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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 
MARCUS
“I’m going to eat you if you don’t answer the damn question soon,” I growl.
“I don’t remember the question,” Kaden says as he staggers behind the horse, still attached by the rope around his wrists.
“What do you know about the man who attacked the village?” I know quite well that he does know the answer to this question.
“If I tell you, will you please let me ride on the horse for a bit? My legs are going to fall off,” he whines.
“Depends on whether the information is good enough,” I decide.
“I know him because he… conned me. He told me he’d pay me if I did some work for him. I guess when you’re needy enough, you don’t clarify exactly what the work is because he just told me my job was to coerce certain men to his home. I assumed he was just… interested in them. I wasn’t in a position to care; I was getting paid and he paid handsomely. So I would seek out the men he inquired about, get them to follow me, and then he’d have me leave. They all seemed quite interested when I left them behind, but after a while, I started to realize that I never saw any of the men again.
“When I left the next one, I decided to linger to see what he was doing with them. And that’s when I realized he was one of those… things. I’d never met one in person, but we’ve all heard the stories and I knew exactly what he was. And he knew I saw him. It was like…” Kaden shudders. “He just knew. I felt like a rabbit cowering before a hound. I was aware that if I ran, he would chase. So I didn’t. Instead, I asked him if he needed me to dispose of the body. He seemed pleased, so I did as he asked, and even though I couldn’t see him following me, I had this awful feeling that I was being watched. That he was just… right around the corner. I knew he was waiting to see what I’d do, so I didn’t do anything. I buried the body and ran home.
“The next day, I did the same thing. Honestly, it was days before I finally felt that fear dissipate, like he was finally leaving me alone, and I realized that it wasn’t because he trusted me, it was because he was distracted by something else… you. I took that opportunity, and I ran before getting caught up with those bastards. And then, imagine my surprise when I found you dying in the middle of nowhere.
“I don’t know what it was about you, but I knew that if that vampire was interested in you, you had to be someone quite powerful and I’m not going to lie, I’d love to have someone powerful on my side.”
I scoff. “I’m not your friend. I have next to zero interest in you.”
“That’s fine. But if you’re looking for the man who killed all those people, I know where he was living. I can’t guarantee he’s still there, but it’s a possibility that we’ll find him.”
That thought settles in my mind for a moment before I pull the horse up and turn to face him. “Do not make me regret this.”
“Of course not,” he says.
Surprisingly, I didn’t. When we arrived at the village a week later, the vampire wasn’t there, but I honestly didn’t think he’d have gone back. I’m sure he found a new hunting ground. I spent time looking, but as the seasons changed, my desire to search out the man became smaller and smaller until I realized that while I was never fond of humans, having one to boss around wasn’t all that bad.
      
Walking into the office with Finn is a surefire way to announce ourselves. He can’t just strut in and be like hey, how is everyone doing? No, he has to do things like:
“I have decided that I’m better than all of you with your reindeer-murdering fangs and boring super speed,” Finn declares as he reaches our area.
“Ha,” Alexei simply says, which is honestly the best jab of all. It makes Finn’s eyebrows furrow as he scrutinizes the vampire.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re excused, human. Go frolic and sniff flowers,” Alexei says.
“You are the best, Finn, don’t let anyone get you down,” DeGray reassures him.
“I don’t think he will,” Briar says as she slides into her chair.
“He feeds off the torture of others,” Alexei declares.
“Detective Hayes,” a voice calls out.
Finn stops goofing around and looks over at the open door of Brooks’s office where Chief Burns stands. The look on her face, which is generally quite relaxed around Finn, is tight.
Finn glances at me and gives me a small shrug before hurrying on his way. I debate going after him, but I also don’t want to insert myself where I don’t belong like I don’t trust people with Finn or trust Finn to handle his own issues.
I don’t have long to think about it when I hear Claude call my name. The first thing I want to mention to him is that he seems to have not realized that he put a skirt on today. Opening my mouth to inform him of this, I realize that Claude looks quite distraught.
