Page 68 of Little Wing
“Bloodlust,” he said.
I nodded.
“Wesley was lured to the barn in search of you only to be met with someone who had no choice but to survive. By any means necessary.”
I nodded again but stopped as the detectives words registered. Lured—he said Wesley was lured? How did he know that? When Ilooked back at him, I felt the understanding in his eyes. They were a brilliant gold—a color I hadn’t seen before. The sheen of moisture suggested that perhaps he understood more than most.
Detective Morello sat up straighter, clearing his throat and averting his eyes from mine once again. “Luca confessed. Yesterday during another round of questioning, he offered up a lot more information than we had before.”
“I see…” I trailed my hand back to my torso, wrapping myself in an embrace. “What will happen now?”
He gathered the photographs back inside the folder. “I will ask for just a little more of your cooperation, so we can record your account of the event. Having this on official record in his trial will speed up the sentencing.”
“What will…” I paused, unsure if I wanted to know the answer. “What will happen to me? When he is officially sentenced, what will become of me?”
“I will try to keep you informed as much as I can, but the bond between a maker and their kin is one that I do not have enough information on. The vampiric council will be heavily involved, I can assure you of that much.”
I nodded. The movement felt so lifeless that I honestly couldn’t tell that I was making it. It felt expected, yet when Detective Morello reached his hand out and rested his palm flat against the metal table. I could sense his unease. He didn’t know for sure what I could expect in the coming weeks.
Our silence was suddenly interrupted by the sound of yelling just beyond the walls of the room, loud enough for both of us to look up towards the door to the bullpen of desks and cops.
“—where is she!?”
Detective Morello pushed back in his chair and stood up with a groan before motioning for me to follow. “You have a good circle around you, Ms. Everett. They have seen the real you and still stand by your side. Have faith in that as I throw everything I have at this case.”
I couldn’t know for certain if my willingness to share every intimate detail of my torment would help, but the detectives care in listening to me gave me that inkling of hope. I would be prepared to offer up anything else that could possibly help, no matter if it made me feel completely stripped down to nothing.
I was at their mercy, silently begging the universe to let me live.
I wanted to live.
When the detective stopped at the door to wait for me, I took my time walking there with my bag clutched tightly against my chest. “Detective?”
“Yes, Ms. Everett?”
“Why are you so sure my account of all this will help? Will people even believe me after everything they’ve read?”
The detective’s smile was soft as he reached for the door, keeping his eyes on me. “Because I once had a chance to save someone’s life and failed. This is me wanting to do the right thing.” When he opened the door to reveal glimpses of Silas moving from desk to desk in search of me, I could feel the detective’s sincerity in his tone. “Please hold on a little while longer and I will get you your freedom.”
Knowing that Luca was behind bars should’ve made me feel more at ease. He was the dark cloud hovering above us as we waited for the date of his sentencing. I knew that Lotus wouldn’t feel true peace until all this was over. Granted, there was some hope after she went back to the police for further questioning, and to have her testimony officially recorded. The detective seemed hopeful that her participation could speed things along and put her in a better position against her brother. I just knew that having to recount it repeatedly was resting heavily on her shoulders. Despite everything that she had to go through, she still managed to share her warm smile with me.
I didn’t know how she did it.
All I knew was that I needed to do something, anything, to help her. So, what did I do instead of working on a budget spreadsheet for Little Wing? I researched vampire practices. Reading about these practices and listening to the things that Lotus was being asked about made me realize how little I knew about our own people. I only knew what Elias taught me.
When Elias gave us permission to either follow him or leave after the treaties were signed, there was no breaking of our tether to him. He was and always would be our maker. Our tether had just beenextended. I held no ill feelings toward him, not like Lotus did toward her brother. Elias never drank from us after we were turned. He gifted us with his blood and that was it.
Meanwhile, the image of Lotus’s neck, bent and bleeding, infected my mind. The sound of her pleading to be let go replayed over and over until I gasped, realizing I had cracked yet another cap off a pen I clutched too tightly.
“Fuck,” I growled, tossing the cracked cap into the trash bin.
“You good there?” Mateo asked from the other side of the room. Sometimes I honestly forgot he was also in the office. He could be loud when he needed to be around others while he was networking or celebrating, but when he needed to concentrate on something important to him, he could practically be invisible. A true vampire in every sense.
“Yeah, I’m—” I began before a knock at the door stirred me.
Quinn opened the door wide enough to wedge herself between it. “I can hear you growling from out there. Just making sure you two aren’t watching porn on our very public Wi-Fi.”
I rolled my eyes and shut my laptop before spinning in my chair, mainly to turn away from her. As the door shut behind her, I hoped it meant she went back out to the reception, but that was apparently too much to ask. I could hear her pulling up a spare chair to my desk.
