Crimson Moon

It was only a few days later, sitting on my bed, Ezra lazing about, watching me study. It used to bother me a lot more than it did now when he would just sit there and watch me. Now, I needed him here. Just knowing he was here, in the same room with me. It was calming. I sighed and scribbled the answer to a math problem down on the paper. I risked a glance at him

Was it normal to be this obsessed over someone? I was nervous and agitated when he was was not around and I craved his touch. I was still learning a lot about him. Even now, only weeks after he had confessed to me what he was. He had done it because he had known he would not have been able to stay away from me. And I had to admit, as crazy as my life was, I was glad he had told me. I could now no longer imagine my life without him.

Ezra was my safe place. I did wonder sometimes, how much I was in love with him. It had only been four months since I had come here and met him. Ezra had admitted to feeding on me before, but as I had learned that Marcus had been the first to feed from me the night I arrived in New York. Then, that same night, Ezra had fed from me. You would think I would have been angry with him. However I had been extremely flattered. Surprisingly so. Ezra had come into my life just when I needed him to. Sure, the relationship was new and exciting, but in ways, I felt so much more connected to him then I had ever thought possible.

It was odd. The days after I had used all that magic after Tate had had me kidnapped, I felt stronger. I felt more alert and for some reason, yet unsettled. It was strang. I craved Ezra’s touch, yet it did not seem to be enough. It was what I craved but having it granted me no satisfaction. It was very confusing yet I didn’t mind feeling this way at all.

If it was Ezra making my life bearable, I would take it anyway I could. “What are your plans for Christmas?” he asked me.I sighed and dropped my pencil to the book before me, cupping my chin in my hand. “Nothing,” I told him. “Frank has to work.”

I did not mind that Frank worked holidays. I understood it. He was a doctor. And a fantastic one at that. He saved lives for a living. How could I be mad at that?

“Well,” Ezra said slowly as he leaned down on the bed beside me. “If you don’t have anything planned, I was hoping-”

My bedroom burst open and I turned to see Frank standing in the doorway, his eyes fixed on Ezra. Ezra stood up quickly.

“Dr. Pierce,” he said, his voice smooth and not at all nervous. I bit my lip, looking back at Frank. The look on his face was off. I eyed him, wondering what he was thinking. I stood up from my bed.

“What is going on in here?” Frank wanted to know.

“Dad?” I asked him and he looked up at me quickly. “What are you doing home?”

Frank sighed and shook his head. “I only had a half shift today,” he said stiffly.Ezra cleared his throat. “Ivy, if you don’t need anymore help with your math homework, I should get going,”

Ezra said as he walked to my dresser and picked up his leather jacket and helmet. Ezra had driven his bike here, so that probably explained why frank was upset.“See you tomorrow, Ivy,” Ezra said and gave me a small smile.

I forced a smile on my face, wishing he could stay, however I knew it would be best for him to be nowhere near Frank at the moment. I sighed and watched Ezra pull on his leather jacket and head for the door. Frank stared him down as he left the room and then turned to glare at me.

“What the hell did I just walk into here?” he demanded. I watched his face, turning red, and then suddenly understood what he was getting at. “Do I have to forbid him from coming in here?”

“Oh,” I gasped at his surprised disgust. “Oh, Dad, it’s not like that!” Frank scoffed at me and crossed his arms.

“Look, Ivy, I know you are smart and I don’t need to have this talk with you, but I have to ask. Are you being safe?”

I felt myself blush a little, knowing Ezra was lurking outside my window. I could feel him. “Dad, you don’t need to worry about that!” I assured him. “In a lot of ways, Ezra are really still getting to know eachother. I am in no rush!” I hoped that would end the conversation about the subject.

“Fine,” Frank sighed.Frank sighed and crossed his arms, leaning against the door frame. “So, tell me about this boy,” he said. I had to fight the urge not to laugh. The word boy had me wanting to laugh my ass off for some reason. What was wrong with me?

