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I dialled Byron but it went straight to voicemail. Shit.

Shit!

I sent a quick video message, hoping he’d make it back in time. I needed him. I needed all the help I could get.

I sent a message to Aleksey telling him to gather the rest and meet me at Morley Hall. He replied with a thumbs up and I headed back to my car. I put it into drive and sped towards a place I hadn’t seen in centuries. A place i thought I'd left behind in my past with all the other ghosts.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Benji

Imust have passed out at some point, the pain becoming too much. Ronin – or rather Silas as he’d introduced himself – had bandaged my thigh. At least he didn’t want me to bleed out. Meant he wanted to keep me around for something.

My brain felt foggy, and I was struggling to put two coherent thoughts together. Silas had probably drugged me as well. Not sure why though, considering he was a vampire. Pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to outrun him. Maybe he’d just done it for fun.

I had no idea how much time had passed. Had it been hours? I didn’t think it had been days yet but there was no real light here. No windows. Just a large space with a few chairs, a table and what looked to be a bed in the far corner. Had Silas been sleeping here?

“Are you alright?” Vlad asked, his voice a wet rasp.

I was glad to see he was still awake, but he barely looked like he was clinging to consciousness. He was covered in tiny cuts and at some point, he’d stopped heeling.

“Looking better than you,” I said.

He huffed a laugh, then winced. He didn’t look in good shape at all. Silas must have sliced him repeatedly to bleed him and keep him weak. He’d be unable to fight back unless he fed and I doubted there were any willing donors in the vicinity.

“Where’s he gone?” I couldn’t see Silas but that didn’t mean he wasn’t here.

“He’s not gone anywhere,” Silas crooned from the shadows like a monster from a bad horror movie. He stepped into the light, and I got to see his face again. I’d never forget it for as long as I lived. The guy was handsome, in an ethereal way. Platinum white blonde hair and the brightest ruby red eyes. They looked at me like he was looking deep into my soul. Like he saw everything in one tiny blink.

He also looked a couple of inches shorter than me, but he was definitely skinnier. His clothes looked like they drowned him, but maybe that was just they way he liked to wear them. It made him look fragile which I knew he wasn’t. He was a vampire, and he’d managed to catch both of us unaware. Bet Vlad was pissed at that.

“How are you feeling?” Silas said as he dropped into a chair in front of me, his tone bright and cheery. God, I wanted to slap the smile off his face.

“Confused.” I looked at him and held his stare, despite how uncomfortable it made me feel.

Silas pouted but there was a mockery behind the way his lips pursed. “We can’t have that now, can we? What do you want to know, pretty boy?”

There was really only one question that was circling around my mind. “Why?”

Silas cocked his head and slow blinked like he didn’t understand the question. “You’ll have to be more specific than that. Why is the sky blue? Why do some birds mate for life? Why are you still alive?”

I scowled at him. “Why kidnap me? Or Vlad? Why try and take apart everything that Damyr built? For what purpose.”

He leant forwards, a wide unsettling grin on his face. “That’s a lot of questions but I’m going to tell you a tale. Are you sitting comfortably?”

My ass was numb, I had a stab wound in my thigh and I was pretty sure I had a cracked rib and a few broken fingers. “Not really.”

“That sounds like a ‘you’ problem so tough shit. Now, once upon a time there were two brothers. One was perfect, but the younger brother wasn’t. He was ugly and unloved. Unwanted by his parents and cast aside to spend his days in the shadows. The only person who loved him was his perfect older brother. Which was fine, until his older brother fell in love.” A flash of pure, unadulterated hatred crossed his features.

Realisation dawned on Vlad’s face. “You’re Edwin’s brother.”

“Ding, ding we have a winner,” Silas said, shooting finger guns at Vlad. “But this love story didn’t have a happy ending. After an idyllic summer spent together, Edwin agreed to spend eternity with Damyr. Only, they caught the attention of Hunters, and it was Edwin who paid the price.”

“Only because your brother was stupid enough to mouth off to anyone who’d listen,” Vlad drawled.

“That’s not true!” Silas shouted.

Vlad just scoffed. “Believe whatever you want, Silas. I don’t care. Telling you the truth now isn’t going to make the blindest bit of difference. Your brother was a fool.”