Page 79 of Vampire's Breath

Conall exhaled. “We’ve gotten ahead of her. I got the license plate of the car she got in. Patricia was quick to realize it was headed to the airport—something about hacking into some servers and then being able to access live feeds, because we knew where to find her. We know where she is.” He inhaled deeply, as though considering his words. “She took an afternoon flight to Dublin, and from there, she took a bus to Waterford.”

I raised my eyebrows. “To Waterford?”

Conall nodded. “That’s where we’re headed.”

A strange weight settled in my gut. I hadn’t seen Dún Na Farraige in over a hundred years. Was it even the same place?

Zadie’s voice came from the front, pulling me back to the matter at hand. “Conall, it will take me time to file a flight plan and get us over to Cork.”

From where I was sitting, I caught the smile on Joshua’s face.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” he said. “You’ve shown me enough times how to file the flight plans that I did it for you. Everything’s ready to go as soon as we get to the jet. We’ll be at the manor by one o’clock at the latest.”

Zadie’s head snapped toward him. Although she raised her brows, there was the barest hint of amusement in her eyes.

I glanced at the speedometer in front of Joshua, watching as the needle inched over 100 miles per hour. I studied Conall’s face, how he gripped his leg, his jaw and shoulders tense, his face drawn and gray.

Joshua focused on the road, weaving around the other cars with little care for getting caught. Something was off. They were much too tense. “There’s something else you’re not telling me,” I said. “What exactly is going on, Conall?”

He chewed the inside of his cheek. “I also spoke to Cormac last night.”

“Why is that a problem?”

“They’ve found the Cure,” he said. “They’ve spoken to him but haven’t let him in on his significance. Rory is still trying to get the man to trust her, but he’s pretty unassuming from what they said.”

I turned my hand up and shrugged, my eyebrows rising. “And again, the problem is?” My pulse rose as I started to lose my patience.

Conall pulled in a slow breath. “The problem isn’t the Cure or Cormac.” He paused, hesitating. If he didn’t say it soon, I’d break his neck just for the fun of watching him come back to life in pain. “The problem is what Declan had to say.” He faced me, his eyes wide, and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Lorcan, we’re going to get there. We’re going to get there as fast as we can.”

I jerked my shoulder, causing his hand to fall. My voice lowered, threat growling through it. “Get where, Conall? What is going on?”

“Declan heard from Aiden.”

The name sent a bolt of ice through me. But it still didn’t add up. I still didn’t understand. What was the fucking problem?

“Brother…” Conall hesitated, then said, “Aiden is at Dún Na Farraige.”

The air in my lungs turned to stone as my nails dug into my palms. Aiden. At Dún Na Farraige. My stomach twisted in a way that made me want to vomit.

By itself, that wasn’t the problem.

We all knew the real problem. Briar going to Waterford meant she was headed directly into his path.

She had no idea what she was walking into. And Aiden? He would be waiting.

My breath caught. I reached forward and closed the soundproof barrier between where we sat and the vampires in front. “You’ll have to leave me before you go, brother. Leave me in Aberdeen and I’ll make my way back to London. I… I can’t.”

He glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “Don’t be ridiculous. What happened?”

I bit my lip. Could I confess my fall to the brother I abandoned and left to fend for himself? How many ways had I failed my family? Myself? And now, the darkness in me was complete. “I killed for her.” My words barely made it out of my throat.

“What?”

“Yesterday. The man I compelled to get me back to Mainland. The words he said. The way he described her—threatened to take her. It was like Ashdowne had with Isobel, and I couldn’t control myself—the hunger, the anger.” I studied my hands, refusing to look in his direction. “I let it consume me, turn me into something dark.”

Laughter exploded from his chest. “Lorcan, you'd rather drive a stake through your own heart before you forced any woman, let alone Briar, unwillingly to her knees. You may enjoy exercising a bit more control over your women than some, but you killed to protect, not dominate.”

I stole a glance at him, his eyes wide with concern.

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