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Slowly, his arms crept around me until he was hugging me back, rocking us slowly and sobbing loudly into my hair, though not a single tear managed its way out of his dry body.

“Perhaps we should move somewhere more private,” Julian suggested after a while.

Dad released me, and I withdrew, wiping at my face with the back of my hand.

“I can’t risk leaving the safety of the house,” he explained with an arm around my shoulders. “My protector is here, and as long as he backs my research, I have plans to right all the wrongs I’ve made.”

“Who is your protector?” Julian asked smoothly, though I noted the way he flexed his fingers like a gunslinger waiting for a fight.

My father smiled slowly. “I cannot speak his name. It’s part of the agreement. But you’ll probably meet him soon enough. We just voted him in as the new sect liaison.”

“What?” I stepped away and to Julian’s side. “Without Julian? I thought everyone voted.”

“There was no competition. No one else wanted the position after what happened to his predecessor.” My father chuckled. “Why don’t you come up to my rooms so we can speak more privately, Charlie?”

Julian nodded encouragingly, and we followed him up the dreaded stairs while the others remained in the sitting room. But when we reached the top floor, my father turned one direction and Julian the other. I stopped cold in place, and Julian rushed back to my side to touch my shoulder and speak. The Liaison’s office is on this floor. I want a quick look.

I should go, too, in case there’s anything with a psychic echo there I can pick up.

There won’t be. It’s been too long. You need time with your father, and as much as I want to stay and protect you, you don’t need me imposing. Go. I will be within earshot if you need me.

I supposed I’d wanted his presence as a sort of crutch, but he was right, I needed to speak to my dad one-on-one. So I followed as my father continued to the corridor on the left and Julian sped off to the right.

Dad’s rooms consisted of a basic suite with a four-poster, mahogany bed. Matching Victorian-style furniture would’ve been bulky in a smaller space, but these proved generous living quarters. I trailed a hand over an intricately carved desk and dropped into the burgundy velvet chair in front of it.

“You know vampires can listen from pretty far away, so if you want private information, this probably isn’t the best spot,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed and folding his hands together.

“I know. But I’m also guessing those who might hear us already know most of what you’re going to tell me. And make no mistake, I’m not leaving until I get the truth.”

To my surprise, he beamed at me. “I am so proud of you, Charlie. I’ve been following your work from a distance you know.”

“Focus, Dad.”

“Yes, of course. Where to begin?” He ran his hands back through his hair like he used to when puzzling something out in the lab. The blonde tufts that stood out gave me a melancholy feeling. He cleared his throat before beginning. “I should have questioned my funding. But I didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. My benefactor turned out to be a wealthy vampire, maybe you heard of him? Lamar Bouche?”

I straightened with surprise. “He was the mob boss that died in a bombing around five years ago. I remember the TV reports.” The smaller gangs turned toward the big time, creating horrible groups like Mordock had, the vampire who’d turned Lydia and who I’d helped capture before his mysterious death.

“Yes, though it wasn’t a bombing. That was the human story. It was several firebomb charms.”

The kind that had destroyed my lab. I had to wonder if Mordock was behind the assassination of this Bouche vamp as well. “So once he died…”

“He wasn’t the only one after me. He wanted his answer, and when I refused to give it to him—having figured out he meant to use it for nefarious means—he had me killed.”

My head hurt. “But Carmichael brought you back immediately,” I argued.

“Yes. He was working for Bouche, but he was under different directions as well. Carmichael’s sire, and the other, more dangerous one who’s been looking for me all these years, instructed him to keep me alive at all costs so she could use my talents.”

“Wasn’t it risky to follow his sire’s orders when Carmichael had a witness? The man that killed you?”

“Carmichael killed that vampire shortly after leaving to cover his tracks. A vampire cannot resist a command from his or her sire, Charlie. I had to avoid Carmichael at all costs, as much as his sire.”

“But you’re here—” I stopped with the realization of the perfect timing. “Did you? Dad, did you kill Carmichael?”

He laughed, which disconcerted me, then booped me on the nose, which I chose to ignore in favor of the current conversation. “No, Pumpkin. It’s almost impossible to kill one’s own sire. But my new benefactor had no such issues.”

“The one who took his place? He framed Lydia!” I stood, exasperated.

“Sit down, Charlie. No, he didn’t frame her. Carmichael was under orders to either hire her or kill her, and she’d just refused his offer when my boss showed up. She isn’t giving him up because she owes him her life.”