Chapter 27
Hugo
Zay’s gasp of terror woke me up, and I reached for him. He leaned into me and managed to rasp out, “Sorry. The wards woke me up, and it scared me.”
I tensed. “What do you mean? I… sort of felt something, like a little… brain poke. Is that what you mean?”
“Yeah.” He sent me a small smile and patted my hand.
“What does that mean, though? Why are they reacting? Is someone trying to get in?”
“It means someone came through them.”
I sucked in a breath, my chest tightening in fear.
But before I could freak out too badly, he said, “It’s okay. It’s just Uncle Bas.”
“Holy shit, you just scared the shit out of me.”
“Sorry.”
Closing my eyes, I blew out a breath and tried to gain my composure. When I did, I asked, “How can you tell?”
“It takes practice. Maybe we can have my siblings and cousins over one day and make them walk back and forth so you can start picking up their magical signatures.”
“Yeah… yeah, that sounds good. But… Uncle Bas?”
“Oh right. Shit. Let’s get dressed and meet him out there. I think he’s about to knock on our door.”
How the hell did he know that? Could he still sense him or whatever that was? Or could he hear him? Or maybe smell him?
As I put on some sweatpants, I took a deep breath, trying to inhale everything. Maybe I could smell him too.
I got a whiff of everything, alright. Including the trash.
I coughed and choked as I held in my bile, and Zaos was immediately at my side, rubbing my back.
“You okay? What happened?”
I laughed through a cough and waved him off. “Nothing… just me being stupid.”
“How?”
I rolled my eyes, coughed a few more times, and straightened, throwing on a t-shirt. “I tried to sniff your uncle and got a nose full of trash instead. We really need to take that out. Like as soon as we walk out there or I’m gonna puke everywhere.”
His eyebrows lifted. “You wanted to sniff my uncle? Not a sentence I ever thought my viramore would say, but okay.”
I laughed at that. “I thought that maybe you could smell him, and that’s how you knew he was at our door.”
He shook his head, looking amused. “I can sense his magic, you goofball. Now come on before he gets impatient and just blasts through our back door or something.”
I laughed at that and let him grab my hand and lead me out. He dropped my hand as soon as we walked into the kitchen, pointed at the back door for me to answer it, and started pulling out the garbage bag.
I wrinkled my nose, muttered, “Thank you,” and opened the back door, glad he was taking it out so I didn’t have to.
Basil stood there, looking grumpy like usual, and I waved him inside. He walked in, saying, “I have some news regarding Phia’s case.”
My eyebrows shot up because I hadn’t expected to be kept up to date on her case since we didn’t work for the BCA, but I wasn’t about to complain either.
Zay said, “Let me run this outside real quick.” He was out the door before his uncle could respond.
“Do you want some coffee?” I asked, walking over to the machine because I definitely wanted some. I’d just discovered this week that I could drink it. I was so excited.
I’d woken up early and was pretty tired, so without thinking, I’d made myself a cup of coffee.
It wasn’t until I’d taken a sip that I realized I wasn’t supposed to have anything but blood.
I’d freaked out, called Toby, and by the time he’d come over, I was in a full panic.
Zay was awake and by my side without me having to wake him.
Fortunately, nothing had happened, and so… I’d taken another sip.
After calling Jed and making sure I wasn’t causing harm to myself, Toby declared it fine.
According to the elder vampire, my body was fine with it likely because it was a liquid.
My body probably thought it was blood, so I shouldn’t overdo it in case it made me sick.
For now, I was allowed one coffee per week.
If everything went well, I’d up it to two soon.
“Sure,” Basil said.
“Zay hasn’t eaten yet either. Do you want some cereal or oatmeal? Oh, or yogurt and fruit or something?”
“I ate already, but thanks.”
I shot him a nervous smile and went about making coffee. Zay came back in a moment later, walked over to kiss my temple, then joined his uncle at the kitchen island stool.
“So what’s up?”
Basil let out a long sigh. “We caught the guy who… killed Phia.”
I turned to him, eyes wide. “Really?”
He nodded. “Yes. He’s in custody at my BCA office since we took over the case.”
“Holy crap,” Zay said. “So who is it? What’s his name?”
Basil waved us to the table, but I quickly made us each a mug of coffee and brought them over.
Zay’s uncle nodded his thanks, and as soon as I sat down, he said, “The only name he’s given us is Jack.
And unfortunately, he’s really great at covering his tracks.
We have no record of him anywhere—no fingerprints, no photos, no…
anything. All we know is that he’s a hired assassin who wouldn’t give us any information at all.
So we kinda had to take extreme measures.
It took a minute, but we had enough evidence that we were able to, uh, obtain special permission…
” He sort of trailed off, making a face I didn’t understand.
“Special permission for what?”
“To use vampire mojo on him. Jules did it, and the guy told us the truth. He couldn’t lie under Jules’s compulsion.”
In my head, Zay said, “The BCA uses every advantage they have, so this doesn’t surprise me at all.” Well, it sure as fuck surprised me.
Not the BCA part, but the compulsion part.
Vampires could really compel people like in the movies? Holy crap.
I was a vampire now.
Could I compel people?
Holy crap on a cracker.
Before Zay could ask me if I was okay, I asked his uncle, “Can I do that?”
Basil shrugged. “Sure. But you probably have to be a little older, and I know it only works well if you practice with it a lot.”
“Hm. Interesting.” I kinda got lost in my own little world for a minute, imagining compelling other people to do my bidding—not that I’d actually ever do that because that was actually gross—but Zay was too worried about this assassin guy, so he kept questioning his uncle.
