Just Do It

‘December 16th, 2017’

‘Forest outside of Lumen’

Eve

When Raphael and I woke up in the morning, entangled in each other’s arms after a night in the forest—a night filled with wild, urgent sex—I knew I had to kill him.

I had given in to my desires, and it had been wonderful.

It had been the best night of my life.

But still, it didn’t compare to the joy that holding my daughter brought me. And the only way I could get Snow back was if I completed the mission that Barron had given me.

The mission to kill the Alpha of the Millennium.

That was my only option.

After Llinos had to come to me in London, I’d spent the next century carrying out her mission.

I’d spent over a hundred years tracking down vampires—and killing them. It didn’t matter if they were good or bad, young or old, if they were vampires, they were dead.

I got good at hunting, and even better at killing. But most of all, I got used to keeping my feelings out of it.

There was no room for emotion when I had a job to do. So I killed, and I killed some more.

And when I walked into the home of the last living vampires, when I killed them, the husband and wife, I waited.

I waited for Llinos to come to me. It was her turn, her turn to do her part of the deal.

I had spent a century killing. It was her turn to take me to my daughter.

That whole night, I sat on the married couple’s couch. Their bodies were upstairs, but still I sat, waiting.

When Llinos didn’t show, I thought maybe she was waiting for me back in London. So I left Moscow, and I went back to my old manor.

But Llinos wasn’t there either.

I stayed in London for a long time. But then I gave up waiting.

I gave up on the neutral Deity. And again, I tried to take matters into my own hands. But even with my new power—my Devil power—I couldn’t track Barron Von Logia down.

That was, until he came to me.

Barron came to me with his deal ten years ago.

He said, simply, that the only way he’d give Snow back to me was if I did something for him. If I killed the Alpha of the Millennium.

When he came to me, I’d already carried out Llinos’ mission. I had murdered thousands of vampires. Killing didn’t affect me, not anymore.

And killing the Alpha of the Millennium?

The man who had ruined my life when I was just a girl, who had taken my innocence and left me alone, who’d left me ~pregnant~?

That would be nothing.

It would be a piece of cake.

I took the deal.

Maybe it was stupid of me, after the last Deity I’d made a deal with had failed to honor her word. But I was desperate.

My entire existence since the 1500s had been spent trying to find my daughter. I wasn’t just running out of patience, and I was running out of ideas.

So I agreed to kill Raphael Fernandez. By January 1st, 2018, the Alpha of the Millennium had to be dead.

I looked at his face now. We were lying on the forest floor, my head resting on his bare chest.

He was still sleeping, his eyes closed. His breathing was soft. It would take nothing for me to thrust my scythe through his heart.

I could do it in three seconds.

I could see myself doing it.

I could feel the scythe moving through his flesh, striking through his heart, releasing an endless stream of blood.

But for some reason, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t stop watching him breathe. It was hypnotizing. I felt so calm, so at peace.

Until my phone vibrated.

I pulled it out of my pocket, reading the screen.

Reyna

Eve?

Reyna

Where are you

Reyna

Somethings weird here

Eve

What do you mean?

Eve

Where are you?

Reyna

At school

Reyna

There are these 2 brothers here

Reyna

Its there first day of school

Reyna

Nobodys ever seen them before and there really creepy

Eve

Creepy how?

Reyna

One of them called me queen

Reyna

He walked by me in the hall and just said hi queen

Eve

I’m coming.

Eve

Find Anya and hide in a bathroom.

Eve

Lock the door.

Reyna

Are we in danger???

Eve

Just find her.

“Hey, is everything okay?” Raphael asked from beside me.

I looked back at him, and he smiled at me. But I didn’t have time to be distracted by his handsomeness.

“We have to go.”

“What? Already? Come on, come back to me...” He reached out for me, but I smacked his hand away, standing up.

“We have to go now,” I repeated. “Reyna and Anya are in trouble. How fast can you get me to Woodsmoke High?”

***

I jumped off Raphael’s back as soon as we were in the high school’s parking lot. “I got it from here,” I told him.

“Let me help you.”

“I don’t need your help,” I said to him, looking him right in the eye. “Go home.”

I didn’t wait around for his reaction.

I found the back door that I’d discovered when everyone was at the all-school assembly, the one that connected through the gymnasium, and I pushed it open.

There was a class in session. A bunch of kids were throwing balls at each other.

Dodgeball, I think the sport was called. I snuck around the edge of the gym and out the door, finding myself in an empty hallway.

Eve

Reyna, where are you?

Eve

I’m here.

Eve

Reyna?

Eve

Hello?

Eve

REYNA?

Now I was getting nervous.

~Think, Eve~.

I started typing a new text.

Eve

Anya? Where are you?

Anya

in class

Eve

Reyna didn’t find you?

Anya

what are u talking about

Eve

Reyna said she was in trouble.

Eve

She was supposed to find you and hide.

Eve

WHERE ARE YOU?

Anya

omg

Anya

ok fine im under the bleachers

Anya

I was ditching w some friends

Anya

wheres reyna

Anya

is she ok??

~Shit~.

I tore through the halls until I was shooting through the side door, headed for the football field.

As soon as I got to the bleachers, I yelled, “ANYA!”

I saw her blonde ponytail bounce up from between rows, and then she skulked over to me.

