Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 62580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
“How about you just get on with what you wanted to tell them,” Abe suggested facetiously.
Adelaide growled in aggravation.
“I was trying to find a way to get Jolie to stop calling when I inadvertently stumbled along another man who was much in the same position as you. He’s a much younger and less-seasoned vampire than yourself, Con, and he had all sorts of interesting stuff to share,” Adelaide continued. “Jolie’s apparently done this before, and has left quite a few unsuspecting men out to dry, so to speak, after taking them for all they’re worth. Since she’s such an old vampire, and her maker is one of the council, no harm has come to her yet due to her actions.”
Acadia leaned into my side and I threaded my arm around her waist as I continued to listen.
“He was very informative, and I think you’d enjoy listening to what he has to say,” she explained.
“I talked to him. Despite the fact that he’s scared of his own shadow, he’s quite intelligent, and I hope you don’t mind, but I offered him a job at our company. Despite Jolie cleaning him out, he was able to get it all back, and he’s made it his new mission to fix whatever Jolie fucks up.”
I grunted in reply.
“Abe was supposed to come today and give you this information,” Adelaide continued. “When he found out about your daughter and her grave, I had a man we had on retainer go take a look, and he reported back about an hour ago that there was a trap set.”
“Why a trap?” I asked.
“When Jolie’s attempts at luring you out again failed, she started asking around with the help of her maker, and apparently paired her services with another that also has a bone to pick with you.”
“Seraphina.”
Acadia drew in a deep breath.
“Seraphina,” Adelaide confirmed. “But that’s only suspicion at this point. We only have a visual confirmation. Not an actual name.”
“They used my daughter’s passing to lure me to the grave. Why?”
“Chris, the man I have on retainer, doesn’t know,” Adelaide said. “He was only able to provide visual proof due to the amount of activity at your place.”
“What do you mean by ‘amount of activity?’” I asked warily.
“Your place was set on fire, and the grounds within a few hundred yards were destroyed by what looks like a well-placed bomb.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose in irritation.
“Do you think that Seraphina and Jolie are working with the human activists, or is this a separate issue altogether?”
“I’m not sure,” Adelaide admitted. “But I plan on figuring that out once some of my contacts report back to me.”
I nodded.
“Thank you, Adelaide.”
Adelaide had always provided the type of services that no one in the world could equal, and I’d never appreciated that more.
“You’re welcome, Con.”
With that, Adelaide was gone, leaving Abe holding his phone and looking at me with a wide grin on his face.
“I feel like I need to meet this Adelaide,” Acadia murmured. “She seems very helpful.”
I tightened my hand on her hip, and her mouth twitched.
“Your place was breached around five this afternoon.”
“And I wasn’t informed?” I growled.
“You were informed,” Abe interjected. “In fact, I had Adelaide call three times. And I called four.”
I opened my mouth to start shouting and quickly shut it at Acadia’s next words.
Acadia squirmed. “You were asleep. That was the entire reason that she came.”
“What do you mean?” I asked her, looking down at her beautiful, concerned face.
“That was how they kept you distracted,” she pointed out. “Whatever she did to keep you asleep, it was enough to keep you from knowing what was going on at your place.”
“And Nola?” I asked stiffly.
Acadia shook her head.
“That seems more like an F-U on her part rather than actually needing to do it,” she admitted. “But again, all of these are just guesses. I have no proof.”
“So she has some vampire superpower that no one else has?” I growled, getting angry all over again.
“More likely she introduced something into the air that caused you all to be affected,” Abe said.
“Then why did Acadia wake up and not the rest of us?”
That was Fox.
“Because Acadia’s different,” I murmured. “She’s not been normal since she was turned. And I haven’t figured out exactly why yet. I haven’t fed her in over forty-eight hours. That’s only normal for the oldest of vampires. And that’s not even to mention that she walked out in full sun to Nola and didn’t even flinch.”
“A dayer.”
“What’s a dayer?”
“A vampire, a rare one, that doesn’t need sleep to function,” I murmured. “Doesn’t need to feed but once in a blue moon, and is as strong if not stronger than the oldest of vampires. Oh, and dayers don’t feed off of humans. They feed off of undead blood. That’s why you didn’t find what Chen was drinking appealing.”