“Ezra is in the same class as me,” I explained. “I met him my first night here, to be honest." No need to tell him how that went. “I am best friends with his sister too.”

Frank raised an eyebrow. “What about Freya?” he asked me.I shook my head. “I don’t think it’s gonna work out, Dad,” I told him honestly, the heartbreak breaking me again. “She blames me for everything wrong right now.”

Frank nodded. “I would ask but I am keeping well away from the Underworld. I am a retired Hunter, living a normal Human life. I’d like to keep it that way!”

I nodded. “I know,” I assured him. “I made it very clear to Tate that you are not be harmed-”

“You went back to the Coven?” Frank demanded suddenly.

Oops.

I sighed and threw my hands up.

“What was I supposed to do, Dad?” I asked him. “Tate was threatening the people close to me!”

I watched my dad as he sighed and nodded now, his hands on his hips. “Your friend that was here tonight,” he said slowly. “He is a Vampire, is he not?”

I felt the blood leave my face. If Frank knew Ezra was a vampire and he was a Hunter, it would not end well for anyone. What was I supposed to say? It was not my secret to tell! But I had told frank’s secret to Ezra, Marcus and Amira. I sighed and looked down at my feet.

If he was asking, he already knew the answer.

“Yes,” I said in a low voice.

Frank sighed and ran a hand over his face. “Good God, Ivy,” he groaned. “You are the High Priestess of a Witches Coven! How is Tate dealing with your Vampire friends?”

I shook my head. “He would rather I would not be friends with any of them, let alone date one!” I said. “How did you know about Ezra?”

Frank grimaced at me. “I knew the first night I met him,” he said. I scoffed at him disbelief.

“The night you showed me the bunker?” I demanded. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Frank sighed and shrugged. “Because I didn’t know if you knew. I followed you around once. To school. It was obvious you knew. And I didn’t say anything because you had just found out about me being a Hunter and, on top of everything you have been dealing with, I did not want to burden you with what else I knew,” he told me. “Now, I am wishing I had stepped in sooner!”

I shook my head quickly. “Ezra would never hurt me!” I assured him.Frank nodded.

“Sure,” he muttered. “I should have killed him when I saw your neck after he-”

Frank forced his words to a stop and sighed. “I know I can not really forbid you from seeing him. I understand he protects you. Cares for you, even. But Ivy, so help me, if he hurts you again, I will end him!”

I gulped. I trusted that Ezra was able to keep himself in check now. He was getting my blood regularly now. Building a tolerance to it. I had never felt closer to him, and yet, like before, I would always get a feeling that it was wrong, whenever he touched me.

“Ezra would never hurt me!” I said again. Perhaps it was stupid and childish of me to think that. But what could I say? I liked him. Even more than that. I felt myself blush. “I need you to trust me and trust him, Dad. He is important to me!”

Frank sighed and uncrossed his arms. “What is the Coven saying about your involvement with the Vampires?” he asked me .I sighed and shook my head. “They are not pleased.”Frank laughed.

“Of course not. It was Magic that created the Vampires of this world and it will be Magic that takes them out!” he told me.I raised an eyebrow.

“Vampires are immortal,” I reminded him. “They can not die!”Frank shook his head. “Vampires are the children of Night. They walk in the darknesses of the world and they fool Mortals by walking in the daylight. For all intents and purposes they act and look human, but once the Hunger sets in?”

Frank shook his head, pulling a long sharp, wooden dagger from his belt. I gasped. He had come up here, armed, ready to kill Ezra if we had been otherwise engaged.

“Frank...-Dad, why-”

He cut me off. “I was ready to kill him, if I had found you ... Vampires can not be trusted because hey are monsters! Demons!”

“I trust the Malveriks!” I told him. I watched Frank’s face, his brown eyes and brown hair were dark in my dimly lit bedroom, his face unreadable. “Who do you have as you Handmaidens?” he asked me.

