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CHAPTER TWENTY
FINN
“Rylee, it really is going to be okay,” I say as she huddles on the ground of the bedroom she’s staying in at Orin’s house. She’s just wrapped around the cat, smoothing his fur down with her endless tears. Of course the cat doesn’t care. The whole room is filled with the sound of his purrs. Orin has some stuff to quickly deal with and asked us to watch her, which means that it’s our job to make her stop crying. How he’s managed to keep her happy, I have no idea because the second she saw us, she burst into tears.
I’m sure Marcus has had plenty of people burst into tears the moment they saw him, but I never have!
“En left me and he’s never coming back, and I love him so much but he doesn’t love meeeeeeeeeeee.” That “me” is said with such a wailing noise that it’s dragged out for an unbelievable amount of time. Marcus gets a little impatient waiting for it to end as he gives me a look.
“What about some ice cream? Would that make you feel better?” I ask as I pick her up off the floor and set her on the bed. It makes me feel at least a little bit better if she’s not just wallowing on the ground.
“M-Maybe but probably not but I still want some.”
“Awesome. I’ll go get you some ice cream while Marcus reads you a story. That sounds like fun, yeah? You could read it in bed! And eat ice cream in bed! And then after we’re done, we can go swimming! Doesn’t that sound exciting?”
“Not really!” she complains, but I push a book into Marcus’s hands anyway.
“She said ‘not really,’” Marcus says, like that’ll get him out of it. “She obviously doesn’t want it.”
“She’s just upset and doesn’t know what she wants,” I assure him as I flip open the book to where it looks like she left off and force it back into Marcus’s hands.
“I mean… is Ender really even worth crying about?” he asks.
“He’s the best person to have ever existed,” Rylee declares.
Marcus doesn’t look convinced.
“Ice cream coming right up. Marcus, you want some?” I ask, so I can distract Marcus from explaining why Ender isn’t the best.
“No thanks.”
“Man, what a weirdo, right?” I ask Rylee. For some reason, that makes her cry harder. Apparently, we’re quite good at this.
Leaving that mess to Marcus, I hurry down the stairs and start scooping up the ice cream before returning to find Marcus reading the book in the most monotone fashion possible. “‘Sandra sees something orange dash across the street as Eddie yells, “There she is.” Together⁠—’”
“You gotta do the voices. En does the voices! You sound like you hate life! You sound as miserable as I feel!” Rylee whines.
Marcus’s face scrunches up in disgust. “I can’t do the voices. Here, Finn.”
“No, you can do the voices,” I urge as I dodge the hand trying to pass the book off to me before handing Rylee her ice cream cone. “I want to eat my ice cream, and I need two hands for that.”
“I’ve seen you eat ice cream, read a book, and pet the dog all at the same time, you’re not fooling me.”
“Ohhhh, my arm. It aches today so I only have one hand to hold the cone as the other sits uselessly.” It’s all quite dramatic and oddly doesn’t seem to convince him. “We’ll listen. Go on now. Do the voices.”
Marcus grumbles but gives a curt nod. He’s such a good partner. “‘Sandra dashes after Eddie as they reach the large tunnel the cat disappeared into. “I think Buttercup ran in here,” Sandra says.’”
I nearly choke on my ice cream as Rylee stares at Marcus in fascination. “Oh my. How old is Sandra? Is she related to Batman? Is she Batman? I bet she’s Batman. What do you think, Rylee?” I ask.
Rylee giggles as she nods.
Marcus gives me a look. “She doesn’t… no! Just… if you have a problem with it, you can read it.”
I lick my ice cream in bliss. This really is quite fun. Picking on Marcus does seem to be one of my favorite pastimes. “I’m busy eating! Right, Rylee? I mean… he should learn, at the very least.”
“Her voice is perfectly fine as it is,” Marcus decides.
“Is it?” I ask. “Poor Sandra is hitting her midlife crisis at the early age of ten.”
“She is not. You’re so picky.”
“I would never be picky!” I say. “Just… do better.”
This makes Rylee giggle even more.
Marcus sighs and turns back to the book. “‘The tunnel is tall enough they can stand in it as they hear the pitter-patter of Buttercup’s feet. “I think she went this way! Let’s go!” Eddie shouts.’”
