Page 55 of Reap the Night
Holly was now in the circle of trust when it came to the Ezekiel issue. The fact that Lorenzo had sent her should have been enough, but we’d opted to wait and see how she gelled. She’d been amazing with the tracking, and now her glamour removing spell had allowed us to uncover a plot we would have missed otherwise.
We had to trust her because her skills could prove invaluable in the fight ahead. If she betrayed us, then I’d put her down.
Or lock her up.
Or something.
But for now, we needed her.
She absorbed everything, chewing on her cheeks in thought. “First someone tries to put him in a vampire coma, then someone tries to weaken him and take his throne, and now someone wants to keep him awake and coherent but away from you because they think you might be the key to breaking his curse. What the fuck is going on?”
“I don’t know, but I can’t even think about it until Ezekiel is okay. Once he comes out of his waking nightmare, then I’ll worry about finding out who sent Ariella…I mean Ruby.”
“What if he doesn’t…come out of it?” Edwin said tentatively.
I’d been wondering the same thing, and all I could say was, “He has to.”
“In the meantime, we might have a solid lead on the missing persons,” Padma said. “Tell her, Holly.”
Holly set her cup down and sat forward, forearms braced on the table. “I’ve been seeing this guy for a couple of weeks. We do lunch sometimes or meet for a drink after work. Anyway, I met up with him after work today, and he took me to this hole-in-the-wall bar. We were chatting to the owner, and she was moaning about how the streets aren’t safe and how many people have gone missing and how the fucking Sangualex are doing shit about it. I mean, I told her we were looking into it but getting nowhere, and she got real excited. Asked if I’d spoken to Rodney. Turns out this Rodney guy has been interviewing a bunch of people who have lost someone…Turns out this is much bigger than we could have imagined. A bunch of the accounts mention a white van. She says he has a partial plate and took it to the Sangualex, but they kicked him out without giving him the time of day so…” She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket. “I paid him a visit.”
“You have the plate?”
“Not all of it, but enough for us to find the van with a little help.”
“Kaster.”
She beamed at me.
I nodded. “Give it to me. I’ll speak to him tomorrow.”
“Like that?” Padma pointed at my neck. “If he sees those bruises, then he’ll have questions.”
Shit, I forgot about that. “Then I’ll drop him a text with the details once we’re in New Town tomorrow.”
“The bruising should be gone in a couple of days,” Merry said. “But I can heal it fully now if?—”
“No. I’ll wait.”
She sighed and nodded.
“What am I missing?” Holly asked.
“Padma?” Merry gave her a questioning look because their stories were entwined. Was Padma willing to bring Holly into that circle of trust?
Padma exhaled and angled her body toward Holly. “We’re trusting you, Holly, but if you breathe a word of this to anyone outside of this room…”
Holly shook her head. “I won’t. You can trust me.”
“Okay, so it started with a fire…”
Chapter 19
HEMLOCK
There’s a hearth in the west wing lounge, one that’s been cleaned but not lit in a while. This is one of my favorite rooms because it mimics the sitting room in our home from before.
Before Ezekiel became a monster.
