Chapter Four
Hayes
Escaping the detection of an undead vampire wasn’t easy, but luckily, I’d had plenty of practice.
I’d arrived back at Cal’s house bloodied, tired, and lugging a head in a bag, only to see Leonora leaving. I cursed under my breath as the head started to steadily drip through the canvas bag, the scent of blood rising into the air. Fuck. I knew I should have double bagged it. Well, you live and you learn.
I grimaced as I stood, hearing Leonora’s footsteps fading, and brushed some stray leaves off of my chest and shoulders before giving up. If I’d been filthy before, then diving into the shrubbery hadn’t helped, but I hadn’t wanted to risk scaring her away by showing up now. My spies at the castle had confirmed she’d returned to Ashvale and that was all I could hope for at the moment.
The vampire himself had been surprisingly easy to subdue—catching him off-guard helped, of course. Some gentle flirtation had been enough to coax the undead vampire into taking me to his nearby apartment, but unfortunately, that was where the pleasantness of the evening ended. Even if I could get Leonora out of my head, I wouldn’t have touched the vampire. It was bad form to fuck someone before you killed them, for one, but there were more important things I needed his mouth to do. Namely, give me the information I needed about my parents. My sister. Maybe it was a waste of time to some people, but I wanted to know exactly whose heads needed to roll in penance for the disappearance of the oldest line of vampires in our history.
I’d spent the past two months watching Adrian, working out who his closest confidantes were so that I could begin questioning them. I’d known for a long time that Adrian had something to do with my family’s disappearance, the fact that he’d taken up the mantle as head of the council only added to my suspicions. I’d done what Cal wanted though, waiting and biding my time, gathering information and my strength. But if Adrian hadn’t suspected before, he must have after I’d let him see the wolf lurking beneath my skin at Ashvale. It was a trait only the oldest line, my line, had, the ability to turn into a wolf.
If I wanted to keep the advantage over Adrian, then I had to act now. Hence the head in the bag leaking steadily onto the floor.
Cal opened his door as if he knew exactly when I’d arrive, his gaze falling on the dripping brown bag I held. He frowned, took the bag from me, and shut the door behind us.
“Leonora—” I started and Cal shook his head, apparently not feeling particularly forthcoming when it came to discussing his daughter with me. It hadn’t really been a point of contention between us so far, but there was still time. I growled and Cal gave me a mild eyebrow raise I’d seen on Leonora too many times to count.
Cal pulled out the severed head and dumped it onto a silver tray with a squelch that reminded me of rotten fruit. “Your methods leave a lot to be desired, Hayes.”
“Do you think you can get anything out of it?”
“How fresh?”
“Within the hour.”
Cal whistled. “Impressive.”
I shrugged. Where I couldn’t find the info I needed, Cal could usually extract it from the mind itself using magick, but only if I got it here fast enough. Apparently, the magick became less reliable the longer the brain had been dead, undeath notwithstanding. “Ready?”
“You don’t want to shower first?” The mage ran a cursory gaze down my filthy form and I folded my arms across my chest in response, widening my stance and daring him to mention it again. I needed answers, a shower could wait. “Fine.” He placed one hand on either side of the vampire’s head, eyes closing as he concentrated. A familiar glow began between his palms and the vampire’s eyes flew open—unseeing, but grotesque nonetheless. The first time we’d done this, it had scared the shit out of me. Now, I didn’t even flinch. Was I becoming numb to the horrors of this world—the death, the violence? Maybe. But it was a price I was willing to pay in order to get what I needed. What if my sister was still alive? My parents? Waiting for me to come for them?
I was pulled out of the morbid thoughts when Cal opened his own eyes and nodded at me. With his mental defences down for me, I could see what he could in the vampire’s head and it wasn’t enough. Not by a mile.
Faces, some familiar and some not, flashed past at speed, sitting at a familiar square table. Its corners were dark and sharp and the undead seated around its edges had hunger in their eyes as they looked to the figure at the head of the table. Adrian. Of course.
I opened my eyes, blowing out a long breath to settle my emotions and Cal busied himself tidying away the rapidly decaying head. The magick always sped up the decomposition process until nothing but ash remained, but this time I couldn’t even bring myself to be disgusted by it, too busy boiling with rage at the thought of those bastards, sitting around that table, plotting the end of my bloodline. Though, that was pure speculation at this point. I needed to know more.
“I’ll take that shower now,” I muttered and didn’t wait for a reply before stalking off in the direction of the shower. Cal’s house was as familiar to me as if it were my own. When I hadn’t been at Ashvale, this was where I’d found myself, and the mage had been taking care of me even before then. His brother had been with my family when they’d disappeared, we were all each other had left. Until Leonora.