“Oh noooooo. Rylee, that’s what happens when you start smoking from the young age of two weeks. That’s what you’d sound like. This is why you don’t ever want to smoke, okay?”
Rylee is laughing so hard that Marcus just closes the book and tosses it onto the bedside table before stoically sitting there with his arms folded over his chest.
“I give up,” he declares.
“It’s so bad,” Rylee says. She’s so distracted by how bad it is that her cat sneaks a lick of the ice cream. It’s evidently quite cold on his tongue because he makes a strange face that makes Rylee laugh even harder. “En would have found it so funny.”
And then her happiness plummets and she licks her ice cream in misery.
“Marcus, read again,” I urge, and since Rylee is close to tears, Marcus seems to realize that getting picked on about his reading is significantly better than dealing with tears.
He hurries over and retrieves the book which he resumes reading. It makes her smile, but I think her sadness is outweighing it. When she’s done with her ice cream, she returns to squeezing the cat who has recovered from his ice cream escapades.
A knock on the door makes Marcus quickly close the book with a “Finally,” even though I was quite enjoying The Adventures of Batman and Chain-smoker.
The door opens and Claude peeks in. “I heard that someone was feeling a little down, and when I feel down, you know what I like to do?”
“Look at yourself in the mirror?” Rylee guesses.
This makes Alexei laugh as Claude slowly looks over his shoulder at him. “You don’t need to laugh so hard.”
Alexei shrugs. “What? It was funny. The girl’s got some jokes… although is it a joke if it’s true?”
“I assumed he didn’t have any mirrors, which is why he dresses that way,” Marcus says.
Claude shifts his glower to his brother, who is looking quite proud of himself. “Ha. Ha. Funny. I only look at myself to make sure my outfit is perfect—which it always is. Anyway. When I’m feeling down, I like to dress up! So I went to the store and I bought you the cutest outfits!”
He dumps enough bags on the ground to fill up the room as I question how long he was shopping for and… what this poor child is going to be put through.
“I’ve always wanted a kid to dress,” Claude announces. “Alexei, can we have a baby?”
“You realize that you have to do more than just dress them, right? You have to feed them, and then they cry, and then when you’re removing their diaper they wait until a clean one is on to dirty that one. And they wait until you’re ready to go somewhere to spit up on you so you have to rush around to get changed. Imagine your clothes. Imagine that on your clothes.”
Claude contemplates this for about ten seconds before turning to me. “Why don’t you two have a child? I would absolutely love a little niece or nephew, and I would dress them and they’d be so cute.”
“Why don’t you try it out on Rylee here first and we’ll see how that goes,” I say.
“And then you’ll think about it? Aw. Make sure they’re cute.”
“Why have a child when Claude already acts like one?” Marcus asks.
“Ha. Ha. Marcus, I’ve been meaning to tell you that I’d love to put little light-up booties on your horse too. I braided flowers into Alexei’s horse’s tail, and they looked so darling, and then your horse came over and ate them.”
“Sounds like he did a good job, then,” Marcus says.
“Funny.” He pulls out the first dress and Rylee cocks her head.
“Did you murder an innocent peacock?” she asks.
“No! Peacocks shed their feathers, which were then made into this dress. Isn’t it lovely? It’s lovely,” he says, which means we no longer get an opinion as he comes at her with the dress. He just plops it over her head and melts the moment he sees it, even though it looks ridiculous with her sweats and unicorn shirt on under it.
“Oh my goodness. You are precious.”
Rylee doesn’t seem certain about this. “Finn… Finn, save me.”
Ignoring this, Claude coos, “I just can’t. You’re just the cutest! I have another. It’s even better.”
Rylee looks concerned. “Finn, I’ve turned into a bird.”
I grin at her. “You have. You’re a very pretty bird.”
Claude comes at her with another bag. “I got this to match,” he says as he slides a hat with feathers on it onto the cat’s head. The cat doesn’t care. He’s pleased to be touched, but boy does that make Rylee happy.
I can see all of her worries evaporate. And when I look at Marcus, I can see the disbelief on his face over the fact that he didn’t even have to read a damn word. All he had to do was put a hat on the cat.
“THIS IS SO CUTE. I love it so much! We match! Finn! We match!”
“I thought you didn’t like the dress?” I tease.
