I swallowed. “I just wanted to be human again. But I don’t see how this has any—”
“The blogger and his friends want the same. They blend in with humans and exist in their world, but it isn’t enough for them.” A long pause. “Ever heard of The Order?”
Never but, for some reason, a chill crept up my spine. “No.”
“For a long time, it was just a small group of vampires who got together and said, ‘I hate what I am, you hate what you are, let’s all be hateful together.’ I actually forgot about them…until you mentioned the dragon shifter attack.”
Frowning, I asked, “Why would you think that The Order and the dragon attack are connected?”
“My personal opinion is that the dragons who will invade this place are mercenaries. While we waited for Andres’ agreement to meet with you, I looked into what enemies the Grand High Pair has. Our kind has settled since Sam and Jared took over; people fear and respect them enough to stay in line. So, I asked myself, who hated them enough to risk their wrath? Then I recalled the blog we’ve been monitoring that has The Order’s insignia, and my gut told me to take another look at the association.”
“And?”
“They’ve grown in numbers and strength. They no longer sit around, bemoaning their situation. They now have a mission.”
This wasn’t going to be good. “What’s their mission?”
“To destroy us all.”
Well, fuck.
“I was able to link them to several bombings that humans branded acts of terrorism. Ironically, the humans weren’t wrong. The Order is, in effect, a large association of terrorists. But their targets are vampires. Get Sam and Jared to take a look at the terrorist attacks that occurred in the last two years. Many of them wiped out entire nests and buildings that belonged to vampires. I don’t think that’s a coincidence, considering that The Order has possession of human weapons of war.”
“How did you find out about all this?”
His smile was mysterious. “I have my sources.”
“None of this means that The Order is behind the upcoming dragon attack.”
“If Sam and Jared had made enemies of a drove, Andres would have told you and worked with you to prevent a war; that’s the kind of guy he is.”
Okay, but… “Why hire dragons? Why not just bomb the island?”
“That would require them to get close. They’re probably not brave enough for that, considering they hide behind bombs and guns. The result of a dragon shifter attack would be close to the result of a bomb. If they wipe out the most powerful of our kind, it will cause mayhem and panic.”
“Why didn’t you tell us all this sooner?”
“I wasn’t given a chance,” he pointed out, affronted. “The second we got back from our meeting with Andres, I was teleported away from you.” His eyes glittered with fury as he added, “Then you were injected with the serum and I was wrongly imprisoned.”
“Wrongly?”
My doubt strangely didn’t anger him. In fact, he seemed hurt. “You know I didn’t do it.”
“If it wasn’t you, who was it?”
“When I find out, I’ll hurt them so badly they’ll beg for death. Believe that.”
Unsure what to believe, I returned to the matter at hand. “The Order…where is it based?” He had to know, given all the information he possessed.
Marco smiled. “Come back tomorrow, and I’ll tell you more.”
Appearing at my side in a blink, Butch growled. “You get one conversation with her, asshole. Nothing more.”
Smile widening, Marco said to me, “You’ll come back, sweetheart. Do you want to know how I know that? It’s because you’re good. If you can help someone, you will. If someone relies on you, you’ll do your best not to let them down. Right now, people are relying on you to get answers from me, aren’t they?”
“This isn’t a game, Marco, stop playing me.”
His expression softened. “Playing you? I’m not doing that, sweetheart. But if I drag this out long enough for you all to realise I’m not the person you’re looking for, I get to live and I get my freedom. I rather like living. The moment I’m no longer of any use to anyone here, he’ll end me. And we both know it.”
I couldn’t deny that.
Marco turned his back on me and walked to the bed. “Tomorrow, Imani.”
Barely holding back a frustrated growl, I spoke to Jared. We’re done here.
In a matter of moments, he appeared and teleported us to the living area of his beach house, where Sam was waiting. I gave the couple a rundown of everything Marco said.
“Do we think Marco’s spinning us some tales?” I asked, relaxing on the sofa. Butch was combing his fingers through my hair.
“I don’t know,” said Jared.
Sam took a sip of her NST. “I’ll talk to Antonio, find out what he knows about The Order—if it even exists at all. This could be just a case of Marco trying to seem useful so we let him live.”