“Seraphina.”
Acadia drew in a deep breath.
“Seraphina,” Adelaide confirmed. “But that’s only suspicion at this point. We only have a visual confirmation. Not an actual name.”
“They used my daughter’s passing to lure me to the grave. Why?”
“Chris, the man I have on retainer, doesn’t know,” Adelaide said. “He was only able to provide visual proof due to the amount of activity at your place.”
“What do you mean by ‘amount of activity?’” I asked warily.
“Your place was set on fire, and the grounds within a few hundred yards were destroyed by what looks like a well-placed bomb.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose in irritation.
“Do you think that Seraphina and Jolie are working with the human activists, or is this a separate issue altogether?”
“I’m not sure,” Adelaide admitted. “But I plan on figuring that out once some of my contacts report back to me.”
I nodded.
“Thank you, Adelaide.”
Adelaide had always provided the type of services that no one in the world could equal, and I’d never appreciated that more.
“You’re welcome, Con.”
With that, Adelaide was gone, leaving Abe holding his phone and looking at me with a wide grin on his face.
“I feel like I need to meet this Adelaide,” Acadia murmured. “She seems very helpful.”
I tightened my hand on her hip, and her mouth twitched.
“Your place was breached around five this afternoon.”
“And I wasn’t informed?” I growled.
“You were informed,” Abe interjected. “In fact, I had Adelaide call three times. And I called four.”
I opened my mouth to start shouting and quickly shut it at Acadia’s next words.
Acadia squirmed. “You were asleep. That was the entire reason that she came.”
“What do you mean?” I asked her, looking down at her beautiful, concerned face.
“That was how they kept you distracted,” she pointed out. “Whatever she did to keep you asleep, it was enough to keep you from knowing what was going on at your place.”
“And Nola?” I asked stiffly.
Acadia shook her head.
“That seems more like an F-U on her part rather than actually needing to do it,” she admitted. “But again, all of these are just guesses. I have no proof.”
“So she has some vampire superpower that no one else has?” I growled, getting angry all over again.
“More likely she introduced something into the air that caused you all to be affected,” Abe said.
“Then why did Acadia wake up and not the rest of us?”
That was Fox.
“Because Acadia’s different,” I murmured. “She’s not been normal since she was turned. And I haven’t figured out exactly why yet. I haven’t fed her in over forty-eight hours. That’s only normal for the oldest of vampires. And that’s not even to mention that she walked out in full sun to Nola and didn’t even flinch.”
“A dayer.”
“What’s a dayer?”
“A vampire, a rare one, that doesn’t need sleep to function,” I murmured. “Doesn’t need to feed but once in a blue moon, and is as strong if not stronger than the oldest of vampires. Oh, and dayers don’t feed off of humans. They feed off of undead blood. That’s why you didn’t find what Chen was drinking appealing.”
Her brows furrowed.
“You’re stronger than me,” she pointed out. “And you drink my blood and are able to sustain yourself.”
“I am able to sustain myself, yes,” I agreed. “But I can’t do that on a continual basis. My body needs human blood to work. I can just go longer than most. I just drink you because you taste delicious.”
She blushed profusely.
I found myself grinning despite the fact that this situation was beyond serious.
“We have alarms set throughout the house that activate when certain gases are sensed,” Pavlov added his two cents.
Acadia stiffened.
“Actually, the alarms were going off,” Acadia added. “I remember them now. I was freaked out about the little girl standing in the middle of the snow more so, though. The alarms didn’t even register to me as significant until right now. Not to mention they stopped the moment I opened the door to the house.”
“She left the door wide open,” Abe said. “I watched the feed. The fresh air must’ve been enough to cause the gas to dissipate.”
“Fox’s kids aren’t vampires. How are they all right?” I countered.
“My kids were sleeping in the safe room. It has a different ventilation system than the rest of the house, remember?” Fox supplied.
I gritted my teeth.
“Yeah, I remember,” I grunted. “How’d she get gas anywhere near this place? Seems to me this is still questionable. Nobody but us should know the whereabouts of this place unless one of us was talking.”
“Or one of us could lock onto a person and teleport like you or I do.”
I gritted my teeth.
“That would mean she was made by someone in our line.”
The words sent chills down my spine, but each of the men in the room knew that.
“Why now?” I finally asked. “Why this? Why her?”
“You’ve never been serious with anyone else before,” Fox said quietly. “You announced your intentions to the world with that little stunt with the mayor. Maybe she wasn’t happy being replaced.”
I felt Acadia’s nails digging into my side, and I squeezed her hip to help calm her.
“Don’t worry,” I whispered into her ear.
“How can I not?” she growled cutely back.
“Because I plan on fixing everything.”
CHAPTER 23
I’d rather not.
-Coffee Cup
ACADIA
“This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when you said you’d fix everything,” I murmured quietly to the man at my side.
Constantine didn’t even crack a smile.
His eyes were focused straight forward, and he was staring at the destruction of his home with nothing but a blank mask covering his face.
I could hear the flashes going off behind us, and I knew that every news channel in the area was currently taping our every reaction.
We’d been waiting here for something to happen for over ten minutes, and I was half convinced that said trap that they all felt was here wasn’t actually here. Surely something would’ve happened by now if it was going to happen… right?
“Aren’t you worried that I’ll die a terrible death if I’m here?”
He looked at me then, his face filled with amusement.
“Did you forget that I could transport you anywhere I wanted you to go with less than a thought on my part?” he questioned.
I pursed my lips.
“I don’t understand why I couldn’t stay where I was,” I grumbled under my breath.
I really did not want to be here. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I somehow knew that I shouldn’t be here. Something was practically screaming at me to break free and run from this place. To cut out and get away while I still could.