I let out a long breath. “What are we going to tell the children?”
“The same story the paper will report, but I will need to wipe their minds of everything prior. It’s for the best, given the circumstances.”
“How did she find them here?”
A heavy silence fell over the room. “She killed their case worker,” Karson said grimly. “She still had the old couple down as their carers.” He paused and my stomach sank. Whatever he was about to say wasn’t good. “She killed them too. They must have given her my car license plate or my name.” He shook his head, perplexed.
“How did she get in the yard and who let her inside?”
Karson’s jaw tightened. “There was a distraction in the forest behind the house. They all headed to it, thinking it was Sarah.”
“What kind of distraction?”
“Someone gutted one of the vampires on guard and strapped him to a tree like Jesus on the crucifix.” Monique gulped her wine down.
My face paled. “Which guard?”
“Luken.”
I didn’t know which one he was. I barely knew any of them, not that that made it any better. “Is he … dead?”
“Yes, he was finished off after he had screamed long and loud enough to attract everyone’s attention.” She poured another drink. “She must have snuck in then, and someone let her intothe house. I checked for scents, but they’ve all been inside, so it’s impossible to know.”
Karson paced the room, the pain of betrayal on his features. All the guards he trusted with his life, with our lives. “We don’t know who is responsible, yet …”
“I think an equally prudent question to ask is who turned her?” Michael said. “Because we may have more than Sarah as an enemy.”
Karson’s face tightened. “Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to find out.” Because we were too busy arguing. I grimaced. He must have read the look on my face because he said, “It was my fault for not being more alert. She woke far faster than she should have done.” He thrust a hand through his dark hair.
Michael leaned forward abruptly. “What do you mean?”
“I broke her neck. It should have kept her out for ten to twenty minutes. It was barely a minute, and she woke.”
Monique and Michael exchanged concerned glances.
“How did she manage that?” Michael asked, frowning.
Karson shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Maybe you didn’t break it properly,” Monique said.
Karson’s hazel eyes slid to her. “I’ve snapped a lot of necks in my lifetime and think I’d know if I hadn’t broken it.”
“How do you explain her waking so fast, then?”
Karson turned away and poured a whiskey. “I have no idea, and it doesn’t really matter.” He walked back to the fire.
“Perhaps it has something to do with drugs in her system,” Michael threw out.
Karson stilled. “Or a witch’s concoction.”
“Of course, what else,” Monique said dryly, polishing off her wine. I’d never seen her drink so fast, so I knew she was rattled. “Unless Leah was a witch?”
“It’s possible,” Michael agreed. “Not all witches are easily detected when the linage is weak, and we know it’s enhanced when you turn, but her vampirism would be enough to mask it.”
“It doesn’t matter either way.” Karson threw back his drink. “Nothing would have saved her. She was dead the moment she stepped into our territory.”
“Georgie messaged.” Josh rushed into the room, flustered. His cartoon t-shirt was untucked, brown strands of hair stuck up in the wrong direction, and his shoelaces were undone as if he’d been woken up and rushed to get here.
