Chapter 4 - The Memory Inside the Hound
Livia stared at her mother.
“What does that mean?”
Celeste’s lips trembled.
“It means you were in Prague.”
“That’s impossible.”
“You were an infant.”
“I was born in Massachusetts.”
“No.”
The answer broke something inside Livia.
She stood slowly.
“No?”
“You were born in Prague.”
Livia laughed, but her eyes filled.
“Of course I was.”
“Livia—”
“What else?”
Celeste reached toward her.
Livia moved away.
“What else did you change?”
“Your birthplace.”
“My father?”
Silence.
Livia’s voice lowered.
“My father?”
Celeste closed her eyes.
“He was your father.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“Yes. Daniel Marcel was your biological father.”
Livia exhaled shakily.
One truth.
At least one.
Adrian watched Celeste.
“Tell us everything.”
Celeste sank into the chair.
“In 1998, Elena discovered Sabine had infiltrated the Prague archive.”
“What archive?”
“A hidden repository containing copies of the Covenant.”
“Copies?”
“The original was separated into three parts.”
Adrian frowned.
“I was told two.”
“That was intentional.”
He stared at Celeste.
“You lied to me.”
“Elena ordered me to.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“Why?”
“Because she no longer trusted anyone.”
“Including me?”
“Especially you.”
The insult landed.
Livia saw it.
Adrian did not react.
Celeste continued.
“Sabine believed the Covenant could be destroyed if all copies were burned. Elena knew she was wrong. The document wasn’t merely paper. The binding was created through blood.”
Livia glanced at the pendant.
“My family’s blood?”
“Yes.”
“And Adrian’s?”
“Yes.”
Adrian looked toward the fire.
“Ardent and Voss.”
Celeste nodded.
“Two houses. Human and vampire. Bound together.”
Livia felt sick.
“What does any of this have to do with Orion?”
Her mother looked at the hound.
“The night the archive burned, Elena took you with her.”
“Why would she bring a baby?”
“She didn’t have a choice. Sabine had found our apartment.”
Celeste’s voice grew distant.
“I remember smoke everywhere. Your grandmother put you in my arms and told me to run.”
Livia listened without breathing.
“Orion was with Adrian’s guard.”
Adrian frowned.
“I sent him to protect Elena.”
“Yes.”
Celeste looked at him.
“He reached her too late.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“But not Livia.”
Celeste nodded.
“Sabine’s men blocked the alley. Orion attacked them. He stayed beside me while I carried Livia through the burning archive.”
Livia looked down.
Orion gazed back at her.
A strange pressure built behind her ribs.
Not memory.
Something deeper.
Recognition without images.
“He saved me.”
“Yes.”
Orion rested his head against her thigh.
Livia slowly touched him.
This time, when her fingers sank into his fur, she started crying.
She could not explain why.
Orion closed his eyes.
Celeste continued.
“After Elena died, I disappeared. Daniel helped me build a new identity. We came to America.”
“And Adrian?”
“I told him the baby died.”
The room froze.
Adrian turned.
“You told me no one survived.”
“I had to.”
“Why?”
“Elena’s last order.”
Adrian’s voice sharpened.
“She made you hide the Keeper from me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because someone inside your house betrayed us.”
Adrian stopped.
Elias, who had remained near the doorway, looked up.
“What?”
Celeste nodded.
“The attack could not have happened without information from the Voss estate.”
Adrian’s expression changed from anger to something colder.
“You had proof?”
“Elena did.”
“Where?”
“She died before she could show me.”
Adrian walked to the window.
For the first time, Livia saw him lose control—not loudly, but physically.
His hand tightened around the curtain until the fabric pulled.
Elias spoke carefully.
“If Sabine had someone inside the household then—”
“They could still be here.”
Adrian turned.
“Yes.”
Silence spread.
Livia wiped her face.
“So you’re telling me one of the people in this house could be working for the woman who just came to my home?”
Adrian met her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Wonderful.”
“I will move you somewhere else.”
“No.”
He blinked.
“No?”
“I spent twenty-eight years living inside somebody else’s version of my life.”
She looked at her mother.
“I’m done running before I know why.”
“Livia.”
“No.”
She turned back to Adrian.
“Sabine wants this Covenant?”
“Yes.”
“She thinks I can access it?”
“Yes.”
“Can I?”
Adrian hesitated.
“That is what we need to determine.”
“Then determine it.”
“You do not understand the danger.”
“Stop saying that like ignorance makes me safer.”
He stared at her.
Livia stepped closer.
“You investigated me after one dinner.”
Adrian did not deny it.
“You had my entire life on a tablet by breakfast.”
“Yes.”
“Then investigate your own house.”
Elias almost smiled.
Adrian noticed.
“Something amusing?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Livia crossed her arms.
“You have guards, records, apparently centuries of experience, and a dog older than democracy.”
Orion’s ears lifted.
“Use them.”
Adrian studied her.
Then something in his expression softened.
“You sound like Elena.”
Celeste whispered, “She does.”
Livia looked at her mother.
The anger remained.
But beneath it was love.
Years of sacrifice did not erase lies.
Lies did not erase years of sacrifice.
Both could be true.
She was not ready to forgive.
But she was not ready to lose her mother either.
A knock interrupted them.
One of Adrian’s guards entered.
“We found something.”
He carried a small envelope.
Adrian took it.
“Where?”
“Inside Miss Marcel’s coat pocket.”
Livia frowned.
“What?”
“I checked that coat.”
The guard nodded.
“So did we.”
Adrian opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Old.
Black and white.
It showed a younger Celeste standing beside Elena.
Between them stood Adrian.
Exactly as he looked now.
Livia stared.
But that was not what made her blood run cold.
A fourth person stood in the background.
Elias.
Livia looked at him.
Then at the photograph.
Then back at him.
Elias paled.
“That’s not possible.”
Adrian took the photograph.
His eyes narrowed.
The man in the picture looked exactly like Elias.
Same face.
Same build.
Same scar near the eyebrow.
Celeste rose.
“I know him.”
Elias stepped backward.
“No.”
She pointed.
“He was there the night Elena died.”
Adrian moved between them.
Elias shook his head.
“I was born in 1987.”
Adrian stared at him.
“I know.”
“I have records.”
“I know.”
Livia looked at the photograph again.
On the back, someone had written three words.
THE TRAITOR REMAINS.
Adrian read them.
Nobody spoke.
Then every light in Voss House went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Orion exploded into motion.
A scream came from the hall.
Gunshots.
Livia dropped to the floor.
Adrian moved with impossible speed.
Someone crashed against the door.
Emergency lights flickered red.
Livia looked toward her mother.
“Mom?”
No answer.
“Mom?”
The room was empty where Celeste had been standing.
The window was open.
A black curtain moved in the cold wind.
Livia ran toward it.
Adrian grabbed her.
“Don’t.”
“My mother!”
Outside, a vehicle tore through the rear gate.
Orion howled.
On the floor beneath the window lay Celeste’s necklace.
May you like
And beside it, written across the glass in blood-red lipstick, was a message.
BRING THE KEEPER TO PRAGUE.
