Demon Blood

through his rumpled hair, as if this was more difficult for him than anything he’d said earlier.
    “All right.” His hand dropped to his side and he seemed to brace himself. “She’s staying for you. So you won’t be alone.”
    She stared at him. “Why does she think I shouldn’t be alone?”
    “Because you never have been, Mama. Ever. When you were human, you had Lorenzo, and then the nuns. After that, you had the Guardians and the vampires here, your family. Even when you came back from beneath the catacombs, most of our family was dead . . . but Gemma and I were here. She’s worried about you. About whether you can handle it if there’s no one here.”
    Not just Gemma, she realized. Vincente thought this, too.
    Astonished, Rosalia could only shake her head. She’d never imagined that they had this view of her. Since returning from Caelum two hundred years ago, Rosalia had been alone—almost always alone. Hiding, listening, managing . . . but rarely participating in the lives of those she watched and watched over. Her friends and her family had been bright spots . . . deep breaths, in all of the darkness. It had made them all the more precious.
    Deacon barely knew her, yet he had seen it. Lonely and desperate, he’d called her. He hadn’t been wrong, but she’d made it through centuries of alone rather well, all things considered.
    “I’ll convince her,” she said.
    Vincente nodded again, but this time he didn’t turn to go. “What did you do to Lorenzo?”
    Oh, no. “Vin—”
    “He threatened me, but went after you. What did you do?”
    Rosalia’s jaw clenched. He was obviously determined to hear this. She couldn’t imagine why, unless he wanted to pick apart another failure. A Guardian should have slain Lorenzo after the threat. But she hadn’t been able to kill her brother in cold blood.
    “I woke him up with my Gift,” she said. “I took him outside, and kept him awake while he burned. I fried him almost completely through, and told him that the next time he dared to think of my son, I would bring all of his community out to watch while I burned him to ashes, then take his place and lead them.”
    Vin stared at her, mouth parted in shock. No, that was not the mama he knew. She’d never let him see the darker side of living with a Guardian.
    But the shock quickly faded, his eyes narrowing. Rosalia braced herself. She’d taught him to look not only at actions, but at the reasons behind them. And Vin knew her too well—she never had just one reason for anything.
    “You threatened his position. You knew he would retaliate. You couldn’t bring yourself to outright kill him, so you forced his hand—made him come after you—because you could slay him if you had to defend yourself.”
    “Yes. I just didn’t expect that he would make a deal with Belial’s lieutenant, and that I’d be facing seven demons instead of my brother,” she said wryly.
    Unamused, Vin shook his head. “You should have just killed him, Mama.”
    “I couldn’t.”
    “Then you should have left it alone.”
    After Lorenzo had threatened her son’s life? “I couldn’t do that, either.”
    “God!” Vin spun away from her, throwing up his hands. “What can you do? Are you a Guardian or a sister?”
    That knifed deep into her heart. “I am a mother, too. I couldn’t take the chance that he’d follow through on his threat.”
    “He wouldn’t have touched me. He wouldn’t have risked breaking the Rules.”
    Rosalia hadn’t been so certain. Lorenzo had wanted to hurt her enough to make the threat. He might have hated her enough to take that risk. And she had no doubt he’d have been arrogant enough to think he might get away with it.
    Studying Vin’s rigid back, she sighed. Her son shielded his mind too well for her to detect his emotions, but it wasn’t difficult to read through his anger and frustration to the fear and concern beneath. When she’d chosen to make Lorenzo come after her, she’d made a decision that had almost cost her life. Combined with last night’s attack from the nephil, her mortality had been thrust into her son’s face—after decades of never letting him see her bloodied by so much as a scratch.
    “Perhaps I protected you from this part of my life too well.”
    With a hollow laugh, he turned to face her. “Do you think so? Instead of the Guardian fairy tale, you should have given us the version where you have a spike shoved through your brain while nosferatu feed