Page 117 of A Silent Prodigy for the Lycan Princess

Call me,it says.Alexander.

“Alexander,” I mutter. “I will give him a brief call.”

Fortunately, Alexander picks up immediately. “Good,” he says, “you didn’t make me wait. I hate waiting.”

I ignore his display of arrogance and come to the point. “I assume you found something?”

“Yes,” he says. “There are some weird activities happening throughout different vampire covens. As predicted, it’s mostly the full-blooded and high-ranking covens. I contacted my brother, Silas—the one your mate talked about—and he will keep an eye on what’s going on in the US. As for here, we have some very old covens all over the continent. Vampires are old and well versed in remaining hidden.”

“How is that going to help us?” I ask.

“Not at all,” he says. “Only vampires will be able to deal with vampires, however…” he pauses. “I found something interesting while tracking their movements on the finance market and while checking their accounts. There are a number of transactions named after gemstones.”

“Wait… what? Like peridot?”

“Oh, so you knew that already?” he says. “Yes, I also found one called topaz, several quartz ones. Ruby. I don’t know about you, but I personally doubt they are shopping for actual gemstones.”

“They are also tattooing them on the victims,” I mutter.

“Gemstones have many mythical and magical meanings,” Alexander explains. “We vampires love them. You could say for some it’s an obsession to have the most expensive and rare gems at home. I won’t lie to you, I love them too. The actual stones, though. However, despite our love for this type of stuff and going by the names of the transaction and as you said, also the fact the victims get tattooed with rune names, the person who abducts them has to be well-versed; very well-versed. Some of these gemstones are oddly specific—a normal person wouldn’t know that.”

“I’m pretty sure our main culprit is a werewolf, or he wouldn’t be able to move so easily in our world,” I say.

“Wolves are too brutish and rustic, and don’t care much for gems,” Alexander says.

“That’s quite the generalization,” I say.

“Whatever,” he dismisses me. “You have to admit that wolves don’t necessarily care for a lot of luxuries. So, whoever it is that kidnaps your kind has to either come from a certain background—”

“Old money maybe,” I muse.

“Yes, because we are talking about gemstones like hydrogrossular or tourmaline. Any regular person wouldn‘t know these. Even if your culprit looked up the meaning of them randomly—”

“You’re right. Even then, it doesn’t make sense because he is using runes for them. So, either he practices witchcraft, or he is a gem geek.”

“Exactly,” Alexander says.

“Thank you, that did help,” I admit. “What are you going to do now?”

“Deal with the culprits on our side,” he says shortly. “I can’t believe they sank that low.” He pauses. “Good luck to you and your mate. Be careful.”

“You too.”

I hang up, turning around and noticing the others looking at me. They pretty much pieced everything together by listening to my answers.

“So, that’s how they call the victims,” Aurelia says. “They name them as gems and then sell them. The auction… Zoé...”

“I’ve just opened Denis’s auction again,” she says. “Look at that.”

We come closer, looking at what she points at. Next to the picture of Denis, the countdown, and a short description, there is also “A small gem,” I mutter. “It looks like jasper. How did we miss that the first time?”

“We were too focused on other things,” Aurelia says.

Leila taps her lips. “Wasn’t there a small crystal collection with Meg’s possessions?”

“Really?” Aurelia asks. “I can’t remember.”

“I only noticed it later,” Leila says. “They were not particularly polished or anything, but definitely small gemstones and crystals. I’m pretty sure there was a piece of dolomite, quartz, and coral with it.”