"Rohan imprinted on a vampire," Benjamin said in a whisper. But they all heard it, especially Sebastian.
The silence that followed felt too quiet, too silent. Even crickets seemed to hold their breath for what was coming.
"A-a vampire?" Timothy stuttered, his voice pitching higher than his usual tone as he couldn't believe what he was hearing right now.
Benjamin could only nod. "When Rohan told our father what had happened, what he had done, what he felt... our father gave him a choice. Break the bond or leave the pack."
"But breaking the bond or the imprint would kill neither of them," Shane exclaimed, his jaw still hanging low as he tried to process what just happened.
"Naturally yes, but my father at that time didn't care. He considered his imprint an abomination. He deserved to die regardless of the method," Benjamin acknowledged. His eyes wondered as he remembered Rohan's face when he heard his father's condition.
Sebastian, in his never-beaten heart, felt as if something dropped to his stomach.
"He chose her?"
Benjamin looked at Sebastian, eyes dried from the tears he quietly shed, and shook his head. "He chose him."
"Him?"
Timothy questioned, his mind spiraling from all of this information.
"Yes, his name is Logan," Benjamin breathed before continuing, "Logan Medger of the Medger coven, foreign to this land, yet he roamed around as if any treaty was not formed."
"Wait—" Sebastian spoke, his mind wondering where he heard that name before. "What did this Logan look like?"
Zachary looked at Sebastian before looking back to Benjamin. Timothy, who had never seen the vampire before, leaned forward to listen.
Benjamin heaved a deep and heavy sigh and exhaled it quietly. "Logan was the prettiest vampire. Rohan said so. He has short white hair, broad shoulders, soft features, full lips, and blue eyes."
"Does he have a tattoo of a deer on his right arm?" Sebastian asked, too fast for Zachary's ears or Benjamin's, as if Sebastian had known him personally.
Benjamin frowned, his brows burrowed into one. He looked at Sebastian with confusion plastered in his expression. "You know Logan?" he blurted out.
Sebastian took a step back, hands in his mouth; a choke of a sob escaped his lips. "No, but I watched him die."
The porch fell into a suffocating silence. The only sound was the distant chirping of crickets, oblivious to the weight of what had just been spoken.
Benjamin's face drained of all color. His hands, still clasped behind his back, dropped limply to his sides. "What did you say?"
Benjamin stared at Sebastian, his expression twisted with confusion. Even Zachary had gone still, eyes narrowing as he studied Sebastian carefully.
"What do you mean you watched him die?" Zachary asked.
Sebastian stumbled back a step, his hand covering his mouth as his breathing turned uneven. The memory had struck him so suddenly that for a moment, he was no longer standing in the room with them.
He took a deep breath, swallowing a huge lump in his throat.
"I was young at that time. A newly bitten vampire. A child, in their term." Sebastian felt his knees go jelly. He suddenly sat down beside the truck's muddy tire.
"I was roaming around the capital city of Iwarim. It's a place where vampires can roam freely. Our home was first established there as my father, Damian, was negotiating terms with the Accords."
"Accords? What are they? Vampires like you?"
Sebastian nodded, quietly thinking how he should word out the next few lines. "Yes, they were known as the most powerful vampires. The very first ones. The ones that could predict someone's future in just one look. They are dangerous, sure. But they are also strict."
"Strict? What do you mean, Seb? Are they like my mom when she found me playing games instead of studying?" Shane asked, looking intently at the adults while sitting at the front of the porch.
"No, Shane. They are the worst. They have one rule for all vampires: mate with each other or mate with a human. That's it."
"So anything beyond that means death?"
Sebastian nodded. "Yes, and that's how I met Logan Medger. The man who mated with a wolf and the man who could see his future."
"And he saw his future with Rohan?"
Sebastian sighed. He looked up to Benjamin, then to Zachary. "No."
He stood up from the muddy ground, not bothering to dust off his pants as he stared intently at Zachary.
"I, as a vampire, have a gift. I could see someone's memories either past or present and…" he paused. He walked towards Zachary. Stopped a shorter distance from him and heaved a deep sigh.
"Your brother has a mate, right? What is she?"
Zachary looked at Sebastian. He stared at his eyes, looking for something, but he found nothing. Not even malice. "A witch."
Sebastian nodded. Benjamin spoke up before Sebastian could even continue.
"Sebastian, why is this relevant to finding my son?"
"I'm sorry, but it is. As his brother's mate is in Tanesab."
"And?" Zachary asked, still confused by the question. "I am a vampire, Zachary. Witches hate me. According to my father, or to Logan himself when he interrogated him on behalf of the Accords, he was being harrowed by the witches when Rohan found him and saved him from that horrible table."
Sebastian heaved another deep sigh. Slowly walking away from Zachary and standing beside Timothy.
"Rohan imprinted with a vampire after rescuing him from dying in the hands of a witch coven."
Zachary felt a huge slap in his face. "And are you saying that it is Mara's coven who tried to harrow him?"
Sebastian did not speak. He didn't have to be. Zachary scoffed, laughed, and looked at him dead in the eyes.
"Look, man, I know you are trying to help, but you don't know Mara. She could never hurt a fly."
"Not her. Her mother."
"What?"
"Her blood mother was the one who harrowed Logan."