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“You better be.”

“I very much am. I’ll be home before you know it.”

“I was convinced you were gone forever. I was so sad that Finn even let me play with his robot leg.”

“That was nice of him.”

“And the scary vampire even tried reading me a book. The book became a horror story!”

I choke back a laugh as I look over at Marcus. He’s raising an eyebrow at Rylee who is grinning, obviously pleased with herself.

“And then… and then the colorful one tried dressing me. I looked like a clown.”

Claude gasps. “You looked beautiful!”

“But he also dressed up Senor Fluffybottom and it was so funny and he was so cute and I loved it so much. You’re going to love it, En. Maybe he has clothes for you too and we can all match!”

“I can’t wait,” Ender says sarcastically. “It’s all I’ll think about until I get home.”

“You’re gonna love it or else.”

“Or else, huh?”

“Or else!”

“Do you mind if I speak to the others for a bit? We don’t have long before we’re going to be flying back, and we need to explain a few things to them.”

“Okay. Will you call me again before you fly out?”

“Of course. You better be good, you hear me? You better not be causing issues for them, do you understand?”

“Of course not… I’m being perfect.”

“You positive? You’re not whining or crying or causing issues?”

“I would never cry,” she says as I notice she’s refusing to look at any of us or the cat that has suffered the brunt of it.

We set up shop in the dining room where Rylee sits in the corner hanging off every word that might come from Ender.

“The man who took us is named Abel,” Ender says.

“Abel?” I ask as I look over at Marcus. “You know the name?”

“I don’t.”

Orin leans forward, adjusting his position.

“I know the name but not very well. I knew of him when I was much younger but it was more of a… I was warned to be wary of him, and the few times we met in passing, I found myself disliking him greatly. To my understanding, he’s quite a bit older, isn’t he? Is he a true vampire?”

“Do you know, Ender?” I ask.

“He is. He and Watson were… close. He often supplied Watson with the people he would experiment on in exchange for… some things from Watson,” Ender says, and I can’t help but notice the way his tone shifts at the end.

I tense when I hear Watson’s name. It’s like even dead, this man won’t stop coming back to haunt me.

“What kind of things did Abel want from Watson?” Claude asks.

Ender is silent and I can’t tell whether he doesn’t want to talk or doesn’t know.

Mads speaks up. “We’re still figuring things out at this point. But he does have a large group of people under his control. From the looks of things, they’re all vampires he’s turned.”

“If he’s turned them, there should be data on them.”

“They would be the people who attacked us,” Ender says. “I killed several of them, so you should have information on them if you can ID them.”

“They were all turned by different people, at least according to our data,” Marcus says. “That doesn’t mean they were correctly registered. Most of them were older and were turned before the laws of restriction were put into place. The data we have could have easily been fabricated.”

“Would make sense,” Ender agrees. “Abel has never done anything legally.”

“So why does he want Mads?” Alexei asks. “And why did they keep you alive, Ender? What did he have to gain from taking you? Apparently, he sucked at his job.”

Claude squeezes Alexei’s arm but I’m not sure it reassures him.

Mads and Ender both are quiet for a long moment.

“Oh? Did we lose reception?” I ask with much sarcasm.

“I can explain better in person,” Mads says.

“It doesn’t matter what he wants to do with me,” Ender growls.

“Growling at people gets you nowhere. Just simply avoid the question with kindness,” Mads encourages.

“Ah yes, ignoring their questions and pretending you’re going to tell them in person is much better than being honest and saying you’re not telling them shit.”

“Well… I might tell them! I haven’t decided yet. It sounds like they’re a rather lovely group of people who forgave you for some reason, so they might possibly… not… decide they don’t like me.”

“I’m probably not going to like you,” Marcus grumbles. I give him a look, so he goes, “What? I don’t like people who drag things out. Just tell me what’s happening and we’ll move on.”

“I don’t like Ender at all, and I am not at all against the idea of letting him stay wherever he is,” Alexei mutters.

“NO! Not my En!” Rylee cries.

“I’m sending him to the fucking Sahara desert where he’ll hopefully burn into a crispy pile of ash,” Alexei snarls.

Rylee gasps and Claude gives her an apologetic smile. “It’s an inside joke, honey. They’re only teasing each other.”

I can’t tell whether Rylee is convinced or not.

“I will leave as soon as we end this. I need to kill Abel and once he’s dead, I’ll leave for good,” Ender says.

“Why should we help you?” Alexei asks.

“Because I know for a fact that Abel has had the same plan in motion for hundreds of years. And with the fall of the US council, he’s throwing things into motion. I’m convinced he’s the one who started it. It’s going to have a domino effect when those he controls take a stand and the others fall.”

“So he’s the one who killed them?” I ask.

“I believe he was pulling the strings with Addison.”

“She wanted to make true vampires.”

“Correct. You also have Chief Bowman who was trying to take control of humans. They’re all working under Abel.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they were both turned by him.

He fills these people with toxic ideas on how to gain control of humans and vampires.

With Watson gone, he no longer feels like he has anyone to fear,” Ender explains.

I hesitate as I realize that Ender is saying Abel is stronger than him . While we were able to capture Ender when the team worked together, none of the VRC members could do it alone, not even Marcus. “Ender… you are unbelievably strong. You really believe he’s stronger than you?”

“He used to be, but I’m not sure anymore.

I… I have to kill him,” Ender says. “I’m not going to rest until he’s dead.

He cannot continue what he’s doing. And now that he knows the councils are coming together, he might begin targeting everyone who isn’t under his control.

Who knows who is going to come out of this alive.

You better watch yourselves. If you aren’t on his side, then you’re against him and he’s going to do what he can to destroy you. ”