He was proud of her. Proud of her skills. Fascinated to meet someone like him, with all her protective urges and scholar’s fascination.
But he needed something to show for this time away. Wanted the Wake beheaded on a platter when the next binding rolled around, especially before they could enact their plan of somehow summoning the Wild Hunt and instigating a Dark Age. That, Kyan couldn’t allow.
And from what he’d seen of the ogam message, this macabre murder might be linked to it.
Kyan walked back to the bloodied message, wiping his hand of the Vampire’s blood before pulling out his phone and snapping a picture.
His memory was blurry on the translation, but he knew who would be able to read it.
Whoever had written this, though, was either as old as Kyan, or didn’t know what the hell they were dabbling in.
He didn’t know which was more concerning.
Kyan turned to inspect the dead Vampire.
Being feral was an uncommon thing in its species nowadays. Vampires had plenty of access to supernatural blood banks and never needed as much as humans imagined in their books and shows, either. To act this way didn’t make sense. And neither did the double row of fangs. If this was a result of the Wake’s experiments, he didn’t want them taking the whole creature and burning the evidence.
He needed proof.
Kyan squatted beside it, his torn jeans creaking and flecked with blood. He grabbed the creature’s chilled jaw and, with some strain, ripped free one of the secondary fangs. It came away with a grisly crack and scythe of bloodied bone.
He tore a piece of the Vampire’s shirt to wrap up the fang, then dialled the Wake’s collection number, reserved for the occasions when carrying a body would get him noticed. Usually, they arrived quickly, so he headed back out into the city and strode several streets back to get his car.
Inside the warm interior, he cleaned his hands with sanitising wipes from his hunting bag, then opened up the glove box to retrieve Nicole’s hair tie and the ancient bracelet he wore, putting them back on. The day Nicole’s family had left Estwood, he’d found the hair tie on her bedside table and kept it, even though it damn near cut off his circulation. His finger ran back and forth beneath it, before driving back to the warehouse. Keeping a distance, he parked within view.
For some reason, the collection crew took nearly two hours.
With all the blood in that warehouse, it heightened the chances of drawing more creatures and he was about to call the Wake again when the van finally arrived. He waited until they came back out, then followed at a distance.
It was likely they’d just take the supernatural body to one of the Wake’s morgues. They had a myriad of ways to safely destroy supernatural corpses so humans didn’t find them. But if they were experimenting on creatures the way Nicole had seen, the way they had with Lynch, then studying or using the bodies of deceased supernaturals would be invaluable.
But when the van arrived at its location Kyan’s brain stalled, and that trickle of instinct morphed into disbelief and a low, burningoutrage.
Here? They’d chosenhere?
It wasn’t possible. It was so visible. And what it stood for …
He’d assumed for months that their labs would be in some hidden location, but he’d forgotten the key ability of the Wake: to twist the known. To make you think you were safe, whilst using that control to keep you where they wanted you.
Kyan pulled out his phone and called the only person he knew who could still read ogam.
‘I need to speak to you.’
‘Always with the pleasantries,’ Callum drawled.
Kyan couldn’t risk telling him what he suspected now, not if there was an Empyreal in their ranks they couldn’t trust. Everything had been smooth sailing after his debriefing from the Estwood mission, to the degree he was worried it wastoosmooth. But then, that was why he and Nicole had done the first of a trio of binding ceremonies: so he could lie about everything that happened. Their plan had worked thus far.
So, Kyan drove away from the building that stood for justice and righteousness. The criminal courts used by both humans and supernaturals, and likely the location of a secret facility that spat in the face of everything Kyan had once thought the Wake stood for.
The Old Bailey.
CHAPTER FOUR
Nicole
NICOLE TRIED TO BLOCK OUT THE REST OFHER FATHER ANDVerin’s conversation as she strode through the house. She wasn’t going to run. That only summoned the predator sprawling unused in her veins. So she forced herself to keep a steady stride.
You can protect them better if you hunt, her Empyreal crooned.Just slip out tonight and find something to–
