I couldn’t believe what I was hearing or what I was seeing. I leaned back around to be sure I wasn’t wrong, but there was no mistaking it. He was shorter, slimmer, and much paler than Candido, with lighter hair. While he was still taller than Sibyl, even in her heels, he wasn’t as tall as Candido. I pulled my phone out, aiming it at the sight and pressing record. I zoomed in to make sure I got their faces and focused my hearing to get every bit of their conversation.Was he in league with the vampires or just Sibyl’s lover? Who else would benefit from getting Sibyl on the throne quickly other than Norton?“But… But I’m so close,” she said. “Oh, please…”“That’s what you get for being over-eager. What if your father comes out here and catches you?”“Oh, he already knows, you know that,” Sibyl said. “Everything will be fine. Don’t tease me like this.”“And Candido?”“My father will keep him busy for a long time. Hours. Candido’s going to fight to the end to hash out all the details and
I could try to run, but nothing in me said it was a good idea. It would be better to try and get as much as I could out of this man. Slowly, I rose to my feet, stepping just out of the shadow of the tree, but no further. If I distracted him, I could hope to outrun him, but that was a slim chance. He’d darted over her so fast. Before I even managed to push my power, I would be caught, but maybe I could fight him off enough to get closer to the house to alert security. There had to be a guard around here.If not Candido’s guards, then there was definitely a Moon Shadow person around. I’d had them tailing the Red Moon cars for a while. Someone would be nearby. I had my safety beacon on, so at least if I died here, someone would find me, but I didn’t feel like he was going to kill me tonight.At least, I hoped he wasn’t.“You’re much prettier up close,” he said, looking at me. “That golden hair of yours is really something. I thought it might be a dye job, but your eyebrows are about the
I thought he would come out, surely, he heard me, but he didn’t show up. I almost called his name again.Then, I heard Sibyl’s voice. “I didn’t think I was asking anything hard! You should pay for my dress!”“Have your father pay for it,” Candido replied.She growled as I leaned against the wall near his office door. They had to be around the corner. Normally, I would have walked on, but I couldn’t muster up the strength, so I slumped down and simply listened.“You’re being so selfish. I’m not the only one getting married! I’m going to be queen—”“You will never be queen, Sibyl,” he growled. “How many times—”“I’ll be your wife! You can’t deny me my right.”“I can do as I please,” he said. “The budget stands as it’s the only thing your father can afford. Perhaps you should be focused on finding something suitable since you moving up the date so much has eaten through over half of it.”“Why can’t I just be excited to be married to you?” Sibyl asked. “Why are you acting like this is suc
I shuddered, thinking back to the man and the glow of his eyes, the way his face had shifted and changed. I felt sick. He’d met Candido already and no one had ever noticed the difference.The link between vampires and werewolves had to be stronger than I thought if they could slip into our society basically undetected.I had to talk to Candido. I had to try and keep calm during the conversation and not get upset with him. He was such a great man, sticking to his morals and all that, but this was about more than that.Now that he had at least started to think about what vampires could want with werewolf women, why they showed up pregnant and so on, he had to start questioning Sibyl. Maybe he just believed that she was entangling herself with another werewolf to spite him or just to be willful and selfish, but maybe not.I got out of the tub and wrapped my injuries as much as possible. Someone had left a tray of food and I ate it. My hunger strike wasn’t doing me any favors if I had to
I woke up slowly, alone on the couch and wrapped up in the blanket that I had put over Candido the night before. There was faint light coming through the window. It couldn’t have been any time later than five or six in the morning. My body still ached from the night before, but I didn’t feel as bad as I had. I lifted my head to look at the tray on the table. There was only one, and it was different from the one that had been there last night.I bet it was breakfast for me. I set my jaw. I needed to eat. I needed my strength, but that didn’t mean I had to eat with him or in a way that he knew I was eating. I could sneak out later and get something to eat.My heart lurched at the thought. That man was waiting out in the world somewhere until I knew how to spot him, avoid him, or could capture him, it wasn’t safe. Not with the wedding still on track to happen.That conversation last night was clear cut: Candido knew that Sibyl was unfit to be his wife in any way, and he was still going t
I locked the door behind me, put in my headphones, drew the curtains around my bed and got to work. The click of my fingers on the keys filled the room as I tuned into the pages and pages of reports from New Moon, Red Moon, and surrounding areas. I put them to one side of my screen and started looking for the vampire in any photo across social media, security cameras, and anything else I could get into.But there was nothing. I worried my lip and looked over at the book about vampires. I pulled it to me as the rest of the case records started to load and my program continued to search.I opened the book, flipping the pages, straining to read it. I flipped it around and pushed my power until I could just barely feel something behind my eyes and rumbling in my chest like my wolf waking up and growling down at the page.I growled as my head began to hurt from staring at the page for so long.There had to be some way to read this damn thing!Before I could throw it aside. I felt something
He stared at me as if he was ready to argue about it. “No.”I closed the door behind me. “Why not. Give me a good reason for you to keep that book from me.”He winced. “It’s a family thing.”“Like the passage under the school? Is it connected to that?”I thought back to the passage in the vampire book. “Is this about the blue moon? The day moon?”He flinched and narrowed his eyes. “Where did you hear that term?”I narrowed my eyes. “No.”He bared his teeth. “You’re being childish. ““You’re being unrealistic! If you think saying it’s a family thing is enough to keep me from asking about it.”I glared at him. “You want to keep me out of something that I’m already involved in. you can’t keep treating me like a child. Would you rather me just go into the secret passage—”He scoffed. “You wouldn’t know how to open it.”I took a chance. “I’m sure a few magic words would do it.”He laughed. “You wouldn’t be able to open it no matter what you do. You’re not of an awakened bloodline.”My eyes
Candido turned swiftly with a roar. The air shook, and the beast tumbled aside as if the ground had shifted beneath its feet. He let out a startled sound and landed with a loud thump. It seemed stunned as it slammed into a large rock nearby.Where had it come from?“Run!” Candido said, shoving me away from the beast and back towards the Estate.I turned, clutching the book to my chest and scanning the area when my sense of being watched seemed to spike. There were people, several people around us. Something sharp filled the air, then flames rose up around us. The heat of the fire warmed the air, and the light painted the forest with a golden orange glow. I felt my fear start to rise as I realized that we were trapped. In the trees, I saw several figures crouched and looking down at us. There had to be at least twenty of them. We were surrounded.Each of their eyes glinted with silver and gold. There was only one of them whose eyes were completely black. The firelight glinted on his te