“We maaaatch,” she says as she scoops her cat up.
I felt like inviting Claude’s help was a bit questionable, but clearly he did a good job. I give him a thumbs-up and he’s all smiles.
“I told you to just buy the cat clothes,” Alexei says.
“But they’re cuter if they match,” Claude decides.
Rylee rushes for me. “I need your phone. I bet if we send En cat pictures he’ll come home. He’s going to love them so much.”
I hand her my phone as she proceeds to roll around on the floor to get every angle of the cat.

Once Orin gets home, it wasn’t long before Alexei, who’d gone back to the department, called and asked us to meet him at the council hall where we now stand.
“You know, when you were like, ‘Finn, the very man I would give my heart to if I wasn’t already spoken for, the one true king of humans, I need you like I need Claude in a cheetah thong,’ I thought it’d be for something a little more fun,” I say as Alexei stares at me. His breath must have been taken away by my speech.
“Why is Claude wearing a cheetah thong?” Bentley asks as he joins us at the tail end of the conversation.
“Why wouldn’t he be?” Briar teases.
“I wish I was!” Claude says as he pushes his pants down enough I can see the edge of his lime green underwear. “Chartreuse today, baby.”
“What in the world is ‘chartreuse’?” Alexei asks, and neither Briar nor Bentley seem to know. “You know what? I don’t feel like I need to know.”
“It’s the color of my underwear!” Claude displays a bit more for everyone to see just as Marcus and Orin walk up.
“Wow, we sure look professional,” Marcus deadpans.
Claude waves his worries off. “I was teaching them what color chartreuse is. As simple as that.”
“Simple as that, Finn,” Alexei echoes. “The reason we are being judged and looked at is because of you, I would like you to understand. Because you started it with your thong speech.”
“Because of me? Why the hell is it my fault?” I ask, positive that I didn’t ask Claude to whip his pants down and flash the goods! “You’re the one who didn’t know what chartreuse was. Like gosh, everyone knows what that is.”
“Who invited the VRC here?” Harris asks, voicing his distaste loud enough everyone can hear.
“I was just wondering that as well,” Callum says. Apparently, the two have made friends and no part of that sounds good. Or maybe they overheard our underwear conversation.
I smile sweetly. “We thought you might care or wonder what we found out about the people who died at the hotel and Mads’s abduction, but evidently, that’s not the case. It’s kind of strange you don’t want us here. Like… if one of you were abducted or hunted down, I would really want to know what happened unless I was involved. Although that’d be silly saying you two were involved. Ha. Anyway. We will be on our way.”
“I very much would like to know,” Ha-joon says. “One of our own is missing and there are multiple vampires who were killed that no one knows. Have you found the ID on any of them?”
“Love to tell you but we’re obviously not welcome,” I respond as I give Ha-joon a shrug. “Good luck. I mean… you guys are going to need it.”
“I was too rash,” Callum says with a grimace. “Please, come in.”
“Me… too,” Harris chokes out.
“What was that?” Marcus asks as he eyes Harris. “I might have missed what you said, so please, repeat it. If you’d like to be on your knees when you do so, I wouldn’t complain.”
“I would… absolutely love for all of you to join us,” he says, ducking his head when Marcus’s aura hits him. I’m pretty sure Marcus would be happy to never see Harris again.
“Good to know,” Marcus comments as we all file back into the room we were in during the last meeting. I don’t expect this one to go much better but sadly, we don’t have Ender to waltz in and entertain me. Although it’d honestly be fantastic if we did, so we could figure out what happened to him and Mads. Rylee is going to be an absolute mess until we can assure her that Ender didn’t leave her and really is coming back for her.
Hopefully, she’s now convinced that he didn’t leave her because she “wasn’t being good.” It’s hard to reassure a child while still being uncertain and careful of what to say to her. Orin told us that Rylee was concerned the “monster from Ender’s nightmares” had come for him and will be coming for us next. The problem is that she doesn’t know who this monster is or anything about him. It sounds like someone might have been hunting Ender and could be the very person who took them both. But when you have nothing beyond that, it’s hard to know where to look.
Since Orin came with us to speak to the council, River is watching Rylee. She wasn’t thrilled by this until he showed her the wonders of “cat TV,” which Señor Fluffybottom thought was quite thrilling.
