Page 122 of Burn for Her
So that was the weapon used to torture that poor animal. Dorian figured as much. “Anything else?”
“Nothing.”
“How’s the rest of the family?”
“Dad’s taking care of things.”
Closing his eyes, Dorian let guilt wash over him, “I’m so sorry I brought this to you guys.”
“You didn’t bring shit to us, Dorian.”
“Yes, I did.” He felt responsible for everyone in his life. The Woods family, Lena, the king, Lucian, the list could go on and on. “Tell Alistair and the others I’ll get to the bottom of this myself. When I find who did this, do you want first choice?”
Emerick was quiet on the other end again. So quiet, Dorian thought he might have hung up. “Hello?”
“No,” he said. “I think you need to keep this within the House of Death’s realm. If possible, record it. If not, your word is enough for us.”
“My word doesn’t mean shit to any other Lycan.”
“It doesn’t matter, Dorian. Whether you take this asshole out in front of all our clans or not, they’ll still never accept you as we do. Just… do it for us… and we’ll handle the rest on our end.”
“I can’t let a war start.” His words were a harsh whisper. “I can’t allow your family to stick your necks out for me again. If you want this kill, it’s yours. I’ll hand deliver this bastard to you. My King will understand.”
“It’s not your King who worries us.”
Dorian tensed. “What aren’t you telling me, Emerick?”
“One of the younger Lycan said they recognized the scent of the vampire. He’s insisting he knows who it is.”
“Then tell me, and I’ll take care of it.”
“He might be wrong. We have no way to verify without bringing you or another trusted vampire back here to confirm, and that can’t happen right now.”
Dorian’s gut eased with the mention of “trusted vampire”. To know the Woods clan still had Dorian’s back even though all signs pointed to him, or one of his kind, as the monster who desecrated such a sacred animal, twisted Dorian’s heart all up. He needed to fix this. End it. If they had a clue, a lead, no matter how shaky it might be, Dorian wanted to know it. “Whose scent was on the weapon, Emerick?”
“Stryx, the House of Bone’s precious prince. The shifter won’t say more. His clan’s furious that he’s been in contact with a vampire at all.”
Stryx. Marius’s son.
How did Marius not have knowledge about any of this? Was he that skilled of an actor that not even Lucian could detect his lies? Or was Dorian right all along about Stryx going Rogue?
At this point, the answer didn’t matter. Stryx was a dead vampire walking.
Dorian detached from all warmth and comfort. There was no panic in his mind. No uneasy frazzle. Just a coldness surrounding him like a weighted blanket. This was the mindset he fell into when he was about to make a kill. This frozen, isolated room in his subconsciousness.
“I’ll take care of it.” Dorian hung up.
Chapter 39
“Alakhai,” Lena murmured thoughtfully. “What’s that mean?”
Dorian sat across from her in the House of Death’s private jet and smiled. “It’s an ancient word that, in our old language, means the ‘All Key’.”
They were flying back to New Orleans. After Emerick’s call, Dorian reported his findings directly to Malachi, and Lucian got the jet lined up to bring them back. Lena’s parents once had a plane. Much smaller than this one. She used to fear they’d crash in it. Turns out she was right about the crash, wrong about which mode of transportation.
Planes, trains, automobiles. They were all potential coffin makers.
She refocused. Alakhai. Chewing on her bottom lip, she let the word sway like a blood-drunk lover dancing in her head. As if the very word had a form to it—graceful, solid, confident, and serenely content. Alakhai. Those ribbons were back… fluttering and swaying in the back of her mind.