The Vesper Creed

Chapter 11

Aizere's Point of View

The four days following the bookstore incident were a blur of restless nights. I spent hours staring at the black leather book hidden under my mattress, the man's voice echoing in my head calling me a "glitch" and "nothing but prey." Snow hadn't left my side once; she often sat on the windowsill, her golden eyes fixed on the dark line of the woods as if she were counting the minutes until the Protectors returned.

On Sunday morning, the loud rumble of a truck engine pulled me out of my thoughts. I looked out the window to see Ruan waving from his driver's seat.

"Aizere! Get down here!" he called out, his voice full of energy.

I grabbed my jacket and scooped Snow up. I didn't want to leave her alone, especially since she seemed to be the only thing keeping the shadows at bay. When I reached the driveway, my dad was standing there, leaning against the porch railing with a satisfied smile.

"Morning, kiddo," Dad said. "I've been thinking. Since you're going to be living here permanently, you need your own set of wheels. You can't keep relying on the bus or catching rides. I want you to have your own car. Ruan's going to take you to the lot outside of town to pick something out. He knows how to make sure you aren't getting a lemon."

Ruan hopped out of the truck, but his smile faltered when he saw the bundle in my arms. "A cat? Aizere, where did you get a cat?"

I felt a small prickle of nervousness. Ruan was my oldest friend, but he didn't see the world the way I was starting to. "This is Snow. I'm watching her for a friend while they're out of town."

Ruan stepped closer, looking at the cat's pristine white fur. "A friend? I didn't know you knew anyone else in town well enough to pet-sit."

"It's Ezrain Mikaelson's cat," I said, trying to make my voice sound casual.

Ruan's eyebrows shot up, and he went completely still. "Ezrain? As in the family that lives in that fortress in the woods? You're watching a pet for him?"

"I saved her from the road, and he thinks she likes me," I explained quickly. "He just asked for a favor."

Ruan's expression shifted into something suspicious and deeply guarded. He looked at the cat, who was staring back at him with an unnerving amount of intelligence and then back at me. I could tell he wanted to ask a hundred questions about why I was suddenly doing favors for the most mysterious family in Caxwell, but he chose to bite his tongue.

"Whatever you say," he muttered, though his tone was heavy with doubt. "Let's go. We're picking up Lilith on the way. She's already texted me three times about 'car aesthetics.'"

We fetched Lilith, who let out a little squeal of delight when she saw Snow. She didn't ask questions; she just spent the drive scratching Snow behind the ears, giving me a knowing wink when Ruan wasn't looking.

We spent the next few hours walking through rows of used cars at a lot on the edge of the county. Lilith kept pointing at flashy convertibles that would never survive a Washington winter, while Ruan spent his time crawling under chassis and checking engines for leaks.

Finally, tucked away near the back of the lot, I saw it. It wasn't a racing car like Victoria's, and it didn't look dangerous like Ezrain's presence. It was a simple, sturdy red sedan. The paint was bright and clean, a deep shade of crimson that felt solid and reliable.

"This one," I said, running my hand over the cool red hood.

"Good choice," Ruan said, finally relaxing a little as he inspected the tires. "It's a good engine, Aizere. It'll keep you safe on these mountain roads."

As I sat in the driver's seat for the first time, Snow hopped onto the dashboard and looked through the windshield. I gripped the steering wheel, feeling a sudden spark of independence. For the first time since I came back to Caxwell, I had a way to move on my own. I wasn't just a human girl waiting for the extraordinary people to tell me what to do, I had my own path now.

The drive home in the red sedan felt like the first real breath of freedom I had taken since arriving in Caxwell. Lilith and Ruan had followed me back to make sure the car made it, and after a few rounds of congratulations and Ruan's lingering, worried glances at Snow, they finally headed home.

The house was quiet when I walked in. My father was out on a late shift at the station, leaving the living room bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun. Snow jumped down from my arms and immediately padded toward my father's small home office. She stopped at the door, looking back at me with those golden, knowing eyes.

I followed her, my heart racing for a reason I couldn't explain. My father's desk was an old, heavy piece of dark wood that had been in our family for years. I had seen him work at it a thousand times, but today, something felt different. Snow hopped onto the desk and began to scratch at the side of a small, decorative drawer that I had always thought was solid wood.

I reached out, my fingers trembling as I felt along the underside of the mahogany. My nail caught on a small, hidden latch. With a soft click, a thin compartment popped open.

Inside, there were no police files or tax documents. There was only a single envelope, the paper thick and yellowed with age. Lightwood was written on the front in an elegant, flowing script that looked exactly like the handwriting I had seen in the bookstore record.

I pulled out the letter. It was short, only a single sentence, but it made the air in the room turn ice-cold.

"Take care of the last protector."

There was no signature, but at the bottom of the page was a small, hand-drawn seal: a crescent moon wrapped in a thorny rose.

The mark.

I stared at the words until they blurred. The last protector. The book in the store had said my family were just humans, but this letter was addressed to me, years before I had even come back to this town. If my family were just humans, why did my father have a letter from the very people he claimed to only know as "wealthy neighbors"?

I looked down at Snow. She was sitting perfectly still on the desk, watching me.

"Who am I, Snow?" I whispered into the silence of the room.

The cat didn't meow. She simply stepped forward and placed a soft white paw on the letter, her eyes reflecting the fading sunlight like two coins of gold. I realized then that my father hadn't just moved us back to Caxwell for a fresh start. He had moved us back because the wall in my mind wasn't just hiding my memories, it was hiding a duty I never asked for.

I tucked the letter into the pocket of my jeans, the weight of it feeling heavier than the car keys in my other hand. The Founder's Party was only a few days away, and for the first time, I wasn't afraid of what I would see there. I was afraid of what they would see in me.