The nightmare woke me. For once, that was a good thing. Probably. I hoped. I sat there with my spine pressed into a corner and my eyes screwed shut. I swallowed the foul taste coating the back of my throat. Herbs and copper. Nasty combination. Tears brimmed behind my eyelids while hope and fear collided in my gut. There was no going back once I opened my eyes. If it had all been a dream… If I woke to Lena staring at me…
“Woolly?” At the sound of my voice, the lights snapped on overhead, banishing my fears this might not be real. Warmth rolled in tracks down my cheeks, and I hiccupped when I said, “I missed you, girl.”
The floorboards arched under my palms like cats eager to be petted.
“I’m sorry I left you.” I pressed my cheek against the wall. “I didn’t mean to go away.”
However long I had been gone, it was too long.
Heat blasted from the floor register, its swirling warmth as close to a hug as the house had to offer.
The growl that rumbled through my stomach caused the curtains to flutter with laughter.
“Laugh it up.” I elbowed the wall and immediately regretted my life choices. “You’re not half as funny as you think.”
While she chuckled at my expense, it hit me that I could eat, actually eat without fear, for the first time since Volkov snatched me. That was all the epiphany required to get me moving. Using the wall for support, I propped my feet under me. I made it two steps outside the bedroom before strong arms enveloped me. Boaz lifted me and spun me in dizzying circles down the hall.
“I thought you were never going to wake up.” He planted a hot kiss on my forehead. “How are you feeling?”
“Physically?” I directed my focus inward and sought out each individual ache. I paid special attention to the faded pink line down my wrist, what should have been a nasty scar, but found the skin smooth. “Good.”
“How about up here?” He knocked on my noggin gently then poked me in the chest. “And in here?”
“I’ll let you know when I figure out that part,” I promised. “Right now, it just feels good to be home.”
“Where are you rushing off to?” He kept hold of my hand as I started walking away. “Got a hot date?”
“As a matter of fact, yes I do.” I tugged on my wrist. “With whoever can deliver breakfast the fastest.”
“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, Squirt.” His grip turned to iron. “How about I cook instead?”
A flutter started behind my breastbone, a sharp breath hissing between my teeth.
Not again. Not now. Not when I’m home and among friends.
“It’s okay, Squirt. You’re home. Nothing can hurt you here.” Boaz turned me loose and took a healthy step back, giving me room to breathe. “How about I sweeten the pot. How does breakfast in bed sound?”
“No.” My gorge rose, and I shook my head until I teetered off balance. “Never again.”
The stricken look on his face as he battled the urge to interrogate me eased the knot in my throat.
“Amelie told me to text the second you got out of bed.” He reached for his cell. “Do you mind?”
“You really have to ask?” The true miracle was that she hadn’t been camped outside the door beside him.
“Come on down, Squirt, I’ve got all I need in the kitchen to create the perfect welcome home meal.” His thumb flew over the keyboard. “Frozen blueberry waffles and imitation maple syrup. The breakfast of champions.”
Rolling my eyes with the knowledge he believed that, I took the stairs. Amelie must have already been on her way over, because I bumped into her on the bottom step.
“Grier.” She flung herself at me and squeezed until I gasped for air in a good way. “I was so worried.”
“Me too,” I admitted, fresh tears wavering in my vision. “Are you ready to eat?”
“Eat?” Her nose wrinkled in Boaz’s direction. “Tell me he didn’t con you into waffles.”
Woolly chimed before I got out my answer, and we moved our reunion to the living room.
The Pritchard siblings exchanged wary glances, and the foreboding sensation remained when I pressed my eye to the peephole in the front door and spotted Mr. Hacohen standing there in his trim, navy suit with a hand tangled in his corkscrew mane.
“This can’t be good,” I murmured, opening the door and frowning at the Grande Dame’s messenger boy. “Yes?”
“You’ve been summoned.” From the same leather folio as before, he pulled out a linen envelope. “The Grande Dame has sent me to fetch you.”
“I’ll need a minute.” I shut the door in his face with no small delight and leaned against it, tearing into the envelope, which revealed what Mr. Hacohen had relayed almost verbatim. “I assume she wants all the details while they’re fresh in my mind.”
“How did she know you were awake?” Amelie scowled at the letter. “Did she bug the house while you were gone?”
“No,” Boaz answered, and I didn’t ask how he knew that was true, but I believed him. “Think about it, sis.” He peered through the nearest window at the vibrant sunset. “Mom always gets her summons at dusk. The real surprise here is the Grande Dame let her sleep this long.”
The scent of grapefruit wafted from the paper, and the sweetness cloyed. “Heard any updates?”
Boaz hesitated, which told me he was up to speed but wasn’t sure I ought to be yet.
“I deserve to know,” I said as I tore the card to shreds, “and I’d rather hear it from you than her.”
“Thirty-four casualties. Twice that many popped UV capsules to keep us from interrogating them.” The vampiric equivalent of cyanide pills. “Volkov is our only high-level capture. The other survivors were maids, kitchen workers or groundskeepers. The odds of them knowing anything are slim.”
I ignored the clenching in my gut. “He survived?”
“Oh yes.” The calculating smile stretching Boaz’s lips made me shiver. “I made certain of it.”
Amelie sidled closer and wrapped an arm around my waist to offer me support.
Finally, I was going to get my question answered. “Who is the master?”
“We don’t know.”
“How can you not know? Volkov was the ringleader. Doesn’t that mean his clan was behind this?”
“The thing about Last Seeds is they last forever. Ancients, true immortals, grow weary of ruling their own corners of the world. They can sleep for hundreds of years at a stretch, and sometimes when they rise, their entire clan has disbanded, been absorbed, or just plain died out over time.”
“Are you saying you suspect an ancient was behind my kidnapping?”
“There were five different clans in residence at that estate. None of them allied as far as Society records go. The Mercia heritor took his own life rather than let us get our hands on him. Whatever—or whoever—they were protecting, it’s got to be big if clan masters are offering up their best and brightest to the cause.”
“I should have tried harder.” Lena was too loyal to her master. But there were others. I should have figured out how to widen my social circle and focused on weaker links instead of being one. “I had no idea the operation was so large.”
“Neither did we. Not until we got a chance to examine what bodies remained.”
Young vampires died very human deaths. Things didn’t get weird until they passed the century mark.
“Legally, we had no proof you were behind those walls.” His mouth flatlined. “You still had Amelie’s cellphone on you when you were taken, but those coordinates only proved you were in the area.”