She’s right of course. “No, I’m sorry, Michael. That was incredibly rude. Now, back to what I was saying, since you’re all aware of who she is. Anyone have any ideas of where we should start?” I look around for a miracle. “The last place I could track her to was a park near the house where she grew up, in Ville de Sang East, before she was surrounded by 3 or 4 human strangers. That is where the trail dies. They should still be in the city.”
I stop and wait. Wanting to hear anything, something, to go on. My allies look around, realizing no one has anything to offer. I sigh wearily and sit down on the desk.Fuck.
Lessa looks up, her eyes bright like she has something. “We need to start with Elina’s enemies, then Bash’s. We can work through our enemies, see if there is anything that would makesense for this. We need a starting point. Our list of enemies is long, but I bet Elina’s isn’t.”
I take a sheet of paper from the desk drawer and we start brainstorming.
It's not an all inclusive list, but we can try and start narrowing it down based on what we have.
“It’s likely not any of the other bloodline families. They may want to take our territory, but one mortal girl won’t get them that,” Amelia says, looking over my shoulder.
“It's probably not a human either,” Lessa adds.
“Or the witches. They abhor the way humans are pawns in this war. Plus, they could have subduedyouif they wanted a hostage,” Gianna contributes. One-by-one,I strike-through the names, pen scratching on paper, louder than it should be.
“Who are the most likely suspects for vampires who are mad about not being able to create sirelings?” I ask the group.
“I don’t think it’s them, either. No offense, Bash, but one mortal girl doesn’t really matter enough to Marcus for it to be a worthwhile hostage,” Filomena says, flinching like she believes I'll be mad at her statement. I know she is right though.
“Well, me and Lucian don’t exactly get along but I don’t think he would betray the family simplyto annoy me. I don’t think he has a death wish.”
I update the list again.
There are only 2 suspects left on the list. Talia and the Devereaux family. Both have very compelling reasons to do this. “Talia has threatened Elina before. When I brought her here for the first time. She called it a promise. I thought Elina would be safe with me...” I trail off, lost in the knowledge that this might be my fault.
“She was uncharacteristically quiet today. We will keep her on the list,” my mother says, contemplatively.
“That just leaves the Devereaux,” Aurora says, stating the most obvious possibility. We haven’t been able to find anything about them at all. We know they are in the city, but we can’t find them.
“But again, why would they take Bash’s human girlfriend?” Samson asks. It’s a good question—we have eliminated other suspects on the grounds that they wouldn’t have any interest in a human girl.
“I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t,” I say. “I think the best option we have right now is Talia. Can we have her followed?”
“Yes,” mother says. “I will take care of that.”
