“A vampire stake to find afriend?”
“How can a slayer even befriend a vampire?”
“How are we going to keep ‘em from gutting us when we can’t fight ‘em?”
“He’s been taken by a dragon shifter,” I said, pushing on—if I didn’t regain control now I would completely lose them when I revealed who ‘the vampire’ was. “Lady Gisila—a sister of Tutu, the owner of Tutu’s Crypta & Custodia.” I glanced down at my cellphone long enough to bring up one of the pictures the department had in Gisila’s case files of the dragon shifter.
The hums died down, except for the Rivera representative—who was sitting in the front row a few seats away from my Carter uncles—widely grinned. “Ooh, a dragon shifter? Sounds like a proper challenge!”
“Gisila is acting for her benefit. For months she’s tried breaking into Tutu’s Crypta & Custodia to steal an item. She kidnapped my friend because she bought a prophecy that told her the only way she’d successfully break in was if she captured him.” I paused for a moment, my throat tightening with the fear that I was going to make a mistake and screw this up.
I have to keep going.
“We have a case file available for you to read on Gisila. Scan this QR code for a PDF.” I glanced down at my phone as I changed screens, bringing up the QR code Sunshine had created for me while the slayers set up the command center.
I waited a few moments, giving the slayers the time to scan the code with their cell phones, and made the mistake of looking out at the crowd.
My lungs deflated as I took in the swarm of people that filled the lower-level seats.
Look away! Look away and pretend they’re all my relatives!
I stared at the woodwork and tried to open my mouth to continue, but I couldn’t.
Sunshine shifted at my side. “You’ve got this, Jade,” she whispered. “If Considine were here, he’d say something about loving it when you take charge.”
The encouragement was the spark I needed to keep going.
“The investigation into Gisila and her actions against her sister have no bearing in locating my vampire friend,” I said. “Her identity is important because it means we know our enemy. Unfortunately, she has a lot of financial and magical resources, and has a history of hiring massive amounts of personnel to act on her behalf when she doesn’t want to take the risk herself.”
I am so grateful the department gave me permission to share this—I’ll have to send Captain Reese a thank you card since she championed my request.
“On the screen to the far left, you’ll see a spot marked out on a map of downtown Magiford,” I continued. “This is where my vampire friend was taken. Cloisters personnel—including werewolves, other shifters, wizards, and fae—tracked all scents…”
I dove into a detailed explanation of Considine’s capture, pointing out all necessary information on the various screens, reading the slayers into the situation.
Sometimes the slayers had follow up questions, or asked me to detail Cloisters protocol, but despite their reservations in searching for afriendlyvampire, the slayers gave me their attention and took the situation seriously.
“Given the amount of time he’s been missing, my friend is possibly sleeping, but given his personal power, I expect he’s awake,” I concluded.
“If he’s awake that means he’s gotta be ravenous,” called out a slayer from the Ackermann family.
“He’s not,” I said. “He’s an elder vampire.”
“Elder vamp or not, he has to be ravenous after so many hours—unless Gisila is feeding him.” That came from the Song family—it wasn’t unkindly said, just curious, but it pushed the issue when I’d hoped they’d let it die.
It’s time to tell them who he is. But I have to be strong, or this is where everything will fall apart.
“He’s not,” I said. “He’s not ravenous, because a vampire of Considine Maledictus’ power wouldn’t go ravenous in three days.”
The dead silence of the assembly hall meant no one knew offhanded of Considine—which was a good sign, as it also meant that none of the families here carried any kind of grudge against him.
I gulped, my fingers shaking as I brought up a new screen on my cellphone: Considine’s entry in the slayer database, the very one I’d looked at back in September when I’d realized just who I was facing off with at night.
Now is the most important moment…don’t screw up!
I checked to make sure the screen was projected onto the wall behind me, and then I stared at the slayers. For once my social anxiety didn’t kick up—I was too intent, watching for the first few signs in their body language that revealed it was dawning on them who I was asking them to track.
“He’smine,” I said before anyone could protest, the words coming out of my throat in a growl. “I claim him, just as he has claimed me. Any action against him will be considered an act against both the O’Neils and the Carters, sochoose your next words carefully.”