I shrugged. “Delphine,” I said and then sighed. “And Veronica.”

I watched Frank unhitch himself from the doorframe. “As in Veronica McKenzie?” he demanded. I sighed knowing I should have kept that part to myself. “Yes, Frank, but she-”

I stopped when I saw his face turn white, his expression going blank.“I thought she was still away-”

“Wait, you know Veronica?” I demanded.

Frank looked up at me, looking at me as if he had just noticed I was there, as if we had not just been talking. “You mother was supposed to tell you-”

I rolled my eyes. “Considering mom failed to mention anything about my being a Witch for most of my life, I am not surprised she still had secrets from me!”Frank shook his head and looked at me.

“This is going to hurt you, and I am sorry for that!” he said.

The next words Frank spoke, rang in my ears. Time seemed to slow down and everything suddenly sounded muffled, Frank’s words becoming slurred and foggy sounding. Everything seemed to blur and felt so far away. Almost like I was in some kind of tunnel. My feet were moving across the room before I understood what or where I was going.

My hands shot out and shoved Frank aside as I ran down the stairs, not bothering to grab my coat or phone. I just ran out the brand new front door and kept going, running away from the horrible lies and truths Frank had just spoken. there was just no way. There was no way it could be true.

If it was, my whole life had been a lie. Who was I now? What was I supposed to do with this information?I grumbled and shoved the thoughts aside and pressed harder down the snow streets, my breath coming out hi huge white puffs. My heart was pounding in my ears and I banked to the left and kept running down the street, my shoes slapping against the wet pavement.The lies and untruths Frank had just spoken rang in my ears. There was no way it could be true.

How could Frank and Diana keep this from me? How could they have never said a word? They had every opportunity to tell me the truth. My heart was breaking and it was making it incredibly hard to breath, the pain ripping me in half. In a way I knew it to be true, even if I did not want to admit it to myself. What was I going to do now? How was I supposed to handle this?Before I knew it, I had reached the Safe House and bounded up the steps and through the doors. I was surprised to see the place lit with candles and a fire burning down the hall in the library.

“Ivy?”I jumped and turned, my hands coming up in defense but I sighed when I saw Marcus. He was standing in the archway of the dining room, that was now decked out with a dining table, dressed with a tablecloth, dishes and a vase of deep red roses. There were drapes of green velvet that hung from the french windows. Marcus stood there, dressed in a white button up t-shirt, jeans and his hair looking like he had just come from a shampoo commercial.

I watched his absurdly handsome face become worried as he took me in. He walked toward me slowly, his face confused. “Where is you coat-wait, did you walk here?”

I shook my head. “Ran!” I gasped, still trying to catch my breath. “H-had to get-... out!”

“Did you come from the Coven?” he asked me. I shook my head, leaning forward to brace myself on my knees.

“My house!” I gasped. Marcus raised an eyebrow. “You house is over an hour away from here!” he reminded me.I nodded, and watched as Marcus shook his head in disbelief.

“Are you trying to catch your death?” he asked me and walked to the double doors and closed them again. “Come sit by the fire. Your lips are blue!”

I nodded, my body numb but I found myself unable to move. Marcus sighed and placed a hand on my shoulder pulling me along gently, pulling out his phone.

“What are you doing?” I demanded.

Marcus raised an eyebrow. “I figured you wanted to talk to Ezra?” he said and I reached and sntahced his phone from him.“No,” I told him. “Ezra can’t know! No one can!”

Marcus made me sit on the floor in front of the fireplace. “Know what?” Marcus asked me.I shook my head, staring at the flames, not really seeing them. This was all so hopeless. I had already made up mind about Tate and now Frank drops this on me?

“Ivy?” Marcus whispered. “What happened?”

