Page 62 of Blood Currents
It felt like a warning I wasn’t quite understanding.
Elio had said his parents were observing my friends.That’s all they were doing.Right?They hadn’t experimented on them or dosed them with something?They couldn’t.Right?Raven and Lucas would have told me.
If something happened to them, I would never forgive myself.
28
Cyrus
I stood outside my father’sstudy, Levon’s evidence folder clutched in my hands like a weapon.The familiar mahogany door that had intimidated me as a child now looked like just another barrier to tear down.
My mother hadn’t died in a random vampire attack.She’d been murdered for getting too close to the truth.And my father—the man who’d raised me, who’d shaped my entire worldview around her death—deserved to know what really happened to her.
Even if it destroyed him.
I knocked once and entered without waiting for permission.
“Cyrus.”Father looked up from his desk, surprise flickering across his features before settling into practiced authority.“I wasn’t expecting you back from the academy until tomorrow.”
“We need to talk.”I closed the door behind me, noting how his eyes tracked the folder in my hands.“About Mother.”
His expression went carefully neutral.“Son, if this is about your training requirements—”
“Helena Raynoff was murdered by vampires working for council members,” I said, cutting straight to the heart of it.“She wasn’t killed by random monsters.She was assassinated because she was investigating corruption at the highest levels of magical government.”
The color drained from his face.“Where did you hear that?”
“From someone who was there.”I moved closer to his desk, setting the folder down between us.“From someone who worked with her, who watched her die trying to expose the same conspiracy that’s still operating today.”
Father’s hands shook slightly as he opened the folder.I watched his face as he read Levon’s documentation—photographs of secret meetings, recorded conversations, financial records showing payments from council members to vampire mercenaries.
“This is…” He stopped, his voice cracking.“This is impossible.”
“Is it?”I pulled out the photograph that had hit me hardest—my mother shaking hands with Levon, both of them smiling, clearly allies rather than enemies.“Look at the date.Three days before she died.They were working together, Father.She was trying to forge peace between witches and vampires, and the council killed her for it.”
“No.”But his denial lacked conviction.I could see him starting to piece things together—the timing of certain council decisions, the convenient political ramifications of Mother’s death, the way her investigation had been quietly buried.
“She discovered that vampire attacks were being coordinated,” I continued relentlessly.“That council members were directing them against specific targets—researchers, peacekeepers, anyone who threatened their control.The war isn’t natural, Father.It’s manufactured.”
He set down the photograph with trembling fingers.“Even if this is true—and I’m not saying it is—what would you have me do?Question everything I’ve believed for eighteen years?”
“Yes.”The word came out harder than I’d intended.“Because everything you’ve believed is a lie.And while you’ve been grieving her death and supporting the people who killed her, they’ve been using you to implement policies that make their job easier.”
“Using me?”His voice rose, authority reasserting itself.“I’m a council member, Cyrus.I make informed decisions based on the best available intelligence—”
“Intelligence provided by the same people who murdered your wife!”I slammed my hand on the desk, fire flaring around my fingers.“Don’t you see?They fed you their version of events, shaped your grief into a weapon, and turned you into their perfect advocate for anti-vampire policies.You’ve been their puppet for eighteen years.”
The words hung between us like a blade.Father stared at me with something that might have been recognition—or might have been the dawning horror of understanding just how thoroughly he’d been manipulated.
“Lord Alstone,” he said slowly.“He was the one who brought me the intelligence about Helena’s death.He said he’d investigated personally, that he was certain it was a random attack…”
“Lord Alstone is working with vampire allies,” I said.“Has been for years.He manipulated and controlled Keane’s magic to make him look like a traitor.”
Father’s face went gray.“Keane Alstone?But he’s declared a traitor—”
“He’s a victim.”I pulled out another file—the medical records Levon had kept, documentation of the psychological torture Keane had endured.“This is what they do to people who get too close to the truth.This is what they would have done to Mother if they’d captured her instead of killing her.”
He read in silence, his breathing growing more labored with each page.When he finally looked up, tears shone in his eyes.
