Midnight Crusade

Chapter 20

Before Kit could go and see Vivian, he had to talk to Niccolo about sealing Vivians aether away. He knew that if he brought the idea up to anyone before going to Niccolo, he wouldn't hear the end of it. So when he got back to the estate that morning, he headed straight for the office.

He found Niccolo behind his desk, writing something down with a quill. "What is it?" Niccolo asked, his voice short.

"Viktor knows of a spell that would seal Vivian's aether away. Permanently." Kit told the elder vampire, not wanting to make this conversation any longer than he needed. Crimson eyes watched as the elder vampire froze mid writing. "If her aether was sealed away, Ezra would lose interest in her."

Niccolo slowly looked up from his desk to meet Kit's eyes. "Why would we do something like that?"

"So Vivian can return to her life in Lake Ashton. No one would be able to take advantage of the fact she's an aether reservoir, no one would be able to sense it. She would basically be a human. Only, she would be resistant to aether manipulation with having it sealed." Kit explained, hoping that Niccolo would just agree and it would end here.

"Permanently seal her aether away? Why would we do that, Kit?" Niccolo asked, standing from his desk. "We could potentially need her as an aether reservoir-."

"So you're keeping her here to use her eventually?" Kit interrupted the elder vampire, feeling anger boil inside of him.

Niccolo let out a breath. "What I'm saying is she could be helpful to us as an aether reservoir, I think permanently sealing it away would be a bad idea."

Kit stared at the other vampire, unsure of what to say. Niccolo really planned on using her at some point. Was he not willing to let her go home? "Niccolo, she does not want to be here. We cannot force her to live here for the rest of her life."

"It's a short life anyway."

"Niccolo!" Kit yelled out, startling both himself and the elder vampire. But he felt passionate about this, he had a reason to. Before he was a vampire, the whole reason why Ezra took him at such a young age, was because Kit was an aether reservoir too. The thought of anyone using her made his stomach lurch."You cannot use her."

Niccolo looked at him for a few breaths, as if taking him in, assessing. "You feel very intensely about this." The elder vampire points out, putting hands to his desk. "Why?"

"You know why." Kit replied, fists clenching at his sides. "We have to do this for her, to give her a normal life back."

Again, the elder vampire was silent, just looking at him. Then he pushed up from his hands and sat back down in his seat, letting out an exaggerated breath. "Fine, do whatever you want, Kit."

The vampire felt relief flood his system. "Really?" Kit asked, wanting to be sure he understood the man. "You'll let us do the spell."

"Yes, yes, you can do the spell."

Kit gave a nod. "Thank you, Niccolo."

"Get out."

Kit was quick to leave the office and begin his search for Vivian, excited to tell her the good news.

✩

Vivian sat at one of the chair and table combos scattered throughout the library. When she had woken up this morning, Kit had been missing. Her first thought was that he had patrol that night and left ar some point, but she remembers him mentioning he didn't have patrol last night. Her second thought was that he was possibly in the kitchen, but when she went to check, the vampire wasn't there either. So she came to the library to see if he had woken up early and decided to look at books without her, but he was nowhere in sight.