In the dining room I find evidence of… well. I’m not really sure. I walk the length of the table, looking at all the bloodstains on the surface, then stop in front of the two golden wingback chairs at the top of the room. I didn’t make these, they were purchased. Not by me, but they’ve been here for decades.
I’ve walked by them literally hundreds of times and never taken a second look, but today they don’t look like chairs in an intimate seating arrangement.
They look like thrones.
I glance over my shoulder, looking at the table. Then back at the chairs.
Even if I couldn’t smell them, I would know that Paul and Josep sat here while something happened on that dining table.
Then it hits me.
Theyfed.
The scions fed while Paul and Josep watched.
And now it all makes sense.
Because I know, with one hundred percent certainty, that they fed onme.
No, not me.
Us.
Paul fed Syrsee and me to his scions.
Why?
But as soon as I ask myself this question, the answer is on my lips. “To turn them.”
Turn them into what, though?
Not into vampires. If Paul could turn a horde of scions into vampires simply by feeding them my blood, then why wouldn’t he be able to turn them by feeding themhisblood?
No. That’s not what happened here.
And now all those jars and vials in the cabin root cellar make sense. He did something to us. Something that would… what? What would it do to the scions who drank us off this table?
I don’t know. But I suddenly remember that Jeff said he and the rest of them who saw me in the pooldidn’tget to feed.
So Paul didn’t do it to all of them. Just some.
Why?
There’s only one way to get that question answered. Find Paul.
I walk back down the length of the dining table and turn right, heading for the back of the house where the pool is. Paul is here on the property. Even if I didn’t have his scent in the air, I would know this. The lodge is the final scene of whatever act of theater Paul is producing.
I step outside, the air chilly even though it’s spring, and stop in front of the pool as a wave of scents hit me.
I lose Paul’s for a moment because there are so many.
I’m not good at this scent tracking stuff, but this new ability is good enough for me to come to a conclusion.
There were three groups of people: The scions in the dining room who drank. The scions out here, who didn’t. And…
I look around. Like take agoodlook around. Because this place has never been empty.
And… the halfbreeds.
