Page 180 of Cruelly Bitten

That seemed to be the theme.

Everyone kept wondering how I was doing, and I was starting to hate answering the question. Because I didn’t know if I was okay or not.

A lot had happened.

I needed time to process it, yet I’d more or less been expected to perform since the moment I’d woken up in that tub.

Well, perhaps not immediately. Cam had been patient. But having my brother and all the others show up so soon after rousing from my unconscious state…

I swallowed, a shiver traversing my spine.

I just need a few minutes of quiet to think through what to do next,I thought.

Shall I make them leave?Cam immediately answered. Although his focus appeared to be on Jace, he was clearly listening to my mind ramble to itself.

No. They’ve been hunting for you for over a century. They need this.And I wasn’t going to take it away from them. Not after everything we all had been through.

I don’t care whattheyneed, Ismerelda. I care about whatyouneed.

I’m trying to figure that out,I whispered back to him.Right now, I need you to listen to them.

Because we had to find a way forward.

Cam’s missing memories had muddled the plan. No one knew what to do now.

Pair that with Lilith’s death, and everything felt uncertain.

Who was leading the Blood Alliance? Michael? Mira? Someone else?

What was their plan? To finish Lilith’s experiments and present the alliance with immortal blood bags?

That might win over the vampires, but it certainly wouldn’t attract the lycans. Especially since their kind had been used as lab rats in the pursuit of perfecting vampire food sources.

“What’s the end goal here?” Cam asked, cutting off something Jace had been saying regarding Cam’s disappearance. “My memories are not going to be triggered by this conversation. I can’t elaborate on any plan I might have had.So how do you want to move forward? What do you need from me?”

His direct questions were underlined with a hint of impatience. He wanted to get to a point, not belabor the past.

Jace cleared his throat. “You’re right. We need to focus on our next move, which I think involves bringing in our lycan allies. Lilith’s experiments are the key to persuading the alliance in our favor. We need the wolves to help with suggestions on how to disseminate the information.”

“Not just how, but who,” Darius clarified. “Jolene will know who best to engage with on the topic. Just as we have a reasonable idea of which vampires to share it with.”

“Except we entirely misjudged Khalid,” Kylan pointed out. “If he indeed has a city where mortals are treated better than food, then how many others have we mistaken as pro-Lilith?”

“A fair point,” Jace agreed. “What did Lilith’s logs say about Khalid?”

“She called him content. There was nothing in her files that suggested otherwise. So if Blood City is real, it wasn’t on her radar,” Cam replied. “Assuming I was given access to all her files, anyway.”

“Do you have reason to believe that you weren’t?” Jace asked.

“Yes.” Cam cleared his throat, then told them about what I’d discovered in his family crypt. “I have no idea where my brother is, and there was no mention of him in Lilith’s reports. Michael also never mentioned him.”

“Suggesting they were keeping things from you,” Jace summarized.

“They also limited his laptop access,” I added, recalling his inability to leave the internal network. “I had to go in through the admin mode to see certain things as well, such as the security feeds. But even that had limits in place.”

Cam glanced at me from his seat beside Jace. I’d chosen to sit across from them in a chair while Darius and Juliet shared a similar one beside me.

Keys was the only one not in the living area. He’d excused himself upon arrival, grabbing some food and taking it back to what I assumed was a bedroom.