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“No. Only Scotty and two others know of it. They usually do the interrogations of rogue vampires. If she hadn’t been asleep, she would have had to have her head covered, but we would have still had to have knocked her out or she could have warned the council about where we’d taken her.”
“We’ll stay up here and watch in case anyone shows up looking to fight us,” Ruric said, motioning to Arman to be his wingman.
“Yeah, I’ll watch with Ruric,” Arman said.
“Okay, good,” Levka said.
Caitlin took Levka’s hand and squeezed it. “I’ll stay on guard duty also. You don’t need me to help with this other business.”
Stasio tried to hide his amusement at seeing Levka’s fleeting look of concern. Stasio thought it was endearing really. But Levka quickly inclined his head, trying to appear not to worry. Stasio glanced at Jasmine, expecting her to want to stay up in the restaurant and fight anyone who might come too, but she seemed to want to know more about what was going on and he understood that.
“That door leads to a cellar where they store supplies, but also there are three confinement rooms for vampires who need to be questioned about some matter,” William said.
Stasio carried Eleanor down into the cellar to a room and he put her in it. There was a small bed and a few chairs around a table. Stasio thought it looked like a solitary confinement cell in a prison.
“There’s a restroom in there,” William said, “if anyone needs to use it. And upstairs of course.”
They glanced in the direction he pointed to the closed door.
Stasio laid Eleanor on the bed.
“Okay, so tell us what had happened,” Levka said to William.
“I had just spoken with Scotty before I was taken hostage. He had assured me that my family had left the country so they were safe. I was planning to go to the meeting where we would have talked in more detail about how we were going to handle this battle. But when I left the house to get into my car, I saw men I knew who sided with the elders coming for me. I saw Eleanor sitting in a car that one of the elders owned. At first, I thought she had been taken prisoner too. But then she was on her phone talking to someone and I didn’t believe they would have allowed her to use her phone. Plus, she would have been knocked out so she couldn’t call out to her fellow rebels that she’d been taken hostage. She didn’t see that I saw her right before they knocked me out with some drug. I’m sure she would have been spooked that somehow someone might have told me that she was the reason why I was in confinement. This all happened in a matter of seconds, or I would have vanished and flown off. But one of the men had a blow dart and before I could make my move, I was hit in the neck and sinking to the ground. I don’t remember anything after that except when I woke, I was confined to a chair in a room. Of course I tried to reach Scotty, but I figured it was a room like these where vampire communications are confined to the specific location.”
“What did they question you about?” Levka asked.
Stasio wasn’t surprised that Levka would ask William about that. They all needed to know what the elders knew. Not just Scotty.
“About the rebellion. Scotty said he was bringing some outsiders in to help us, but he didn’t tell us you were Welsh. I recognize your accents.”
“Welsh princes, to be exact,” Levka said.
Though Stasio and the others couldn’t really use their princely status much to their benefit anywhere, they were still proud of their royal heritage.
William’s blue eyes widened, his brow rising. “The Welsh princes involved in the rebellion against your league’s elders centuries ago?”
“Yes,” Levka said.
“But you…” William hesitated to say anymore, probably afraid he would offend them if he spoke what was on his mind.
Levka smiled. “Were unsuccessful? We told Scotty and the others as much.”
“But you rescued me and for that I am grateful. My captors told me they had my family and I had to tell them everything or they would kill them. But I knew they had lied.”
“Did you tell them anything?” Levka asked.
William smiled. “Yeah, that Eleanor knew everything. That she was leading the revolt. I’m sure she already told them that Scotty was. But I definitely wanted to get back at her.”
“Do you know everything?” Levka asked.
“No. We all have piecemeal information for a scenario just like this.”
“Do you know who all the council members are?” Levka asked.
“No. We were voted on and then the figures were tallied up unanimously. Everyone knows there are twelve of us, but not everyone knows who won. I was told I had, but I don’t know who else did, and that way I could keep the others safe in event that something like this happened to any of us. Scotty might know who all everyone is. I don’t think he would ever break. I guess the battle was moved up early because of me.”
“Yeah, it was,” Levka said. “No one could trust that you would be able to keep from talking and sharing plans with them.”