I shucked off my clothes quickly, turning the heat of the walk-in shower up nearly as high as it would go. Steam billowed out and I stepped in, finally turning the heat down slightly as I propped my hands against the tiled wall, bowing my head under the heavy stream of water.
He’d risked a lot for me, Cal. When my family had disappeared, he’d been the one who had hidden me. I’d never had the magickal block implemented. Instead, I’d trained, knowing that one day I would be old enough, skilled enough, to find what remained of my family and his. Our bloodlines were forever intertwined, duty falling into loyalty, and so the last heir of my bloodline disappeared just as the others had. Until now.
The water had just started to run clear when her scent hit me, the blood and dirt on my body successfully masking it up until now. She was always on the edges of my mind, anyway. The fucking bond ensured that. But as much as we might have hated it at first, I didn’t think I could live without it now. Without her. And even if I could choose to… I wouldn’t.
The steam carried away the faint scent, remnants of her earlier visit, but my body was a live wire waiting for her touch, unable to discern fantasy from reality.
She was angry with me and that was okay. I understood it. I even deserved it. Plus, I smiled to myself as I grabbed a shower gel at random and lathered my body, wincing at the few as-yet-unhealed scrapes that had gone unnoticed until they stung with the soap, her anger was delicious.
My cock hardened as I remembered the warmth of her, the snarl on her face when I’d had her on that bar-top. I resisted for a moment and the bond constricted to almost painful measures until I gave in and pumped myself in one long stroke, sliding my thumb across the sensitive head and imagining it was her tongue.
I stayed in there until the water ran cold, needing the sharp edge to wash away the last of the desire spiking through my body. The bond warmed me like a reassurance, making me shiver as I stepped out of the shower and towelled off. A calmness had settled within me, easing the harshness of my anger. The vampire, Peter, had been fairly useless, it was true. But there would be others. That table had many sitting around it and that worked in my favour. It only took one vampire to tell me what I needed, to confirm what I’d long suspected. Then the court would run red.
Cal was banging around in the kitchen when I made my way back down the stairs, heading instinctively toward the sound, and grabbing a beer from the fridge on my way to the small dining table placed in the corner of the kitchen.
“Better?”
I nodded as I sipped and vegetables crackled with heat in the pan as he added several eggs and what smelled like coriander. “There enough for me too?” He set an empty plate in front of me in answer and I murmured my thanks. “So why was she here?”
His back tensed and I cocked my head. “She’s been summoned to court.”
Fuck. If they found out about her half-mage heritage… “You told her not to go, right?”
“She can’t refuse a summons, Hayes. You know that.” I did. But that didn’t mean I had to like it. “She’s taking Novalie and Emerson with her.”
The grin that spread across my face took me aback. “Good.” She needed them, the way she’d been cutting herself off the past two months wasn’t healthy.
Cal grunted his agreement and slid a vegetable omelette onto my plate before sitting across from me with his own. “I’m going with her.”
“You think that’s a good idea?” Cal had been keeping a low profile since he’d run off with me as a kid. It wasn’t unusual for mages or vampires to go off the grid every now and then, not with our lifespans, but we didn’t need any questions being raised right then. Nora didn’t need the added attention.
“You think I’d put my daughter in danger?” Cal looked up, eyes flashing and I was surprised, but pleased.
“Overprotective suits you.”
The mage rolled his eyes and went back to eating. “What about you?”
“I’m not going to court. Not yet.” I still had a few other vampires to squeeze information from before anything else could happen. “Have you had any luck with that?” I nodded to the amulet hanging from Cal’s neck, shaken loose when he’d leaned forward to eat. It was keyed to Elowen, wherever the fuck she’d run off to, I’d have liked to question her too but finding her was proving difficult and that kill wasn’t mine to claim anyway.
Familiar green eyes filled my mind and I swallowed hard.
No. Elowen’s heart belonged in someone else’s fist.
“Nothing yet.” Cal frowned down at it like it was his ex-wife herself rather than a talisman to find her and my stomach bottomed out when he followed up with, “And Rowan?”
“No change.” Things with Rowan were complicated. On the one hand, he was my friend and we’d once been much more than just that. On the other, I was angry enough with him that I wanted to kill him a second time. Until I was sure which emotion would win out, I’d been keeping my distance. “I’ll keep checking in, though.” Or, rather, I’d keep getting students at Ashvale to spy for me. “How was she? Nora.”
A wry smile flitted across Cal’s face. “She’s still Nora.”
A non-answer. I sighed but didn’t push the issue. “I’ll check in when I can. Keep an eye on her for me?”
Cal chuckled. “I don’t think having both eyes on her would be enough to keep her out of trouble.”
And fuck if that wasn’t the truth.