Page 112 of Dark Souls

“Do it, and I’ll shave your hair off in your sleep!” I shouted when my uncle subtly placed his hands on the table and gave it a devious shake. The Jenga tower jiggled as I steadied my hand and pulled out the block with a hand-written truth or dare on it. I shot a look of triumph at him as I gave him my middle finger. He was such a competitive cheat in games on family nights. I’d never met such a sore loser in my life.Except for me.

“I didn’t do anything! And you leave my hair out of it.” He fussed with his long black waves and my mum rolled her eyes as she took a sip of wine.

“Is it a truth or dare?” Grandma Maddy asked from her position next to him.

I almost snorted with laughter at the unbelievable coincidence of choosing that specific block.

“Truth: What’s the most memorable gift you’ve ever received?”

Thankfully, the truth serum was completely out of my system because I was sure a gift-wrapped human heart left by my demon stalker would not go down too well as my answer.

“Well, that’s obvious.” Mum unknowingly came to the rescue. “That mutated spider from Leif, surely.”

“I wouldn’t call that a gift.” Dad laughed. “Not after the way she screamed the bloody house down so loudly that I thought she was being murdered. And then I had to spend a good five minutes chasing that thing around the room to capture it.”

“Making you all hot, sweaty and full of adrenaline. It was the gift that kept on giving.” Mum gave Dad one of her sultry looks from across the table as he leaned back in his chair with a smirk. They locked eyes, a strange shared sexual memory flickering between them. I shuddered next to him.Disturbing.

“Yeah. That was it.” I shrugged, placing the block down as Sienna leaned forward to take her turn, concentrating hard on not being the one to knock the whole thing down.

“Where’s Grandpapi?” I asked for the second time. He missed dinner, which was unheard. His absence was always noticed, especially by me. He wasn’t the life and soul of the party or anything, but he always had this undeniable presence. A darker energy than the other members of my family, but I loved his dry sense of humour and quiet amusement at family nights. Most people would describe him as intimidating but for me, he was a comfort. He made me feel less like the black sheep in this family of extroverts and sunshine.

“He must still be in his meeting.” Grandma frowned. She was obviously upset he wasn’t there—she hadn’t stopped looking at her watch all evening.

“So, Lorcan, Leif and Grandpapi are missing the family night, yet I was the one who got a scolding for being half an hour late?” I raised my eyebrow at my mum.

“Your brothers are in another realm, trying to adjust to their new normal after the war. And your grandpapi is clearly in an important meeting with his vampire clan. If you can give me a reason as good as either of those for missing quality time with your family, go ahead. Tell me. I’d love to know how my secretive daughter spends her free time these days.”

‘Oh, you really wouldn’t, mother dearest. Just having the greatest sex of our life with our sexy red flag of a mate while also trying to solve the biggest mystery as to who the hell he is.’

I narrowed my eyes and folded my arms over my chest defiantly. Grandpapi chose that moment to enter the room, his face etched with worry, his shoulders slumped. He kissed my grandma on the lips before taking his seat in the armchair by the fire like he always did. With our Jenga game on hold, the rest of us moved over to join him in the lounge area and settled down on the sofas.

“That was a long meeting. Is everything alright?” Mum asked. They always seemed to have this sixth sense between them.

He sighed, and I didn’t miss how his blue and brown eyes darted over to me briefly.What was that?

“Not really. I was going to talk to you about this tomorrow because I didn’t want to put a damper on family night, but seeing as you asked and you’re all here, two members of the Romano clan have gone missing. I was in a meeting with their families, as well as Ren and Mitch.”

Shit, that must be serious if Ren, the vampire Elder and council representative of vampires and Mitch, my grandpapi’s head of the vampire army were involved.

“Oh, no! Who is missing?” Grandma Maddy asked as everyone sat quietly. My pulse quickened to an unhealthy speed when my grandpapi’s eyes found mine again. Did he think I knew something?

“Two soldiers from our village. They went on a night out together a few days ago and never came home.” He paused as he rubbed his jaw. “It was the same night Ilaria went to that underground event. And the location of their phones were last used was the same location Ilaria gave us for the event.”

My eyebrows tightened as I tried to understand what he was insinuating. Grandpapi handed us pictures of the men. I didn’t recognise them at all, and I definitely didn’t see them atThe Pleasure Den.

“You think they’re members ofThe Underground?” my mum asked, her eyes darting back to me. In fact, all eyes seemed to cast my way as I sat unnaturally still in my chair.

“I think they were, not that their families had any idea. Clearly, if they were, they hadn’t told them. But I think they’re dead now,” Grandpapi said harshly, staring at me.

“What?” I asked defensively. “You think I know something about this? Because I don’t.”

Grandpapi leaned forwards, his face expressionless but his eyes full of questions. “I’m not saying you do but you were there. Did you see anything suspicious?”

The pile of burning bodies beneath the flames. Shit. Heathen, what did you do?

“No.” I shrugged. “I didn’t see anyone killing anyone, if that’s what you are asking.”

He sat back and nodded. “This puts me, or us, in a very precarious position now. We can’t just ignore it.”

---