“Well? Go on! Do it!” Apep roared at the Templar minions who stood frozen in place. Then one of them went to fetch the doctor’s body while the other carried the baby out of the room.

Filomena, the Templar woman who held the baby in her arms, felt her heart pound and her stomach turned sick. The baby was screaming and crying, but it was so small and wrinkled and helpless. How could anyone wish harm on an innocent little baby? She hadn’t signed up for this. Not for any of it. Their mistress had clearly gone out of her mind. Kamen, their mistress’s most beloved pet, had disappeared and ever since that day she had not been the same. She had changed in appearance, her size and stature having enlarged considerably. Ever since then the woman who had once been cruel alone had become vicious and intractable. Nothing seemed to please her, and when she was displeased she usually ended up killing something. Or someone. Usually someone. No matter how hard they struggled to serve her, it was never enough. A life could be forfeit just because the wind blew the wrong way in that moment.

No. It was not what she had signed up for and there were many who felt the same way. Only they were too frightened to do anything about it. Odjit had caught Templars trying to defect in the past and had made examples of them. Oh, she had not caught all of them. Some had escaped unscathed. Most since the pregnancy had grown heaviest on her; almost as though her power had waned the more she had quickened with the child. Filomena had been too afraid to try escape before this, not willing to risk her life.

But to obey her mistress now meant she would have to kill this baby.

If there was ever a time to escape, now would be it. But she would have to leave right that very instant, no packing of her belongings, nothing of the kind. Her heart pounded with fear. Fear for herself and, mostly, fear for the life of this child.

“I…I’m going to dispose of this baby in a dumpster in the heart of the human town not far from here. That way no one will find the body here and call it into question,” she said.

It was lame and it made no sense but it was all she could think of.

“Make sure you break its neck first before you leave it,” her male counterpart said as he hefted the weight of the dead, slightly obese doctor. “We don’t need some human finding it and getting all sentimental over it. If the mistress wants it dead it better be dead. And you know she’ll know.”

“Of course! Do I look stupid to you?” she snapped.

“Just do it!” the Templar huffed and puffed under the weight of his burden.

Filomena hurried away and headed straight to her room. She hastened to put only the smallest bag together in as quick a manner as she could, then she looked up the location she wanted on a map.

Without another thought she stepped into a streak.

—

Viève felt like she was hiding out in her room.

She didn’t mean to, she was just afraid to go out and face the possibility of running into Felix.

Okay, so she did mean to. But she had to stop. Other Wraiths would be coming soon and they’d all have bad things to say about her. The only way she could countermand those bad things was to go out into the house and prove to everyone that she had some kind of value. Besides, she wanted to keep an eye on Felix and any other Wraiths that came. She didn’t trust them at all.

She finished putting on her makeup and looked in the bathroom mirror. She wasn’t going to do this. She wasn’t going to hide.

She touched a pinky to her frosted pink lip at the corner, tidying up her lipstick. Satisfied with the way she looked she checked her braid to make sure her hair was all tightly bound within. If they played capture the flag today she wanted to be able to move without her hair getting in her way.

She turned away from the mirror and taking a deep breath she left the bedroom. She headed down the stairs looking for Kamen. He had woken up earlier than she had and been gone before she’d even opened her eyes.

She probably should have checked Marissa and Jackson’s room. Maybe the Shadowdweller was still there and he had gone to heal him some more.

She went into the kitchen and the first person she ran into was Paulette. To her surprise, Viève did not see Grey anywhere. Usually the two were inseparable. And with there being more Wraiths in the house, she would have thought she would feel all the more insecure. Conscious of this she apologized to Paulette and went to leave the room.

“No. Please. Stay. I wish to speak with you.”

Viève was surprised, but she came into the room fully and took a seat at the breakfast bar, a full countertop away from Paulette, who was standing in the heart of the kitchen with a coffee cup in her hands.

“I’m sorry about last night. If the Wraith scared you,” Viève clarified.

“Yes. He did. Does. But it made me realize how different you are from them. I heard some of the things he said to you. They were very cruel things. Do they do that to you often? Treat you with such little respect?”

Viève could only nod.

“It is very wrong of them. I find you to be quite unique. And uniqueness should be treasured, not shunned.”

“Thank you for saying that, but that is not how my people feel.”

“Your people have been wrong on many an occasion. They have done me wrong.”

“You don’t know how sorry I am for that. It must be difficult to be in the same house with…with Wraiths like Felix.”

“It is. I did not sleep here because of it. I had Grey take me back to his home for the daytime. But as you see, I have returned.”

“I still don’t understand why the Wraiths find you so addicting. I mean, not that you’re not a fascinating woman…you are. But…” Viève floundered.

“I know what you mean,” she said with a little laugh. “I wish I knew how it all worked. But theirs is a cold, colorless world, as you well know. We have color and life to us that the Wraiths cannot understand, but they covet it like nothing else. As he said, it is like a drug.”

“I cannot see your aura. As Felix said, it is probably because I am a half-breed.”

“Better to be half-bred than full in this case,” Paulette said bitterly.

“I am beginning to see that for myself. Before I was ashamed of my human side. But since coming here, I am ashamed of my Wraith side.”

“You should not feel shame for either side. You are not the sum of your heritage. Your life is what you make of it. You are what you make yourself to be. You can either choose to be like a Wraith or you can choose to be like a human. Or you may be as your heritage is…a little bit of each. Either way you must accept who you are and determine what you will allow others to see you as. No one can think badly of you as long as you do not think badly of yourself. If you think of yourself as less, then others will as well.”