“What’s wrong?” I ask as I hurry over, wondering what the hell he’s gotten into now. When I reach the doorway, he’s already halfway up the stairs so I have to jog to catch up to him. “Claude, what’s going on?”
He gives me an anxious look. “I think I fucked up.”
“With?” I ask.
“I swear to god that I didn’t tell anyone what I was researching with Finn. I’d taken most of it home with me, but when I came in this morning, Lexi told me some men from the council were here demanding to get into my stuff. She insisted they wait to talk to me about it, but they refused and took my laptop which had some data about Finn on it.”
“Okay… first off, why would they want it and second off, why would it matter? It’s not like they don’t know who Finn is.”
Claude rocks back on his heels. “It’s not that. It’s what I found out about him… I wasn’t quite sure yet, so I hadn’t talked to you guys about it, but Finn’s blood shows similar DNA patterns to a vampire’s. Not quite the same, but it’s like a weird mix between human and vampire.”
“He’s a dhampir?” I ask, not sure how that could be. I know his sister is, but according to Finn, their fathers were different and on top of that, how could he be a dhampir and never drink blood or even have a desire for it?
“No, the makeup is different. A dhampir’s is much closer to a vampire’s but his is different. I haven’t seen anything like it before. So they’ve done some testing on humans who are turned and what the body goes through during that process, you know, the time it takes for their human body and cells to be replaced by a vampire’s regenerative ones. And that’s… kind of how my report was reading.”
“So he’s somehow stuck in this stage between being a human and a vampire?” I ask, confused how this can even be right.
“That’s just it, I really don’t know. I don’t have enough data. I was going to ask Aria to come in and see what she looked like in comparison to Finn since she’s the closest living relative in that sense, but I’m still not sure it’d fully help.”
I realize that Finn will want to hear about this before remembering that Chief Burns had pulled him away. “Are they here for Finn?”
“I don’t know,” Claude says. “What I do know is that they at least didn’t get all of the information. But there’s a possibility that they could read into it… possibly think he was trying to get away with becoming a vampire or something. I don’t know what they’ll twist this around to. I just know that it’s probably not going to make sense.”
“Okay,” I say as I hurry down the stairs to catch up to them and tell them to fuck themselves if needed. I’m pretty sure Finn wouldn’t be overly thrilled by that one, but sometimes people really do need to just fuck themselves.
But when I get downstairs, I find Alexei and DeGray watching us in confusion. “What’s going on?” I ask.
I head to Brooks’s office but before I get there, Alexei goes, “They took him outside.”
“Excuse me, what?” I ask as I realize Brooks’s office is empty. I hurry around to the front door as I pull my phone out and text Finn.
Me: What the fuck is going on? 
Finn: They just said the council wanted to talk to me. I’m headed off with Burns and Brooks. Don’t murder anyone while I’m gone. 
Me: Claude says it’s about his research. 
Finn: What research? On my blood? 
Me: Yes. Just… tell them that Claude is joining you. If I go, I’ll probably tear someone’s head off and I can’t help anyway. Claude better be invited in on this meeting or heads will roll. 
Finn: Okay, I’ll ask but don’t be surprised if he’s not. 
Me: Tell them I’ll murder them if they don’t. 
Finn: Yes, I’m sure that’ll get me the upper hand here, just tossing around the idea of murder and heads rolling will definitely help. 
I turn to Claude who honestly looks anxious.
He grimaces when he notices me looking at him. “Please don’t hate me, I was just curious, and I shouldn’t have even worried about it,” he says.
“Claude, I don’t hate you at all. I want you to go and see if they’ll let you in on the meeting. My guess is it’s going to be with the council.”
“Of course.”
“I’ll go with you, but I doubt they’ll allow me in, so it’s all you,” I say.
“That’s fine. I don’t mind,” he says as he follows me over to my car.
OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER NINETEEN 
FINN
All I know is that I’m glad Brooks is with me because otherwise I’d feel even shittier about this whole situation that I really don’t understand at all. Thankfully, Claude was able to text me a condensed version of what’s going on, so as I’m led into a large room with a table and the council sitting at it, I don’t feel lost as hell.
