s last words weren’t addressed to her and it bothered her…” Jacobi muttered, looking away from me to glare at the letter almost bitterly. I knew he wasn’t angry at Corentine for taking the letter. After all, it was the last thing written by the woman she loved, so it was understandable. I had a feeling what angered him was what was written in the letter itself.

“Did you read it?” I bit my lip, already knowing the answer. Jacobi scoffed, though I knew he wasn’t trying to mock my question.

“Only about a million times, Lysa. And it makes no sense. It’s as if Adelaide had a complete lapse of sanity and decided to go kill herself for the entertainment value,” He growled in frustration. Then he abruptly opened the envelope and began to pull out the rather short letter. “Go on and read it. Tell me if it makes any sense to you.”

I hesitated, looking at the sheet of paper in his hands. Adelaide had wanted him to read this letter so badly that she had haunted my dreams repeatedly for it. I felt like the letter itself was sacred and untouchably personal. But here it was, being held in front of me to scrutinize. I reached out carefully, grasping the edges with my fingertips. Jacobi released the letter and instead watched me expectantly as I pulled it closer for me to inspect. It began simple enough:

Cobi,

I know you’re probably angry with me right now. Even I know this is a bad idea, but I can’t resist. It was only seventeen years ago when I felt our Maker’s bond fade prematurely, killing the last of the Raene line. But last night I felt her, Cobi. I felt her bond calling to me, as only a Maker can call their Kindred, even if it was only for a moment. I know it’s crazy, but I’m going to him. Zachary Monet will have the answers and I’m going to find out what he’s done to our Maker if it’s the last thing I do. And if it is, let Corentine know how much I love her, forever and always.

And you,

Adelaide

I read and reread the letter, analyzing what information she was trying to get across. She felt Eve’s spirit? I frowned uncertainly. And in response she threw herself into the grasp of vampire hunters, specifically my father. I looked up at Jacobi, whose eyes hadn’t wavered from my face as I had read the letter repeatedly.

“When did she write this? When did she die?”

“In the spring of this year,” He told me slowly, taking the letter from my grip and folding it back into the envelope, “Eve disappeared seventeen years ago. She had turned Adelaide only months before then, but felt she was in danger and left her with me for protection. Adelaide was still bonded to Eve through the Maker bond, but once she disappeared, the bond faded until it was gone. Typically, when a vampire dies while bonded to their Kindred, it’s a quick break, but I think your father killed her in a cruel and slow manner…”

I winced, not even wanting to imagine what kind of situation would consist of killing a vampire so slowly.

“I didn’t know Adelaide was gone until-,” Jacobi paused and I felt an intense flurry of emotion lurched from his soul as he remembered the moment when he realized he had lost his last connection to his Maker, “… she was in danger, panicking, and it reverberated through the coterie bond. I tried to reach her, but then she was gone. When I found her, she was strung up and staked, waiting to be turned ash in the sunlight.” I listened quietly, my heart hurting for him as he relived finding someone he cared so much for disposed of so heartlessly.

“I’ve always avoided confrontation with the vampire hunters, Elysia. I know how they work. I know their history and their old secrets. Even though I knew their mission was a clear cut case of complete extermination, I still didn’t go after them myself. I’d lived that life before; blind hatred and generalization. I didn’t want to fall back into it on the opposite team,” Jacobi spat, angry at his past, “But she was my last straw. I wanted all of them to pay. But they’re a pack, it’s impossible to do any damage to them… I’m not Eve, I can’t just walk into a village of hunters and wipe out an entire bloodline.”

I understood where this was going. When your prey traveled in packs, you picked off the old, weak, sick, and the stragglers. I was a weak, abandoned straggler. I was ripe for the picking, waving around my hands with a gigantic target on my back.

