Page 56 of Blood Currents
“You worked with my father?”
“For five years.Diana, James, and I.Foster and Sophia Alstone before they were murdered.”Levon’s voice was flat, clinical.“We documented everything.Every illegal experiment, every collaboration with corrupted vampires, every murder disguised as an accident.”
“My parents,” Keane said quietly.
“Killed because Foster discovered the first artificially corrupted wellspring,” Levon replied without softening the blow.“They made it look like a vampire attack.Very convincing.Even I believed it initially.”
My blood chilled.“Made it look like… What do you mean?”
Levon opened his impossible book, revealing not pages but shifting images—photographs, documents, recordings that moved like living memories.“Your mother, Helena Raynoff.Brilliant researcher.Too curious about the patterns in vampire attacks.”
He manipulated the images without looking at me, his attention fixed on the evidence.“She noticed they were too coordinated.Too strategic.Random violence doesn’t target specific people with surgical precision.”
“Get to the point,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Your mother discovered that council members were directing vampire attacks.Using corrupted vampires as weapons against their own investigators.”Levon finally looked at me, his expression completely matter-of-fact.“Helena was murdered by vampires working for members of the council.”
My fire exploded outward before I could stop it.Ember shrieked as my flames turned white-hot, scorching the air around us.The others scrambled back as heat poured off me in waves.
“Cyrus!”Marigold’s voice cut through the roar in my ears.
I fought to pull the fire back, to regain control, but rage was burning through me like acid.My mother.Killed by the very creatures the council claimed to fight.Killed by vampires working for council members.I’d suspected but…
“Who?”I demanded.
“I don’t know,” he said, “Could have been Alstone, could have been Lightford.”His eyes swept over us, assessing.
“Your father doesn’t know,” Levon continued, as if I wasn’t currently on fire with fury.“Lord Raynoff believes the official story.He’s been manipulated, not corrupted.There’s a difference.”
“Manipulated into what?”I managed to ask.
“Supporting policies that weaken magical defenses while believing they strengthen them.Approving treatments that corrupt witch bonds while thinking they stabilize them.”Levon pulled out more evidence—financial records, communication logs, medical reports.“He signs the authorizations because he trusts the people providing the information.He doesn’t know they’re feeding him lies.”
“And my parents?”Elio asked, his voice carefully controlled.
Levon’s gaze shifted to him with the same clinical detachment.“Lady Lightford knows.She’s been instrumental in developing the psychological manipulation techniques.Your father… also knows, though he believes it’s necessary for the greater good.”
Elio didn’t react, his mask tight and calm.
“The evidence,” I said, forcing my flames down to a manageable level.“What proof do you have?”
“Everything.”Levon moved to a cabinet filled with files and magical storage devices.“More than twenty years of documentation.”
He pulled out photograph after photograph—images that made my stomach turn.Council members meeting with creatures that looked like vampires, their eyes filled with the same oily corruption we’d seen in Keane’s magic.
“The master,” Levon said, his voice dropping to something barely audible.“They think they’re using these creatures, but they’re being used themselves.Something ancient is orchestrating this corruption, something that feeds on perverted magic itself.”
“Another vampire?”I asked.
“The first vampire.My… creator, though I broke free of his influence centuries ago.”Levon’s hands tightened on the evidence files.“He’s been planning this for a long time.The council are pawns, just like the corrupted vampires.”
The weight of that revelation settled over us.Not just corrupt politicians but an ancient evil that had been manipulating both sides of a war.
“Diana knows where more evidence is hidden at the academy,” Levon continued.“James’s evidence.If they break her under interrogation…” He trailed off, but the implication was clear.
“Then we get her out,” Marigold said firmly.
“It’s not that simple,” Levon said.“You need to find her before they move her to Alstone’s compound.No one gets out of there.”
