branch, and we were all encouraged that maybe we could be at peace with them."
Mason squeezed my hand.
We both knew what was coming next.
"So Rose and I decided to go watch." She picked up the cup of tea with shaky hands and took a sip.
I wanted to snap at her, get on with it already. Only, it was obvious she was struggling with the memory and her emotions.
Mason opened his mouth, and I cut my eyes at him, shaking my head no.
This can't be good. I felt it in my bones. Give her a minute.
"Long story short, not even a hundred yards away, Wilmont flipped the car over. It rolled over and over."
It sounded like the wreck I had with my parents. Could it have been purposefully planned that way?
"Rose and I screamed. We even used our magic to stop it from going into a lake." She took a deep breath as a tear ran down her face, leaving a trail of moisture behind. "But it wasn't okay. Your dad was injured, but Wilmont. He was dead before we got there."
"So that's when Rose turned?" The loss of her love being her trigger. I couldn't imagine how she felt. If I lost Mason, I'd go insane."
"That was the beginning of the end." Agnes wiped away the tear from under her eye. "She was devastated as was I. Wilmont was her lover, but he was like a brother to me. As each day passed, she became a fraction of who she was, allowing the dark vampiric urges to take over. It wasn't long before my mother passed away strangely. There were two small bite marks on her neck, but I foolishly refused to admit what was staring me right in the face. It took two years for me to finally even acknowledge what was going on."
Rose had killed her mother. The woman who raised her and loved her despite all odds. She was more of a monster than I realized.
"Members brought her odd behavior to my attention, so I couldn't keep the blinders on any longer. My coven was more important than one person even if she was my sister in every way that counted. I noticed Rose was sneaking out in the middle of the night. One night, I followed her and found her at the vampire prince's home. I wasn't sure what to do. I was standing there numb because, right there in the front yard, she was draining a human."
"Wait. The vampire prince." I'd been getting played by her in every which way that I went. "They weren't enemies?"
"Well, with vampires, they are never truly an ally." Agnes’s face hardened. "They are only creatures who take advantage of one another to get ahead. That's when I couldn't deny what was right in front of me any longer."
"What did you do?" Mason was completely engrossed in the story.
"When she came back that night, I cast her out." Agnes's face fell, and her bottom lip quivered. "It was the final nail into her losing her humanity, I fear. You see, she blamed your dad for everything." Her eyes flashed up to stare into mine. "And to be honest, it was easier to blame your father. That's when we closed our borders and never let anyone in again. Not until you came today."
"I can promise you my dad didn't ever mean for that to happen." No wonder he was able to keep his feet on the ground instead of getting swept up in all the power like Darren. "If he was here beside me, he'd be telling you that himself and saying he's sorry."
"He had nightmares and blamed himself," Tommy spoke low, and something like pain reflected in it. "He'd wake up screaming his name. He never found peace about the accident. It took finding his mate," Tommy said as he glanced at me, "your mother, to at least keep the dreams from coming every night. His remorse was part of why I was so loyal to him. He was a good man who was haunted by that every day."
"You know, he'd tell me that each action comes with a consequence and that you did the best you could with the information you had at hand." I'd accidentally pushed a girl down at school during recess by using my shifter strength. It hadn't been on purpose, but everyone thought it had been intentional with the force I'd used. The principal had even called my father about it. I'd been waiting for