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“So, what did Lenore say?” I ask Solon. “What happened out there?”
“Basically that they went to the same place you had been before. Lenore was able to cloak them all so that they didn’t know they were coming and basically they just sat and waited until they saw Leif return to the building.”
“Really?”
Lenore appears behind him in the doorway, a towel wrapped around her, having taken the world’s quickest shower, which is totally doable when you’re a vampire.
“Let me tell it, you’re getting it all wrong,” she says, but she’s smiling. “We didn’t sit and wait. We actively scoped out the joint. Then Leif appeared. I wouldn’t have known who he was, but he looked exactly like Dylan with a beard. Obviously, your parents knew who he was. We watched as he went inside and then I was able to get closer and look. It was just him and a witch, a girl he called Celina. So the rest was pretty easy.”
“You just glossed over the battle scene,” Valtu remarks.
“Well, it really wasn’t much of one,” she says, running her fingers through her wet hair and tussling it. “I went in there and was able to disarm Celina just enough to steal her blade and stab her with it.”
“You figured out that was the only way to kill them,” I say. “So did I.”
She gives me an appreciative smile. “I figured it was worth a try. But then I had to deal with your brother.” She makes a sour face. “I didn’t want your parents to do it because that didn’t seem right and the moment they saw him, they went more into protective mode than anything else. Anyway, your brother is one tough cookie, like Wolf 2.0.”
Valtu snorts at that and I give him a dirty look.
Lenore goes on. “Eventually I was able to get the upper hand, just enough that Van Helsing injected him with something. I didn’t know that neural-paralyzers worked on vampires, but I’m started to think Abe has a whole arsenal of special drugs at his fingertips.”
“Who needs magic when you have science,” Valtu comments. Then he curls up his lip in disgust. “Fucking hell, I sound just like him.”
“Anyway,” Lenore continues, “it was enough that Leif couldn’t move and we were able to sit him down and explain everything to him. It took a lot of convincing to get him to come with us back here but he’s here now.”
“So is he still paralyzed?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “No. He’s fine, just a little slower than he would be normally, which is good because he’s still a vampire. He may have not turned yet but we don’t know what the witches did to him and his body, the type of training or powers he might have. It’s going to take some time for him to come to terms with all of this, I still don’t think he believes any of us, and he doesn’t seem to have any sort of instinct with your parents, but Abe said he was hoping hypnosis might help. That’s what he’s doing now.”
“I want to see him,” I say. “Now.”
Lenore and Solon exchange a look. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Lenore says.
“Oh come on, he’s her brother,” Valtu says.
“And according to Solon, she’s the one who just killed Bellamy, the only one he knew as a father. That won’t go down so well.”
“Then I won’t tell him that, not yet anyway,” I say.
Lenore nods. “Fine. Come on.”
I go for the door and Valtu reaches out and grabs my elbow. “Do you want me to come with you or do you think it’s better you go alone?”
I give him a grateful smile. “Actually, I think it’s best I go alone. I don’t want to overwhelm him.”
He gives me a quick kiss and nods. “Good luck. I love you.”
This is the first time in a very long time that he’s told me he’s loved me in public. My cheeks go warm, a giddiness in my chest. “I love you, too.”
Then I leave the room with Lenore and as the door is closing I hear Solon say to Valtu, “Well, who knew Dracula was such a softie?”
Lenore is looking at me like she wants to say the same thing to me, but I just nod at her towel. “You can just tell me their room number, you don’t have to come with me.”
She glances down at her towel and waves dismissively. “Please, this is the land of Turkish baths. Everyone’s in a towel. Besides, I just wanted to ask you how it went. How did Dahlia’s power feel?”
“Great,” I say, then stop myself. “No. It felt amazing.”
I fill her in on every little thing that happened, replaying the battle in my mind, wrapping it all up just as we come to a room on the floor above us.
