We thanked her for her hospitality, but it was hard to relax, knowing we were so close to finding Olive. I’d given Rose and Dimitri the full rundown on her story when we’d met up in Houghton—at least as much as I knew about it. They were as concerned as I was and also concurred that there was probably something sinister going on if she felt such a strong need to hide her pregnancy. I got the impression that if she had been taken advantage of—and Dimitri found out who was responsible—there were going to be some serious consequences.
Dinner turned out to be chicken salad sandwiches, a surprisingly ordinary meal to be eating in a wilderness resort of half vampires. Sydney didn’t even hesitate before biting into hers, which I thought spoke legions about how far she’d come in dealing with Moroi. Lana meanwhile made it clear to me there were no official feeders around here and that I shouldn’t even think of soliciting blood from any of the Wild Pine dhampirs. There was a catch in her voice as she spoke, however, and combined with what I knew about these communes, I suspected there were dhampirs here who sold their blood to Moroi as freely as they sold their bodies for sex. It was the dark side of these camps, what had given them such a bad reputation. It certainly wasn’t a practice they all engaged in, but it happened frequently enough.
After dinner, Lana was true to her word and led us out herself, giving us a brief tour of the community. As I’d suspected, some of the buildings doubled as businesses.
“We make regular runs into Houghton for supplies,” she explained. “But we also try to be as self-sustaining as we can. We grow a lot of our own food and even make some of our own clothes.” She nodded to one cabin where two dhampir women sat sewing on the porch by lantern light, now that twilight was fast moving in. They waved back in greeting. She pointed out other buildings as we passed them. “That’s Jody’s shop—she can fix anything. And that right there’s our medical center, such as it is. April’s in charge of it, but she’s out of town getting supplies. The things she needs are a little harder to make. Over there is Briana’s school.”
“You’ve got some solar panels over there,” Sydney remarked. “Smart idea out here.”
Lana beamed, clearly proud. “That was Talia’s idea. We get some electricity wired in, but she felt we should have a renewable source on hand.”
I noted all the women’s names and also noted that aside from some of the children, everyone in this community was female. So, it was kind of a shock when I caught a glimpse of a Moroi man walking between a group of cabins set off a bit from the others. Seeing my gaze, Lana scowled and gave a resigned sigh.
“Yes. That’s where the girls who want to ‘entertain’ male guests live.”
“Why don’t you keep them out?” asked Dimitri, his expression dark.
“Because there are some girls who would do it anyway. They’d sneak off, live somewhere unsafe. I’d rather keep everything under my control. Some guys just want a good time, and there are girls who accept that and expect nothing more . . .” As she spoke, Lana watched the Moroi guy I’d seen. A dhampir girl hung on his arm, and they were laughing as they walked past us, caught up in some private conversation. She appeared to be walking him to the community’s exit, and I noted her medallion was ringed in red. Lana turned back to us when they were gone. “Other guys are nothing but trouble. Those are the ones I need to keep an eye on—and sometimes the ones we have to forcibly remove.”
“Any idea what kind of guy Olive was involved with?” I asked.
Lana began walking again, leading us to a section of residential cabins away from the one the Moroi guy had been in. “No. It’s her business, so I haven’t pushed. She hasn’t had any gentleman callers, I can tell you that. Doesn’t seem to have any romantic interests.”
“She’s got a pretty decent dhampir guy interested in her,” I said. “But she cut off ties with him. And everyone else.”
“Damn shame,” said Lana. We came to a halt in front of a cute cabin with green shutters. “But who am I to judge? We’re all fighting our own battles, the best way we can.”
Pretty wise for a backwoods wannabe sheriff, said Aunt Tatiana.
I mulled Lana’s words over as she knocked on the cabin’s door. A dhampir woman with wildly curly hair answered, grinning when she saw Lana. “Hey, Mom.”
“Hey, Diana.” Lana kissed her on the cheek. “Is Olive around?”
Diana studied our group, her gaze lingering on me the longest. I hated that everyone around here assumed the worst. It was a sad state of affairs when even an Alchemist didn’t get the suspicion a Moroi guy did. “Sure,” she said. “I’ll go get her.”
Diana disappeared inside the cabin. I found I was holding my breath as we waited to see what would happen. Sensing my anticipation, Sydney squeezed my hand.
“I just can’t believe we’re about to see her after everything that’s happened. No lava monsters. No spirit battles.” I had to pause as my voice caught. “I feel like if I can connect with Olive here, help her, then I won’t have failed Nina . . .”
Sydney’s hold on me tightened. “You didn’t fail her, Adrian. She made those choices.”
Maybe if you’d been stronger, maybe if you’d used more spirit in the dream . . . Aunt Tatiana’s voice paused in my head as she let me ponder that thought. Well, maybe Nina wouldn’t be in her current state.