The Vault: Morituri te Salutant -- Those about to die, we twihard Part 5: Memento Mori Part 2 (Ch 10-18)

Awesome. If you're still with me, we're almost done! I swear! We're doing the last half of Memento Mori! So as you likely know, this was supposed to be done last week. Well, things got busy in the other world so THE VAULT had so be postponed a week.

Let's begin shall we? (read along)

Chapter Ten: So this was originally in the last post... which I learned during this edition since things weren't matching up. 

Short ass chapter. I seriously hate that I'm ending on a short one. I also hate the secrecy within this book. No wonder why this series never really made it as big as I was hoping for on Mibba. On the secrecy within this novel and especially within this chapter: the first thing that pops in my head with Allegra wanting to be 'alone' is about her drive to feed off of Katrina.

Chapter Eleven: Ugh. The intro. I'm starting to notice Katrina's blindness is more of a social status thing than an actual disability... Like Bridget Liu's half-Chinese/half-Irish heritage from Gretchen McNeil's Possess.

What. the. fuck. So Allegra has tracking sense (I called it psychometry) like Dmitri from the original series (which shouldn't he already have found them if he was so damn good?) and she can sense this unsettling feeling in the building (blatant foreshadowing)... Does she have more abilities or what? (smh)

Anyway, we learn some backstory on the Seer 'race' of vampires: there are few left in the world thanks to the Volturi and Allegra. She saved Luca and he hid himself from them (seriously, if Luca was so god-like why the hell didn't the other Seers just hide from the Volturi like he and Russell can?

Chapter ends with Dmitri finally finding them and Allegra trying to be a bad ass and defending them. Also, there's some over the top mind reading coming from Blythe. (How the hell can she tell that her coven is all thinking about Emily after she calls the Volturi the police?)

Chapter Twelve: A continuation of the last chapter. Blythe returns to the compound to warn everyone, Kassandra is a bitch (Aurora calls her out on it) and  Luca goes psycho on the messenger.

Luca should have just fried her brain and we'd be done with this narrative. We learn Blythe's greatest fear: loneliness. I kind of hate Luca. Everyone should hate Luca 

Chapter Thirteen: So this chapter kind of enters a depressive state. It's been over ten years since I was in a state of depression (not counting my seasonal depression that hits every fall/winter) and about a week since my last panic attack. I was never that bad but that being said, this intro is a great way to lightly discuss mental health. 

Blythe/Aurora have this conversation with the coven since Blythe is a spushel snowflake, they name their coven after her and her sister and Aurora tells her to look to her future (so does Aurora have precognitive abilities too? shit's getting muddled... a lot)

Chapter Fourteen: A vision chapter. Blythe becomes human. She is a spushel snowflake. 

Chapter Fifteen: The coven treats Blythe like a porcelain doll, limiting her time with her crush, Russell, and sheltering her from all wrong. 

Part way through this chapter, things get a little awkward, either Russell or Blythe is escorted out and she sees a message for her to go somewhere and she'll get all the secrets revealed to her.

Chapter Sixteen: Oh snap! We have a PoV switch! It's Allegra! I feel like there's barely a difference between the PoV's. I think I was trying to make Allegra more hardened but this didn't really pull through. She's still hardened but it seems like I'm still writing from Blythe. Another topic for a Writer Help Post.... I'll get a list going. xD

Short ass chapter ends where the crew follow Blythe to the meeting place of her and the mystery person.

Chapter Seventeen: Back to Blythe. It appears our mystery person is Kassandra. So I've noticed some of my villains have mental health issues (Aiofe from Guardian Heir and Elena from the Element War both go insane from rejection/family pressure, SPOILER: Abraham from the Moon Saga goes insane thanks to his conflicting beast blood) and Kassandra is no different. Her sister wants her to stop bullying Blythe and she just throws her like a ragdoll, nearly killing her. This is after she claims she's going to turn her sister at a later date. 

Chapter Eighteen: So last chapter Kassandra stabbed Blythe in the stomach with her hand. We continue on with where we left off. Kassandra's still continuing her boring monologue: Kassandra's also a spushel snowflake in that her preferred food is vampire. She has the ability to heal her victims, reverting them to human form then feasting on their blood. With every victim, she takes their ability (if they have one) so she's hell powerful: she can read minds, ability detection, healing, eventually she'll have Blythe's seeing the future and whatever the hell Russell's ability is.  

So I end this book at a cliff hanger (because I'm a shitty person and I wanted everyone to read the next book). Kassandra leaves them with an ultimatum: release her or she kills Blythe. Which is where I'll leave you until next week (provided school/work/life) doesn't get in the way. 

Always, 

Ali