What was I supposed to say? Who could I tell? Certainly not any of my Vampire friends and definitely not Ezra. They would all lose their shit. Marcus, however, was indifferent. Marcus was selfish. He cared for no one but himself. He could keep secrets. I knew he could. “Marcus, this changes everything and it makes sense now!” I muttered, staring into the fire.

Marcus was sitting so close to me now that when he turned and took my hands in his, I gasped at the heat in his hands, warming my numb fingers.It was not just the numbness of my fingers that was leaving my hands. It was odd to feel a Vampires hands be warm. I was so used to Ezra’s cool, water like touch that it surprised me that his hands were now warm. I smiled when

Marcus looked up at me now. “Fire is the quickest way for a Vampire to come up to the same temp as a Mortal,” Marcus told me in a low voice as he slowly ran his long fingers over mine, bringing them back to life. His fingers curled around mine awkwardly, rimming around the hard cast. I looked up at him, remembering that he had tried to kill me just a few short weeks ago. I looked down at my cast and sighed. Only a few more weeks with this damned thing.

I watched Marcus reach and tap the top of my cast gently.

“I am sorry about that, by the way,” he said. "I shouldn't have done that."

I sighed. “Why the hot and cold with you, Marcus?”

He smiled and released my hands to hold them back on front of the fire. “Why are you running through the streets of Manhattan in the middle of the night like you are running for your life?”

I shook my head. “You first!” I insisted not wanting to answer his question. This was the first time I had been really alone with him since the night of the Ritual.“I am so hot and cold, as you put it, because it is fun,” he told me and gave me a dashing smile.I sighed. I should have known that he could not be honest with me. Not even for a second.

“Well, I definitely have you beat!” I told him reluctantly.

Marcus gave me a smile. “Try me!” he insisted. Marcus raised an eyebrow at me.

“I know why Tate is so obsessed with me,” I said as Marcus reached across the table and grabbed two glasses and a bottle of bourbon. He handed me one and I took the glas, eyebrows raised.

“You look like you could use some liquid courage right now,” he noted.I reached the glas to my lips and let the dark liquor wash down the throat and warm my chest.

“Tate is my Father,” I said in a low voice after placing my hands in my lap, my empty glas. “And Frank is my Uncle. Diana’s brother.”

Marcus, with his drink halfway lifted to his lips, stopped and turned to look at me now.

“I’m sorry, what?”I nodded.

“Yup,” I nodded, staring into the fire. “So that means Frank lied about the timeline. And that he and my mother never dated!”

Marcus shook his head and downed his drink. “Diana sure did have a way of keeping one hell of a secret!” he muttered, reaching across the table to refill his glass. . “Why don’t you want Ezra to know?” he asked me.

I shook my head. “Because he already has enough to worry about. Apparently Dragos has been breathing down he neck about the Staten Island issue.”

Marcus sighed. “Yes, but now Dragos is worried that the Witches may be right and that it is a Vampire that is behind the killings!” he told me, tilting his glas and turned his head to glance at me.

“Dragos is one superstitious bastard but that is what had kept himself alive so long. That is why he is King! He has been talking about launching his own investigation into the murders of the Underworld beings. He is convinced that the Hunters have help and he is not listing to anyone but himself at this point. Ezra reported to him the same night you were followed home from the Covenstead.”

I sighed and leaned back against the sofa. “This is crazy!” I groaned. “Who could it be?”

Marcus laughed. “I would not be surprised if it is Tate himself!”

I frowned at his words, staring at the flames again. “I don’t know,” I said and looked down at my fingers wrapped around the glas. The liquor had warmed me well and now I was ready to pass out. “Tate may be an idiot and he may be crazy but he would never hurt his own people!”

“You look tired,” Marcus told me.

I sighed and set the glass down. “I should get back home,” I said. Marcus looked around. “Or you could stay here,” he said. “There is a bedroom upstairs. Ezra had it finished before any other room in the house!”

I shook my head quickly. “No!” I assured him. “I should go!”

