I looked up to find Ambrose and his co-conspirator regarding each other, then approaching where Maxwell and I hid. I gestured to Maxwell to follow my steps, and we snuck away soundlessly.
I took us on a circuitous path away from Ambrose so that we wouldn’t be followed easily, mind whirring with what we’d just overheard.
“Did that sound like what I think it sounded like?” Maxwell asked softly, hands stuffed into his pockets beside me. His eyes watched the path at his feet.
I licked my lips. “I’m afraid it did sound … damning.”
“If Ambrose wasn’t directly involved in Emmett’s kidnapping, he was at least aware of the circumstances surrounding it. Why has he been acting ignorant of it? He knows how worried I’ve been.” He shook his head. “Does he know where Emmett is now, or did he escape their clutches? And why was it necessary at all?”
I hesitated. “Isabel saw him being comforted by a woman. I keep coming back to that. Why wouldn’t he confide in Isabel, unless it was something that required delicacy?”
“Delicacy?”
“Yes. Perhaps removing Emmett from Hemlock Manor had to do with avoiding a scandal.”
“A scandal? What do you suspect?” Maxwell breathed in sharply. “An elopement?”
“That wouldn’t be terribly surprising. Isabel’s going to point the woman out to me. If she was aiding Emmett and a mutual acquaintance in something that could have been ruinous, I understand your brother’s extreme measures, even if he did hire undesirables to remedy the matter.”
Maxwell grunted. “Truly? You’re taking his side? Did you see the blood on that mattress? They didn’t quietly sneak off with him into the night.”
“Something clearly went wrong. Perhaps your brother was able to fend them off while they tried to chloroform him? It didn’t sound like Ambrose was happy with the circumstances. Someone was clearly too free with their dagger.”
“I’m glad Emmett gave them hell,” Maxwell muttered, shaking his head. “I hope he managed to elude them in the end.” His jaw was clenched, his eyes narrowed. I could feel the fury radiating from him, and I couldn’t blame him. Ambrose had needlessly made Maxwell imagine the worst. And if Emmett was hurt, and in hiding, it was due to Ambrose’s scheming.
Why was nothing straightforward in the human world? Vampires were much less tedious. Want. Take. It was that simple. Here, it was a convoluted mess of propriety and etiquette.
“But wait.” Maxwell cocked his head. “If the kidnappers were only after Emmett, why did they attempt to take me?”
I blinked. I wasn’t sure how I’d overlooked that detail. “Perhaps they simply wanted to lure him out of hiding?”
Maxwell looked skeptical.
A scream pierced the night.
I stilled mid-stride, meeting Maxwell’s gaze as we listened, as if we’d imagined the sound. But then it came again, and it was close.
“Is that Isabel?” Maxwell asked, frowning.
I sprinted in the direction of the scream, across an aisle of hedges, trampling over manicured bushes and tangles of roses, thorns scratching me in my haste.
“Wait for me,” Maxwell protested, bumbling into a shrub and cursing. He was too slow, and I didn’t heed his request. Who knew what sort of danger Isabel was in? A few days ago, I would have relished the idea of the girl being in trouble, but she’d earned my grudging respect since then.
A snarling greeted me as I pushed past a lilac bush to find Isabel yanking her dress from the teeth of a large gray wolf. Isabel was pale and wide-eyed as she desperately pulled on the fabric to free herself from the beast.
At my approach, the wolf let go, turning its bared teeth on me instead. Isabel didn’t waste a moment to whirl in the opposite direction and run.
I met the eyes of the wolf, an intelligence flickering in their depths, and understood at once that this was no ordinary wolf. This was a vampire.
“Raven,” I snorted, shaking my head. “You sure are persistent.” Then I brightened, a beam of pride rushing through me. “And you finally transformed? Good on you. I told you that you were close.”
I was met with a growl in response.
“Hey, I was as frustrated as you with the slow progress,” I grumbled, snatching up a branch that lay at my feet. It wasn’t particularly menacing, but it would be something to keep between myself and Raven as she began to lope around me, looking for a weakness in my defenses. I hefted the branch in my hand and grinned, trying to intimidate the vampire, knowing she could overtake me with little effort if she’d learned anything from our encounter on Old Mill Road. I held up the branch. “Wood,” I said, pointedly. “I won’t miss my mark this time. You can leave now if you’d rather not test me.”
Raven snapped her jaws as Maxwell caught up to me, stopping short, eyes going wide. I threw an arm out to keep him back, and Raven seized the moment to attack. Heavy paws shoved me to the ground, the wolf’s warm breath greeting my cheek briefly before it set its sights on Maxwell, bounding for him with her jaw outstretched.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” I grunted, throwing the branch at Raven’s back as she nearly snapped her teeth over Maxwell’s arm. The wolf’s teeth only closed on air as her aim was thrown off by the projectile that sent her stumbling. I rolled onto my feet, finding that Maxwell had put himself between me and the vampire as she took a moment to orient herself.
