All the cards

17

The next day went by quite uneventfully. Amira was still ignoring Elijah, but he seemed to be on somewhat okay terms with Nik. I'd picked up Izzy, and brought him home for Freya to fuss over. She loved having him around. Everyone did. He seemed to be a lot like Benji in that aspect- everyone loved him. I'd left him in Freya and Amira's care while I went to deal with Esther. I headed to the plantation.
"Amity?" She asked. "I didn't expect to see you here."
"Well, we can't leave you here forever. I hate you, but I'm not cruel. So I've come up with a solution."
"Well enlighten me? Are you finally going to put me out of my misery?"
"You're chained, up. Powerless. Right now you look pitiful. At least, before you looked alive. I can't kill you, looking the way you do."
"So what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to let you go." I said.
"What?"
"I'm going to let you go." I repeated. She started to smile and thank me. "Don't thank me. I'm just not the kind of person who can kill without a second thought. Before you were actively trying to kill me. Mikael was after Nik, and Dahlia was after my son. You are a pathetic human right now, tied up and powerless. I am a lot of things, but I don't kill if I don't have to. But, just letting you go would be a huge mistake. And with this prophecy looming, I can't afford someone I don't trust you roaming around the streets with the means to kill my siblings."
"But you said-"
"I know what I said. I've come up with a solution. You will live a human life. Without your magic or knowledge of the supernatural. Without knowledge of us. All you will know is that you're Esther. And that's all you need to know."
"No!"
"Yes." I leaned forward, erasing her mind before taking her magic. "Goodbye, Esther." I snapped my fingers and she disappeared.

Later, I headed to the compound, and was confronted by my brothers as I neared the entrance.
"So what happened?"
"Esther is now somewhere in Europe, without magic and any knowledge of magic or supernaturals."
"You let her go?" Nik asked.
"What did you want me to do?"
"Kill her."
"We have to be careful, Nik. We can't just go around killing people. Especially not people who'd haunt us. With Izzy only half in control of his powers, I don't want to risk an enemy we can't see tormenting him. We don't need another Silas on our hands."
"Anyone can take Izzy?" Elijah asked.
"Izzy does have some control over his powers. He can sense who is a threat, who he has a bond with. Like Abraham. And I think even Benji."
"He can see Benji?"
"Well, Abraham did say he moved on, but now that Abraham has also moved on and Izzy can still see him, it stands to reason that Izzy is also capable of seeing Benji."
"That's a lovely thought. Izzy having a brother by his side."
"Izzy can control when he crosses over, and he can sense who is trustworthy. But he doesn't always have control over who he sees. I don't want to kill our enemies, not if they decide to strike at us through Izzy." I said.
"And the timing couldn't be worse with our two first sired after us." Nik scoffed. "Elijah's after me and mine after Elijah. Makes you regret turning vampires in the first place."
"Well, there's three of us, two of them. Shouldn't be very hard."
"The two of you really only have yourselves to blame. No one told you to turn-" I stopped as we entered the courtyard. A woman lay on the floor atop a bed of lavender sprigs. Her wrists were slit and a piece of paper was attached to her lifeless body. Nik picked it up and read it, handing it over to Elijah.
"Roses are red, lavender is blue." Elijah read aloud, and a cold feeling settled in me. "Come find me before I find you."
"Aurora." I glared.
"Help!" Amira called, and I saw Izzy by the stairs, generating a force field that wouldn't allow Amira to stop him. I sped over to pick him up, but he blocked himself off to me.
"Isaiah." I said, trying to stop him, and he disappeared. He reappeared at the bottom of the stairs and giggled, running towards Nik and Elijah. "What is he doing?" I sighed, trying to catch up to him, but his forcefield ensured I couldn't touch him. I sped in front of the body trying to hide it from his view but he simply disappeared again.
"I don't think grandpa's helping him." Amira said.
"Abraham would never help him be near a dead body." I agreed. "So apparently he can teleport. Where is he now?"
"Behind you." Amira pointed. Izzy sat on top of the woman's chest, and was leaning to lick her wrist. As soon as the blood touched his mouth, he latched on, biting her wrist and draining her. I slowly weaned him off the dead body, picking him up. There was blood all over his mouth.
"He's a baby vampire." Nik said. "Wait, does Hope need blood?"
"I don't think so." I said wiping off the blood from Izzy's chin. "Izzy being part ghost, I guess, means he's dead. I suppose now he needs blood to survive. The two of you, deal with this and deal with Aurora. I am going to clean up Izzy."
"Call is if you need us?"
"Sure. And the same to you." I told him, before walking up the stairs, Amira right behind me.