Page 57 of House of Royals

“You come grab these biscuits?” Fred calls from the back.

“Coming.”

AND ALL THAT WEEK, PEOPLE talk about the attacks. The fear and the speculation builds and builds.

At some point, it’s all going to explode.

ON DECEMBER NINTH, CORBIN, THE man who got all worked up at Fred’s the second he found out I was of Conrath blood, shoots an innocent man who is out too late one night, because Corbin was convinced he was a vampire.

On December tenth, Sheriff McCoy arrests another woman for breaking into her best friend’s house, sure she was feeding off of her husband at nights.

December eleventh, Rath shows me another secret door in my bedroom that opens into an armory. There’s nothing else to call it. The small room is stocked with guns, crossbows, stakes, knives—anything and everything deadly.

I have to be ready to protect myself with the town so on edge.

December twelfth is the day I finally realize that I haven’t seen Ian in two days. Which is out of character and scary. We’re down to nineteen days, and Ian wouldn’t waste any of them.

Something’s wrong.

“Damn it,” I hiss at my phone when Ian doesn’t answer. He hasn’t responded to any of my texts, either.

Shoving my cell phone into the back pocket of my jeans, I grab the keys to the Jeep from the hook and open the garage. Just as I’m about to open the driver’s door, a car rolls up behind it.

Elle climbs out of the rust bucket and I remember that she’s just turned sixteen.

“Have you seen Ian?” she asks with worry in her voice.

“I’ve been trying to get ahold of him all day. I haven’t seen him since Wednesday.” Fear and anticipation leap into my chest and threaten to choke me.

“He came home from work this morning in areallybad mood,” Elle says. She clutches the hem of her shirt and twists the fabric absentmindedly. “I went to the cabin to try and talk to him about what was wrong. I didn’t even go to my first two classes this morning ‘cause I was worried about him. But he wouldn’t tell me anything. He just kept talking to himself and looking at the maps of town. He was twirling a stake the whole time.”

“Something happened at work last night,” I say as I watch the sun sink behind the house. “I don’t know if he’s told you how there’s been two attacks in the last week. There had to be another one.”

“He told me,” she says in that gentle voice of hers. I’ve never noticed the necklace Elle wears until now. It’s a long silver cord and on the end of it is a simple narrow shaft. And suddenly, I have no doubt it’s really a needle with the toxin inside of it. “But he said he didn’t know how to fix it.”

I swear under my breath. “I think I know where he’s planning to go. You’re blocking me in, so you drive.”

Elle doesn’t ask questions as I direct her. She stares straight out the window, fingers gripped white-knuckled on the steering wheel. Her jaw is clenched tightly. But she’s calm and quiet. It’s kind of disturbing how collected she always is.

“Park here,” I say as we get within a mile. “Pull into the trees so no one can see the car. We’ll walk in from here.”

The underbrush is thick, and the ground is wet and smelly. It’s half swamp from here to the House.

“I wanted to talk to the House about the attacks,” I explain as we carefully work our way through the brush and muck. “Ian was too scared to let me go, but they’re the only ones who might know something. And Ian knows that.”

“But they hate my brother,” Elle says, fear showing in her voice.

I nod.

It was bad when I walked into the House the first time. They could have killed me right then. But I would have resurrected.

Ian won’t resurrect. If they kill him, he’ll die. And while the House had no hard feelings toward me other than the choices of my father, they have every reason to hate Ian.

I start walking faster.

The House comes into view, and my heart breaks into a sprint when I see Ian’s van parked right in front.

“What’s the plan?” Elle whispers as we get closer. “They can’t know you two are together. I only brought three doses and my blowgun. We can’t take them all down to get him out of there.”

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