“Right.” He waves a server down to order two pints of blood for him and Willow.
Grant grumbles loudly. “Get on with it, vamp.”
As soon as we’re alone again, Kaine leans in to say, “We’ve found Trivanka.”
Jericho’s reaction is immediate—a ripple of remembered pain flashing across his face. “She’s the one who attacked me,” he says quietly. “The pixie-blooded one.”
Kaine nods. “That’s the one. Wicked little devil. She’s holed up at the Fisherman’s Rest, which is a small hotel near the river bend.”
Willow leans back. “She’s alone too, from what we can tell. She doesn’t look like she’s expecting company.”
“You’re saying you don’t think she’s with Foxx anymore?” Forest asks.
“Doesn’t appear to be.”
Grant shakes his head. “Foxx wouldn’t let one of his possessions go.” He glances at Jericho to prove his point. If Foxx wasn’t obsessed with the vampires he created, he would’ve stopped hunting Jericho months ago.
Willow leans in. “Well, I think she either got away, or he banished her.”
“Foxx wouldn’t banish anyone. He’d kill them,” I say.
“Then she’s in hiding. There’s no other explanation. Because we’ve seen no one.”
Grant crosses his arms. “She could be bait,” he says simply. “Foxx could’ve planted her to draw us out.”
Kaine hums, shaking his head. “That’s very unlikely. She’s too far out of town and on the opposite side from where your land is. Foxx knows where you are, right? He’d plant her closer to you if he was trying to draw you out.”
Forest scrubs his face, seeming just as unsettled by this news as I feel. Why would one of Foxx’s vamps suddenly separate from them?
“How’d you find her?”
Kaine smiles without shame. “Funny you should ask. Met a guy on a hook-up app who happened to take me to her shady ass apartment.”
Whether that’s the truth or he’s just trying to get under Grant’s skin, it works. Grant is clearly disgusted.
A table near us bursts into laughter, drowning out our conversation. The lights above flicker.
“You sure about this?” I ask.
“Pretty sure.” Willow eyes a tray of blood-infused candy sticks as a waitress walks by. She’s even younger than Jericho, though. I doubt she can eat any human food yet. “We’ve been watching her for over a week, and we’ve seen nothing. She never leaves, never has any visitors, and there’ve been no signs of any other coven members. I really think she’s alone.”
“Why doesn’t she just leave?”
Willow shrugs. “Money? Or maybe she knows someone in the city and is trying to stay close? Who knows.”
Jericho shifts in his seat, stretching an arm across the back of Evan’s chair. “What makes you think Foxx isn’t hiding with her? He rarely left the club. Maybe he’s repeating the pattern and hiding out there too.”
She shakes her head. “Because we’ve seen in her room, through the window. It’s just her. And besides, from what I heard when I was stuck in the club? Foxx doesn’t like Trivanka. He was angry with her. Like, furious even. She left the day before I was there.”
Jericho’s brows furrow. “Come to think of it, she wasn’t there the night of the fight.”
“Exactly. My guess is she hasn’t been with Foxx since that night.”
The energy in my chest pulses. “I say we go.”
Forest sighs, as if he’d expected this. “Rowen—”
“I’m serious.” I lean forward. “This is exactly the kind of lead we’ve been hoping for. Someone who knows Foxx but isn’t caught up in his bullshit games anymore. If she’s alone, then maybe we can talk to her.”