Honestly, I expected they’d be up on high podiums looking down at me, but everyone, including Kaden, is seated in a regular chair that is positioned around a large rectangular table.
“Have a seat,” Chief Burns says as she waves to it, so I sit as Brooks sits next to me.
“Good to see you again, Detective Hayes,” Kaden says.
“Yeah… you too,” I say. “Did I do something wrong?” I decide to play dumb a little bit to see what they’re willing to tell me before I’m forced to dig deeper myself.
“That depends,” a man I don’t recognize says. Even so, I can immediately tell that he’s an older vampire; hell, almost everyone here is, but I can’t tell how many are true vampires. Maybe one? And that’s a woman who hasn’t said a word or really even acknowledged me yet. Instead, she sits at the far end just watching. Something about her immediately tells me that I should keep an eye on her out of all of them.
“Can I get your names, please?” I ask.
“Ah, our apologies,” Kaden says. “You of course know me. This is Eugene,” he says, pointing at the bald man who’d spoken earlier. “Harris, and Addison.”
“I’m Detective Finn Hayes from the VRC,” I say. “I assume you already know that, but I thought I’d throw it out there anyway.” Honestly, I’m just killing time while hoping Claude or Marcus will arrive to get me out of this awkward situation.
I look over at Brooks who sighs.
“Do you mind informing us about exactly what’s going on here?” Brooks asks.
“Who tried changing you?” Harris asks.
“Changing me? Like into a vampire?” I ask. Honestly, I don’t need to feign confusion about this.
“Correct.”
“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”
Kaden leans forward, making his chair squeak. “In his defense, can you partially change someone? That’s not a thing that I’m aware of. Are any of you?”
No one volunteers anything, so I decide to just give them the facts. “I’ve been given vampire blood and dhampir blood, if that’s your question? Honestly, I’m not sure if it is since I would assume you’d all be aware of those two instances seeing as Brooks himself was involved when I was found and taken to the hospital after I was attacked as a teenager. Once at the hospital, they gave me my sister’s blood, and there was speculation that the blood I was given while… with Watson was his own.”
The door swings open and Claude walks in like he was invited, grabs a chair, and slides it between me and Burns before sitting down with a smile. “What did I miss?”
“I don’t believe you were invited,” Eugene says sourly.
“Oh? You steal my research, but I can’t steal your time? How totally unfair,” he says.
Burns looks over at Claude. “It was your research?”
“It was and it actually was private research on a private computer, so I’d love to know how you legally got into things that didn’t belong to any of you. I bet that wouldn’t stand up in court, but then again, the council would likely just brush that right under the rug, now wouldn’t they?” There’s a quiet that falls over the room but Claude just continues to smile. “If I could see my computer, maybe I could explain things better?”
“If we wanted your input, we would have invited you into the room,” Eugene says.
“Get him his laptop,” Addison orders.
And I quickly learn that when she orders something, others do it. Eugene doesn’t even grumble as he exits the room and hurries off to retrieve the laptop while we all wait in awkward silence. When he returns, Claude yanks it from him and starts up the laptop. I watch him as he starts opening multiple things in succession, but I also see him quickly delete something and wonder if anyone else notices.
Thankfully, no one says anything as he slides the computer around.
“According to the files you have on Finn’s case, it became quite clear from the beginning that his sister gave him blood. They were also well aware that whoever did this to Finn had enough medical knowledge to keep him from bleeding out.”
I get an anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach hearing about this. I hate it, and I hate that I can’t just push past it. Hell, it happened half a lifetime ago, but I can’t stop the feeling.
“I am more than positive that you’re trying to blame my brother for whatever is going on with Finn’s blood, but this has been going on since he was sixteen,” Claude says.
“We have no proof of that,” Eugene says. “Absolutely no proof that can back this up. You’re trying to claim that since he was sixteen his blood hasn’t changed?”
“That’s exactly what I’m claiming, and why I decided to look into it. It was private, mind you. And it has nothing to do with the council,” Claude says.
