Page 101 of Obsidian and Frost

With a snap of his fingers and a brief spark of his orange magic, an envelope materialized, and he handed it over.

I took it and opened it quickly, pulling out the thick document within.

Photos, recorded sightings, conversations with sources—an in-depth investigation.

He’d really gone all out.

It didn’t take me long as I sped through the document—with a little concealed use of my magic to assist with intaking a mass amount of information and processing it within a very short timeframe—to register the conclusion.

What I’d fucking worried about had just been proven from this intel.

By cold, hard facts.

Motherfucker.

I looked out at him, his grave expression mirroring mine.

He was clearly also registering the rush of adrenaline that had surged through me as the awful conclusion had hit me.

“Those despicable, demented fuckers have risen, like I’d suspected.”

“There arerising.And they wish to punctuate their official return with this planned horrific act I’ve detailed in those pages.” He shifted his weight. “He is a born hybrid, Sylas. He’s instrumental with Crossborn. His mother is an infamous Alpha. He’s somehow naturally inherited his father’s Ancient power levels despite being so young—it’s unheard of, evolutionary, in fact. He’s a prime target for them, and should they achieve what they wish where he’s concerned, it will make a powerful statement. And it will strike terror across the supernatural world to all hybrids and the command structures alike.”

Yes, I was aware of the far-reaching implications.

And normally that would be what I’d focus on.

But not now.

Not when it came to how I now felt, how he’d pulled me in.

His wellbeing and that of Velra, somebody who would be directly impacted by this also, surpassed all the rest.

“I was able to trace where the command instituted from regarding thisprotectionthat has been assigned to him. It’s being filtered through his mother, but these vampires do not work for her. They are on loan, shall we say.”

“On loan? From clans she’s worked with in the past? Those who owe her favors?”

He shook his head. “The Shadowed.”

“The vampiric underworld,” I breathed.

“This protection order comes from the Commander himself. The one known only—even to someone like me with my extensive resources—asRemnant.”

“And this is as deep as you can go?”

“You know it is. It took a great deal in order to get this much.” He smiled sadly. “I’m sorry, Sylas.”

I sucked in a breath, then hid the document away with a spark of my magic. “I’ll take it the rest of the way. This is a good start.”

“On to Clan Thalbraxus, then?”

“Yes, it’s my turn to pay up. Any change to the specs you already ran by me?”

“The information is solid. Locked in. No updates to convey. Clan Thalbraxus has established an ongoing and rapidly growing operation—kidnapping magic-wielders and harvesting them like magical livestock. They use that stolen power to temporarily charge their own blood, giving them a brutal edge in battles to dominate rival vampire clans, strike wolf packs, and unleash chaos across the supernatural world. They operate in secret, and most of their attacks have slipped under the radar of both the Unity Council and the Guardian Movement—thanks to cloaking spells cast by the very victims they’ve enslaved.”

“And you said they’re usingInhibitorcuffs to contain the magic-wielders?”

“Yes. A former Guardian Movement security personnel member who’d been fired for mistreating a couple of beings in custody slated to be sentenced toThe Void, had stolen a few dozenInhibitorcuffs. The group of five leading this clan killed him right after so it wouldn’t trace back to them.”