Chapter 94 Ch. 64
Dylan sat in his living room, quite lost in thought. The television was on, but he paid no attention to it as usual. He was thinking about Ivanna and how he had tried to see her every day, and she kept refusing. She was hysterical at times, even as the whole blood thing was messing with his mind. He frowned slightly, feeling sad. His dream had been to live a happy life away from his brother and from his clan—with her. But now Ivanna didn’t want to see him, so how was he going to find happiness?
The knock at the door startled him for a bit. He had not received any visitors in a few days. He rose and opened it. Officer Marcus stood there, a faint smirk on his face.
“May I help you?” Dylan asked, stepping aside.
“Where’s Ivanna right now?” he asked immediately.
Dylan’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean… she died and her body went missing from the morgue? Remember?”
Officer Marcus blinked. “Yes. That’s exactly what I mean.”
“Um?”
Marcus leaned against the doorframe, looking amused. “Or maybe you took her yourself to try and bring her back, huh? The house is empty, so I guess she’s angry you turned her.”
Dylan’s jaw tightened. He froze. He had compelled Marcus the other night. How… how was he standing there, not under his control?
Marcus laughed lightly. “Yeah, your little hypnosis didn’t work.”
Dylan’s eyes narrowed. “What? How? What the fuck do you mean?”
“Compulsion. It can’t work on me—I only pretended. And I have evidence to support all my claims of vampires existing. And you will also help me prove it to the police.”
Dylan opened his mouth, then closed it again. “What do you want?”
“Gangs. The recent mass killings are connected to your brother.”
“You have no proof of that.”
“You are going to help me prove it. There’s a lot of circumstantial evidence but nothing solid. You are the solid thing I have.”
“I have no business with my brother’s dealings. I run a club—we don’t do drugs, I don’t pimp girls. It’s an honest club.”
“It doesn’t—” Marcus’s phone buzzed. He looked at it, frowned, then swore under his breath. “Shit,” he muttered, listening for a moment. He hung up and turned back to Dylan. “I’ll be back.”
Dylan took a step closer. “What’s going on?”
Marcus’s eyes flicked toward the window. “School shooting at a race or something. Kidnapping,” he said vaguely. Then he turned and walked off, leaving Dylan staring after him.
+++
“Shit,” his father repeated after him. “Someone else knows. Your uncle Dylan—”
“He wouldn’t,” Ethan said hastily. “Dylan’s only concern right now is his girlfriend, who you killed.”
“I didn’t kill her, son,” Lorenzo said, his lips pressing into a thin grim line. “I mean, she’s alive. Isn’t that why he took Zara’s blood? I know all about that. I know that’s why he defended her against me.”
Ethan took in a deep breath, trying to calm the panic he felt inside him. He had tried to protect Zara and then failed—that was killing him.
“It is from another clan, or somehow The Veiled know about her existence, which can only mean two things,” his father said after minutes of silence. “They will kill her and you die, or they drain her of powers and you die.”
“Either way, I die, and I don’t care about that,” said Ethan. “I care about her safety. I shall see you later, Father.”
“And where do you think you’re going? Or what are you going to do about it?”
“Find her. Isn’t that obvious?”
“With no plan at hand? Do you even have an idea where she would have been taken to?”
Ethan said nothing but swallowed hard.
“I’ll handle it, son. Get your pretty little girlfriend out of whatever trouble she’s got herself in.”
Ethan fought the urge to give a snarky remark. He didn’t want his father handling it, but his father had most of the resources. Then again, if his father handled it, he would trap Zara and use her for his benefit.
He stormed out of the room angrily, digging into his pocket to pull out his phone. His fingers were shaking slightly, but he forced them to move. He hit the call button for his uncle Dylan and pressed the phone to his ear.
“Hello?” Dylan’s voice sounded tired but alert.
“Uncle Dylan, it’s Ethan,” he said, trying to keep his voice calm though his chest felt tight. “I need your help. Now.”
There was a pause on the other end. “Help? Ethan, slow down. What’s going on?”
“It’s Zara. She’s been taken,” Ethan said quickly. “Someone got her at the school during her race. There were shots, chaos everywhere, and I think she’s being held somewhere dangerous. Who else knows what she is? I don’t know what to do, and I can’t go through my father for this.”
There was silence for a moment. “Taken? What the hell, Ethan? Are you sure?”
“I saw it,” Ethan said, running a hand over his face. “I tried to protect her. I was always watching, but I failed.”
“This happened… like now, right?” Dylan asked thoughtfully.
“Yeah? Do you have anything to do with it? Or know someone who does?”
“No, no,” Dylan said hastily. “But I think I might have a way to help, but it’s tricky. The police—they’re doing their investigation, but they won’t help us directly.”
Ethan frowned, confused. “Then what? They’re useless.”
“No,” Dylan said. “I might have leverage there, a way to influence things without them knowing it’s me.”
Ethan paused, running a hand through his hair, trying to make sense of it. “Leverage? How?”
“That’s something I need to explain in person,” Dylan said. “We should meet up. I can tell you everything now. I’ll have to come to a compromise with him.”
Ethan’s heart was still hammering, but he nodded to himself. “With who?”
“Just come… today? I’ll try and get him to come back here today.”
“Fine. I’ll come.”
“Good. Be careful, Ethan,” Dylan said. “Don’t do anything rash before we meet.”
“I won’t,” Ethan promised, though the words felt hollow.