Chapter Twenty
Anton
A fter I finished going through my work emails, I went through the mail, only half paying attention. My mind kept wandering back to the other night with the hunters. They were extremely well-trained, which made me believe they’d been around a lot longer than any of us realized. Maybe they hadn’t been attacking vampires until recently, but they’d spent a lot of time training first?
Or maybe they’d been attacking vampires in other areas, and we just hadn’t heard about it. I had a good relationship with some of the Brinnswick leaders—which Ailin absolutely was, even if he didn’t have an official title—but would any other world leader call me for help? Would any of the vampire den leaders I knew call me?
Did they know they could?
I wasn’t sure, and that made me grimace. Perhaps it was time to reach out to my contacts.
But first, a little research.
With that thought in mind, I pulled my laptop over and started searching for any reports of vampire killings.
There was a territory in Gauhala that was very vampire-heavy. Well, vampires, humans, and hunters—although hunters were human, just with a little extra spellwork tattooed into their skin to add to their strength, speed, and agility. There weren’t a lot of other species in the Bellburgh Territory, but as far as I knew, the hunters there were only allowed to take care of vampires that were murdering humans; they didn’t kill vampires indiscriminately. And I didn’t think any crime was an automatic death sentence either.
The vampires and hunters had a truce and—reluctantly—worked together to keep everyone, especially humans, safe. Vampires weren’t stupid, at least not most of us. We knew that the only way all of us could keep living was if we had humans to drink from. Vampires were as invested in keeping humans alive as most hunters were.
But that didn’t mean all vampires and all hunters thought the same way.
It was clear that a group of hunter zealots had decided they wanted to rid the world of all vampires, and these hunters had to have come from somewhere. That hunter’s accent had sounded Gauhalian. I could be wrong. They could’ve come from anywhere, but why not start in a district known for their hunters? In a place where some hunters were angry they weren’t the ones in charge?
I logged into a news site in that district and went searching for any vampire deaths. Since the Legion of Light had been terrorizing people in Brinnswick for the last few months, I went farther back than that.
It took me a good half hour to navigate the damn site—some of it was password protected, and I had to buy a subscription to the damn newspaper to get into it—but I finally found what I was looking for.
Six months ago, there was a string of vampire killings that were still unsolved. The murders were professional, according to the news, and many hunter groups had been investigated. None of the registered hunters in that district had done it, so they were at a loss.
Keyword: registered . That certainly didn’t mean an unregistered hunter group hadn’t.
And in that district, there were a lot more of them than any vampire wanted to admit.
When the killings stopped, the news reported that the perp must have moved on.
I needed to get my hands on the crime scene photos, compare them to the killings in Brinnswick, and hopefully, prove they were done by the same group.
Finding out where they came from could possibly help us figure out where they’re going.
After debating for several minutes whether this was a good idea or not, I sighed and pulled out my phone. The man’s number was still in my phone even though he and I were… not exactly friends.
The phone rang for a long time, and I had no doubt it was on purpose, just to annoy me.
Finally, Corbin answered. “What do you want?”
“No hello for an old friend?”
He sneered. “You’re no friend of mine.”
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Corby, I need some information.”
He was silent for a few seconds, and I didn’t know if it was because I’d let his nickname slip or because I was asking for a favor. “What kind of information?”
“The Legion of Light is back.”
There was another pause before he started cursing up a storm. He was old enough to remember them, but he wasn’t nearly as old as my children and me. “Are you joking?”
“No. I would never joke about that.”
He sighed. “Anton, you and your den took them out a thousand years ago. I saw it. How could they be back?”
“It seems that someone has taken up the mantle.”
“How is that possible?”
With another sigh, I said, “We can only speculate at this point, but we believe they found an old Legion of Light tome or some artifacts and decided to adopt the name and their values.”
“But we destroyed all evidence of them. We… we burned it all down. We erased them entirely. No one even knows their name.”
Well, they did now. “I know. Apparently, we missed something.”
“That’s… terrible news.”
“Agreed, old friend. Will you help?”
He sighed. “Yes. I… of course. We can’t let that group terrorize vampires again. What do you need?”
“I believe they did some training in your district. That strand of vampire killings about six months ago…?”
He cursed up a storm again before calming down. “Tell me everything.”
