Page 103 of Livewire Witch

That makes no sense. He was so invested in me fixing Fabian. Surely he can’t then also be in bed with the vampire that gave Fabian the cursed blood in the first place?

Ugh. This entire night is melting my brain. I feel like I’m trying to solve a puzzle with half the pieces chewed up or missing.

“You two know each other?” I address the question to Simpson, considering that Felix is drunk or maybe high again. His pupils are wide and his eyes have that wildness to them.

Felix spins around and almost topples over with the sudden movement. “Ah, yes. You.”

Simpson rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “We haven’t met before. But Mr. Hawkshead here has been more useful than he knows. We have a business agreement, whereby we supply him with whatever suits him to shove up his nose this week and he keeps his mouth shut if there are an excess of bodies in his district. He’s also been remarkably useless at discovering any useful information on the Archarcans we might be able to use against them.”

“You tried to humiliate me,” Felix spits at me. “Tried to humiliate me in front of the Nexus heir and then scurried off into the sewers. You’re gonna learn your lesson for that mistake, bitch—”

There’s a blur of motion in front of me and he chokes mid-sentence. Not because he’s realized he’s rambling and making less than no sense. But because a vampire has moved at super speed and stabbed him in the chest.

Blood slowly blooms from the wound, and Felix stares down at it with a confused expression.

He then drops to the floor, like a puppet with his strings cut.

Dead.

“A gesture of goodwill,” Simpson says. “To demonstrate how being aligned with us is better than being opposed to us. Mr Hawkshead had been causing you trouble, correct?” He splays his arms out wide, like ta-dah. Here’s my magic trick—it’s a severed head.

“Well,” he continues. “He won’t be causing any more trouble for anyone now.”

“Wh-what—” I stammer. “How do you know he was causing me problems?”

What the hell is goingonhere? Why is this vampire that not too long ago wanted to keep me like a pet and drain my blood, trying to get me on his side?

“Oh yeah, that would be me. I told them,” a familiar voice says behind me. “Not sure I recommended stabbing him in the chest since that is a whole lot of blood, but I guess... you’re welcome?”

I spin around and it’s a face I know incredibly well in front of me. But the fervent gleam in his eye is something entirely unfamiliar.

“Ember?”

30

Silver

“What the hell are you doing here? Did you... when did you talk to Simpson? The fucker wanted to turn me into his littleblood slave.”I mentally hiss the words at Ember.

This night just keeps getting weirder and I’m pretty sure my brain is going to explode out of my ears at any moment.

“Don’t worry about it,”he replies with a shrug. “I’ve been whispering sweet nothings to him and the other vamps for weeks. It’s not just them that’ll wind up on top when things change today. I’m going to make sure of that.”

I glare at him, eyes darting to Simpson to see if he’s noticed we’re having our own private internal conversation. Luckily, he’s engrossed in focusing on Felix and is poking at the wound on his chest and licking his finger with a grimace.

“Some people just don’t taste good, dude. And you’re one of them,” he tells the body on the ground.

“I told you, Silv. I said I was going to stop hiding, and I was going to make that fucker Felix pay.”He gestures to the body on the ground.

I just shake my head in disbelief.

“How long have you been planning any of this?”

I’m still not totally clear on whatthisis. He thinks that we’re teaming up with the Bad Vamps and we’re going to be involved in their tide-turning activities. I get that much. But it’s the details I’m a little fuzzy on.

That and why anybody thought that throwing zombies into the mix would ever be a good idea.

“Only since you got caught by these idiots.” He snorts out loud, leaning casually against the nearest wall like this is any other evening. “Their original plan was wooly at best, considering they’ve apparently been planning foryears. All I persuaded them to do was to find some use for all those bones and corpses they’ve been leaving around the city. Honestly, they’re sloppy as hell, and I’m not sure they’d have pulled anything off without my help.”

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