Page 41 of High Stakes and Soulmates (Fanged Mistakes #3)

“Sorry that I don’t have enough. I can get more if you’d like to sit.

My name is Emily,” she begins as she sits behind the desk before turning her attention to Cyrus.

“And you…” She bows her head. “I… don’t know if I can ever apologize enough for what I did…

I… after I got out of the hospital, I wanted to reach out to you, but what the fuck do you say to someone you tried to kill? It gets a bit hard.”

“Understandably,” Cyrus says.

She rubs at her short hair, almost like she’s nervous and needs something to fumble with. “I truly cannot apologize enough.”

“Why were you in such an unsafe area?” I ask, irritated at her negligence.

I understand that Casimir doesn’t always keep Julian in his cage, but he keeps him in a locked room with no windows and a door that Julian couldn’t get out no matter how hard he tried.

“You have humans who come into this club, and it was such a huge risk to be in that room.”

“I know… I got lax. Van always watched over me. So, in my mind, what did I have to fear with him right there? It was stupid. So much of it was stupid. The crate clearly wasn’t enough.

There was a window… and I nearly killed you.

I heard what I did to you and I’m just… honestly, I’m shocked I didn’t kill you…

I’m even more shocked you didn’t just shoot me in the head. ”

“I thought about it,” Cyrus says. “I really planned to more than once. But I just kept thinking about how Julian can’t control himself when he shifts… and what if someone shot him in the head…”

“I really can’t apologize enough.”

Cyrus nods slowly. “I know. I’m sure. And thank you for that. I really appreciate it. But now… more than an apology, we need help.”

“This Donovan…” I say. “You called him Van. He wouldn’t be Van Mercer, would he?”

She glances up at me and nods. “That’s his name.”

“He’s the man who helped me ‘kill’ Louis. He’s the one who told me that Louis was dead.”

“I don’t know a Louis. Van and I weren’t together very long—a year or so—and I’m sure he had people he interacted with that I didn’t know. We were friends before dating, but… I’m sorry, I don’t recognize the name and don’t believe he’d been meeting with anyone who was called that.”

“He’s the guy who came in here with the dark jacket. He went into Donovan’s office,” Cyrus says.

The bartender, who must have followed us, speaks up. “I saw him. I know who you’re talking about. I hadn’t seen him in the club before, so my attention was drawn to him. I described him to Emily, but she didn’t seem to recognize him.”

“Who was the woman I was talking to before I went back and found Donovan dead?” Cyrus asks. “You and Clara saw me talk to her and looked quite displeased by it.”

“That’s Farrah. She… I guess she and Donovan went way back. They didn’t always see eye to eye, though, but they were civil.”

I turn back to Emily. “Van promised me that he’d killed Louis.

So was he protecting him? Were they in on it together?

I got severely hurt, and the woman with us saved my life while Van claimed to have finished off Louis.

Did they both lie to me? Was it just Van?

Or did they think they killed him but they really didn’t?

” Fuck. If only I had been stronger back then, none of this would have happened.

Emily shakes her head. “I literally know nothing. I just… I don’t even understand why this man killed Van. What the hell did Van do wrong?” she asks as she fights back tears. “Sorry. I just…”

“We have reason to believe that Louis is working with a young vampire named Phil Witt. I heard he worked here,” Cyrus says.

“He did. He was brought in as seasonal help a few times.”

“Farrah said he was removed for some reason, but she didn’t know why,” Cyrus says.

“I don’t know… Van would have been in charge of that.”

Casimir gives her a look. “You want me to believe that a vampire was removed from the establishment that you helped him run, from the looks of it, and you don’t know why.”

Emily seems uneasy about his question. “I don’t.”

Casimir isn’t putting up with any of her shit. “So you’re involved then? You’re protecting him because of your involvement.”

“Of course not! Van didn’t tell me everything,” she exclaims.

“I understand that this is not my district, but with Donovan dead, are there many with strength left here? Sure, you have a club full of vampires, but so many of them are young . Why is that? I bet most aren’t even ten years old.

