Page 90 of Call of the Blood

“You,” one of them said, pointing at me.

“That one is Kate,” Alexius said to me from behind. “The man is Taylor. The small woman on the floor is Evie.”

Evie.

Something very angry rose up in me suddenly. Henry was already dead. This anger had nowhere to go.

“What’s your real name?” I asked Evie.

“Evie,” she replied as she stood up; however, she kept her eyes down. I walked closer to her.

“What was your human name?” I asked, rephrasing. “Answer truthfully. I’m out of patience tonight.”

“Kimberly.”

“Did my uncle tell you that you were going to be Evie after he made you?”

“Your uncle?” Kimberly looked up at me. “Our uncle. We share him.”

“You and I are not related, and we don’t share anything. I came here to tell you all that he’s dead.”

Kimberly wailed, but I noticed that Kate and Taylor were both fine, looking at each other, almost hopefully.

“So… we’re not going to have to go back to him or anything? We can learn the rules and try to join the nest or… No one has spoken to us since…” Kate gestured at Alexius.

“That’s something Maria will work out with all of you.”

I sighed. I had planned this big thing about telling them all the terrible parts of Henry I had only just learned myself.

Now I hesitated, then changed my mind. Kate and Taylor were ready to move on from the looks of it. Kimberly, or Evie as my sick uncle had convinced her to be called, was the one who probably needed psychiatric help.

“I’ll tell someone to give you all better rooms, sooner rather than later.”

“Who killed him?” Kimberly asked, wiping tinted tears from her face.

“I did,” I answered.

She lunged for me, but I didn’t react, not wanting to hurt her and not sure what to do about the crazy girl who was abused and manipulated by my uncle.

Alexius had her before I paid for that.

Holding her head to the wall, he leaned in.

“Remember what I told you earlier,” he growled.

“Do it,” Maria said from the speakers.

I said nothing as Kate and Taylor were horrified. Alexius was efficient. He grabbed her jaw with his other hand, twisting and pulling quickly until he broke her neck. It could heal, but he took the body out of the room with him to finish the job.

“We’ll give rooms to the other two and make sure they’re okay. She was showing signs of being a bigger problem than I am willing to tolerate. I heard what she said to you earlier, Alexius, about joining the nest.”

“Fair enough. She would have been your responsibility,” I said, shrugging before walking out, seeing Alexius was finishing the job in a more open space, so blood didn’t have to cover everyone. Her head was lopped off quickly enough. Other vampires started cleaning up without needing to be asked.

“Your nest is very efficient,” I remarked as Maria stopped next to me.

“Thank you. I take a level of pride in it. Now, you should go and get cleaned up yourself. And now he should, too.” She nodded toward Alexius. “Let me show you to your rooms.”

“Fine. Declan?”