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Had he intercepted medical supplies and deliveries from other places on their way to Darkvale?
Had he arranged to have the blood from the hospitals in Darkvale stolen?
Was it all part of some vicious plan to overthrow my rule?
“Maybe,” Ida said. “But you need to make a decision.”
Alice appeared in the doorway, along with a few of the other vampires who resided at our house.
“Get dressed,” I said. “And get over to the hospital. Ida, you’re in charge. Call anyone you can. Just get it secure, and kill anyone who’s breaking in. We don’t need to take prisoners. We need to nip this in the bud before we’re in a full-on war between us and any other community.”
The vamps nodded and took off running. I looked over at Juliet. She was shaking. I went to hear and pulled her into my arms.
“She was your friend, wasn’t she?”
“Yeah,” Juliet whispered. “She was my friend.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Just go get the bastard who did this,” she said through gritted teeth.
“He’s right upstairs,” I told her. I was sad to admit that my brother had betrayed not only me, but my people, as well. “Stay here.”
“Yeah,” Juliet said. She collapsed on the couch and nodded. There were tears streaming down her face, and even though I wanted to stay and sit with her, I knew I needed to keep going. I had to get to my brother and stop whatever nonsense he was playing at. I knew he was still upstairs in his room. That was where he’d gone after dinner. If he’d left the mansion, I would have known. I had more alarms rigged up in my house than should be possible.
I took the stairs two at a time and raced down the hall until I reached his door. I knocked, pounding my fist against the store. Anger welled up inside of me. This was it. This was the day I stopped having a brother.
“Open the fucking door,” I said.
Nothing.
Silence.
I pounded again before trying the knob, but it didn’t budge. So, he’d locked himself inside, had he? I didn’t care. I’d get inside. This was my house, and I wouldn’t stand to be locked out. I would normally kick a door open, especially when I was pissed off, but it wasn’t really a secret that vampires were wildly strong. The doors in this house were enforced to prevent vampires from simply kicking or fighting their way out of different situations.
Instead, I darted across the hall to my bedroom, grabbed the key that unlocked Norman’s door, and went inside.
“Where the fuck are you?” I screamed. “I know you’re in here.”
Only, he wasn’t. The room had been locked, secured carefully, but my brother wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I looked at the closet, the bathroom, and even under the bed, but it was empty. Then I realized that Norman wasn’t nearly as much of a fool as I’d thought he was.
“The passageway.”
I darted over to the painting that opened up, the one that led to a passageway, and I saw that it wasn’t quite clasped shut. So that’s what he’d done. He’d come upstairs after our argument, as I thought, but then he’d called his vampire goon squad and told them to move forward with their attack on the hospital. He’d come into the bedroom, perhaps so I wouldn’t think he was to blame, and then he’d sneaked on out.
Why had he sneaked out?
If there was one thing my brother loved more than anything else, it was hurting me and seeing me squirm. Had he sneaked out to come watch me suffer? Had he wanted to overhear when Ida gave the news?
That was when I realized that I knew exactly where he was.
He wasn’t in the bedroom because he’d circled back around to her.
Juliet.
He knew I cared for her.
If I’d had a beating heart, that would have been the moment it stopped. If I’d been alive, I would have had a complete heart attack as I thought about her dying at the hands of my insane brother. I ran back downstairs, hurrying to where I’d left her in the sitting room, but I was too late.
