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“Come on. Let’s get out of here.” Caleb puts his arm around her, and they make their way out of the great hall and the Order. The halls are empty, and no more hunters come from their hiding places. They’re all probably too afraid of Caleb to try now. Their footsteps echo in the silence of the empty spaces.
“Do you think Nim’s awake yet?” Maddy presses a hand to her middle, and Caleb recognizes the motion as the beginning of her hunger. But she doesn’t say anything about being hungry. Instead, she asks, “Why did Quinn say she’s unconscious?”
“Quinn said the coma is Orion’s fault.” But even as Caleb says it, he’s not sure that’s the end of it.
“Do you think there’s more?”
“I think it’s more than just Orion’s revenge. I think the Faeries placed Nim under a spell so that she couldn’t control the spirits. If she’d come with us, she would have been able to break the hunters free from Orion’s control.”
Maddy shakes her head. “Then we have to free her. It’s the only way to keep others from being possessed by the spirits controlled by Orion.”
“To free her, we have to find a way to break the spell, or we have to kill Orion. There’s no other way.”
When they step outside, she grimaces. “Let’s go see the Council. Maybe we can talk them into returning the book to Veritas.”
* * *
When they arrive,Caleb has to admit the Council isn’t any less scary than visiting the Order, but Maddy’s a vampire and even as a human, Caleb is still the vampire king. Maybe it’ll be enough to get them in through the door.
They stop in front of another nondescript building in a mundane location in Mercy City. The Council moves locations as often as they feel threatened. With the arrival of Orion in the mortal dimension, they’ve probably moved daily.
Caleb stops at the front door, more than surprised it doesn’t open automatically for the vampire king. The Council should be anxious to meet with him. He pounds on the upper panel, expecting a response and getting none.
Maddy scowls. “What’s going on?”
A few minutes later, the front door pops open, and a familiar face peeks out. “Oh, Caleb! There you are.”
Caleb draws back from the door. “Mason, good to see you. You going to let us in?”
Mason tips his head to the side. “Mm, no, I’ll come out.” The door closes and the sound of talking then shuffling comes from the other side. Yet it doesn’t open.
Caleb’s jaw goes slack. What’s Mason playing at?
“He’s going to come out, but he’s not going to let the king of the vampires in?” Maddy murmurs. “That doesn’t sound right.”
Mason steps out of the latest Council safehouse and closes the door behind him. He puts one arm around each of them and escorts them down the steps to the sidewalk in front of the building, effectively leading them away. “Madeleine, Caleb, it’s so great to see you both. I hear you both have some news of interest.”
Maddy wrinkles her nose as though she smells an awful stench.
Caleb shoves Mason’s arm off his shoulders. “What are you talking about?”
Maddy shrugs out from Mason’s other arm, and something red flashes red in her eyes. Her hunger is growing, and Caleb won’t be able to ignore her needs for long. She’ll take off after the next human she can.
“Let me in to see the Council, Mason,” Caleb snaps. “We don’t have much time. I’m the king of the vampires, and it’s within my rights to call a council meeting anytime I wish.”
“Well,” Mason draws out the word. “With the Faeries back in the picture, the Council is very busy. The threat of extinction is very real. I’m sure you understand.”
Mason turns to Maddy. “As for you, we’ve heard how Vera turned you into a vampire, but that doesn’t mean we trust you, descendant of Dracula or not. None of that has anything to do with anything.”
Caleb grasps Mason’s shoulder and stops him short in the middle of the sidewalk. “Did the Council have a hand in stealing the book from Veritas?”
Mason sniffs. “Of course, we did. It was my first act as the new king of the vampires.”
Caleb’s eyebrows hit his hairline, and he staggers back as though he’s been punched in the gut. “Your what?”
Mason winks at Maddy. “The Council made me the new vampire king the moment they heard your boyfriend became a human again. Doesn’t make any sense for the king of the vampires to be a human, now does it?”
Caleb hears everything Mason’s saying, but he’s in too much shock to process any of it.
