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She looks at me sharply and I know I’ve got her.

“All I want is your support, to take down Tempesto and the Servant, restore order to the Council.”

“And then what? Who will take Tempesto’s place? You?”

I had been expecting this question. “I don’t want it,” I say. “I have never wanted that kind of power. Being King of the West has been enough for me.”

“You have become wealthy, though, and a threat,” she says. “You will not allow them to manufacture their drug blood, fix the price, control the market.”

“I want peace,” I say. “I lived through a war once, you did too… I don’t want to see it again. The Council seat can go to one of my sons, perhaps Lord Ferney?”

She nods and is silent for a long time. In the distance, a bird cries out and there is a splash on the water. When I look in the direction of the commotion, the water settles and is smooth again. No sign of what caused the disturbance.

“I will back you,” she finally says. “But you will have to join the Council. No-one else. I don’t trust your sons. And neither should you,” she said, fixing her brown eyes on me. When I look into them, I feel the pull of the bog, the danger lurking underneath. The strength of this tiny woman amazes me.

I nod and shake her hand, with a slightly uneasy feeling.

I want to get out of there as quickly as I can.

Chapter 15

Izzy

The night is crisp and cold, the temperature dropping as soon as the sun is down. The various people staying with us go back to their rooms, lock their doors. All of us are feeling unsettled, worried.

I find my mother in her greenhouse, fussing with her plants. They are dying, she fears there is something in the air. Even our groundwater appears to be changing. My mother does not look well, her skin is blotchy, her eyes are swollen, bleary. She wasn’t at dinner, which we all had together and I want to check that she is okay.

“I don’t want food now,” she says in a soft voice, her long fingers stroking the petals of a plant. “That is not what we need.”

She turns away from me and I go outside, into the freezing night air.

My phone rings and it is Costello.

“I had a call from Joe,” he says. “He is taking Dominic out of the Citadel, somewhere safe.”

“What happened?”

“A package was delivered, some kind of nerve bomb. When Dominic opened it, this vapor released. He stepped away but not in time. Joe says he is paralyzed, blind. The medics don’t know what to do, they’ve never seen anything like it.”

“No way,” I say, shocked.

“Joe says they want to get rid of anyone who is against the new powers. He is not making a lot of sense right now, but he’sscared. He said he didn’t want to come here because it won’t be safe for long.”

“Are you serious?”

“Uh-huh. Says they’re getting armies up to control things out West, and then they’re coming for the rest of us.”

I wonder what that means. But I can’t sit around anymore, waiting for whatever shit is coming our way to hit us. I need to be doing something, anything.

“Who is behind this?”

“Fuckin’ vampires,” Costello says. “They’re comin’ for us. Again!”

“Not Lucca,” I say quickly. “It’s not him.”

“They’re all the same, Iz, you should know that.”

“No,” I say quickly. “They tried to kill him too, remember?”