“Your mother was an idiot,” Jacobi snapped then and I tensed painfully. I had loved my mother more than anyone in the world. Hearing her being called anything other than an angelic force of wonder hurt me on a level I couldn’t even prepare to understand. Jacobi noticed and his features softened. “I apologize, Lysa. But she should have changed your last name at least. You were just there, being waved under my nose so boldly. I found you and in only a month’s time I gathered information, watched you, and finally took action. If you had been hidden more effectively…” He touched my face then slowly.

I would have lived a relatively normal life. I would have met someone human who I could imagine actually becoming committed to. I would have perhaps had a family, grown old, and died of the typical causes. I would never have met a dangerous, brooding vampire full of rage and bitter vengeance. I would never have…

“I’m glad you found me,” I whispered without thinking, frowning at my own logic. No, you’re not. That would be stupid. But yes, something inside very much was glad I had somehow ended up here, comfortably lying in the grip of Jacobi Bryant, despite the surrounding events that led to it.

Jacobi frowned as well, seemingly torn by thoughts that came after my statement. Was he glad he had found me, despite the fact that things didn’t go the way he planned at all? He reached for the figurine he had been twirling just before and held it in front of me quite suddenly. I hesitated, looking at it openly.

It was a dove, carved expertly out of a white wood so refined that it looked near stone. Its wings were folded against its sides, slightly extended as though it was about to prepare to take flight. I imagined if I were to hold it in the palm of my hands, it would be a great resemblance to the moment when I had set free that dove as a child at that old wedding. I stared at it with wide eyes, almost afraid to touch it as though my touch would completely ruin it.

“It’s yours, dove,” Jacobi grasped my hand, placing the small figurine in my palm, and watched me carefully as though waiting for my reaction. I slowly used my other hand to touch the carving cautiously, feeling the cool texture under my fingertips. Then I looked at Jacobi in amazement.

“I love it,” I responded in a hushed voice.

~…~

It was my suggestion to show the letter to Darsana. After all, she was the one with the experience and ability to use the Sight, so perhaps she’d be able to make more sense of it. I knew that Jacobi wanted to keep the letter hidden away, just as Corentine had, as though afraid it would be lost if someone other than the two of us knew about it. But we both couldn’t make sense of the letter: how could Adelaide have felt Eve if she felt Eve die nearly two decades beforehand?

That was how ultimately we ended up in this casual sitting room, with Jacobi and Darsana in the neighboring room discussing the contents of Adelaide’s letter. I, on the other hand, was left to “watch the twins”. I knew it was a strange task to give to a vampire hunter; to watch over child Royals as though they might be attacked any moment. As I looked at their lofty forms, I wondered what threats caused the leading Royal in Germany to willingly ship their five year old teenagers across the sea…

I had done a decent job of completely avoiding them, though I wasn’t sure why. Something about the twins bothered me. Maybe it was their creepy secrecy-filled duo. Or maybe it was because I just knew how valuable they were considered to their kind. It was similar to seeing a priceless artifact and knowing if I accidently destroyed or in any way cracked it, it would mean an immediate death sentence. In response, I just felt the urge to completely ignore it.

For once, I actually felt a bit guilty about neglecting the twins as I had been. I remembered how Darsana had stated that they wanted to play with me, in the way that children want to innocently play with anybody. Maybe there wasn’t anything to fear after all.

I quietly shuffled towards the twins, who were sitting together on a lounge couch, pausing just beside them. They both looked up in unison, but neither seemed surprised or startled. I hesitated and sat down next to them.

“Hello,” I said awkwardly. Perhaps this had been a bad idea after all. Neither responded, though I couldn’t be sure if it was because they were shy or thought I was weird. Perhaps, despite Darsana’s insistence otherwise, they didn’t understand even the most basic of English. Instead of responding, they looked at each other as though having their own conversation without speaking. Knowing of the mind-speak that Royals of the same bloodline shared, I could guess their mental conversation was probably literal.

Katja abruptly tore a piece of paper from her notebook and handed it to me. It was then I noticed they had been sketching random pictures of what appeared to be cartoon characters before I had interrupted them. I blinked as she handed me an extra pencil and began to draw. For a moment, I watched her, but when I glanced at Karsten I noticed he was watching me with a level of intense intelligence that made me shift uncomfortably. I was beginning to think his mental age was actually surpassing his physical age, regardless of what Darsana had informed me.