“I also have trouble believing that a vampire’s blood has affected him for, what? Nearly sixteen years?” Harris asks. “Humans have received vampire blood in the past and it has never affected the human unless the vampire was in the process of turning them.”
“Well then, I guess Finn here is pretty special. Maybe he was close enough to death that it started to affect him but not fully. I guess we’ll never know,” Claude says. “And honestly, it doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter,” Harris insists. “We are well aware this human has had many requests about being turned, all of which have been denied.”
Many? I know Orin has petitioned for me to be turned, but has Marcus? I guess I’m not surprised if he has, but why wouldn’t he tell me? Did he think I’d be disappointed if it was declined?
“Mr. Hayes, were you close to death when you were with Watson, then?” Eugene asks.
I watch him for a moment, wondering why I have to tell him anything. Why I have to recall anything. “Yes.”
“At what point?” he asks, and I stare at him in disbelief.
“You have the file on it. I would have to also assume the council would already know about it since your job revolves around dealing with vampires in the city,” I say. Since I’d already had to delve into it when I was a teenager, I’m not interested in doing it again when he could just read the damn report.
“I would like to hear your account,” he says, clearly not giving a shit.
“You’re seriously going to pick at this?” Brooks asks. “He was a teenager who was tortured by a vampire. The council’s job is to keep track of vampires, to keep shit like this from happening, and I feel like the VRC has been able to do nothing but your job lately.”
Clearly, that wasn’t the right thing to say because Eugene and Harris look absolutely pissed while Kaden tries to hide his amusement.
“Why don’t you leave, Deputy Chief? I’m not quite sure why you’re even here,” Eugene says.
Brooks gives them a challenging look. “That’s alright. I’m fine right here.”
“Leave,” Eugene growls.
Brooks curses under his breath before standing up, not really given a choice. “Don’t answer anything you don’t want to answer,” he says to me before leaving the room. I’m terrified Claude is going to say something that will get them to kick him out as well, but maybe he knows that because he’s kept quiet for some time.
“Now, Mr. Hayes, I want to hear what you have to say,” Harris orders.
“Um… yes. He knew how to keep me alive, and I know that he did blood transfusions more than once. I have no idea whose blood it was, but the speculation was that it was his.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if it helped heal me, but if it did, it wasn’t like it was some magic drug or something. You can read the medical reports Watson wrote to see that.”
“But vampire blood doesn’t have any lasting effects like it’s supposedly done to you. Do you have any other effects you’d mind mentioning?” Eugene asks.
I think back on how I’ve been told that my eyesight is better than a normal human’s as well as my perception and quick reactions, but I will not tell them any of that. There’s absolutely nothing that could make me tell them anything about myself that they’ll clearly use against me. I will take it to the fucking grave if I need to.
“I wouldn’t be concerned about it. I think you’re making an issue out of nothing,” Claude says.
“We’d like to do more testing,” Harris says.
Claude shakes his head while looking stern. He’s generally so bubbly he seems like he could be a pushover, but when Claude means it, he can be as powerful as Marcus and right now, he’s exuding that strength. “You will do no such thing. If you have any questions, you can ask me. You will not stir up past trauma to satisfy some bizarre idea you have that Marcus is…what? Siphoning off a little blood at a time to turn him into a vampire? You know as well as anyone else that doesn’t work. Vampires aren’t made that way,” Claude says. “Finn is surrounded by people from the department that would notice immediately if he suddenly turned into a vampire. And if Marcus or Orin or anyone else wanted to turn him into a vampire and run off with him, I’m pretty sure they’d have already done it.”
Harris opens his mouth, but Kaden stops him before he can say anything else. “I have to agree. I met Detective Hayes a few weeks ago and nothing has changed since I’ve met him. It must be something interesting with his body or DNA or who knows what that caused Watson’s blood to affect him.”
Claude gives Kaden a nod. “Exactly. Look at his sister who is a dhampir. Their mother must have had some kind of trait that made these things possible. That alone should make it clear that his makeup could simply be different than another person’s. He could have very easily been a dhampir as well if Orin had been his father.”
