Page 29 of The Prodigies
I held her as every one of her tears made me itch to slice and dice Fred Emery. Layla would have the same reaction, and that only increased my desire to drive a dagger straight into his heart.
“Were you trying to show the Aberdeens a vampire was responsible for his death?” Tripp asked Fred.
“It worked, didn’t it?” he said in that egoistical tone that seemed to be his signature trait. “The Aberdeens think Kendra is the guilty vampire.”
“Why did you kill Wayne Aberdeen?” I asked, holding Jordyn.
She sniffled and faced Fred.
In the coldest of timbres, Fred said, “Because he didn’t give me what I wanted.”
Jordyn made to unleash more rage, but I gripped her shoulders. “Wait.”
Fred was vomiting up information or rather, bragging, and we couldn’t break the momentum.
The fuckwad moved his upper body around, seemingly finding a comfortable position with his hands cuffed behind his back. “It took my brother a few years to wrap his head around Patrick Mason’s genetic data, vampires, and what Patrick had been trying to do. Once he did, he decided to continue where Patrick left off.”
Obviously that wasn’t news to us.
Jordyn went over and sat on the cot while Tripp and I stood over Fred.
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “To start, we needed vampires to study. That’s where the Aberdeens came in. Patrick had a list of names, including vampire hunters. Two years ago, I met with Wayne, and we made a deal. Intech would pay him in exchange for vampires. It was going well until Kendra came into the picture. I wanted to bring the blond vampire in, but Wayne said no. We got into a heated argument one night outside the Deer and Elk Bar in Montana.”
“You murdered him because he wouldn’t give you Kendra?” Jordyn asked, horrified. “What’s so special about her?”
“It wasn’t so much about her but rather who she knew.” Fred glowered at me.
I could feel my brow lifting. “I don’t know Kendra.” I knew of her. Jack and Ray Aberdeen had dragged her to our meeting at the abandoned airport outside of Chicago. Then she’d stayed briefly in our infirmary after Ben and Olivia found her unconscious in her hotel room, thanks to Roman Brown. I hadn’t talked to her either time. My sister had but hadn’t learned much except that Kendra had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“From the conversation I overheard between Wayne and her, Kendra seemed to know you Masons pretty well.”
Tripp scraped his fingers along his jaw. “In our world, most vampires knowofthe Masons.”
Popularity for being the most powerful family. A stigma I wished like fuck I didn’t have.
“Then how does Kendra know about Abbey?” Fred asked.
My jaw hit the floor. Maybe my father knew Kendra. Even if he did, he wouldn’t share anything about Jo’s adopted daughter to anyone except those in his inner circle. He’d always been secretive about my niece. After all, he knew that if word ever spread about how she was changing into a vampire as she aged, her magical powers, and how she was prophesied to be the first female vampire to produce offspring, then she would be hunted. Which was coming to pass since Roman was salivating to get his evil paws on her. Not to mention Intech and Harriet Aberdeen.
I glared down at Fred. “Did Kendra say how she knew about her?”
“I’ve told you plenty,” he said.
I was lunging for the fucker when Tripp’s fangs lowered, and he clutched Fred’s throat, then lifted his ass off the floor. “Talk, or else I’ll give Jordyn my dagger so she can slice off your dick.” Seething, Tripp released him.
Fred rubbed his neck. “Fuck you.”
I laughed as I bowed my head, my eyes changing, my fangs sliding out, and heat crawling along my right arm until it filled my hand.
Fred jerked his attention to Tripp. “What’s he doing?”
A fireball spun in my hand, growing bigger and bigger. “Either talk or I’ll shove this down your throat.” I didn’t give a rat’s ass if he was on fire when we threw him off base.
“Okay.” For the first time since the guard brought Fred in, he was bathing in fear.
I snuffed out my fire element, closing my hand into a fist as Fred began to talk.
“I overheard Kendra telling Wayne about how she knew Wayne’s wife, Meredith, and her sister Vanessa. They grew up together. In a nutshell, Vanessa has a granddaughter. Kendra didn’t know much about her except the little girl would be around eight years old. That conversation was two years ago. Therefore, the girl should be ten today.”
