“There’s nothing to say you had anything to do with vampirism being introduced. What if it was already there? What if they were trying to just distract you long enough? Just start infecting more fae.” Corbin stared at him, his eyes so serious. “They managed to get Tisi and his birth parents out of the Glade. It’s not like they’re not noticeable.”
He sighed. He supposed so. Still…
“What do you know about the vampires?” Ev asked.
Corbin shrugged and sighed. “Well, let’s see. The whole garlic thing is a lie. They didn’t do well in the sun in the human realm, but obviously that wasn’t a thing in the Land of Summer. Our light killed it, and it only kills vampires, that we can tell. I mean, every so often we’ll find a demon that it’ll zap, but that’s rare. They’re very hierarchical, and they’re not solitary; they functionin groups. So the chances of us just having hurt the one left behind are at best somewhat slim.”
“Do you think there’s another stronger vampire already over there?” That was a horrifying thought.
Corbin nodded. “I do.”
“That’s not terrifying beyond all reason.”
“The good news is now that we know they’re there, we’ll be able to spot them.”
“Right. But we can only be over there so much. We need to communicate with my brother how to spot one. Obviously, they can hide in plain sight. None of us knew today until Cosmo started foaming.” They’d had no idea what this Forrest guy’s talents were aside from walking through trees. Obviously, no one in the Flower Mound bunch realized what was going on.
“We’re sort of professionals.”
He blinked at Corbin. “What?”
“Love, we’re professional vampire hunters. That’s what we do. We rescue dragons from vamps. Also, werebears. I mean, that wasn’t us, that was Austin and Dustin.”
Now he was lost. “Who?”
“Austin and Dustin, they’re over with our boss in Lunastra.”
Evander didn’t care for that—there being this entire world where he couldn’t go and he couldn’t see and he couldn’t help if his mate was there. It made him very cross, in fact. “I don’t?—”
He didn’t know what exactly to say.
“Yeah, we get that from Hawk when we go over to the Land of Summer. Orion’s kind of special—he can go over to the dragonlands. He hasn’t tried to come into the Land of Summer yet, but you know, he’s Unicornian. It’s really cool over there in the Glade. I love it—there’s fairies, all sorts of things like pixies, teeny tiny little mean bitches with wings.”
Evander just stared at him, “You’re not giving me confidence and comfort.”
“Oh, was that my job? I must have missed that part.”
“Ass. It’s kind of dizzying,” Evander chuckled. “As a fae, I’ve always known the human realm existed. We’ve interchanged with them for centuries. But to know about Lunastra and the Glade? I don’t even know what to say.”
“I’m sure there are probably other dimensions too. There’s this place within the dragonlands that is called the Grove and it’s like a place without time or space. It’s nuts.” Corbin reached over to pat his chest. “But it really is our job to hunt vampires, so I think we’re going to be all right. Is that enough comfort for you?”
“Do you think that vampires have a realm?” Because that was a horrifying thought.
Corbin shook his head. “No, I don’t think that it’s even a thing. I think they’re an infection. I think that vampirism is an infection. And unicorn blood is obviously the fix. Unfortunately, there’s only one of those and we can’t really bleed him dry. It would make my brother grumpy.”
“You think?” Of all of them, Cullen was the one who seemed to have the biggest temper.
“No chance.” Cosmo came wandering through. “I’m looking for grapefruit juice. Do we have any grapefruit juice? And Cullen’s not the one with the worst temper. You’re mated with the one with the worst temper. He’s kind of a bitch.”
Corbin snorted. “Like you have room to talk. I am not temperamental. I’m a nice guy.”
“You’re a dick. Like a giant bleeding dick.” Cosmo winked at Evander. “And seriously, do you think your baby’s going to come out glowing? We’ve never done that mind-melding thing when one of us was pregnant.”
Evander glared. Did he honestly need something else to be concerned with? That there would be something wrong with their baby?
Corbin snarled at Cosmo. “Really? Just back off. I don’t intend to have a glowing baby. But if I do, I bet that he isn’t a rock.”
They stared at one another, and Evander held his breath because he wasn’t sure if there was going to be a fight.
