“It makes sense,” I interrupt, nodding. “Do you think that’s why Rook and Saide came here? Did being bitten do something to them?”
Asher tips his head back to look up at the ceiling. “Who knows?” he mutters, sounding exhausted. Quinn does smile now, reaching over to thread their fingers together. “Fine. Call them. Whoever they are.”
“Rachel’s my cousin,” I say, and Asher’s head snaps back up again.
“What thefuck?”
“A coincidence, as it turns out,” Vlad says, already scrolling through his phone. “Margot and Rachel accosted us after a visit to the club. They have been attempting to warn young vampires off.”
“Your cousin?” Asher says.
“Yeah.”
“What’s she going to tell your family?” Quinn asks, and I shrug in response.
Vlad moves over to the door to make the call, and I explain the trips to the club and meeting Jakob. I don’t say that I really want us to find him regardless of whether he’s with Eirian or not, but Quinn at least reads it from my tone. The corner of his mouthtips up, and I get the feeling I might actually get to see him shift sometime soon, depending on how the rest of this job goes.
“They will be with us soon,” Vlad says, sitting beside me again. “Margot was rather sceptical, but that is not unexpected. Rachel convinced her to hear us out.”
“If Eirian can’t get hold of me, do you think she’ll try with someone else?”
“What do you mean?” Asher asks.
I shrug. “She recognised my power as coming from the Huntsman, and she met Vlad. It’s not a leap to work out that he’s my sire. If we’ve figured out the way the magic has worked through us, then so could she.”
“What was she doing before, do you think?” Asher says. “Giving them her own blessing?”
“She said something about a serum,” I reply.
“This may be a far more sophisticated operation than we anticipated,” Vlad says, and he and Asher exchange a dark look.
“He may not be able to lie, but he certainly understands how to withhold information.”
“Is that why we only had to get the name?” I ask.
Vlad squeezes my leg. “Likely so,” he says with a nod. “Eirian is someone the Huntsman is wary of. That means we need to be careful, too.”
We sit with that and discuss what our next steps might be after talking to Margot and Rachel, but they arrive about fifteen minutes later anyway. Vlad gets up to answer the door, warning me off with a brief look, and I shuffle back on the bed, shoving my shaking hands beneath my thighs.
It’s not like either of them knows there’s anything different about me. Why would they care? Being a vampire is the real change, the thing that took me away from here in the first place.
Margot comes in first, trailing after Vlad and keeping herself firmly between Rachel and the rest of us. She comes up shortwhen she spots Asher and Quinn, and Quinn rises again—the extra stool having come from their room, I suspect, if only so we all don’t have to try to squeeze onto the bed.
She softens a little at his earnest look. “Uh, no. It’s fine. We can stand.”
Rachel’s gripping her hand. She looks at me briefly but doesn’t hold my gaze. Guilt gnaws at my insides. Vlad sits next to me again. This time, he doesn’t touch me, though he’s sitting closer than he ever would have before.
“What do you know about the vampire Jakob?” Vlad asks.
Margot scowls. “Less than you, I’d reckon. You’ve been spending all that time with him.” Her glare moves to me.
“Do you know why he was after those young vampires?” I ask. Vlad’s hand twitches like he wants to reach out for me, and Asher and Quinn watch on in silence, Quinn sitting again.
“He wanted to kill them.”
“Not that,” I say, then shake my head. He definitely wanted to kill me. “Notjustthat.”
“What, then?” Rachel snaps, and the venom in her voice takes me by surprise.