“Sooo… what’d he say? What’s his real name?”
Basil made a face. “Jack. It’s like… it’s like the memory of his real name was… erased from his mind or something. It has to be magical… Jules couldn’t get anything else out of him in regards to his name. But we were able to pick his brain about the assassination of Phia.”
“That’s… weird. But… who hired the guy?”
He took a deep breath. “We found out he was hired by this nymph family.”
Zay went still and stared at him, and I could feel how horrified he was, but I didn’t understand why. After a moment, he quietly asked, “Are you telling us Phia’s own family had her killed?”
Basil grimaced. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“Shit. Nymphs are usually so peaceful.”
I asked, “Aren’t they supposed to be one with nature and all that stuff?”
“Yep. But like with any species, there’s always good and bad mixed in.”
Zay looked… stricken. “Why did they kill her?”
Basil answered, “The assassin didn’t know. All he was told was that she betrayed her family and was giving away too many secrets.”
“Shit,” Zay said again. “Do you know what nymph family it is? Can we find them and start questioning them?”
I didn’t know who Zay thought this we was, but he sure as hell wasn’t about to go hunt down bad guys or whatever. He was a nurse, not a BCA agent.
Basil ran a hand through his hair and readjusted himself on the seat.
“It’s the Egawa clan. You’ve probably never heard of them because they’re a small family.
” He cleared his throat. “The Egawa clan went into hiding, but we were able to find one of them because she hasn’t been living with them for the last few months.
Either they purposefully didn’t tell her to go into hiding, or they told her, and she didn’t listen…
or she simply took too long to leave. Either way, we found her. ”
We both stared at him for a long moment absorbing this before Zay asked, “Why are you telling us this? What do you need?”
My eyebrows raised at that. Why would he need anything from us?
But his uncle surprised me by saying, “The woman we found is in custody, but she won’t tell us anything until she speaks to you.”
It took me entirely too long to realize he was talking about me. “Me? What? Why?”
He shrugged. “She won’t say.” He paused for only a few seconds. “Do you know a Anithea Egawa?”
My brow furrowed. “No. Not that I know of. It doesn’t sound familiar.”
Basil nodded and pulled out his phone, pressed a few buttons, and passed it over to me. “Do you recognize her?”
The blonde-haired, green-eyed woman on the screen was a complete stranger to me.
She didn’t even look the least bit familiar.
“I don’t recognize her.” After a moment, I added, “I mean, I suppose it’s possible that she’s come into the bar when I was working, and I served her or something, or she could’ve just sat at a table and saw me, but I don’t remember her at all if she did. ”
He nodded and gestured for me to pass the phone to Zay. “What about you? Do you know her or recognize her name—Anithea Egawa?”
Zay took a moment to look it over, then shook his head. “No. Not at all.”
Basil nodded and took his phone back with a sigh. “That’s what I figured, but it was worth a shot.”
I waved my hand at him. “Can’t you just vamp whammy her or whatever?”
He snorted at that and leaned on his elbows toward me.
“No, we can’t. We don’t have enough evidence against her for that.
Everything’s circumstantial, so we can only hold her for twenty-four hours.
There’s no way anyone will sign off on using a vamp whammy on her.
” My lips twitched in amusement at him using my name for it.
“So that’s why I’m here. I need you to come down to the BCA office with me and see what she wants. ”
Before I could agree, Zay said, “No. No way. She’s dangerous.”
“She’ll have a shield over her the entire time so she won’t be able to cast anything or hurt Hugo in any way.”
“No. It’s too dangerous.”
Zay’s uncle looked a little pissed now. “Would you rather spend the rest of your lives looking over your shoulders? Or do you want to get to the bottom of this and keep your viramore safe, once and for all?”
Zaos actually growled at him, but after a few seconds, he let out a, “Argh—alright. Fine.” It sounded mostly like growling, but I understood him. It seemed Basil did too.
He gave a nod and stood. “Alright, come on, then.”
Zay said, “You should probably make sure Hugo’s okay with going first.”
His uncle paused and looked at me with a raised brow.
“I’m good with going, but I need to put on some real clothes first.”
Zay snorted, and the two of us rushed into our bedroom. We changed, just into jeans and t-shirts, then ran back out.
With a nod, Basil led us out the door and toward the portal.
Before I knew it, I was walking into the BCA headquarters, and I suddenly wished I’d gone out and bought a suit or something for this. I felt… weird and very underdressed and like everyone was staring at us even though I knew they weren’t.
Basil walked us through quickly, not stopping to talk to anyone until he got to his own viramore. Hiro gave us each a side-hug, and he quietly asked me, “Are you sure you’re okay with doin’ this? We don’t have to if you’re uncomfortable.”
I sent him a small smile. “I’m okay with it.”
“Alright. But if you get uncomfortable at all, just let me know, and we’ll stop the interview, ‘kay?”
“Thanks.”
“And don’t worry ‘bout your safety. She’ll be shielded, and Bas and I’ll be right there with you. We’ll keep you safe.” He leaned in closer. “You and your viramore.”
That made me smile because Zay seemed irritated by that. As if he didn’t need protecting, but I did. Overprotective sourpuss. “Thank you.”
Hiro gave me a nod, then Zay and I followed him toward the room.
Zay’s Uncle Hiro looked extremely intimidating with his giant build and millions of tattoos everywhere.
But every time he spoke to me, he surprised me by how gentle he was.
Apparently, he was really good with his daughter and grandkids, and I supposed he put me in that category since Zay was already there. I didn’t mind at all.
Especially when we were about to face… whatever—or whoever—this was.
Ugh. This was so not gonna be fun.