Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
I might have to ask the queen for a favor. No one was as good at thievery as Queen Zoey. “Do we have any idea where one might keep a soul?”
“I’ll study up on it,” Evan promised. “There are a couple of witches down here I can talk to. Don’t worry. They’re all Sasha approved.”
I’d been told some witches had gone into hiding once Myrddin took over. There were several in Frelsi, including Lily Tucker and her light magic coven. “Good. Now does anyone know the primal Rufus wants us to meet tonight? What’s this guy like?”
I liked to go into any meeting with at least some info on who I was going to be talking to.
“Alvis is an elder in the community,” Evan explained. “He’s an expert on witchcraft and prophecy.”
“He’s super old. Like Marcus old,” Fen added.
“Not quite.” Trent shifted in his chair. “Marcus has a couple hundred years on him, but Alvis is one of the oldest vampires walking the Earth plane. Perhaps the oldest since Marcus is no longer here.”
“And good riddance,” Fen said with a grin.
I was not having that. “Fenrir.”
Fen grimaced. “Wow. She has the mom voice down. Look, you can’t expect me to be unhappy that the old dude stayed behind. All of my life I’ve been told someday this vampire is going to show up, and he’ll either try to get it on with my mom or the girl I’m in love with.”
I turned to Trent. “Who told him that?”
Trent sighed. “Who do you think, baby?”
Of course I knew. “I’m having a talk with Lee when we get back.”
“Well, I’m also happy I don’t have to deal with some vamp creeping on me,” Evan announced.
“He wouldn’t have creeped on you.” I felt the need to defend my former mentor. And, yes, lover. He’d been an excellent lover, by the way, but I wasn’t going to point that out in front of my son and husband. “He thought you might be his fated mate.”
“Nope. She’s my fated mate,” Fenrir said, possessively reaching for her hand.
Evan sighed. “Then you should be happy I like you because if you were an asshole, fate wouldn’t mean a thing to me, wolf. I know you cared for Marcus, Kelsey, but he’s kind of been the boogeyman in my life. Since I was a kid, I heard whispers of this prophecy. Discovering it was never me at all but my big sis is a huge relief. Especially if she’s happy with the old guy.”
“She is,” I assured her.
“Well, good for Summer, and now Mom’s having a new baby and it’s a girl, so I don’t even have to worry about being the only girl anymore.” Something about the tight set to Evan’s jaw belied the casualness of her words. “I just have to worry about all the wolves in the world wanting me dead. I have to say, at least Marcus wanted me alive.”
Fen moved closer to her. “Hey, like I’m going to let that happen.”
“Wait, the queen’s pregnant again?” Casey asked, looking more animated than he’d been.
“Hah, I knew something before Casey.” Trent looked pleased with himself.
“You always know things before I do,” Casey shot back.
“Not gossip stuff,” Trent countered. “No one ever tells me anything gossipy.”
This was rapidly getting out of control. “Hey, someone tell me more about this Alvis person.”
“He’s dead.”
All heads turned as Rufus entered the library. I stood up, facing the slender primal. “I’m sorry, what?”
Rufus’s gaze was grave as he moved my way. “Alvis has been murdered. I must ask for your professional services, Ms. Owens.”
I sighed. Not even two days back on the plane and I had a dead body to deal with.
Some things never changed.
Chapter Five
“Someone doesn’t want you here,” Casey said as we stood in the former librarian’s rooms.
I would bet at one point in time they had been neatly kept, but it looked like a tornado had come through the book-lined apartment and torn through all of Alvis’s things. Including his body.
Which was pretty much everywhere.
When a vampire dies it can go one of two ways. The first is the classic dust to dust method of death. The vampire takes a stake to the heart or gets separated from his noggin and suddenly there’s a big old pile of ashes where he’d previously been standing.
Way number two is my least favorite. One of said methods of death occurs and the vampire in question sort of explodes, like a bomb that was filled with blood and guts and bone fragments.
I don’t know why some vamps dust their way to whatever afterlife awaits them and others leave a massive mess behind, but I know which one I prefer. However, dust doesn’t leave a mega-shit-ton of DNA to investigate.
“Why do you think this is about me?” I wasn’t really questioning Casey’s thinking, merely wanted to know the logic behind his reasoning.