CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
ALEXIUS
Twenty minutes. Maria’s people moved efficiently.
It took twenty minutes to get them into the van and back to her main home, the central location of her nest. It was a mansion, a huge, wealthy compound of a place that was dripping in money.
She was neighbors with celebrities and entertainment execs.
None of them had any idea a real bloodsucker lived in their neighborhood.
If they did, they would probably ask her for lessons.
It was even faster to shuffle the vampires into one of her secure rooms, much like a human police interview room from shows, with a double-sided mirror.
“You like police procedurals, don’t you?
” he asked as he saw the three vampires swallow down blood and finally get color back in their cheeks.
They were wrapped in blankets because they had started shivering, not a great sign for their health.
That was why they were eating before any interviewing happened.
“I do,” she confirmed, looking at them as well. She smiled for a second, then sobered. “Look at them. Desperate, homeless things. Who do you think made them?”
“No idea. That’s something we need to figure out once they finish drinking. It’ll give them clearer minds to really give us details.”
“I think the taller woman is the best option for the most truthful information. The male seems hostile, and I don’t have a good read on the little one.” Maria crossed her arms. “Should we separate them?”
“No. From what I heard, she’s honest no matter what. She’ll fight with them and say whatever she wants. I want to see their reactions to her if something is particularly… sensitive.”
“Ah. Fair enough. We both have the reaction time to stop fights.”
“We do,” he confirmed.
“Have you told Everly we have them yet?”
“No, I actually was so focused on what to discuss with them that I forgot my phone was silenced.” He patted around, looking for his phone, not remembering what pocket it was in. “She said she was going to break into a house earlier…”
“What?”
“Yes, she asked you for a file yesterday, and she’s breaking into that vampire’s home tonight.” He found the phone and pulled it out.
“Oh, James Bishop. He’s actually my no-show for tonight. He’s going to be severely disciplined for that.”
Alexius looked at the five missed calls on his phone as he registered what Maria had said.
“Excuse me?”
“I thought since Everly wanted his file, you were looking into him,” Maria said and shrugged.
“He is attached to the building you were staying in, so I thought he would actually be useful too since he knows that area quite well. And look, he didn’t show up.
He panicked. Looks like we found either someone connected to them or the money.
I think it’s the money. He’s part of my finance group. ”
“James Bishop is Henry Abbott,” Alexius said softly, watching Maria pale as she took that information in. “That’s why Everly wanted the file. Because she found her uncle in your city.”
He lifted his phone and showed Maria the missed calls, and within the second of her eyes seeing that, Everly was calling again. He’d even turned off the vibration, something he never did. He hadn’t been paying enough attention.
“What is it, Everly?”
“Henry has been stalking Declan!” The urgency made it hard for him to say anything as she continued.
“And me! For over a decade. Any time we weren’t in the area around Jacob’s nest. I found a fucking shrine in his house.
His fucking fae magic helped him hide, so he could stalk us for over a decade! ”
“Everly, take a deep breath. Where are you now?”
“Heading to Declan’s. We were on the phone when I found it, so I told him and Lexi to lock up and stay safe. Declan knows being stalked is bad. So bad. Especially for a human. Are you available?”
“We just got the vampires back to Maria’s nest, and I have bad news. He didn’t show up to work today.”
“Fae magic?” Maria finally asked.
“How he tricked you. I asked that fae at the café, Wren. Henry paid good money to shed his old identity and get a new one so he could go to a new nest away from Jacob after being exiled.”
“Fucking fae magic,” Maria hissed. “This is my fault, Everly, and I am going to send everything I can to help you deal with this. I gave him a reason to panic,” Maria said, closing her eyes in annoyance and frustration.
“I’ll get a team on his ass right now.” She walked around Alexius and left the room.
“What did she mean by that?” Everly growled.
“She tried to get James Bishop to the mission to catch these vampires tonight, but he didn’t show.”
Everly started cussing. Her mind went to where his did. Henry Abbott was probably out stalking Declan right now or worse.
Why didn’t he come to work?