Harris and Eugene seem less than thrilled by any of this as Addison just stares at us with an unreadable expression.
“I think that will be all, will it not?” Claude asks.
“It will not,” Harris says. “We’re going to be looking into this. In the meantime, we’d like you to give us some samples of your blood for testing.”
“We refuse,” Claude says flatly. “You four are in charge of the vampire council. Seeing as Finn is a human, you will need legal paperwork to get him to submit anything for testing. Thank you.”
“He works for the VRC, does he not?” Harris asks.
Claude refuses to back down. “Doesn’t matter where he works. Your jurisdiction is not with the humans.”
Chief Burns nods. “I believe Claude is right. The council legally can’t require Detective Hayes to submit something if he’s not willing.”
Harris looks ready to tear some heads off but Addison just nods. “So be it. Let’s plan a meeting next week, Detective. Maybe we can discuss some other things that need attention.”
I feel more than positive that I want absolutely nothing to do with any meeting of any kind, but I also feel like my position in the VRC could be at risk if I start throwing shit around about refusing to do whatever they want. Honestly, their control should strictly be about keeping vampires where they’re supposed to be and in check, not worrying about a human like me. But I give her a nod before standing up.
“I’m sorry to cut this short, but I’m sure you’ve heard about what’s been going on. I can’t very well keep away from work for too long when vampires are needlessly dying and the VRC could stop them,” I say.
“I’ll walk you out,” Kaden says as he gets up and ushers me to the door along with Claude before anyone else can say anything. Outside the door, Brooks waits while looking absolutely sure he’d love to kick some ass. That’s generally a Marcus thing, not a Brooks thing, so I’m kind of surprised by it.
“You alright?” Brooks asks while eyeing Kaden, like he’s not quite sure what side Kaden is on. After he’d nearly lost his head, he seems to be a bit more eager to work with us.
“I’m fine. I just… don’t quite get what’s going on,” I admit because I really don’t. And what even made Claude decide to research my blood now?
Kaden waves us through a doorway. “For now, just keep your head down, stay out of their shit, and refuse to give them anything that could hurt you in the long run. They don’t have anything on you, but they have this idea that they’ll be able to use some scare tactics to get you to cave and talk.”
“Ah, I know all about those, having worked with Marcus for years,” I say. I’m just generally not at the other end of them, and when I am, I rarely, if ever, let it get to me. I think I’m still on edge because of Ender.
“Yeah, they don’t have shit on you.”
“Can you tell me who informed them of this stuff?” I ask Kaden.
He seems to think about it for a moment before shaking his head. “I actually have no idea. I wasn’t in on it. Maybe they thought I’d warn you? I don’t know. But hopefully we don’t even have to worry about it.”
“That’d be nice,” I say as he stops at the front door.
“If you need anything, give me a call,” Kaden says as he slips me a business card. “I know Marcus doesn’t trust me and that’s fine, but he also hasn’t been around me for over a hundred years. I think we’ve all changed.”
I take it, still unsure, but it does seem like his cocky attitude shifted after he was nearly killed. Nothing like almost dying to realize that maybe you need to rely on others to keep it from happening again. “Thanks.”
“Of course.”
Brooks, Claude, and I walk out to Claude’s car since we’d taken Burns’s vehicle here and she’s still busy inside. I’m more than happy to take any car to get away from here. I was prepared to hop in the first one that slowed down or even ride on Claude’s shoulders if I had to. I’m more than positive he’d lend them.
Marcus is waiting outside the car with murder in the air. “Who do I need to kill?”
“No one yet,” Brooks says.
“Yet,” I repeat.
“Yet,” Claude adds. And if even Claude is opting for murder, we know there’s an issue. Marcus opting for murder is a daily occurrence and isn’t even surprising anymore. Delivery guy toss the package to the wrong end of the driveway? Murder. Someone forgets to use their turn signal? Vehicular murder.
“I got kicked out, so I didn’t get to hear all of it,” Brooks says.
