“I haven’t been avoiding you,” Ivy said cheekily. “You’re the one who left to go monster hunting.”
Darien merely looked at her, waiting.
Ivy drew a deep breath. “I didn’t exactly enjoy being there, but that goes without saying. Besides, I’m fine now.”
Darien’s brows flicked up. “Are you sure?”
Ivy’s eyelids slid shut as she breathed in deeply again. “I mean, I would be better if he was buried in the cold ground, but until then…” She opened her eyes, and every trace of the weakness that had been there before was gone. “I’m fine, Darien. You don’t need to worry about me.”
“I’ll always worry about you. I wouldn’t exactly be a good brother if I turned a blind eye to your feelings, would I?”
A smile twitched on Ivy’s lips. “And yet you pretend that you’re heartless.”
Darien smirked.
His phone began buzzing in his pocket. With a sigh, he retrieved it and checked the caller identification.
CALANTHE CROFT was flashing across the screen.
The phone was at his ear instantly, and he knew his sister was listening as he said, “What is it?”
“Get down to the Blood Rose,” the vampire replied. “I’ve found something I think you’ll be interested in seeing.”
—
At the House of the Blood Rose in the District of Drakon, Darien stood before the broad window that provided full view of the padded cell beyond the glass.
The demon was sedated. It was strapped to a table in the cell, its mottled chest rising and falling with each frantic breath, despite the sedative Calanthe’s men had administered shortly before calling Darien. The demon looked the exact same as the one Atlas and the others had hunted down at Queenswater Rapids—the same as the one that had torn a path of destruction through the Avenue of the Scarlet Star.
Darien frowned at the sight of the creature’s eyes, twitching beneath near-translucent lids as though it were dreaming. To think that this…thing…might be one of the missing girls…
“I take it you’re planning on running tests?” Darien said to Calanthe without looking at her. The vampire stood just behind him with bodyguards at the flank, and around those bodyguards were several of Darien’s own.
Shortly after Darien had talked to that warlock in the basement of Hell’s Gate, he’d filled Calanthe and her henchmen in on what he’d learned about the Well replica and the monstrosities it was spitting out. Calanthe had seemed skeptical at first, but the more he explained to her, the more open she became to the idea.
Open enough to go out of her way to hunt down one of these creatures and sedate it in the basement of her sprawling mansion.
It was why Darien had decided to tell her; to share this part of their investigation with her. Being able to use Calanthe’s many resources to their advantage was something he wasn’t willing to pass up, for the blood Darien had dropped off to Arthur had been passed over to Doctor Atlas before the weapons technician could run tests on it to confirm their theory. They’d prioritized giving the only sample they had to Doctor Atlas, who could run the necessary tests faster than Arthur, who had to do so in secret at Lucent Enterprises, so as to not get caught by anyone. But more blood was needed; Doctor Atlas hadn’t even been able to confirm their theory. Darien had been waiting for another one of these things to turn up, but clearly Calanthe had found one first.
“We’ve already begun, Mister Cassel,” Calanthe replied.
Darien ran a hand through his hair as he turned around to face the crowded room, his hellseher sense of smell overwhelmed by the different types of blood flowing in the confined space. With several of his Devils present, along with Logan and Sabrine, it was a heady mixture of hellseher, witch, wolf, and vampire blood that made him feel a little nauseated.
“In fact,” Calanthe continued, “we’re already completed the tests.” Darien’s thoughts snapped into order like a rubber band. Nobody uttered a word until Calanthe said with a smile, “It seems you were on the right track after all, and your little warlock wasn’t lying. The demonsarethe missing people.”
Murmurs rippled through the room. Darien had anticipated this to be true, especially after the information he’d received from the warlock, but he was careful about who he’d shared that information with, only telling Loren, his Devils, and Calanthe.
He hadn’t told Logan, who was pale and slack-jawed as he stepped up to the window and spread his fingers on the glass. “That means Chrysantha might still be alive.” Alive, perhaps—but possibly terrorizing the city and ripping into innocent civilians to sate her hunger. Darien wasn’t sure if being turned into one of these creatures was any better than death.
“It’s possible,” Calanthe agreed. She turned to the red-haired vampire at her side and said, “Viktor, tell them about the DNA.”
Viktor lifted his square chin, his blood-red eyes slightly milky with age. “The DNA is mutating at an unprecedented speed,” he said. “We’re hoping to create an antidote that can return the infected people to their former selves, but their behavior changes by the day. The transformation may be reversible, but only if we can catch it early.”
Darien gestured to the window and the demon lying motionless within. “Is this one beyond saving?”
“We believe it could be,” Viktor replied.
It was Emilie, who was standing next to Logan before the window, who spoke next. “But we would still try to change them back, if we found an antidote.” Her big eyes flicked to Logan.
