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“Oh, the fun begins. I hope you don’t mind my bringing in my right-hand man. Darrius will take charge of our hostage once he’s handed over. Don’t want an escapee I might have to chase down again in these newly peaceful lands.” Varro’s chipper tone and almost joking dialogue sits heavy on me, and get’s only glares in response from my sub mates.

“What are you going to do with him?” Meadow pipes up, cutting the tension with her sharp question. Hand on her hip and throwing Varro some serious shade. I can feel the distrust, subtle contempt, among all of them. The vampire in our midst isn’t being welcomed at all but they know better than to show open disrespect given the circumstances. They are behaving for the sake of peace, but not one of them has anything but hatred in their hearts for this species.

“Death eventually, but who knows. I have a lot of pent-up aggression over the loss of my love and child… I have two decades worth of anger directed his way.” Varro is completely uninterested in their obvious dislike and goes back to admiring his nails.

“Not here. If you kill him then do it far away from us, we don’t need any more blood of our kind here. I don’t want to tarnish these walls anymore than they are already.” Colton turns away, hiding the conflict of his facial expressions and I sense his intense pain.

“I thought some of you would happily stand and watch an execution? No?” Varro smirks, knowing fine well this is cutting my mate deep, and Colton turns and walks off; holding himself in check as his emotions start to unravel. I know he’s conflicted. It’s only natural given that he once loved and idolized his father. I can’t even begin to understand what he feels, even though I too am getting a small amount of it.

“Some of us would, but as he was our alpha, it’s not right.” Meadow comes to my side and links her hand in mine, pulling me to her side and throws a wary glance Colton’s way.

“Here!” The main doors are thrown open, disrupting us, as a heavy figure is tossed into the center of our haphazard group. It’s so fast it catches me off guard and we all stare as Juan’s bound figure slides across the floor in a dramatic fashion. Sliding to an abrupt halt, as he stops in an almost center stage area of our clearing.

Bound and gagged, wriggling for his freedom and yet the only emotions coming from that pitiful figure are rage and disgust. I can taste it even from here. He has not a single ounce of remorse or regret. There’s no fear in what’s to be done to him but rather outrage that we would treat him this way. Juan is insane. I just can’t believe he hid it so well for so long while we all lived under his reign.

Darrius walks casually towards Varro and gives him a low bow. Bending and staying put as a sign of respect and I get the chills from his presence in a way Varro has never caused. Darrius is definitely the kind of vampire you know the horror stories originated from. He doesn’t have to do a thing to be intimidating.

“The witch held up her end of the bargain. She said she will come to Ladrikmorra for payment in a few days. She isn’t needed here anymore.” He straightens up, still keeping his eye son the floor much like our pack does to me and Colton.

I blink at Darrius in surprise and then glance at Meadow in confusion. It would be nice if the witch told us goodbye at least, or some sort of debrief after helping us these past days. She can’t just have left without so much as a ‘see ya’. It actually angers and hurts me to know she just finished her task and left without a word, as though we meant nothing to her.

“Leyanne never changes. Swoops in to do the bare minimum when she feels others are being blatantly thick, then leaves without a word, off to another adventure. Don’t expect sweet farewells or tears, Alora. That witch is three thousand years of bad mood and loner attitude. Be glad she did anything to help or was pleasant in anyway. She is notorious for not giving any kind of rat’s ass.” Varro casts me a smile that doesn’t meet his eyes and waves away my frown as though I am being too sensitive to this.

I’m a little gutted, because I thought we meant more than this. This isn’t even truly over yet officially, and she just swoops off into the darkness before sunup.

“To the problem at hand. Now, what are we going to do with you Mr Santo?” Varro turns his full attention to Juan, eyes locking on his prey as they glow to an almost unreal red that finally sends the shivers through my soul. A change in his features as he scans his prey properly and the whole room around us turns deathly silent.