Page 75 of Call of the Blood

“Fucking fae magic,” Maria hissed. “This is my fault, Everly, and I am going to send everything I can to help you deal with this. I gave him a reason to panic,” Maria said, closing her eyes in annoyance and frustration. “I’ll get a team on his ass right now.” She walked around Alexius and left the room.

“What did she mean by that?” Everly growled.

“She tried to get James Bishop to the mission to catch these vampires tonight, but he didn’t show.”

Everly started cussing. Her mind went to where his did. Henry Abbott was probably out stalking Declan right now or worse.

Why didn’t he come to work?

Alexius looked at the vampires. Henry had been stalking Everly and Declan.

And he was staring at three vampires that sort of looked like Everly and Declan. A blond boy. Redheaded girls. He hated when he got a knot of instinct in his stomach.

He stormed into the interview room, making all three of the young vampires jump, the smaller female even launching herself backward to the wall, hissing in self-defense.

“I only have one question for right now,” he said, looking between them. “Who made you?”

“He never gave us his name. We called him uncle. He wanted us to call him uncle. Said it was more fun than being called master or father.”

Alexius was able to confirm that knot in his stomach.

“Did you hear that, Everly?”

“I heard,” she hissed.

He stepped out of the room before he continued the conversation, noting the vampires of Maria’s nest hovering nearby.

“He tried to recreate you and Declan,” he explained. “Redheaded women. Blond man.”

“That’s… fucking disgusting.”

“It is. You know as well as I do that Declan is in serious danger every minute we don’t know where Henry is. How close are you to him?”

“Another fifteen minutes.”

“How fast are you going?”

“Over a hundred.”

Alexius hoped Henry wasn’t able to do anything before she got there, but there wasn’t much faster she could go. Henry was absolutely going to Turn Declan Abbott if he got his hands on him.

“I trust you can take Henry in a fight. You were trained by me, rigorously. Go for the kill. Don’t allow him to live. If you can’t kill him, hold him until Maria and her people get there. Do you want me there, or do you want me interviewing these vampires?”

He couldn’t tell Everly the sudden thoughts he was having about what Jacob may have exiled Henry for. He clenched his jaw. He wished his son had asked him to just kill the vampire instead.

“Interview them. I know you can catch up if you need to. They might have information on whatever Henry has been doing and where we might find him. I know he owns a second property, but I didn’t make it there tonight. He might be hiding somewhere, hoping we can’t find him. They could know.”

“I’ll question them. Tell me when you get to your brother.”

Neither said goodbye. He looked into the interview room again, frowning.

“Tell your Mistress this wasn’t her fault,” he said, not directing it at any one vampire near him. One of them would pass the message along. “Henry Abbott or James Bishop made these three. He’s been panicking since he discovered we were about to capture them. He must have been. He would know where he was telling them to hide from everyone and where the hunt had ended up tonight.”

“Yes sir,” one of them said quickly.

“And it means he left them to hang for him, unprepared to meet their own kind without even his name to share,” he continued softly, piecing together what he could best assume was Henry’s thought process. It was either a rushed choice, as if he was running out of time, or a calculated risk. Alexius didn’t know, but at this moment, it didn’t matter entirely.

He went back in to see the young victims of Henry Abbott, sitting across from them calmly this time.