“Hurry up!” I ordered. She ran the rest of the way. “Where would Reyna hide?” I asked her.

“How would I know?”

“This is serious,” I snapped at her. “This is a real threat. Think. Where’s safe in the school?”

I watched Anya’s face as she concentrated. And then she took off for the door. “Where?” I asked her again as I followed her through the hallways.

“The back of the auditorium. Backstage, there’s a dressing room. All the weird gothy people hang out there.”

We ran to the auditorium, past all the chairs and up onto the stage. I pushed through the curtains and turned into the wings, heading backstage. Anya was right behind me.

“Where?” I asked her.

She pointed to an unmarked door. As soon as I stepped closer to it, I could sense someone powerful inside. ~Shit.~

“Stay here,” I instructed Anya.

“What? No!” she whined.

“I’m serious,” I said, shooting her a warning look.

Anya was only fifteen. She was too young to see whatever might be on the other side of that door. And then I was kicking the door down, barging into the room.

There she was.

Reyna.

She was cornered against the wall, a man holding tightly to her shoulders. He was staring right at her, like he was trying to break into her mind.

“Back away from the girl,” I ordered him, my voice strong.

“Whoever you are, get out of this room before I kill her and you!” he thundered back, his eyes not leaving Reyna’s. She looked petrified.

“I sincerely doubt you’ll kill either of us.”

That got his attention. He turned to see who had said it, and when he saw my face, he smirked. “And who might you be?”

“Eve Knox, but you can call me the Devil.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Suit yourself. Who sent you?” I asked, walking closer to him.

He looked to be in his early twenties, his height and looks all average. But he was powerful. Which meant there was more to him than I could see.

“Nobody sent me,” he spat.

“How did you know about Reyna Morgan?”

“Everyone knows about Reyna Morgan.”

“What were you doing to her? What were you staring at her like that for?”

“I don’t need to answer your questions.”

“He was trying to steal my memory!” Reyna exclaimed from behind me. “He said he had the power to—”

“Shut up!” the man thundered again.

“You shut up!” I ordered him. “What, Reyna?”

“He said he had the power to steal memories. And he wanted one of mine...but I don’t have it!”

“Which did you want?” I asked the man.

He smirked at me again, and then he lunged at me, his fist about to connect with my jaw. But I ducked, throwing my ring into the air at the same time.

In an instant it transformed into a scythe, and I grabbed the handle, thrusting it toward him.

Now he was cornered against the wall, the blade of my scythe under his chin. “I asked, which memory did you want?”

His eyes narrowed. “Her mother told her where the fortune was hidden.”

“It’s in a bank.”

“It’s in no bank,” he said, spitting onto my blade. That made me angry. I dug the tip into his neck, drawing enough blood to shut him up.

“Who are you?” I demanded.

“Anthony. Anthony Whitethorn.”

“What are you?”

“I’m a vampire. Born.”

“That’s impossible. Try again.”

But Anthony Whitethorn just did the strangest thing. He smiled. “Ah. So that’s the Devil you are. Well, I’m happy to tell you you failed. You didn’t get all of us.”

“What are you talking about?”

“My family escaped. We hid,” he said, his smirk growing bigger.

“How?” I whispered.

My mind was reeling. If I hadn’t killed all the vampires, that meant Llinos hadn’t found me for a reason. That meant this whole time, I’d been wrong.

“We had help. From one of the Deities, actually.”

“Which Deity.” I was seething.

“Barron Von Logia. You know him?” Whitethorn smiled.

“How many more of you are there?” I demanded.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if you knew…” He trailed off as I pushed the scythe farther into his skin.

“You have one more try before you join the rest of your kind.”

“None,” he got out through heavy breaths. “I’m the last one. The last Whitethorn.”

I exhaled, and the next second, I was driving my scythe into Anthony Whitethorn’s heart, watching him try to gulp his last breaths.

~Barron helped them.~

My rage consumed me.

I was sure that Barron knew about my deal with Llinos. That he’d hidden a family of vampires away so that I couldn’t complete my end of the deal, so that Llinos couldn’t help me find my daughter.

And then when Barron had come to me, had made me agree to kill the Alpha of the Millennium, he knew I was out of options.

He knew that I thought Llinos had betrayed me.

He had been pulling the strings the whole time. Like I was some goddamn marionette.

But now… now all the Whitethorns were destroyed. Which meant all the vampires were destroyed. Which meant I could wait around for Llinos to come… or I could do something myself.

I wasn’t the same ignorant woman I’d been when I made the deal with the female Deity. I was over waiting for the help of someone else.

“Eve… Eve… are you okay?” I heard Reyna’s terrified voice from behind me.

When I turned, I saw her frozen in the corner, eyes locked on Whitethorn’s dead body.

I sighed, wiping the blood from my scythe and tossing it into the air so it became a ring again. I slipped it onto my finger. “I’m okay. You are too, Reyna. Let’s find your sister.”

But as I said that, a new wave of determination coursed through me. It wasn’t enough that I was protecting these girls.

No, I had to protect my own daughter too.

Even if Barron had manipulated me like a rag doll, a deal was a deal.

I would do whatever it took to get Snow back.

Starting now, I would do what I’d promised.

I would kill Raphael.