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“What’s going on?” Andrew asked as he set aside the book that Eleazar’s family had recorded of their history, passed down through generations, which included hand-drawn portraits of his direct descendants, of men and woman who’d perished in one way or another.
The room was filled with so much, items from centuries past, commissioned portraits, books, love letters written from his great-grandfather to his great-grandmother, and even a few torture devices from medieval times.
Eleazar could trace his lineage back three thousand years to the Bronze Age. He didn’t have many artifacts from that time period, but he wanted to preserve what he did own. A fire would wipe out everything.
But Andrew was more important than material things. He lifted his mate into his arms and cradled him close. “We must get to the underground rooms.”
“Why?”
Andrew, being human, couldn’t smell the fire yet, hadn’t heard the chaos below them. He also didn’t want to worry his pregnant mate.
“Close your eyes and trust me.”
Eleazar was relieved Andrew had done what he asked, and then he was out of the secret room, racing toward the first floor, because there was no way to access the underground chamber from where they were.
He saw the billowing smoke, saw the flames the firefighters were battling to put out, and Eleazar ground his teeth. This fire had been set purposely. Sonny would never be this careless in the kitchen, and the fire hadn’t even reached that part of the house yet.
“Eleazar!” Andrew gasped as he opened his eyes and looked around. “The house is on fire!”
“I have you.” Eleazar spun, raced down the hallway in the opposite direction of the fire, and opened the passageway that led downstairs, a passageway only accessible to those who knew where it was.
As soon as the panel closed, Eleazar made his way to the bottom of the stairs then shut the heavy door behind him, relieved he’d gotten his mate to safety.
When he placed Andrew on his feet, Eleazar used the landline. Cell reception down there was nonexistent because of the three-inch steel walls. He was going to find out who had done this, and when he did, he would show that person why he was the most feared vampire in Ridgeway.
Chapter Seven
It wasn’t until nightfall when everyone emerged from the underground. Eleazar had called in a few favors and had humans come to the house, telling the firefighters that they lived there so they could gather as much information as possible.
Amon knew Eleazar had set it up that way in case something like this happened. Now he looked around at the destruction, anger boiling inside of him. Whoever had set this fire would pay.
But Amon’s thoughts were pulled away from vengeance as he saw Sonny approach him with tears in his eyes.
“Are you okay?” Amon asked, pulling Sonny into a hug.
“Yeah, I’m fine. But I can’t believe someone would do this. Who would want to hurt us?” Sonny sniffled, clinging to Amon.
“I don’t know, but we’ll find out.” The only person Amon could think of was Slater. That wasn’t certain because they had so many enemies, though the timing made him think that Slater might be trying to get back at him for hemming the guy against the car and then pinning his arm behind his back.
Men like Slater had egos that were so fragile they wouldn’t let something like that slide.
Sonny pulled away then walked to a closet. Amon watched as his mate pulled out his cleaning supplies and started wiping down the charred table in the center of the foyer.
“Sonny?” Amon walked over to him, placing a hand on his mate’s wrist. “What’re you doing?”
“The house is a mess.” He looked at Amon as if it should have been obvious. “I have to get it clean.”
There was no saving the chrome-and-glass table. The glass was no longer there. It had shattered during the fire, and the only thing left was the burned frame. “Babe, everything ruined will be replaced. Eleazar already has someone coming by to take a look at the damage so it can be repaired.”
That was the one thing about being filthy rich. You could hire a company to send out men late at night who would work all through the night to repair damages. Right now their only concern was fixing the front entrance so the sun wouldn’t fry them come morning.
Eleazar had employed a certain company in the past to do some repairs, and when they were underground, he’d used the landline to call them. Already Amon saw the two trucks pulling into the circular driveway.
“But the mess…” Sonny looked around. “I have to clean it up.”
He had to be in shock from battling a fire and being stuck underground all day, not to mention the thought of how close all of them had come to perishing. It broke Amon’s heart to see his mate in such distress, the fear and uncertainty in his pretty blue eyes.
“Take your mate to your room,” Shayde said.