I absently began to doodle on the sheet of paper, but my doodling quickly turned to folding as I decided to make an origami fortune teller. It was something a lot of kids in my schools did for fun back in the days. Once I finished making it, I doodled in the information and then held out the fortune teller in front of the twins.

“Pick a color?” I meant to insist, but it came out more a question. Karsten hadn’t taken his eyes off of me and did now only to glance at Katja. She turned and poked the word ‘yellow’ on the outside of the paper. I shuffled the paper open six times and held it out for them to see the numbers inside. “Now pick a number.” Katja immediately poked the number four. After a bit of shuffling, I paused again, and she picked the number three. I opened the flap easily.

“You will go on a long trip soon,” I read the sarcastic fortune and smirked. Katja was the only one to laugh, though Karsten seemed to warm up the tiniest bit in response. Katja looked pointedly at the origami fortune teller in my hand and I held it out for her to take. She immediately took it away almost possessively and began to open and close it as though enthralled. I glanced at her forgotten sketch paper in her lap and paused.

Katja had drawn a rather intricate design one wouldn’t expect a child to be able to create so breathtakingly. It appeared to be a star shaped design, with twirling lines that branched from its core in a light but mysterious way. I tilted my head in order to look at it better. Then I reached out to touch the design curiously.

“That’s beautiful,” I said quietly, “Is it a star?”

Without taking her eyes off of the origami piece, Katja quietly said, “Es ist das Zeichen der Diederich.” The words were unintelligible to my ears, spoken so softly and quickly rolling off her tongue without concern. I frowned, not understanding. Katja looked up at me with her large doe-eyes, reaching for the collar of her sweater. Karsten snatched her wrist just as fast, hissing something under his breath before they were lost in each other’s eyes. I again felt like I was being left out of some conversation. It was only this way for a moment before Karsten released his sister’s grip and instead reached for the sleeve of his arm.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. What I saw was an image of pale pink lines, vibrant and near glowing, stretching across Karsten’s arm. At the inside of his elbow, the lines connected to what looked to be the design of a star similar to the one Katja had drawn. For a moment, I stared at the beautiful, near-translucent mark with wonder. But then my brow creased in confusion as I realized the lines of the mark looked familiar to me.

“You both have this?” I inquired curiously. Karsten nodded and pulled his sleeve back over his arm. I could tell he hadn’t wanted to show it to me, whereas Katja seemed all too eager to add me into their secretive circle of trust. I watched Karsten for a moment, while he hadn’t stop scrutinizing me since I’d approached them. “Do you not trust me, Karsten?”

Katja turned her gaze to her brother openly, waiting with me for either a reaction or a response.

“Vampire hunter,” He finally stated with a thick accent almost covering his words, “Marked, but not the same…” At first, I was stunned by the fact that he had even spoken to me and that in English. Then I realized what he had said and it seemed at first to make sense… until he mentioned that word: marked.

“I don’t understand. What do you mean by marked?” I asked in confusion. Did he think my dull, scar-like birthmark something to be compared to their vibrant and mystical designs impressed on their flawless skin? If so, he was sorely mistaken.

Katja suddenly grasped my hand in hers, dragging my attention from those eerily intelligent eyes of her brother to her large, innocent gaze. She squeezed my hand lightly, smiling most childlike before addressing me slowly as though willing me to understand her every word.

“Die Geister werden es dir verraten.”

As if casting some enchantment by speaking the words, images flashed through my mind. I could see Adelaide standing by the lake, lost with the statues of the dead. I could see her hand lifted, pointing in a specific direction. She’s waiting. Even without knowing what it was Katja was trying to tell me, I knew where I had to go if I wanted to find out.

---------------

Es ist das Zeichen der Diederich-

Die Geister werden es dir verraten-