“A vampire came to my office a week ago,” Njáll says. “He had spent some time in Margate and told me there is a loose-knit clan of vampires there. He is only young, and it was the first place he went after his sire abandoned him, and he said he quickly made friends with some of the other younger vampires.”
“A lot of young vampires there, are there?” Jeremiah asks, and Njáll gives him a short nod before he continues.
“He told me that a few weeks ago, one of the young vampires walked out onto the beach and remained there until the sun came up. Two weeks later, another did the same thing. It happened again the day before he came to see me.”
“Did they—” Paxton grimaces. “It happens, doesn’t it? Did they show any signs?”
“No, that’s the point,” Maurice replies. “The last vampire who died was a friend of his. He insisted he wouldn’t do that and said that all three of them had spent time with another vampire, Jakob. Over the past few months, Jakob has been seen with a woman who clearly has power but is not a vampire.”
“She could be a witch. Or a mage.”
Maurice blows out a heavy breath. “And that is the point ofinvestigating, Vlad. I was going to go after we tracked down Merletta, but I can’t risk wandering into a town with that many vampires right now, never mind a high fae.”
“You cannot,” the Huntsman agrees. He looks… troubled. I think. He’s really hard to read. But I can kind of feel his magic, too, and it feels more agitated than it did a few minutes ago.
“We can go,” Jeremiah says, jerking his head at Paxton. “We can check everything out.”
“The trouble is getting close to the fae,” Maurice says. “The vampire who came to Njáll said he only saw her once. He wasn’t close to Jakob. But his friend saw her a few times, he thinks.”
“So I get close to Jakob,” Jeremiah says with a shrug.
Maurice grimaces. “That’s not…” He looks at Njáll. “Where’s my phone?”
Njáll reaches into his pocket and presses it into Maurice’s hand. “I fear it may not work.”
“Fuck,” Maurice mutters. “Did he send them to you?”
“No. I can ask—”
“I can help,” I say quickly, then snap my mouth shut when all the attention in the room turns to me. “I mean. He sent you photos? On your phone?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, I can… I set up the cloud, so.”
Maurice’s frown deepens. “Cloud?” He glances up at the ceiling, and Paxton clears his throat like he’s swallowing a laugh.
“Yeah, just give me a minute.”
I race out of the room before any of them can stop me and take the stairs two at a time to my bedroom. Once inside, I pause before I grab my laptop from under my bed. Ugh. There’s a strange pressure whenever the Huntsman’s here. I’ve always thought I got that vibe from Vlad, that it travelled down our sire-turn bond because he treats Vlad like his second-in-command, did that even when Rook and Saide were around, but now…
Maybe it’s just him. I twitch my curtains slightly open and glance out onto the street. All empty. All quiet. Maybe that’s just what it’s like when the high fae are around.
I shake my head, snatch up my laptop, and make my way downstairs again.
When I walk back into the living room, no one has moved, but all their gazes swivel my way. Great. I sit cross-legged next to the sofa and log in to where I set up Maurice’s phone to store everything.
“Do you have access to all our devices?” Paxton asks, and I shake my head.
“Only the ones I set up.”
“So, mine,” Maurice says.
“And Asher’s, Vlad’s, and Jeremiah’s.”
Jeremiah makes an affronted sound. Paxton sounds like he’s hiding another laugh.
Vlad scowls when he says, “I did not know that.”