He might’ve been a massive prick, but he was a trustworthy massive prick. I had no doubt where his loyalties lay or what his morals were. We might not be the best of friends, but I could trust that he wouldn’t use the information against me or those I cared about.
So I told him everything that was going on in Brinnswick, including the spell they used against us that’d injured Jedediah. When I finished, he was quiet for a long time.
I left him to absorb the information while I rifled through my mail again, separating it into piles. With so many of us under one roof, there was a lot more mail than usual—also because none of us had brought it in for a few days.
“What do you need from me?”
I held in the sigh of relief that wanted to escape. “Information on those murders. If I can find out where they’ve been, where they were hiding, I might be able to find out where they’re going next.” If there was some pattern to their movements, I’d be a better help to Ailin.
“I can help. I’ll get you what you need. With this new information, my people might be able to find their hideout. We’ll investigate and share our findings with you.”
I took him at his word. “That would be great, Corby.”
He paused, then sighed. “It was good to hear from you, you massive dickhead.”
I smiled at that. “You too, prick.”
He snorted. “I’ll send the files over to you.” Then he hung up, and I set my phone on the counter, my focus on a strange postcard amongst all the junk mail.
My brow furrowed as I lifted it.
On the front was a picture of the Sedoba skyline, including the giant king’s tower right in the center of the city. Strange. Why would anyone send one of us a postcard from our own city?
I flipped it over. It was addressed to the Orsova-Bixidor family with our address written plain as day.
The message read:
We’re coming for you.
My chest clenched as I shuddered and dropped the postcard. The threat was obvious enough, but the fact that our address was on it meant they knew exactly where to find us. Where to find my family.
And they somehow knew about Keryth since they included his last name.
I took a picture of both sides of the postcard and sent it off to Ailin and Julius.
Me: Just thought you should know.
Ailin: Shit. Keep my kids safe, Anton.
Me: Will do.
Julius: I’ll see if I can get any more info out of them.
Since the hunters they had in custody couldn’t have done this, I doubted they knew anything about it, but I appreciated it nonetheless.
Me: Thank you.
Putting my phone down, I dropped my head, closed my eyes, and tried to calm down. Those horrible human beings knew where my family was. How was I going to keep them safe? Keep them locked in the house behind the wards? For how long? Would they even listen?
“Anton?” Keryth’s voice caught my attention. I had no idea when he’d entered the room.
I turned to him.
His face was one of worry. “What’s wrong? You… I can feel your distress.”
I wasn’t about to lie to him. It would do no good, and he deserved to know exactly what was going on. So I gestured at the postcard.
Keryth came closer and read it over quickly before turning a frown my way. “Well, shit.”
A snort escaped before I could stop it. I couldn’t have said it better myself. “We need to warn everyone. These people know where we live. We need to take extra precautions.” I grimaced. “Do you think the girls would mind doing school from home for a few days while we figure out where these hunters are?”
He grimaced as well. “They’ll complain, but that’s better than risking them.”
I nodded in full agreement. “Good. Will you agree to having at least one person accompany you on your drive to and from work?”
He pursed his lips. “Well, unless that person’s staying with me all day, it would have to be at least two people so no one’s driving by themselves.”
I grinned at that, happy he was letting me help keep him protected and that he was thinking about the safety of my older children. “That’s doable.”
“Can I tell Jed he gets to be my driver for the foreseeable future?”
I snorted. “Sure.”
He was staring at me with his big green eyes, looking gorgeous and adorable, and I couldn’t help but reach out and hook my finger through his belt loop. When I tugged, he came easily and pressed his lithe body against me.
Keryth rested his hands on my chest, and I leaned down so our noses were almost brushing. I nudged his nose with mine, earning me a smile, and I whispered, “Thank you for checking on me.”
“Always.”
That hit me right in the heart, and I couldn’t help but lean even closer. I stopped when my lips were only a hair away from his, giving him a chance to pull away if he needed to. I only had to wait half a second for him to close that final distance and press our lips together.
The second our lips touched, my body ignited, electric pulses of pleasure shooting over my skin, across my chest, and down to my groin.
He opened his mouth as if in invitation, and I took it, diving my tongue in and sweeping it across his, licking up his flavor. Keryth groaned into the kiss and wrapped his arms around me, holding me tight.