Marcus sighed. “At least let me drive you!” he insisted.I nodded and Marcus got to his feet quickly, reaching down a hand to help me to my feet. “Ivy, you are protected, from all sides,” he reminded me.

I nodded. “I just hope to hear from the Elders soon about the Council proposal!”

Marcus nodded. “Who did you have in mind?” he asked me.

I sighed. “Three members from each Coven or Tribe-”

Marcus laughed at me. “You are getting the Fay and the Elves in on this?” I nodded. “The Hunters threat concerns us all, Marcus. They won’t stop until they kill every last creature from the Underworld!” I reminded him.

Marcus sighed and pulled me to my feet, pulling me up a little to forcefully, making me crash into his chest. Marcus’ hands wrapped around my shoulders and he sighed.

“So tempting,” he muttered and the sensations of overwhelming longing came over me.“Marcus, stop!” I hissed at him under my breath. As soon as I spoke, he dropped his hands and leaned away from me. His face was impassive but his eyes were white as he almost glared at me.

“Perhaps Amira should drive you home,” he said. “I will call her!” Marcus held out his hand for his phone and I handed it to him.

“Marcus-”

He smiled at me and shook his head.

“It’s fine, Ivy,” he said and walked from the room, placing the phone to his ear. What the hell was I doing here? I sighed glanced at the door. Why had I come here? I should have left again as soon as I saw Marcus. This odd feeling of wanting to be near Marcus but missing Ezra so much that it almost pained me. It was not long before Marcus returned with a worn leather jacket and handed it to me.

“Amira left this hear a few days ago,” he said. “She said for you have it. She is on her way to come get you-”

Marcus held up a hand when I opened my mouth to speak. “And I asked her to be discreet. Ezra won’t know you were here!”

I sighed. “I can’t tell him because he wants Tate dead-”

Marcus laughed at him. “A lot of people want him dead, Ivy!” he reminded me. “He will insist he has a seat on the Council you are trying to put together, you do realize that, right?”

I sighed and nodded. “Yes, that though had crossed my mind.” I said. “But I do not plan to give him anymore power then he already has!”

“So if you are taking a seat who will fill the other two?” he asked me.I sighed. “Veronica,” I said and then scoffed. “My sister.”

“And the other seat?”

I ran a hand over my face. “No idea, Marcus.”

Marcus didn’t answer. He just refilled my glass and handed it to me. I still grabbed the glass from him and started at it. So many questions. What was Tate up to? Could I really trust Veronica? Did Dragos know about the Faerie death?

"Filii Noctis,” Marcus sighed and I looked up at him. I had heard the phrase at the Covenstead before but was not sure what it meant. Marcus smiled at my curious es expression . “Children of Night. The same fate befalls us all if we do not find who is behind the murders!”

I nodded. “Are the Vampires any closer to finding anything?”

Marcus shook his head. “Ezra has been acting weird. The King has noticed.”

Running a hand over my now chapped cheeks, I leaned forward and held out my hand for him. “Give me your phone!”

Marcus raised and eyebrow at me and handed it to me. “What are you doing?” I sighed. “Getting Amira to get me a meeting with Dragos-”

Marcus snatched his phone from me. “I can do that for you!” he insisted. “It would be best coming from me!”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever!” I said and slumped back into my chair. I could only hope that the Drydalien Queen and the Vampire King would agree to meet me. Sooner rather than later. I just needed to figure out how to go about it.

“What about a vote?” I asked him. Marcus was gazing into the fire now, his face thoughtful. “How do you mean?” he asked me.

“In the Coven, we could put it to a vote, let the witches and warlocks vote who gets the seat on the council! Leave it up to them-”

Marcus shook his head. “That is leaving it up to chance,” Marcus reminded me, refilling his glass. “You sure you wanna do that?” he asked me. I sighed and held out my glas to him.

“It’s the only thing I can think of!”