Part 8 (2/2)
Wilfredo nodded. ”Yet we all grieved without the ultimate proof-her body.”
Jace stared at him. ”What are you saying?”
”It is too early too say anything for certain, Jason. How long have you been having these dreams?”
”I've had them for a number of years, but I was always able to vanquish her in them. I can no longer do that and they are happening more frequently.”
”Then we must act quickly or risk losing you as well.”
”Losing me how?”
”If you can no longer resist her in the dreams, she will come to you when you're awake and attempt to turn you into what she has become.”
Jace sucked in a deep breath. ”And what has she become?”
Wilfredo's eyes pulsed with grief. ”I fear our dear one has truly been lost to us in a way neither of us antic.i.p.ated, and which she would not have wanted. I fear she may now be a nocturene.”
Jace shook his head. ”A nocturene? Carollina? A low-breed, rogue vampire? No.” He shot to his feet. ”No! She was one of the purest people I've ever known. There's no way she could have joined those who slaughtered her.”
Wilfredo looked up at him. ”I'm afraid the only thing that was slaughtered was her pure spirit.”
Jace leveled an angry finger at Wilfredo. ”How can you suggest such a thing, when you've always taught us that one of pure spirit can never be turned to evil?”
”Do you think I find delight in the fetid task which now lies before us?” Wilfredo pounded a clenched fist against his chest. ”Didn't I love her as one of my cherished children? Didn't I grieve for more than a decade when we lost her? Do I not still feel her loss as much as I did fifty-one years and three months ago? Don't I blame myself for my failure to protect and save her?”
Jace heard the pa.s.sion and pain in the other male's voice and knew they mirrored his own endless grief. ”She's dead, Wilfredo.”
”No, Jason, she is not dead. She is alive and plotting to bring you across. I won't allow that to happen.”
”I would never join anyone aligned against you.”
A sad smile touched Wilfredo's face. ”Not while you are pure of heart. If she gets her hands on you, you won't be pure of heart for long.” He frowned. ”Even now your encounters with her have changed you.”
”Changed me? How?”
Wilfredo studied him in silence for several long moments. ”I can feel evidence of the change in you. There is little humanity remaining in you.”
Jace gave a guilty start. ”What do you mean?”
Wilfredo tilted his head. ”You are no longer a human latent. You are now a vampire latent.”
”What?”
Wilfredo reached out, grasped his chin and tilted his head back. ”Just as I suspected-incisors. Can your eyes glow? Do you have increased vitality and strength? Have you developed a l.u.s.t for blood?”
Jace swallowed hard. ”My eyes don't glow, but...”
”You have developed a l.u.s.t for blood?”
”No. Well, not blood in general.” Just the blood of the beautiful, alluring Ana. ”I do feel stronger.”
Wilfredo sighed and released his chin. ”It is only a matter of time now.”
”What's only a matter of time?”
”Carollina has begun the transformation process. It might be too late to stop it.”
”It might be too late to stop what?”
”The complete loss of your humanity.”
So that's what was happening to him. After so many years spent among vampires, Jace wasn't sure how to view the coming transformation. Wilfredo, though, didn't seem pleased at the prospect of what was happening to him.
Wilfredo sighed. ”Carollina is lost to us, but I will not lose you. I will do what is necessary to protect you from her. You are no longer human, but I won't lose you to her darkness.”
Jace swallowed a sudden lump of fear. He knew that tone in Wilfredo's voice. ”What do you mean?”
”I will do what must be done.”
”What is that?”
Wilfredo shook his head. ”With a nocturene who knows us so intimately on the prowl, I must gather all my children to me and prepare them.” Wilfredo's eyes darkened with fury. ”When I have done what is necessary, I will find and destroy those responsible.”
”But we never knew who was responsible.” Jace clenched a hand into a fist. ”If we had, we would have exacted vengeance a long time ago.”
Wilfredo closed his eyes. ”My memory has begun to return.”
Jace frowned. ”Return? When did you lose it?”
”It was after my encounter with Madison's mentor that I began to realize that I am not who I thought I was.”
Several months earlier, an aborted attempt by Jace and several other hunters to dispatch Vladimir Madison had gone astray, resulting in Vladimir's twin brother, Aleksei, confronting Wilfredo at the mansion. What had been shaping up to be a standoff between the two powerful, centuries-old vampires had been interrupted when Aleksei's mentor, a powerful being known simply as Luc, had appeared. Luc had forced both Wilfredo and Madison to stand down.
Jace was silent. To force Wilfredo, the most powerful vampire Jace had ever encountered, to back down, this Luc must possess incredible power. ”Why should your encounter with him be so important?”
”Because seeing him after so much time forced long suppressed memories to the surface. I didn't address him as Lord because I feared him.”
”Then why?”
”I addressed him as Lord because he is such.”
”What do you mean?”
Wilfredo shook his head. ”I am still struggling to recall ancient memories. The time will come when I will reveal all, but for now, I must call the others home to prepare for the a.s.sault of the nocturene.”
Jace averted his gaze, swallowing hard in an attempt to dislodge a lump of rebellion. If Carollina were alive, he'd have to find a way to save her. No matter what Wilfredo feared, he knew she would never have surrendered to evil. If he could just find a way to communicate with her, he was certain he could bring her back into the fold of the vampire hunters.
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