He shocked me by pulling me closer still and rubbing his groin against mine. When I felt his hardness press against mine, I groaned in pleasure. Gods above and below, he was so delicious.
Keryth ran his hands up my back, then moved them around my ribs to my chest before wrapping them around my neck. The whole time, I buried one hand in his hair and placed the other on his lower back, just above his crease, keeping him in place. I didn’t want to let him go. Ever.
“Anton,” he breathed into my mouth, and I hummed, liking the sound of my name on his lips.
I wrapped my arms around him and lifted him up, placing him on the counter so he’d be easier to reach. He spread his legs and pulled me between them, capturing my waist between his thighs, and I ran my hands over his upper legs, landing on his hips. Then I traced circles on his skin, just under his shirt, right above his waistband.
He wiggled around like he couldn’t get close enough, deepening our kiss and holding me tight to him.
We kept it up for a long time until I was ready to strip him right there in the kitchen and bury my face between his legs.
But then I heard Alsira and Gemma arguing about something and heading this way, so I slowed the kiss. Keryth let out a small whimper when I pulled away, and I pressed a small kiss to his lips, a silent promise of more later.
“Sorry, my darling, but Gemma and Alsira are headed this way.”
He whined. “Whhhhyyy?”
I chuckled. “Wait, they’re making a pitstop to talk to Saranor and Zellya. We might have a few minutes.”
He kissed me a little while longer, although it was less frantic and more sweet.
When he finally pulled back, he rested his forehead against mine, and I couldn’t help but smile at him. “Tonight is supposed to be our date night, yes? Would you like to go to dinner with me?”
He blinked for a few seconds, likely clearing his head. “Um… yes, but I thought we needed to take extra precautions?”
“True. Would you like to lock yourself in a room with me somewhere in the house where no one else will bother us for a few hours?”
He laughed and started absently playing with my hair. “That sounds wonderful.”
I pressed my lips to his quickly. “Once the hunters are taken care of, you and I will go on a proper date.”
“Hopefully lots of proper dates.”
I grinned. “That can be arranged, my darling.”
He kissed me this time, and I hummed.
“Oh, ew. Gross. We eat on that counter,” Alsira said as the girls walked in, but seeing us there didn’t stop them from walking straight into the large pantry.
“Don’t look at us if you don’t like it,” Keryth said, making me snort and shake my head.
He kissed my cheek in response.
The girls ignored him and came out of the pantry with chips, salsa, chocolate-covered pretzels, cookies, popcorn, fruit snacks, and some granola bars. More food than they needed for sure, although from the look on Keryth’s face, he didn’t seem the least bit surprised.
“Please don’t leave food trash in your rooms,” my love said with a sigh.
Gemma and Alsira said together, “Yes, Dad.” And they headed out, not even looking back at us.
Through our bond, I could tell that Keryth was equal parts amused, exasperated, and a little touched by them calling him Dad. But I could also tell he felt… embarrassed by that reaction.
My poor darling. He’d been raising those kids for years. Of course he was their father, and from everything I saw, the girls knew that as well. They might not use the word in any serious way, but they treated him as such.
But he clearly didn’t want to talk about it right now, and I didn’t want to push.
So after they were out of earshot, I asked, “Surely they’re not going to eat all of that?”
Keryth snorted out a laugh. “You’d be surprised how much two teenage girls can eat, especially when they’re messing around in their room. I wish they would’ve taken some fruit or something with them, though.”
“I’m sure they’ll be fine. They eat healthy most of the time.”
He nodded his acquiescence, playing with the collar of my shirt. “So… when does this dinner date at home start?”
I checked my watch. “If we ask Phae or Shiro to cook dinner for the girls, you and I can sneak away now and steal some of the food later.”
He laughed. “I like that plan.” His face fell. “Shit, I’m supposed to help Tray with some of his makeup work. Can we meet back here in an hour?”
“Of course.”
I gave him a lingering kiss, not moving away from the counter for a few minutes before I pulled back with a sigh so he could hop down. When his feet hit the floor, he sprung up and kissed my cheek before rushing out of the kitchen, calling over his shoulder, “If I don’t run away now, I’m never going to let you go.”
I laughed but couldn’t help but wish he truly wouldn’t let me go. Ever .