A Glimmer of Hope (The Avalon Chronicles #1)(67)

“And it is,” Tommy said. “But these people want to out us all to the world and ensure that humanity spends the rest of its time on earth bowing down to Nergal and his allies as slaves. Nearly six billion slaves for people who think nothing of ending life, human or otherwise.”

“Your people killed blood elves, isn’t that the same?”

“There’s a difference between killing people who are inherently evil, people who torture and kill and enjoy it, and killing people because it’s a Tuesday and they’re in your way. If your father had stuck to murdering psychopaths, I don’t think we’d be having this conversation about him, but he didn’t. He decided to kill criminals who stole or who sold drugs; he decided who should live or die. We kill to protect, or for self-defense; none of us would ever dream of going out and murdering people because we felt like it. Nergal and his people have no such compunction.”

Layla was taken aback by Tommy’s hard tone; she hadn’t expected it, and could tell that as far as he was concerned, those who murdered indiscriminately were as low as you could get.

“Nergal has tried to find your father for several years,” Olivia told her. “But your father is in a secure location that’s not directly acknowledged by Avalon. In fact, I don’t think any Avalon employees, except for the two we’re aware of, know his whereabouts. At least I hope not.”

“You really don’t trust your own people?”

“I spent several years hunting down people who claimed to be working with us when they started to try to murder my friends. So, no, I don’t trust anyone I haven’t known for a long time. Tommy only gets a pass because he’s my husband, and he’s too busy to take the time to try to bring down Avalon.”

“She has a point,” Tommy agreed, a smile spreading across his face.

“So, I’m staying here?”

Olivia shook her head. “Too many people might see you. We’re moving you to a secure location on the other side of Winchester. Tommy will be staying with you, along with several of his people. People he trusts.”

“I can never go back, can I?”

“To your old life?” Tommy asked. “No. I’m sorry. You can still live your life, though. Once this is over, there’s no forcing you to join Avalon, or work with me, but the days of living in ignorant bliss are over.”

“Elias will still find me. He seems to be good at it.”

“He might, but we’ll be waiting. He’s a dangerous person, as are those he works with.”

Layla thought about the dead blood elves back in the woods, and she realized for the first time that when she had fought them, she hadn’t worried about losing control. She hadn’t been shaky or had any voices telling her to hurt them. She’d felt good after, but never out of control. Maybe she was finally coming to grips with whatever had been telling her to hurt people; maybe the fact that she was fighting monsters meant she no longer had to worry about going too far when fighting them.

“They can’t have a lot of blood elves left,” Layla said eventually.

“We have no idea,” Tommy admitted. “The blood elves aren’t meant to be able to come to this realm. So that’s another mystery we need to look into.”

“At some point they’re going to use their ogre again. If it was ever released in a populated area . . .” Memories of her friends flickered to the front of her mind.

“I’m sorry about what happened to you and everyone at the depot,” Olivia said. “We’ll deal with the ogre. It’s why you’re being moved to somewhere more secure.”

“And less populated?”

Olivia nodded. “Winchester is not a massive city, but even one innocent person dying because of Elias and his people is one person too many.”

“Elias killed my ex-boyfriend.” Layla explained about what Elias had told her: that he’d murdered her ex and his new girlfriend, before killing her ex’s friend and framing him.

Olivia jotted it all down in a notebook. “I’ll look into it. Elias has been a problem for a great many years.”

“He said he killed his parents.”

“He’s a redcap,” Tommy said.

“He told me that, too. I don’t understand what that has to do with his parents, though.”

“Redcaps are born human, and at some point they make a deal with another redcap. I don’t know how it first happened, or who was created first, but it’s a chicken-and-egg situation we don’t need to think about too much. Anyway, basically someone makes a deal with a redcap that they’ll join their kind. The redcap performs a blood-magic ritual around the human recruit’s home, and the recruit has to go in and murder everyone inside. Once the ritual is complete, the newly born redcap is able to absorb the souls of its victims into its hat. It does it by soaking up all of the blood from the victims—essentially a sort of vampire. The blood sustains it and is absorbed into the body over time, allowing it to maintain increased strength, speed, and the like.

“After it’s gotten its fill of souls, it goes back to its home to perform another ritual, which will allow it to feed on all the souls it’s collected. It has to be done once every five years. Without fail. The longer it’s left, the weaker the redcap gets.”

“So that hat is soaked in blood?”