Alexius looked at the vampires. Henry had been stalking Everly and Declan.
And he was staring at three vampires that sort of looked like Everly and Declan. A blond boy. Redheaded girls. He hated when he got a knot of instinct in his stomach.
He stormed into the interview room, making all three of the young vampires jump, the smaller female even launching herself backward to the wall, hissing in self-defense.
“I only have one question for right now,” he said, looking between them. “Who made you?”
“He never gave us his name. We called him uncle. He wanted us to call him uncle. Said it was more fun than being called master or father.”
Alexius was able to confirm that knot in his stomach.
“Did you hear that, Everly?”
“I heard,” she hissed.
He stepped out of the room before he continued the conversation, noting the vampires of Maria’s nest hovering nearby.
“He tried to recreate you and Declan,” he explained. “Redheaded women. Blond man.”
“That’s… fucking disgusting.”
“It is. You know as well as I do that Declan is in serious danger every minute we don’t know where Henry is. How close are you to him?”
“Another fifteen minutes.”
“How fast are you going?”
“Over a hundred.”
Alexius hoped Henry wasn’t able to do anything before she got there, but there wasn’t much faster she could go. Henry was absolutely going to Turn Declan Abbott if he got his hands on him.
“I trust you can take Henry in a fight. You were trained by me, rigorously. Go for the kill. Don’t allow him to live. If you can’t kill him, hold him until Maria and her people get there. Do you want me there, or do you want me interviewing these vampires?”
He couldn’t tell Everly the sudden thoughts he was having about what Jacob may have exiled Henry for. He clenched his jaw. He wished his son had asked him to just kill the vampire instead.
“Interview them. I know you can catch up if you need to. They might have information on whatever Henry has been doing and where we might find him. I know he owns a second property, but I didn’t make it there tonight. He might be hiding somewhere, hoping we can’t find him. They could know.”
“I’ll question them. Tell me when you get to your brother.”
Neither said goodbye. He looked into the interview room again, frowning.
“Tell your Mistress this wasn’t her fault,” he said, not directing it at any one vampire near him.
One of them would pass the message along.
“Henry Abbott or James Bishop made these three. He’s been panicking since he discovered we were about to capture them.
He must have been. He would know where he was telling them to hide from everyone and where the hunt had ended up tonight. ”
“Yes sir,” one of them said quickly.
“And it means he left them to hang for him, unprepared to meet their own kind without even his name to share,” he continued softly, piecing together what he could best assume was Henry’s thought process.
It was either a rushed choice, as if he was running out of time, or a calculated risk.
Alexius didn’t know, but at this moment, it didn’t matter entirely.
He went back in to see the young victims of Henry Abbott, sitting across from them calmly this time.
“What’s happening?” the middle, strongest of the three personality-wise asked, looking at the door he’d entered through.
Alexius turned to see a vampire give a thumbs-up in the tiny glass window. He hoped that meant they were already passing his message along to Maria.
He turned to that one, meeting her gaze. She was the one who was ready to go against their sire before he even entered the conversation.
“First, tell me your names. I’d like to know who I’m addressing.”
“I’m Kate. This is Taylor,” she pointed at the man, then to the smaller redhead. “And this is Evie.”
“Thank you. Now, what you’re about to hear will surprise you.
Let me finish all of it.” He made eye contact with each one.
“Your sire is a wanted fugitive and a risk to a protected human,” he explained.
“First, when he created any of you, he should have reported it to the vampire he answers to, which is Maria. Second, he’s known to be stalking a human whom he’d been banned from seeing over fifteen years ago.
Third, he’s pissed off his real niece, and she’s not the woman to trifle with. ”
“Real niece?” the small redhead named Evie hissed.
“I do believe that’s what I said.” He put his hands together on the table. “Is there a problem with that?” Something about Evie’s name pissed him off. It was too close to Everly.
“He said… he said we were his family,” she sputtered. “He promised, and I gave him everything for ten years! I’m his niece!” she screeched, then clapped her hands over her mouth as if it was all an accident.
