“Vampires have been dying,” Grant says, and both women look at him in surprise.
“Yes,” Rachel says.
I study them both for a moment, weighing up our options. I know why there are vampires here now. The mage wars were devastating for many of us, despite their name. Any other supernatural creatures nearby were caught in the crossfire of mage families warring with one another.
I know Maurice asked the Huntsman if we could intervene at the time. He was summarily shut down, and a few years later, all was done. A fae prince dead. As it turned out, perhaps we should have been involved all along.
But here? The original vampires perhaps came as refugees, but the fight for territory… Those who were first here may well have been killed or displaced, and all of that would take some time to settle, too. I am surprised the reach of the Hunters’ Council does not extend this far, or at least that Moreau did not hear of this and attempt to intervene, but if they did not know who to tell, then how would he uncover it at all?
“We believe the vampire Jakob has been luring in young vampires to kill on behalf of a high fae,” I say, and Margot shakes her head.
“Why would he do that? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Fae are seductive,” I reply. “She will have offered him whatever he desires in order to have him do her bidding.”
“Fae?” Rachel repeats. She is pale when she looks at Grant again. “You’re bait.”
Grant shrugs, cheeks reddening. “Yeah.”
“But you—You haven’t been a vampire long either.” Rachel turns her ire on me. “You’d let him put himself in danger? You took him away from us and then you—”
“Enough,” Grant snaps. I open my mouth, but he shakes his head. “No. It’s not Vlad’s fault, none of it. He saved me. AndIvolunteered to do this. Jakob isn’t going to kill me how he killed the others.”
“Do you know how he did it?” Margot asks flatly. Tension tightens her shoulders and Rachel’s hand slips from her wrist to thread their fingers together.
“No,” I reply. “We know the fledglings walked into the sun. We do not know why.”
“One of them was my friend’s little brother,” she replies. “He vanished three months ago. His friends knew he’d met Jakob, spent time with him. But we couldn’t get the police to investigate or anything like that. They said… They said he self-immolated. That was last month.”
Two months. The fae must have come straight here, more or less. There is something she wants from vampires in particular, but I cannot see how having these young vampires—especially one so freshly turned—walk out in public and burn is what she is trying to achieve.
“Why didn’t you come back?” Rachel asks.
Grant shifts uncomfortably on the bed. “I… I didn’t—”
“I did not allow it,” I say, and he snaps his mouth shut.
“What do you mean, allow it?” Rachel replies.
“Grant is my turn. My fledgling. And I was of the impression that it would be unsafe for him to be around humans for the first few decades of his new condition. Cutting off all contact makes things easier. He is not tempted to leave and put anyone in danger.”
“You just—” Rachel goes red now too, and it is Margot’s turn to tighten her grip. “You did take him away.”
“I did.”
It is no lie. I did. I took Grant far from his home—not that I knew where it was at the time—and kept him close. Will keep him close, for as long as he allows it.
“We found the car,” she says to Grant, and now anger drowns out the sadness and grief, clipped words making Grant flinch. “We had afuneral. Nothing in there, of course. We could never work out why. The car was all smashed up, so what, did you crawl into the woods to die?”
“Rachel,” Margot murmurs, not quite an admonishment but not far off. Grant blinks back tears and I get to my feet.
“That is quite enough. I would ask you both to leave now. We have no need of your assistance.”
“You’re going to stop him?” Margot asks.
I do not answer, and she sighs, but in contrast to Rachel, she now seems less angry than she did when she first entered the room. She tugs Rachel from the room and once the door has closed behind them and I can sense that they are outside of the wards, I feed power into them again. Only once they flare and settle do I turn back to Grant.
He stares at nothing, eyes wet, and I do not know how to approach him, so I do it slowly, hands slightly raised.
