Chapter Twenty-Eight
Anton
O akley—along with Roman—came inside, and Alsira immediately said to Keryth, “You know I can watch them, right?”
“I know, but we wanted to have extra protection for you guys. No one can get through the wards, but this makes us all feel better.”
She sighed. “Fine.” She walked over to Oakley. “Wanna do a movie night with the kids?”
They grinned at her. “That sounds fun. Do you guys have popcorn?”
“We do,” I said. “Help yourself to anything in the kitchen.”
The sweet young dragon turned their grin on me. “Thank you.” They turned to Alsira. “I heard about all these weird popcorn toppings. I bet we could try a bunch tonight.”
“Ooohh, I love it. Let’s do it.”
As they trotted off with Alsira and Roman behind them, I asked Keryth and my four eldest, “Are you ready?”
“Definitely,” Ker said as he watched Alsira and Oakley with a look of minor concern on his face. “That… might be a disaster.”
Jed chuckled. “At least we won’t be here to clean it up, right?”
Ker chuckled. “True. Alright, let’s go.”
The others agreed, so we headed out to the car.
It didn’t take long to get to the tower, so soon, we walked into the building and headed straight for the private elevator that Garrick had given me the code to.
After punching in the code, I pulled my phone out and texted Garrick to let him know we were on our way down. He’d texted me earlier to tell me when they brought the hunters in, so I knew for a fact they were already here.
We arrived on one of the lower levels that housed a large number of cells. At one time, this had been a dungeon of sorts, but it hadn’t been used that way for at least a century, if not longer. Garrick only used the cells as holding areas for short stays while he was interviewing prisoners. Once he was done with them, he’d send them to the actual prison.
Having the hunters here was very convenient for me since Garrick wasn’t going to make me go through any kind of over-the-top security. We’d known each other for far too long for him not to trust me in that way. He was the king, but he also respected who I was in this community, and also as a friend. I might not have called him a true friend a few years ago, but since he found his viramore, Tan seemed to have a way of pulling all of us oldies together.
It was something I appreciated about the young witch.
The second the elevator doors opened, I hissed involuntarily. Voices rang out down the long hall, and I recognized one of the voices. It was one of the hunters I’d heard Remi asking questions of before we’d left the scene.
Anger filled me, whirling around in my chest and urging me forward. My vampire wanted that hunter’s head. Wanted his blood.
A hand touched my shoulder, and I didn’t have to look to know it was Keryth’s hand because an instant calm overtook me. Closing my eyes, I leaned into his touch for a brief moment before sending him a grateful smile and continuing down the hall toward the noise, my head in a much better space after even the briefest of touches from my lovely fae.
Garrick and Tan were here—I could hear and smell them—and a few of their guards, but there weren’t a lot of people.
The less witnesses, the better.
As soon as Garrick saw me, he sighed. “I’m sorry, Anton, but they’re not giving us anything.”
I stared at him for several seconds. “Send your guards away.”
Tan made a weird sound in his throat, but Garrick only nodded and waved at his guards. “Leave us.”
“But, sir, we can’t leave you with the hunters,” one man, a gargoyle, said. “We—”
“Terrell, I’ll be fine.” Garrick sighed. “I’m a dragon, for fuck’s sake. I can take care of myself.”
Tan added, “And when he can’t, I can.”
Terrell looked disgruntled and worried. “But—”
“Will it make you feel better if I keep him in a shield the entire time?” Tan asked the gargoyle.
He nodded slowly. “Only if you’re in the shield with him.” I wasn’t surprised the head guard cared enough about our king and king’s consort to argue with them over this. Garrick and Tan were well-liked now that the king was actually showing his face and interacting with his people again.
Tan grinned. “I can do that.” The witch threw a shield over the top of himself and the king.
“Thank you.” Terrell didn’t look happy, but he still passed me the keys to the holding cells, then gave a small head bow. “Your Majesties.” The gargoyle ushered the rest of the guards to the stairs, leaving my family with Garrick, Tan, and the hunters who attacked my viramore and children.
I exchanged a look with Garrick, and the man gave another sigh and a nod.
“You don’t have to be here for this,” Beshiro said to him. “We can take care of it, and you don’t have to know.”
Garrick shook his head. “It’s fine. I want to see what these bastards have to say for themselves. They’ve killed so many innocent people.”
Tan added, “Plus, if we don’t get anything out of them, Ailin and Seb are liable to come here and interrogate the shit out of the bastards. I’m not sure any of us want that happening.”
Garrick muttered, “Anton’s not any better, little pretty.”
Tan just sighed and waved me on. So I picked a hunter at random, walked over to the cell, unlocked it, passed my daughter the keys, and walked inside.
Phaeron came in with me, and Kat kept the others back, locking us inside with the enemy. Not everyone would fit in this holding cell, so it made more sense for only two of us to come inside.
Keryth’s unhappiness was severe through our bond, so I sent him a wave of affection—at least, I tried to. I was so angry at this human that I wasn’t sure it came through. He wasn’t angry at me. He was upset about… everything. And even though he was generally a peaceful fae, he very clearly wanted this man to suffer.
It was that feeling that was making him so upset. He didn’t like thinking that way.
Unfortunately, I had no idea how to fix it.
But I did know how to get some answers.
Pushing away all other thoughts, I stepped close to the hunter. He was sitting on his bed, so he tilted his head back to look up at me, a smirk playing across his face.
