“No.”
Perhaps I could have pushed harder, come back. Say that I was injured, that I didn’t know who I was for a while… Something. Anything.
I didn’twant to. My heart skips a beat, and pain threatens to choke me. Six months in and I didn’t want to leave Vlad at all. It felt like he’d be so lonely without me there because as much as he was looking out for me, I was looking after him too, at least by ensuring he interacted with one other person per day.
“What happened with the vampires here?” I ask because there’s no way to articulate all that, not to Margot. To Vlad, later. He’ll want to hear it, I think.
“I mean, I guess they’ve been here all along,” Margot replies with a little shrug. “But we never knew.Inever knew. Like we said, things got weird about thirteen years ago. After you—”
“After I was turned.”
“Yeah. Coincidence, I guess?”
“Most likely,” Vlad says from up ahead, voice flat. “The most likely explanation for the mass movement of those vampires is the mage wars.”
“Mage wars?” Margot asks, then shakes her head, tossing the thought aside. “No, whatever. I was working at a pub back then. And at night, we’d get all these… people. For a while, people started disappearing, too. Some of the newcomers, some tourists, some people from here. Then it all settled down.”
“Teething problems,” I say, nodding, because I can’t help myself. Margot glares but doesn’t comment on that.
“It was a couple of years later that I found out what was going on. I was still working at the same pub, and one night, one of those strange guys got me outside, which was weird in and of itself because, you know, I’m not into men, so I was about to scream, but then Rachel… She just appeared. Whacked the guy with some wood she found lying on the ground. Didn’t kill him, of course, just shocked some sense into him ’cause he ran off,but then I was visited by another guy the next night who was mega creepy, but aside from some veiled threats, he just kind of checked if I was okay.”
“This guy wasn’t Jakob?”
“No. I think he was around then, but he wasn’t one of the top dogs. Not even close. The guy who came to see me, I think he left a few months ago.”
Vlad glances back at me. Chased off by the fae or freaked out enough to run. Either way, he’s not here.
“How’d you both figure out they were vampires?”
“Oh, I saw his teeth,” Margot says. “The guy who attacked me, I mean. Tried telling myself I’d been seeing things, but Rachel already knew. She had some names. A couple had recently been elected as councillors and she’d been keeping track.”
“Why?”
Margot is silent for a moment. “I think she needed something to do. People to save.”
“It seems as though you have taken the more active role now,” Vlad says.
“No, not really.” Margot looks at me again. “You threw her off her game. All we were gonna do was tell you to leave.”
“I know.”
“This way,” Vlad says.
I frown. I can’t sense any fae magic, but then I look up and realise that’s not what he’s after.
There’s a woman across the street. She’s just ducked out of a nearby pub, and she jerks her head up, making eye contact with Vlad.
Vampire.
All I can sense is her death magic, though, and not a trace of Eirian or any other fae at all. Her gaze darts up the street, then back at us, and her shoulders slump all at once like she knows there’s no point in running.
“Her name’s Helen,” Margot murmurs. “I’ve not spoken to her. She works for the council. Manager of some department; I can’t remember which, but she works night shifts.”
“And recently?”
“She’s not been turning in for work.”
Vlad nods and crosses the road. I trot after him, Margot right on my heels. Helen scowls, wrapping her jacket more tightly around her torso.
