“Rand.” I can’t stop the anger from seeping into my tone when I call his name.
He jolts as if me addressing him is a complete shock. I watch as his throat works on a swallow. “Yeah?” he responds, but makes no move to come any closer to me.
“It seems like we have some matters to discuss,” Griffin remarks, surprising me and possibly the rest of the room. “Come forth,” he orders.
Rand looks around, contemplating an escape or searching for allies, but it’s useless. It would take at least half those gathered to help him evade what’s coming, and I know he doesn’t have that kind of backing, no matter where the money is coming from. Even then, it would only delay the inevitable.
“Don’t make me ask again.” Griff lowers his chin and looks all the more menacing for it.
Rand takes an unwilling step forward when the people around him physically distance themselves from him. “What’s going on?”
“That’s what we’re here to find out,” I tell him, following him while he makes his way closer to Griff. My focus is divided between him and all the others in the room. I need to take in everyone’s reactions and make sure I don’t miss any clues as to who else might be involved.
“Why don’t you have a seat?” Griff motions to a single chair on his left. Once Rand is seated, Griff looks over the crowd but stays silent. I swear he spends a second touching every face with his eyes, memorizing them. It’s eerie, even to me.
When he’s done, he gives me an imperceivable nod—my cue to continue. “Are you comfortable?” I ask, giving Rand my entire attention. I know Griff will watch the rest of the room.
“I’m…I’m fine,” Rand stutters.
I pace behind him, and I know he’s extremely uncomfortable, especially because he can’t take his eyes off me. “Can you guess why we would have singled you out…first?” I look around to make sure everyone knows there will be others who will be questioned if I deem it necessary. “Why we brought you in front of all these people?”
The vampire in question does a fairly good job of holding his fear in check so it’s not permeating the room, but it’s clear when he drops his gaze to the ground that he understands he’s been caught. “I took a risk that didn’t payoff.” He tries to sound unaffected, but he fails.
“A risk? Is that what you call supplying drugs laced with blood to unblooded vampires?” I press. A collective gasp comes from the people in the crowd. I have everyone’s attention, not that I didn’t before, but they all understand the implications.
“The real reason we brought him here was so we could give everyone else who’s involved a chance to come forward of their own free will before he gives them up. And rest assured, he will give them up. By the time we’re done with him, he’ll have confessed his every sin.”
I look into the crowd, all people I’ve considered friends and colleagues for many years, and wonder if I’ve misplaced my trust in them the way I did with Rand. A woman in the back starts looking around fervently. I’m not surprised to find it’s the woman from the clinic. Her bottom lip quivers as she reaches out to a man near her side. There must be something in her expression that gives her away, because he pushes her hand away and steps back.
Her eyes close softly and she steps forward. “I…I sold him extra blood, but I had no idea it was for this.” She’s shaking her head vehemently. I grit my teeth and motion for her to step forward. People around her clear a path as if she’s infected and they don’t want to risk catching her affliction.
“Anyone else?” I ask when she reaches the front, her head hanging in shame. The room is so quiet, you could hear a pin drop, but no one else volunteers anything.
Griff prowls over to Rand, his movements slow and silent, yet somehow more deadly for it. “Was it you who Michelle called when she attacked my singer?” His eyes are almost black as he poses the question. I take a step closer, hoping I won’t need to stop him from killing Rand. We need answers first.
“I had no idea who she was,” Rand defends. For the first time, he actually looks frightened.
“I find that does not ease my desire to spill your blood.” Griff sounds cold, detached, but I know he’s anything but.
The anticipation in the air is high. I can feel it like a current against my skin. We are, after all, beasts beneath the civility that cloaks us. The fact that these people are as horrified as they are delighted by the threat of bloodshed is a potent reminder of that.
No one would begrudge us for exacting our due. Not for Rand’s slight of providing the young ones blood, and even less for the danger he put our mate in.
“I’ll tell you everything,” Rand blurts, bargaining for his life.
“What could you possibly know that would be worth me letting you live for a second longer than necessary?” Griffin inquires conversationally.
“I can give you HERO,” Rand offers, dropping the bomb without hesitation. “Human Eternal Rights—”
“We know who they are,” I interrupt before he can finish.So that’s where the money is coming from.The idea takes root in my mind, and answers start filling themselves in.
HERO, the misguided factions of separationists, are behind Rand giving the vamps blood too soon. It makes sense. If they created a bunch of vampires that fell into bloodlust, they could generate even more reasons for humans to hate supernaturals and further the divide we’re trying to knit together.
Not to mention it could lead to Havenfall and places like it being shut down. Well, at least in the eyes of the humans. But without places like this, what would they do with all the supernatural children we take in? Put them in jail, or something worse?
“The humans are behind this?” someone snarls. It’s no secret there are people from both sides who do not want our species mixing. I just never realized it was a problem here until Quinn came along and I watched how some people reacted to her.
“Not all humans, just like not all shifters and vampires believe in separation,” I snap, feeling like I’m defending Quinn, even though she’s not here.
