before he did. Secretly, he’d still retreated to the small, dim closet in Aunt Mary’s pub from time to time, and by then he’d also discovered communities on the internet, where he could continue his curiosities anonymously. Or so he thought. Queen Edith had sure found him with no problem.
But not his brothers. Dillon’s excitement shifted to his football scholarship to LSU, and Kieran had a fine life in law ahead of him, like the rest of their mother’s family. Kelley had watched them both with pride, but also a creeping anxiousness, for nothing had ever been that clear to him. He didn’t know who he was. What he wanted. Where he should go.
And then he’d met Vincenc.
All three brothers, along with Queen Edith, had gone to Seattle to see him play with his band, World Tree Burning. But only Kelley and Queen Edith knew what he was. Only Kelley ended the night with meeting the creature.
Vincenc was both a wonder and a disappointment. No sharp blood-drawing teeth, or telltale deathly pale skin. He used a small sharp instrument to take Kelley’s blood, which he did drink, with permission.
My offer is thus: I will change you, Kelley Landry. I will make you my successor. Take you to the Master's Tree and trade my eternal life for yours, folding you into the dhampir brethren. But, I will not do it today. I will take your blood on this day, which will allow me to track you. And I shall observe your behaviors in this decade carefully.
Observe for what?
I will not give you this gift until you have truly lived. I command you to go back to your life and pursue the things that call most potently to your heart. I also command you to learn about who you are. I do not mean to wax poetic on this, Kelley, I mean this in a quite literal sense. You are a very powerful young being from a powerful family, and your ignorance on this subject is criminal. You must discern the extent of your abilities before I will consider fulfilling my end of this bargain.
And if I don't?
Then your life will go on as it always has. I will find someone more suitable to succeed me.
Kelley had told no one. Not the studious Queen Edith, who’d organized the hunting expedition entirely on her own, nor the two brothers who had been his partners in this fascination for all their childhoods.
A year had passed.
Still, he told no one.
He’d started down the path Vincenc set him upon. It was no small feat learning about who he was, who his family was, for the Sullivans had always held their truths close to their well-tailored vests. They seemed ashamed of them; by contrast, the Deschanels embraced theirs.
So Kelley had approached Colleen Deschanel, that formidable Deschanel matriarch that was said to know all and see all, both within the family and without. She’d said that yes, she could help him. But first, he needed to finish school.
He was a year into his studies at the University of New Orleans when he had his first vision.
He’d seen it all so clearly. The sharp widening of Chelsea Landry’s eyes as she realized whoever had come through the doors of Landry’s Pub was no mere patron. Her hands, sliding under the bar, searching for the button, but not finding it, because it was on the other end, and to move could cost her her life.
Kelley hadn’t known what to do when he saw this all in his mind’s eye, so he called the police. He didn’t tell them how he knew Landry’s was being robbed, or they would have laughed him off the phone. They arrived in minutes, just as the thief was shoving money from the till into his bag. Kelley’s mother was on the floor, on her knees, hands trembling behind her head.
Chelsea was grateful, but suspicious. How had Kelley known to make the call? He didn’t have an answer. He couldn’t even conjure one anywhere near a level of believability she’d accept. She let it go at the time, but he knew good and well it wasn’t over.
Not long after, he saw Dillon’s car accident. Dillon had come from a frat party and had been drinking. Kelley saw him wrap his car around a telephone pole, the steam from the car and the late night the only signs of life after impact.
He didn’t call Dillon. Instead, he called his girlfriend. Take his keys. Doesn’t matter why. Trust