I shiver. I can imagine it, though I’ve only met her twice. She wouldn’t care that she was telling a room full of vampires she’d killed the people they considered their leaders.
“Where might Jakob be?” Vlad asks Helen, impatience wearing his voice thin.
“He has a couple of houses. One near the club, but I don’t imagine he’ll be staying there because everyone knows about it.”
“The other?”
Helen studies all three of us for a moment. “Are you going to kill him?”
“If necessary,” Vlad says, which I think means yes. Sure, all creatures can fall under the sway of the fae—some more easily than others—but I looked into Jakob’s face and saw the truth. He’s a predator in all meanings of the word. He’s not safe to be left out alone.
Helen nods all the same and gives us an address. “He might not be there. He could well have other places I don’t know about.”
“It is good enough,” Vlad says. “You should be careful out here.”
“So should you,” Helen replies. She gives us a final distrustful look before she slips past us and walks away.
Margot sighs and leans back against the nearest building. “Now what? Do we go straight after him?”
“We should call Asher,” I say. “That address is over in the area they’re searching. If Jakob is there, Eirian might be with him.”
“Yes, all right. Let me just—” Vlad doesn’t finish the sentence because his phone rings before he can even fish it out of his pocket.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Vladimir
“We’vefoundsomething,”Ashersays, voice tight. “You need to get over here.”
“Where are you?”
“Approach Road, near the park. Fuck. Quinn, he’s heading in there. Can Grant track my phone?”
I look at Grant. He must be able to hear the conversation, and sure enough, he nods.
“We will be there in a few minutes. Be careful.”
Grant has his phone in his hand, but we begin walking before he even opens the app to track Asher’s phone. He takes the lead as we turn a corner. I do not like that, but there is little to be done about it; the situation we are walking into may well be dangerous, but Asher, Quinn, and Rachel are likely to be in more danger than the rest of us.
“What do you think they’ve found?” Margot asks.
“Something related to Eirian, most likely,” I reply. “If they had found Jakob, he would have said.”
We are silent after that until we reach the park. There, I tug Grant behind me, and though he glares at me, he goes easily enough. “Tell me where to go.”
He directs us through the park, but at some point, using his phone becomes pointless; we are too close. I can feel the edges of Asher’s blessing, but only just. Grant tugs on my sleeve, and soon we find them, lingering near a small copse of trees.
“What have you found?” I murmur but then wonder why I asked because I canfeelit.
Eirian’s magic. Only Eirian is not the one wielding it. Asher tilts his head, and I glance around one of the thick tree trunks.
The bodyguard. He prowls through the shadows, clearly hunting. He has not sensed us yet, though perhaps because Eirian has given him far more of a blessing than the Huntsman ever gave us. It must be overwhelming.
“Found him a few streets back,” Asher whispers, lips to my ear. “She’s given him too much. I don’t think he knows what he’s doing.”
“What do we do?”
“Capture him. Didn’t like the chances with just my blessing. Grant…”