Leaning down, I let my aura out, showing this pesky human exactly who he was dealing with. Most humans couldn’t sense magic the same way many of us did, but they could certainly feel how powerful I was when I wanted them to.
This hunter was brave, I’d give him that, but even he swallowed thickly and flinched back a hair. Then he sneered at me and tried to pretend he wasn’t scared.
But the scent of his fear filled my nose, and I let out a hiss, the sound of my beast coming out and wanting to hunt prey. That sound scared him, his fear scent ramping up.
“Tell me where the rest of your group is,” I growled out.
His eyes narrowed. “I’m not tellin’ you shit.” Then the bastard spit in my face. I’d called him brave, but clearly, he was foolish. Who in the world spit in a predator’s face like that?
I didn’t move, I simply wiped it away, then let out another force of my aura. When he flinched back again, I wrapped my hand around his throat, lifted him from the bed, and slammed him against the wall.
As I let my vampire take full control, my nails grew into claws, digging into his skin and making blood bubble there. The scent of his blood made me want to wrinkle my nose in disgust. Not because it actually smelled bad but because I knew it would taste like ash.
It was a shame I didn’t want to lick the blood droplets away if only to scare him further. Perhaps I would do it anyway.
Pressing my nose close to his, I made sure he was staring me right in the eyes as I released my compulsion magic and said, “You will tell me where the rest of your hunter group is hiding. You will tell me where the Legion of Light is.”
I was positive the hunter had a rune tattooed into his skin that protected him from a vampire’s compulsion. But these hunters had never met a vampire like me. Their magic wouldn’t work on me. They couldn’t protect themselves from me. I was far too old. My magic could break through their spells.
They could fight me, and I knew they would. But they would not win. Not against me. Not against the oldest vampire in the world.
The hunter fought against my compulsion. But I was far more powerful than this measly human, and in only a few moments, I took control.
But my anger didn’t wane, and this hunter needed to suffer the consequences of attacking my family.
I squeezed his throat in warning, making more blood trickle down his neck. “Tell me where the rest of your hunter group is. Now .”
“Th-there’s a… a warehouse—fuck.” He tried to fight again, but it was too late. I was in now, and there was no way he was kicking my magic out. So I gave it another push, forcing him to speak. “On Providence Street and Granite Way. It’s a… a candle factory.”
I gave him a little shake because I could tell he was holding something back. “Tell me about the factory.”
He groaned and closed his eyes in defeat for a moment. “It’s a… disguise. W-we sell… goods.”
“What kind of goods?”
“Fuck. Stop. Y-you’re gonna get me killed.”
“You should be more afraid of what I’m going to do to you if you don’t speak than anyone else right now, hunter. Tell me about your goods. Tell me about your plans. Tell me everything about the Legion of Light.”
He groaned again. “F-fuck you.”
Shaking him, I leaned in and whispered into his ear. “If you don’t tell me everything I want to hear, I will start cutting off your fingers. Then I’ll work on taking your entire hand. I’m sure you can hear well enough with only one ear.” Picking up his hand with my free one, I dug a claw into his knuckle, showing him just how easy it would be to start removing body parts. Then I leaned back and flashed my fangs, intensifying my aura. “I know exactly how much blood I can drain from you before you lose consciousness.”
He looked truly frightened now, and even though I generally hated scaring people like this, I knew he deserved it. He and his friends had killed countless vampires. Innocent vampires and their human blood donors. They terrorized so many people, including my family. He deserved every second of this terror.
“Tell me more about the factory.”
He took a shaky breath. “It’s a front. There’s a-a group. They sell things that our people find.”
“What people? I thought you were all hunters?”
He grimaced. “We… we have some… people. Family—wives, husbands, whatever—that run the other side of things. The… fuck.” He winced when I gave his finger a warning prick, drawing blood there as well. “The money side. We… we needed a way to fund things, right? Well, they… sell shit all over Gauhala.”
“What do they sell? You said it was a front, so it’s obviously not candles.”
He groaned, trying to clamp his mouth shut, but with another push from me, he spoke again. “They sell artifacts and… and people.”
My brow furrowed. “What do you mean people?”
He grimaced. “We… we sell them to the highest bidder.”
I froze for a beat, then slowly turned to look at Phaeron without dropping the hunter. His expression mirrored mine. As if this group wasn’t disgusting enough. My eyes narrowed as I faced the hunter again. “Are you telling me that your group is trafficking people to finance your… your murder sprees?”
He winced. “Y-yes.”
“Who are you trafficking? Fae?”
“Yes. Mostly. Sometimes there are other species mixed in.” He said it with so much nonchalance. Like it didn’t matter one bit to him. What a dick.
Before I could squeeze his throat until I popped his head off, from behind me, Garrick said, “That warehouse is one we already have on our radar. It seems the hunters are connected to Ralodove and his kidnappers.”
I glanced back at him to read his expression, and somehow, I knew he meant that he had a spy in that warehouse. Good . With insider information, it would make it easier to take down.
I dropped the hunter and turned to the cell door. Keryth opened it for me, and Phaeron and I slipped out before my viramore relocked it.
To Garrick, I said, “We’re taking them down now. I’m not waiting any longer.”
He grimaced but gave me a nod. “We do need to eliminate the threat, but I wish we could find the rest of this trafficking ring. Tan and I will help.”
“Good.”
Garrick called back his guards, and without another word, I headed for the elevator with my family behind me.