“Did you identify who the dead were?” Leona asks.
“Some of them,” I admit. “We know their identities. We’re not quite sure what their connection to Mads or the council is. We’re unsure if he was personally targeted or targeted because he’s part of the council. The blood on the floor has been identified as belonging to Mads,” I say, refusing to mention that the blood splatter on the wall was Ender’s blood.
Mads’s blood had come up in our records since all new vampires have to be registered, which includes blood and fingerprints. But looking into Mads and reading his vampire registry left me surprised that he is an extremely young vampire. I think all of us were startled, even Marcus who, while saying that he assumed he was younger, was surprised by how much younger.
“Callum, how well do you know Mads?” Marcus asks.
“I know him well enough.”
“The council petitioned to have him turned. Why?”
“I… don’t know. I wasn’t involved in that,” Callum says. “Leona?”
“I didn’t know they did. How long has he been a vampire?” she asks.
Marcus responds, “Only two years. It’s unheard of for a new vampire to join the council. Generally, that’s something reserved for older vampires with higher influential power. How did that get approved?”
Callum opens his mouth but his phone starts ringing. “I apologize. It’s another member of the council. After Mads went missing, I contacted the others to inform them of what happened. She was hoping to join us but got delayed.”
He steps out of the room as Leona turns to us.
“Have you found out any more about this drug that’s leaving vampires just… dead?”
I leave this to Claude, as he and Alexei have been the main ones in charge of organizing that information. “We have some information on it, but we need to decide how it’s best to discuss it,” Claude says.
“I believe it should stay within the VRC,” Alexei states. “I trust no one here.”
Leona opens her mouth, undoubtedly wanting to say something about that before we’re interrupted by the sound of footsteps.
The door opens and Callum returns with a woman and a man behind him. The man smiles the moment he sees us, but she seems to scrutinize the group of us. Callum steps back to introduce them. “This is Vivian and Arrington. They’re both council members but Vivian is directly in charge of Mads.”
“I came as soon as I heard what happened,” she says. “Have you heard anything new as of yet?”
“We were just discussing the details. I’m Detective Finn Hayes of the VRC,” I say before introducing everyone from the VRC and shaking their hands.
Marcus folds his arms over his chest instead of shaking anything, throwing out his dominating aura like he just hopes someone dares to fuck with him on this. “Here’s where we stand. We don’t feel comfortable releasing some of this information to a roomful of people we don’t trust. We’d prefer to keep it out of the council’s hands and within the VRC.”
“Why out of the council? Shouldn’t the council be the safest place for it?” Vivian asks, like she could possibly have not heard what happened with the US council.
Alexei scoffs. “You’d think, but take a look at what happened to our council. And if we can’t trust our own council, why would we trust yours? Our council went above and beyond to try to imprison one of our own while harming another member. They nearly killed Finn. And it was staged in a way to separate Marcus from him. Do you see why we’re reluctant to trust the council?”
“Understandably,” Arrington says. “I guess, at this point, does it matter? If we have trust that the VRC is doing what they can, it’s not like any of us have information that would help or we’d have already given it. Do we know why Mads was taken?”
“Not at this point in time,” Marcus answers.
“Can you fill us in on anything that is essential to keeping the rest of my members safe? At this point we don’t know whether this was a targeted attack on Mads or the council, correct?” Vivian asks.
“That is correct, and I sure can try,” I say. “There is no connection between those who were killed on scene, at least none on surface level. They are all vampires registered under different makers, and all of the deceased vampires were from different areas. We know that they targeted Mads but there is a possibility they took one other.”
“Who is that?”
“We will disclose that information when we know more.”
“Is it a council member?” Vivian asks.
“It’s not.”
“I heard that Ender invaded the meeting last time. Was he involved in this attack? Did he attack Mads or plan this?” she asks.
“I know for a fact he wasn’t one of those who attacked Mads,” I say.
“Why for a fact?” Arrington asks.
“He came in here demanding Orin take over as council head,” Callum says. “Nothing against Orin, I’m sure he’d make a fantastic council head, but he’s never even been in the council. It would certainly be best for someone who has been in the council for many years to take over.”
Orin leans forward in his chair, watching Callum closely as he gives him a smile. “No, I haven’t, but I have a pretty good idea of what’s expected to keep it running. I can assure you that anything I do will be better than how it was run previously.”
