“They lost a little girl,” Abbi said. “Are you so mad at vampires and that stupid hunter that you would let a little girl die?”
No. I didn’t have that in me. If a child was in danger, I would do what I could to help. I knew Lula was the same.
“Yes,” Lula said, and it hit like a punch. “We are that angry at vampires. The child isn’t our problem.”
That wasn’t like her. She’d never turned away from helping an innocent before. I reached for her hand, but it was knotted into a fist.
“You don’t mean that,” Abbi said. “She doesn’t mean that,” she told Cassia.
“She’s my daughter,” Variance went on. “She’s been vampire bit.”
Lula made a sound, and I squeezed her wrist.
“Did you bite her?” Lu’s voice was level, but I could hear the anger there, the horror that a child had endured such an attack.
“No,” he said. “Dominick.”
“We can save her,” Cassia said. “We think it isn’t too late to save her. We can return her to a human, mortal life if we find her soon. We will do that even if you refuse to help us.”
“How did this happen?” I asked, horrified. “How does a child pay for her father’s mistakes?”
“He called her,” Variance snarled. “She…she could not…” The words dried up and his eyes flooded red.
“He was angry,” Cassia said. “Furious that Variance had challenged him. We didn’t know he had captured Variance. Didn’t know until Rhianna slipped away to him, answering a call we could not block. Then. Could not block then. We didn’t know how strong Dominick had become. What he could do from his throne.” She lifted her glass and took another sip. “We are all at fault.”
“Did Dominick come here?” Lula asked.
Cassia shook her head. “Never him. His lackeys have tried to break through our magic, our boundaries. At first, we were not up to the challenge.”
“Six people died,” Variance said.
“Yes,” Cassia snapped. There was a pause, a silence between them. “We have grieved.”
“It’s not enough,” Variance growled.
“We will continue to grieve,” Cassia said, her voice rising. “But we must go forward while Rhianna still has time.”
“You want revenge?” I asked the vampire.
“I want justice,” he countered.
“By us killing Dominick?” Lula asked.
“No.” He turned to her, and his smile was deadly. “I will kill that horror. But before I do, I need your help stealing something from him.”
“Is it the book?” Abbi asked.
He shook his head, gaze locked on Lula. “It’s my daughter, Rhianna.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“The vampire has your daughter?” I asked.
Cassia pulled off her glasses and sat back. The circles under her eyes were dark, and her shoulders slumped. “She’s been gone for two days. We’ve…we’ve tried many things to find her. Now, with the blessings of the Moon Rabbit, we will bring her home. We still have time.” That last was said in a whisper.
“And you think she’s only been bitten once?” Lula asked.
“Yes,” Variance said.
