Takashi gently closed the journal and returned it to the shelf. Whispering to himself, he said, “Well, that shatters the illusion of the happy couple.”
The other shelves were full of slim, black binders, and they had names neatly written in little cards on their spines. At first, Takashi thought they were members of the coven, but then he spotted a whole section of Wrights, including Callum, Amber, and Zack. Takashi took a moment to note whether there was dust on anything—there wasn’t—and pulled Callum’s from the shelf.
The binder had labeled tabs: Summary, Recent, Early, Psych, Accomplishments.
Takashi sat cross-legged on the floor and opened the Summary tab. Each page was plastic with printed paper inserts. The first had a picture of Cal Wright. Takashi had only seen him in research materials. Josefina had sent him a dossier on the hunter after he’d invaded Taliville looking for Zack, but Takashi had been aware of the Butcher for a while. American hunters were the topic of conversation among bored vampires. They tended to point at the “plethora of rampaging barbarians” as a uniquely American issue when they had hunters in their own territories as well.
Cal was a handsome man, in a rough-and-tumble man’s man way. Beautiful people turning out to be complete assholes had long been one of the injustices of the universe.
The section went on to list Cal’s attributes, including his birthday and education. He’d dropped out of high school, which made Takashi wonder if Zack had finished. His occupation wasfilled out as hunter. Takashi flipped to the next page. At the bottom was the category “Potential.” Cal’s was a 6.
Underneath that was written:The challenge would be keeping him from hunting his own kind upon first transitioning. Best approach would be extended manipulation of desires in order to prepare him for the change. But is he worth that much effort? Not likely.
Quickly, Takashi skimmed through the rest of the binder. The contents went into detail from what was in the summary. Cal’s “Accomplishments” was a list four pages long of murders.
It was a recruitment evaluation.
Takashi closed the binder and put it back. He drew out Zack’s and immediately went to the “Potential” section of his Summary.
10. He makes me miss Bran in all the best ways. Willful. Smart. With the Wrights disowning him, he must long for family. Best approach would be welcoming him with open arms, which won’t be hard. I’m beginning to love him as a son already.
“How long ago did you write this?” Takashi murmured. He closed the binder and put it back on the shelf.
Was every binder on these shelves about a hunter? Takashi rose to his feet and picked a binder at random. Samantha Warren’s occupation was listed as a professor. He slid it back in place and chose another. Kevin Williams was a scientist, and his potential was rated at an 8. Hyacinth Vale was a college student; her rating was a 9.
The bookshelves had to hold hundreds of binders. Seamus must have been considering all of these people as possible sirelings, but why? If he didn’t take the time to regain his strength, he simply wouldn’t have it to give to another. There was no way he could turn all of these people within their lifetimes. Even if Anton helped him, he’d still weaken himself too much.
Unless they’re stronger than they let on. Roger had said they’d been absorbing power from sirelings for centuries, but Seamus hadn’t shown any talents beyond what was common of a vampire a quarter his age. Takashi had assumed he’d given a large portion of his vampiric strength to Zack in order to turn him, but what if that wasn’t the case? What if the bath of Seamus’s power was running over, and he had been able to fill up Zack’s soul with just the excess?
Had the fight in the hotel suite been cats playing with mice, or had Roger and the others presented the slightest challenge?Considering how quickly we were defeated, I think the answer is the first.
Takashi wasn’t playing one game of four-dimensional chess against Seamus and Anton; he was playing fifty. At the same time. And pieces were going to fly off the board any minute.
There were more answers in this room, he was certain of it, but he’d already spent a long time in it. In all likelihood, Anton or the boy who’d been bringing him blood would start looking for him, and he couldn’t afford to be caught here. He ensured that he left both the secret office and front study exactly as he’d found them and slipped out into the hall.
Still alone, he took a moment to lean against the door and conquer the fear welling up. He bricked it up behind three layers of worry about Roger. After all, there was nothing to be done about the fact that Seamus was likely holding out how powerful he was. It was just Takashi’s hypothesis. Perhaps he was wrong.You know you’re not. You know you’ve barely seen what he’s truly capable of.
Perhaps the answer wasn’t to wrestle the coven from Seamus in the way Roger had originally intended at all. A stealth assassination would put the leadership into a freefall, but they were never going to win a fair fight in public. Something else would have to be done. A revolution? Preposterous. Vampireshad tried to rise against their elders before, and it never went well without time, money, effort, devotion, and a smile from the fates. Roger, Zack, and Takashi were lacking in a few areas, especially the favor of the fates.
Maybe not. We are still here. Takashi pushed away from the door and headed off into the mansion. He had a lot more of it to discover, though he was going to keep the rest of his exploration to the more public areas for the evening. He’d already pressed his luck spending any time in Seamus’s hidden office. Trying again would be asking for trouble.And we clearly have enough of that in our cards.
CHAPTER 26
Seamus parked the car in the middle of a dark field. They’d crossed the border to Indiana some time ago, but Zack wasn’t sure exactly where they were. The farthest he’d ever been from his parents’ house had been Taliville, but that was farther south in Tennessee. This random field was, in theory, as close as some of his relatives in Wisconsin were, but he’d never traveled this way. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to recognize some isolated barn far off the interstate anyway.
“What errand could you possibly have out here?” Zack demanded.
“The kind you’ll enjoy.” Seamus opened the car door and stepped out. “We need to clean out a poachers’ lair.”
Zack scrambled out of the car and started to swing the door shut.
Seamus zipped over and caught the door. He eased it shut rather than allowing it to thud. In a whisper, he said, “Stealth, Zackery.”
“What do you mean ‘poachers’ lair?’” Zack said under his breath.
“You were paying attention in the meeting last night, weren’t you?” Seamus pulled Zack’s sheathed dagger out from his jacket and offered it out.
“Of course,” Zack snapped. He took the dagger from Seamus. Without a belt, he couldn’t slide it into place, but he could slip it free from the sheath and attempt to stab Seamus.What if he has something set up where if he doesn’t call, Takashi dies?“But nobody said anything about poachers. Why would we give a shit about people killing animals? Unless—wait, you meanvampires.”