Vivian rubs her head. “Callum… it’s hard to nominate someone who has been in the council when most of them are dead. Harris and some minor members are the only ones left. We are either left with the choice of foreign council members joining or inviting people from outside of the council. I’ve known Orin for a very long time and would not be opposed to him taking the position. He’s always been a very sensible man of high standing without any problematic issues. But before we get deeper into this, our current concern is dealing with Mads’s disappearance, who took him, and if they’re targeting all of us or just Mads.”
“Why would they want Mads?” I ask. “Is there someone who is targeting him? I can’t imagine it was a serial killer or something of the sort when so many people attacked him. It could have been whoever mysteriously killed the members of the council, but why kill them and take Mads alive?”
“I really don’t know why he was targeted,” Vivian says. “Which is why I’m worried it has something to do with being part of the council. I’m afraid it’s the same person who targeted your council members… I’m just nervous that means that…” She sighs. “Mads is a good guy. He’s a bit quirky, but he’s a good guy. My biggest fear is that he’s young… and he doesn’t come across extremely young, which seems to fool people into believing he’s older, but he’s not going to live through something horrific happening to him. I know there was mention of someone at the scene being shot with a modified bullet, and if it was Mads, there’s no way he’d live through it.”
“Why would they have taken a dead body?” Marcus asks. “They want him alive for some reason, which means he has something they want. This leads me to believe that someone here at this table knows more than what they’re saying.”
No one volunteers any information, which isn’t at all surprising.
“We will continue our search for him. We are doing everything we can, but to do the best we can, we need to know anything you might know,” I say. Vivian flew across the ocean to be here but she knows nothing? Nah, there’s a reason she’s here, and I don’t think she’s here as a grieving friend.
Nothing seems to change as the council meeting goes on and by the end of it, I feel like we’ve gained absolutely no information. I’ve just been subjected to reasons why Callum should be council head and fears about the rest of the council members being at risk. It’s like they don’t want to deal with us but they also want protection from us.
Once the meeting is adjourned, we head outside where the VRC and Orin gather together.
“Well, that went about as well as I knew it would,” Marcus says. “They’re just a bunch of secretive assholes. All pretending to be civil while an asshole underneath it all. No surprise there.”
“You realize that until you met Finn you were also a ‘secretive’ asshole?” Alexei asks.
“So were you,” Marcus retorts.
“You two are like children,” I say just as my phone begins ringing. It’s an unknown number so I debate ignoring it, but with everything going on, it’s best to answer and not be like, “Oh shoot, I could have saved Mads’s life if I answered this call.” I accept it with a, “Hello?”
“Is this the lovely Finnigan Hayes choosing to answer my call?” Mads asks.
And while I had run the scenario that it could be Mads through my mind, I didn’t actually think it would be him.
“Give me the fucking phone,” Ender snaps in the background. “Finn, is Rylee safe? If she’s not, I will hunt you down and I will⁠—”
“Threatening the person before they can even answer isn’t very nice at all,” Mads says. “You do understand that, don’t you? People are more willing to go above and beyond for you when you treat them with kindness and ask them sweetly. Try it again with a dash of sweetness.”
“Finn, answer the fucking question,” Ender growls before adding, “Please.”
“Good job!” Mads praises, like any part of that was good.
“I’m just thrilled you’re both okay and… have oddly become friends,” I say.
“Have we?” Ender asks.
“Define okay,” Mads says. “We are in one piece, yes. But we are being hunted by an evil vampire and are both lacking like eighty percent of our blood. It really has been such a drain that I would love a nap. I could honestly nap right now, but Ender said I can’t nap while driving. And then I might have accidentally hit a… uh… let’s say… some clothes with a… uh… mass inside of them, so it’s extremely hard to see out the windshield. And for some reason it makes me want to nap even more.”
“Clothes with a mass inside of them? So a person, then? You’re finally admitting you hit a person?” Ender asks.
“I hit… a tree branch, I mean. A bloody one. Finnigan. I know we barely know each other, but is there a way you can get us back quickly? Just… I’m worried that if you tell the council I’m not alone, they’ll swoop in and try to fuck with Ender. So maybe discreetly.”
“Of course. Where are you?”