I don’t know any other district that I’ve walked into with that many young vampires.

I wonder what would happen if other territory bosses found out about the significant number of unregistered young vampires spreading through your area?

Oh, and let’s not forget about the werewolf who lost control and mauled a human.

In the past, any time this has happened, it was caused by one older vampire creating younger vampires to help him take control.

Keeping information to yourself will make it look like you’re part of this.

And if there’s one thing vampires don’t like, it’s when someone tries to gain control through the creation of other vampires. ”

She looks worried. “I was not involved, you have to believe me. Van… Van knew about it, but he didn’t know to what extent this was happening.

I swear I don’t know much. All I know is that there was a group rounding up humans who wanted to become vampires.

At first it was quite small. They seemed to target humans who would frequent this place and allow the vampires to feed on them.

Van was fine with humans being fed on here, and even hired them for that purpose.

And occasionally, they would be rewarded by being turned.

He told them if they worked long enough, he’d allow them to be changed.

Yet he didn’t allow many. Maybe five over the span of ten years.

But ten years is a long time to a human.

They got impatient and found a vampire who was willing to turn them… though at a higher cost.”

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know. I just know that Van caught Phil recruiting people for someone we assumed was his maker.

And as soon as Van realized what was happening, he put an end to it within his establishment, and that is when Phil was removed as an employee.

But as I’m sure you’re aware, our… district isn’t really governed by a head like Casimir’s is.

So the control here is all over the place.

It’s not good. And with Donovan dead… this group will gain control. ”

“Where would we find Phil?”

“I don’t know. You can ask around the club… I know there are a few here who were turned by his maker who might know. I promise I don’t know anything else. If I learn more, I’ll let you know as soon as I can,” she says. “And again, I’m so sorry for what I did to you, Cyrus.”

“Thanks. Please keep us up to date. We want to keep people from dying,” he replies.

“I understand. Let me take you to the two I know he was involved with. They used to work here as humans. They’d let the vampires feed from them and then one day they just disappeared. No notice or anything. They came back about six months later as vampires.”

She leads us out, but the moment the two vampires see her heading their way, they quickly get up and start moving toward the door. They don’t even reach it before I slide in front of the door and Casimir “accidentally” smashes one against the wall. The man hollers out in surprise.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you there,” Casimir says, and proceeds to show how sorry he is by grabbing the man by the collar of his shirt and hauling him out the door.

“Honey! Casimir, my sweet love. This isn’t how we interrogate people! It’s definitely not how we play good, neighborly vampire! This is how we play evil vampire!” Julian shouts as he runs after him.

“Do you want me to do that too?” I ask Cyrus. “Is it sexy?”

“Is using your authority to fuck up people sexy?” he asks. “Eh. I’m not sure yet. I might have to watch to see.”

“Alright,” I say as I lift the second guy up before he can run and haul him out after Casimir and his victim. “I’m gonna… twist your body like a Twizzler.”

“Fuck you, man!” he yells. “I’m gonna Twizzler your stupid ass.”

I look to Cyrus to make sure he’s watching for this next threat, which will definitely win this. “I am going to make you wish you were never born.”

“I already did the moment I looked at your fucking face,” he growls while he tries to get out of my grip.

“You’re doing good,” Cyrus says with two thumbs up, even though it’s quite apparent that I’m not. I’m failing spectacularly.

“Would you like me to take over?” Johnny asks, like he thinks he can outclass me in torture techniques.

“Definitely let Johnny take over. This is just sad. Johnny’s never made me sad,” Atticus says.

“I can do better,” I growl.

“You’re doing good. He’s just jealous,” Cyrus assures me.

“Fuck you so fucking hard,” the vampire says before trying to claw at me.

Obviously, he doesn’t manage to because even if he seems to think I’m useless, I do know how to murder people.

The issue is that we’re not wanting to murder them, we’re wanting to torture them.

I just never had a class on torture techniques.

But I’m going to torture him so fucking hard he’s going to spill everything significantly faster than Casimir’s victim.