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“Why?’

“Just to have a conversation.”

“Vampires are the enemy,” he said.

“Not all of them,” I amended. He didn’t say anything to that and I realized that it was probably as close as he would come to accepting my decision to see Lucca.

“I need to move on,” I said and I could see he was nodding. But his face was fading away.

When I walked out of the graveyard, my face was wet with tears.

The trip west was a bit of a blur. The roads were dangerous, filled with car wrecks and even bodies. As I entered the western territories, there was more signs of carnage, houses burnt down and entire villages, deserted. I saw mangled bodies of people everywhere. Many of them had slashed necks or bloody wounds and bore the tell-tale signs of vampire attacks.

When I reached the castle gates, nobody would open for me. No guards seemed to be at the gates. The property was large and walled all round. I tried to find a way of getting in. Finally, I hid the bike in the bushes and simply scaled the wall. My stomach wound was still sensitive so I had to be careful. I didn’t want to go busting my stitches, but I had to get into the castle. Once I reached the top of the wall, getting down was easier. I had barely started walking up the road, when the gates opened behind me and a sexy sports car stopped next to me.

“Give you a ride?” Ragnar called to me through the open window.

“Sure,” I got in, furious that I had climbed a wall in vain. If I had waited five minutes, he could have opened the gate for me.

“Coming to see Father?” he asked.

I nodded.

“I’m glad,” he said.

I looked at him, surprised.

“He’s been very down lately,” Ragnar admitted. “He hasn’t taken Layrr and Sunil’s betrayal well. I tried to warn him, but, he can’t accept it.”

“I always had you down as the worst son,” I said with a smile, still unwilling to let go of how he stole my bounty before.

“That is what I want people to think,” he said with a laugh.

“On a serious note, though, what do you think their plan is?”

We had stopped outside the castle. Ragnar turned the ignition off and sat back in the driver’s seat.

“They won’t give up without a fight,” he said. “Sunil will, he has no stomach for violence. But Layrr has come too far. He can’t back down now.”

“Yeah, I think you are right.”

Ragnar shook his head. “I think they are kidding themselves. The military will blow them up too. But Layrr says death is better than living like this,” he pointed at the castle.

“You don’t agree?”

“Are you kidding?! We are royalty here, living the life!”

I told him about Joe’s proposition and Ragnar immediately said he thought it was a great idea. “My father should always have been on the Council, he believes in it, totally.”

“But he will have to give up Layrr.”

Ragnar shook his head. “I don’t know if he can.”

“I know.”

“If anyone asked me what my dad cared about, I would say it was family. I mean, this is literally all he is ever talking about. Our family, our name, our legacy. And what is this, except him, and us, his sons? But the fact that Layrr killed Tanata and conspired with Tempesto? He can’t get his head around it.”

We walked into the castle.