“I have absolutely no idea. I guess someplace in Canada? We finally managed to get out of the trees and I waved down some nice old man to ask for his phone and he was so eager to let me borrow it, he screamed and threw it at me. Weirdly, he’s long gone, so I guess that means it’s an early Christmas present.”
“I’m sure that’s what that means,” I say sarcastically. “Get us your location and we’re going to get you home as fast as we can. Can you tell us what happened?”
“You never answered if Rylee is okay. Fuck my ‘please.’ I’m taking that back,” Ender growls.
“I’m sorry. Rylee is very much okay. She’s quite safe.”
“No one can know that she is mine, do you understand? If someone finds out, they will use her to get to me.”
“I promise we won’t let anyone know. Now what’s going on?”
They’re both absolutely silent.
“So you come to us for help but refuse to talk?” I ask.
“Possibly,” Mads says. “It’s not you, Finn. You are just the sweetest. It’s that I don’t quite… trust you.”
“So it is me?”
“Well, not you exactly. But you’re almost too nice. Like maybe you’re secretly evil. That’d be hilarious if you ended up being the bad guy!”
“So funny,” I deadpan. “Ender trusts me and you seem to trust Ender.”
“That’s true,” Mads realizes.
I sigh when neither of them apparently feels like giving up anything. “Alright, let’s first worry about getting you on your way home, and then you better start talking.”
Just as we’re nearing our car, I notice Arrington heading our way. I see him glance at Vivian before rushing over.
“I’m going to hand you off to Alexei, who will get you started on things,” I say as I pass the phone over. Alexei gets into the car as Arrington gets close enough to talk.
“Hey… I just… when we were walking up, I overheard one of you asking why Mads was turned. It said in his files that it was council approved, but oddly… there seemed to only be one council member who approved it, which was Vivian. Strangely… Mads keeps ending up places that I’m not quite sure he’s qualified to be as someone who hasn’t been in the council for long. I’m not saying Vivian might know anything, but… just thought I’d mention that. Vivian was adamant that I didn’t need to come, even though foreign relations is my specialty. I have contacts all over the world, so I should be able to help if I can. Did Mads’s phone get left behind in his hotel room?”
“It did,” I say.
“Was there a lot of contact exclusively with Vivian?” he asks. “It’s okay, you don’t have to answer that. I’m just stating that there’s a possibility that Vivian knows something and that’s why she insisted on coming. Maybe his contacts will lead you somewhere.”
“Thank you.”
Arrington is busy looking in the direction where Vivian is standing. “Oh! You’re very welcome. I have to go. If there are any names you don’t know and you need to run them by someone, let me know. I’m not close with Harris, but there are a few other attendant-level council members here in the US that I speak to regularly that might even know something about it.”
“Great, can you get me a number to contact you?” I ask.
“Of course. You have your phone?”
“I’m ready,” Marcus says as he pulls out his and types the number in. Once he’s finished, Arrington gives us a nod before rushing back to Vivian.
The rest of us get in our vehicles and drive back to Orin’s. Once there, we head inside to where River is sitting with Rylee.
“Did you find him? Please? Please?” Rylee asks, like begging will bring him back.
I kneel down and call back the number that’d called me as she squeezes her cat to her. I’m beginning to question if the cat is even real at this point. He’s like a rag doll for her to carry around as he lies in her arms in absolute bliss. Has he succumbed to the idea that allowing this child to carry him endlessly is significantly better than his life on the streets and he will do nothing to offend her? “Does he ever get tired of purring?” I ask as the phone rings.
“Nope! It’s his favorite pass time,” she says.
“It’s pastime,” Ender corrects. “Not pass time.”
Rylee freezes like she doesn’t even know how to compute what’s just happened. Then her hand reaches out for the phone like it’s a mystical item from a far-off land.
“En… is that you?”
“Are you being difficult for them?” he asks.
“I thought you left and were never coming back and I’m sorry I was bad and didn’t listen and please don’t leave me I love you so much.”
“Rylee, I’m not leaving you,” Ender says, his voice sounding so soft. I have to wonder if he realizes he’s on speaker for all of us to hear, and if it’d bother him knowing that he sounds so different when talking to her. “I didn’t mean to go away. I messed up and some bad guys dragged me off, but I’m headed back now.”
“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 Señor 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.”