“We’ll discuss it in the car far away from here,” Claude says as we all pile in, and Marcus begins to drive. Claude waits until we’re a few miles away before asking Marcus to pull over. We end up along the side of the road and get out in the middle of some woods where Claude wanders over to a log that he sits down on—honestly, I’m surprised he’d chance getting dirt on his… skirt.
“You going to explain what’s going on now?” Marcus asks, so Claude gives him a rundown of what happened.
Marcus shakes his head. “Okay, but if his blood has been like this for over fifteen years, what’s it even matter to them? Like you said, this isn’t even how vampires are made.”
“What matters is that his blood is odd, Marcus,” Claude says. “We all know that Finn can do things a normal human shouldn’t. He can react faster, he sees farther, he senses better than any other human I’ve met. We can all pretend it’s some talent he’s acquired, but we know it’s not true. You didn’t have any of those abilities before meeting Watson, did you?” Claude asks me.
“I… don’t know. I mean, I wasn’t much of a gunslinger before I met Watson.”
“True, but do you feel like things changed after?” he asks.
“I…” I think about it, but I’m honestly not quite sure. “I don’t know. Time with him is a bit unclear. I was in a lot of pain from the car accident, and then… everything that happened, and I don’t quite remember when it started.”
“What if it didn’t start until later?” Claude asks.
“What do you mean?”
“What if it was a continual thing that caused this change?” Claude watches me as I realize that I have no idea what he’s talking about.
“Like?”
“Like what if every surgery you went through, he gave you more of his blood? You would have no idea what he was giving you. Often there were probably times you had absolutely no idea that he gave you blood.”
I stare at him for a long moment as this sinks in. “I don’t get what you’re saying.”
“Watson controlled Miller, the man who caused the true vampires, did he not?” Claude asks, even though we all know he did.
We all know that Miller, when he’d still been human, had been trying to find a way to kill Watson when Watson ended up turning Miller and forcing him to work with him in the twisted way he enjoyed. Then Watson killed Miller before he could tell us everything.
“Miller knew how to create vampires and had done so to Watson. What if Watson was using what Miller had created to keep you alive, Finn?”
“Keep… me alive? I don’t heal faster or anything. I don’t…” I shake my head at this ludicrous idea. “Nothing about me is that different.”
“But he would have just turned Finn if he wanted to change him,” Marcus says.
“I don’t think he wanted to change Finn.” Claude is quiet for a moment. “Finn, your blood healed me insanely fast. I know you’ve given your blood to Marcus when he was hurt and you two probably assumed he healed as fast as he normally would, but you didn’t know how much those bullets would affect him.”
“But why would he make me into some… healing thing that helps vampires? It doesn’t even make sense,” I say.
“Who’s to say that’s what he wanted?” Claude leans back. “Finn, your blood is like Watson’s. You said that Ender told you this.”
“Yes…?”
“What if it doesn’t mean it’s like Watson’s as in it’s from his blood but what if it’s like his as in how Watson’s blood had been changed because of Miller.”
I don’t even know what to say to this. Honestly, I don’t even get it. All of this shit is confusing, and I don’t want to be wrapped up in some absurd theory, especially if it revolves around Watson. I’m unbelievably sick of everything about Watson. I just… want it to be over with, yet it never is.
“So… let me guess. We’re going to dig through Watson’s stuff to figure it out? Does it even matter?” I ask, knowing there’s a bite to my words.
“I think it does,” Marcus says, making me look over at him. “No matter how much I want to murder Ender, he mentioned that what Watson was doing was keeping vampires at bay, and now they’re invading the city. If Watson got a hold of something or created something like this… who’s to say what would happen if it got out in the world?”
I swallow hard at the thought. “Fucking hell, man. What if we all dress up in Santa suits and carol some more or something?”
“I’d rather murder people,” Marcus says.
“Yeah, because you’re evil!”
“Drop me off at the department, I’ll do my best to keep them at bay if they come back to harass us some more,” Brooks says.
“Thank you.”
“Do you want me to send the rest of the team over to help?” he asks as we start back toward the car.
“I’ll be in contact. I think the three of us can handle it for now, but I’ll make sure to let you know if we can’t,” Marcus says.
“Got it.”