Sophie stiffened under the grandmotherly hand. She hated being the center of attention and Avó’s uninvited touch made her skin crawl. It was hard to ignore the history of her cane.
Behind her, Micah moved, did something Sophie didn’t see. Had he only come closer to her? Avó looked up at him, smiled like a kid with her hand caught in the candy box, and sat back.
“Micah’s Sophie was caught up in the vampir sweeps and taken into their stables with her parents—just another of the many red-blood families who didn’t escape that time after, and that is no shame or fault of their own.” Avó paused for effect again, meeting the eyes of several people in the crowd until each person, pointedly, looked down.
“The vampir are not easily escaped. There is a reason they control so much of the Old City and beyond. There is a reason many of you, of us, have not crossed the boundary lines of the old eyeninety for years.”
Sophie saw movement on the fence line as Avó spoke, and she blinked, looked twice. The blue cone hats of the gnomes came into sight as they used grappling hooks on the fence to pull themselves up to a better view. Gnomes were such peace-loving folk, considered lucky. The presence of the gnomes made Sophie look closer at the fence and follow it to the big oak tree splitting two backyards. Its branches opened above them—who else had come to feast with Avó? Sophie saw through magical camouflage, but natural camouflage easily fooled human eyes. If gnomes were here, then there would be other small folk listening, too.
“After the vampir used up the elderly and the adults, they turned to the children. None of you can know what it is like to grow up in their special loving care. Set aside. Every hour of your day controlled. You are a child living in exile. Sophie was a child living in jail.”
“Micah’s Sophie had a brother. A younger boy who looked like her, hair and eyes, pale and pretty.” Avó recounted solemnly.
Those words opened a sudden, gaping hole at Sophie’s feet.No. She didn’t want it to be true. Avó saidhad.Had. Sophie suspected it, but Avó spoke it and made it real.
Sophie coughed, choked on that word.Had. Had a brother. No longer had.
Micah put his hand on the back of her neck, pouring his heat into her., keeping her out of a sucking well of grief that threatened to overtake her. Alexi was gone. Gone. Dead.
The day after his disappearance, she looked into his empty room at his unmade bed and the chaotic clutter of his floor. So empty. Stuck in the doorway, wanting to see him where he should be, she’d felt a gentle breeze across her cheek. There had been no open window, not airflow to justify it. She hadn’t realized it then, but now she did. He’d said goodbye, hadn’t he?
“Some of this I dreamed, and some information was shared with me. This morning—Eli, Pek, come here now. Go stand by the house.” The crowd murmured as the two shifters crossed the empty area in front of them, slinking like guilty dogs.
Sophie blinked away tears. Alexi’s so-called friends. What had they done? Did they kill him? Why had they crossed the border? Why did it have to be Alexi?
“My children. Your Avó always knows when you are feeling guilty. I would not be your Avó otherwise. When the boys arrived this morning, their deeds weighed heavily on them. I saw it, as I see all.”
Ranalf stood up before the boys made it past Avó. “What the actual fuck? What are you doing, old woman? Messing in my business? Our goodwill does not extend to you interfering with my pack or my son. If they are in trouble, I need to know it. What guilt weighs on them? It is my duty to deal with it and pass judgment. Who the hell do you think you are?”
Tantie stood up with her daughter, Agehya’s friend Liz, and several of Ranalf’s men. Sophie couldn’t tell if they were urging him to be quiet or encouraging him to say more. But most of the crowd glared at Ranalf, clearly not liking his disrespect for Avó. It was clear to Sophie that Avó was well loved as the matriarch of this community. Ranalf’s insults didn’t sit well with them.
Covering Micah’s hand with her own, Sophie let his strength sink deep, trying to compose herself. He was here. She wasn’t alone.
It was time to stop denying that Alexi was gone. But how was that Ranalf involved? Sophie had never seen him before. How could he have known Alexi?Or was it random?
“I think this is my house and you are a guest,” Avó replied cooly. “So sit down or leave.”
A square block of a man, Ranalf threw back his shoulders, buttons popping and the flaps of his loud print shirt stretched taunt by his posturing. “This is my territory, Avó. You’re just a red-blood.”
Like the girls with their jewelry, Ranalf wore gold bracelets and necklaces in abundance, but one stood out to Sophie. Why she wasn’t sure, but she noticed the thing, clinging tightly to the thick column of his throat—a crude string with finger-bone charms.
“I think you have two choices, Ranalf. Stop fussing like a bitch and listen to Avó’s story or tell us all how you’re involved, since you obviously are.” Micah spat, challenging the other male with zero remorse.
“Eli and Pek have often run errands for you, Ranalf. Everyone knows whose pack they are in. You send them pups beyond the eyeninety whenever you needed something.” Avó glanced over at the two young men. The crowd followed her gaze, but Sophie couldn’t. She couldn’t look at them. Couldn’t move.
“When you said you wanted them to get you a red-blood boy, a pretty one with long, white-blond hair, they didn’t know what you planned. How could they? And it took time to lure him away from all he knew, didn’t it? Because you didn’t want anyone to know that you had already bought the boy from a vampir stable. Prearranged. Had to look a certain way, didn’t it? So, you sent them with the half-truth of a job, and both they and the boy believed it.”
“How dare you! You have no proof of that!” Ranalf thundered.
The crowd murmured speculatively, taking in the information. It was one of the lowest things a creature could do, buying an innocent, doing business with the vampir. It was a betrayal on every level. But Sophie knew it must be true. It couldn’t have been a coincidence. They’d let Alexi go too easily, not caring if he was gone despite all the time they’d spent on his care.
After Alexi ruined the vampir’s plans for him, Sophie had waited for repercussions that never came. But why sell him when they could use him to keep Sophie afraid and obedient? His blood still held value, his young body could do chain-gang work or act as a stud. His loss of virginity changed none of these things.
Did the vampir plan to sell her, too? She hadn’t considered they would be involved when it seemed to go against their own interests.
“No proof?” the old woman countered. “You brought ten innocent red-blood children to South Bloc. No, I don’t have proof. But your pack’s valuable gasoline reserves were stolen around the same time. Perhaps used to pay the vampir, Ranalf?”
The shifter’s face went red at Avó’s suggestion.