“He constantly said that so we would do whatever he wanted. I picked up on it a couple of years ago,” Kate said, huffing. “It was so toxic. Really manipulative.”
“We were all homeless or desperate when Uncle found us,” Taylor explained, looking away. “No family before him.”
“And the thing he called family sucked,” Taylor hissed. “I’ve been with him for four years.”
“Five for me,” Kate muttered, crossing her arms. “There was another guy when I became a vampire. He literally ran away about six months before Uncle found Taylor.”
“Dylan,” Evia said quickly. “Dylan was right after me.”
“When did you all go out on your own?”
“Over a year ago, and for a while, he still supported us. He’d bring us blood and made sure we had good places to sleep, even though we weren’t in the house anymore.
But then… he stopped taking our calls. Our phones didn’t work anymore.
We’d go home, but no one would be there, and it would be all locked up.
As if he never lived there at all. We heard from him after three months of silence, and he explained it was a test to see if we could stand on our own feet, but he would help; the more he had to help, the longer we had to stay out there on our own.
Same for if we were seen or caught doing anything. ”
“He made it seem like it was normal,” Taylor added. “Every vampire went through something like this, from what he said.”
Alexius had a timeline. Declan and Everly were safe for their entire lives because of Jacob, so Henry made replacements.
Jacob was dead now. Everly was already a vampire. He didn’t need these vampires anymore. He’d cut them loose to get them out of his way and away from needing to care for them.
“Why were you hiding in that area tonight?”
“We know he works nearby and use it to get to him when he doesn’t want to deal with us.
Like corner him. He’s working and checking things, and we show up.
” Kate was still doing most of the talking.
“We were hoping to catch him about how he was refusing to even give us sleeping bags. It’s not like we could get jobs and buy anything. ”
Alexius looked at Evie, wondering if she was going to speak up, but her lips were pursed, closed in a thin line, as though she wouldn’t betray Henry ever.
“What about feeding? You’re all vampires over the age of four years. You should be more than controlled enough to do proper feeding.”
“Proper feeding?” Kate tilted her head. “There’s a proper way to drink blood?”
Alexius’s hands curled into fists, but he tried to maintain a neutral expression. He tried. They should have been more than capable of not leaving bodies missing persons reports around Los Angeles.
“There are several ways, and none of them include killing the human,” he answered. “Something your uncle should have taught you.” Alexius couldn’t cover up the absolute contempt in his voice as he mentioned Henry.
Henry had failed them in every way. He probably just gave them his blood bags, not wanting to expose them to train them any other way. He wanted his precious little knockoffs because he couldn’t have the originals.
“We didn’t… we didn’t know,” Taylor said in the silence left by Alexius’s words.
“I can tell,” Alexius said, trying to get his hands to relax again.
“Tell me where your original home was,” he ordered, pulling up the map app on his phone.
“If you had anything there, people will get your things. If you had other stashes around the city, the nest will need to clean up. To join the nest, you’ll need to learn a lot of rules very quickly. ”
“What if we don’t want to join the nest?” Evie asked.
“Vampires with control issues either join a nest willing to help them or they suffer the consequences.”
“And those are?” Evia gave him a big, alien-eyed stare, blinking several times. It might have been charming or seductive to anyone else.
It just annoyed Alexius.
“Vampires with control problems are an exposure risk. Any vampire who willfully acts in a way to expose vampires to humanity forfeits their lives. Before you wonder anymore, understand that I am the executioner. The best one.” Alexius leaned down, making sure his eyes were fully level with Evie’s.
“And on most nights, I don’t like my own kind enough to make said deaths pleasant. ”
Evie sank in her chair with every word.
“Mark the map. Then we’ll continue the conversation.” Alexius wasn’t here to coddle children, not anymore. Evie’s defiance had thoroughly pissed him off enough to lose the notion of trying. It was the uncanny valley of it all. This was Henry’s idea of Everly.
Alexius wanted to skin Henry alive and burn him in pieces in the sun. He couldn’t, even if he was there or had Henry in front of him.
It’s better Everly deals with her uncle. It has to be Everly.