Across the table, I spot the faintest shift. Shoulders that were rigid ease a fraction and narrowed eyes soften just a sliver. It isn’t forgiveness, not even close, but the hostility dulls at the edges as if Callum’s and Dante’s words were something the vampires didn’t expect.
It’s gone in the next breath, their masks back in place, but I saw it.
As small as it is, I know it’s the opening we need. If they’re listening, even a little, then I’m not wasting the chance.
“I agreed to it because I thought I could swallow it for twelve months and walk,” I say, the words grinding out through my teeth. “I couldn’t, even if I didn’t want to admit it to myself until after I watched my brother break apart.” My hands lift from my lap to curl into fists against the table, nails biting my palms as the fury surges up my throat. “Point me in the direction you want me to fight and I won’t blink or ask questions. I’ll put my uncle in the ground and burn whatever’s left.”
The fire in my chest doesn’t ease when I spit it out, but it feels more manageable.
Lincoln’s gaze doesn’t waver, but his mouth twists, the faintest curl of disdain. “Convenient stories,” he says, voice like stone cracking, “for boys who now sit in the hands of the very creatures they hunted.”
Andrei’s knife taps once against the table, sharp enough to echo. “Very convenient.”
Silence descends for a few minutes until Dracula leans forward at last, his stare still sharp but in a logical way rather than threatening like the others. “If you’re done being complicit survivors and ready to be useful, prove it. All the names you know. All locations. All the logistics in your little brains.”
There is still suspicion threaded through every word and it grates, sharp under my skin. We’ve already bled to escape that monster, nearly dying, and still it isn’t enough to believe us.
But if I were sitting on their side of the table, staring down the people who let their daughter be held captive for a month? I wouldn’t believe a word of it either.
“I know the main goal is to get your wife home,” Dante responds, somehow steady and void of any of the rage that I’m fighting with. His chest rises with a slow inhale before he breathes out, “But I can do better than that if you have contacts within the human government.”
My eyes widen a fraction, surprised that he can even think of a larger scheme at a time like this. I shouldn’t be surprised, given his earlier display of logic under high-pressure situations when he came up with our plan to escape the compound on the spot.
He pauses, but no one answers so he presses on, his gaze unwavering as he glances between the three vampires. “Which I’m sure you do, given the treaty and the ban on hunters, making my father’s entire operation illegal.”
He glances at me, then Callum, before pinning his eyes back on Dracula. “We can make sure my father’s compound and his whole network is dismantled for good. If I can talk to your contacts, I’ll tell them everything they need to make sure this never happens to any magical creature again.”
Another breath fills his chest, dragged out this time as his shoulders rise with it. They sag when he lets it out. “Let’s hit them from all angles. Give them no chance to recover the network and replace the head of it once my father is dead.”
I blink at him repeatedly, truly impressed by that brain of his. It’s an incredible plan, taking into account everyone who could help us end this for good. The extent of my own plan was to go in there and put some bullets in Terrance’s head.
Andrei’s knife stops its idle tapping as his head tilts in consideration. “Now that’s a tactical plan I can get behind.”
“You’ll speak to our contacts,” Dracula says finally, voice clipped. “But if they take too long to form a unit to assist us, we will be going in after our wife without them.”
His eyes settle on me and I can’t help the smirk that lifts the corner of my mouth. I can practically feel the challenge in his stare and his words.Will you risk yourself even without that back up?
“I’ll be ready whenever you are, sir.”
He inclines his head in the briefest nod I’ve ever seen, and maybe I’m delusional, but it feels like a small thread of respect and understanding has forged between us.
Lincoln slides a stack of paper across the table, a pen dropping beside it with a sharp click. “In the meantime, you will all contribute to one master list of information on this hunter network.”
Andrei leans in, his gaze fixed on Dante. “I want every level of the building laid out. How many guards, where they’re posted, shift rotations. Don’t leave out the surrounding perimeter security and the area the compound is located. I want zero surprises.”
The weight of their demands hangs heavily in the air, but for the first time since stepping into this castle, I feel the fire in my chest settle into something useful.
The thought of my uncle, of his empire rotting from the inside out, is enough to curl my lips up. Dante drags the paper toward himself and begins to write. Callum and I add in the thoughts we have as we start with the surrounding location,before focusing on the building itself. I’m blown away by the knowledge Dante has of the network outside of the compound, and the level of detail in which he can recall it all.
Terrance has contacts within the government itself and multiple facilities throughout the country, which is news to me. Callum and I lock eyes and nod. There’s no more doubt in our minds that our uncle absolutely had the influence to keep us trapped at his side forever, blocking our college acceptance and who knows what else.
The vampires ask questions for clarification as we go, and there’s no backtalk or wasted words from us. Just ink and vengeance bleeding out onto the page.
The butler’s steps echo sharply down the corridor as he leads us toward the rooms we’ve been given by Dracula. The wing reeks of old money with dark chandeliers dripping crystal and velvet curtains heavy enough to block out the moon’s glow. Stone walls and floors keep the air cold, and I have to wonder if they even feel the temperature the way we do.
“You will not leave your rooms,” he says, voice flat and final, like he’s said it a hundred times before. He gestures at the three ornate wooden doors at the end of a hall. “Food will be brought for you.”
Despite having three rooms, we silently file into one, like the thought of being separated is suddenly foreign after what we’ve been through. Callum drops straight onto the four-poster bed, his weight hitting the mattress like the fight’s finally drained out of him.
