A Meet of Tribes (A Shade of Vampire #45)(3)

I caressed Phoenix’s face with the back of my hand but pulled it away as soon as the Daughter started hissing at me. Whatever the noise was, it sounded threatening, and I had very little strength left to defend myself. Jovi supported most of my weight.

“It’s my brother, Draven. I couldn’t help it,” I replied.

Deep down I sensed he was right. I had rushed into it. I had given the last Daughter of Eritopia a very rude awakening, and chances were good that there would be repercussions. But as Phoenix looked at me and smiled with all the brotherly love he could muster, I knew that those repercussions could wait another day.

Draven gripped Bijarki’s arm as he approached us. The Druid dropped down to his knees, carefully listening for something.

The Daughter eyed us with a mix of curiosity and suspicion, the side of her face glued to Phoenix’s chest.

I caught my brother’s gaze again and noticed a faint twinkle in his eyes.

“Are you okay?” I asked him.

He nodded in response.

“Do you know what happened?” I asked.

“Not really. Everything’s a little fuzzy,” he said, then looked down at the Daughter.

I knew my brother well enough to recognize the expression he wore. Beneath the confusion, there was fascination, perhaps even affection, aimed at the Daughter. It only made me want to ask more questions. There was clearly something going on there that none of us could properly explain.

“I can’t hear her heartbeat,” Draven concluded, referring to the Daughter.

“She’s definitely alive,” Anjani remarked. She still held the tablecloth. “She’s just not very friendly right now.”

“Maybe she doesn’t know what’s going on.” Jovi didn’t take his eyes off the Daughter.

“Can you hear us?” Draven addressed the Daughter.

She threw him a glance, then looked up at Phoenix.

“I think she can, but she’s not interested in responding. She’s interested in Phoenix,” Anjani concluded, her golden-green eyes scanning the creature from head to toe. A shadow of amusement passed over her face.

Phoenix looked down at the Daughter and shifted his weight on one arm, using the other to hold her. She pulled herself closer into him, and I couldn’t help but cock my head as I watched the scene unfold before me.

“You’re the one who gave her the blood sacrifice,” the Druid told Phoenix. “I think she may talk to you. Say something.”

“What am I supposed to say?”

My brother was a notorious charmer when it came to girls, making this entire situation even more intriguing. If he couldn’t find any words to say to the Daughter, then she must possess some great power. She looked at him with warmth, as if fully trusting him.

Anjani handed him the cloth in slow motion.

The Daughter looked over her shoulder and hissed at her.

The succubus raised her hands in a peaceful gesture. From what I could tell, even in her newborn nakedness, the Daughter instilled fear in Eritopians.

“Cover her up, and see how she reacts,” Anjani told Phoenix.

He nodded and moved to wrap the Daughter in the tablecloth. Much to our surprise, she allowed him to cover her. She carefully watched as he pulled the fabric over her shoulders.

“Are you okay?” he asked her gently.

She didn’t answer, but her violet eyes glimmered slightly, her gaze locked with his. He gave her a reassuring smile, and his hands rested on her arms.

“You’re safe here with us, you know. The Druid has been looking after you for a very long time,” Phoenix continued.

The Daughter’s gaze shifted to Draven again, who waited quietly on his knees.

“Does she have a name?” I asked and immediately regretted it as she moved her attention to me.

The gravity of my previous actions started to weigh heavily on me, slumping my shoulders and slowing my breath. I was in some kind of trouble. It felt like trouble. But then again, she seemed to be suspicious and aggressive toward anyone who wasn’t Phoenix, not just me.

“What’s your name?” Phoenix asked her.

A moment passed before she let a heavy sigh roll out of her chest.

“I don’t know,” she answered.

My jaw dropped. She could speak. I looked around and saw my expression mirrored on my friends’ faces. No one moved, except for Phoenix, who looked surprisingly comfortable so close to the Daughter.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“I don’t know.”

“What do you know?”

She frowned, her lips tightened, and she seemed to struggle internally.

“Nothing,” she told Phoenix. “I don’t know my name. I don’t know what I’m doing here. I only know what I feel, and I feel you.”

“Does she know what she is?” Draven asked as he stood up.

“Do you know the Daughters of Eritopia?” Phoenix squeezed her shoulders gently.

She shook her head.

“What’s Eritopia?”

At that point, my weakened synapses were able to put two and two together. She’d been connected to the very nature of Eritopia through that egg. I’d broken her out of her sleep without letting whatever process she was going through end on its own.

Phoenix didn’t give up. “Do you know where you come from?”