A Valley of Darkness (A Shade of Vampire #52)(24)

“This is getting stickier with each passing hour, I swear.” Avril shook her head, glancing at the packed dancefloor.

“That’s not everything,” I replied. “I’ve been going over the interviews we’ve done so far, the dates and places of every abduction, and, if we take Sienna out of the equation, there’s an actual pattern to them. We’ll go over it later tonight, but, in short, there’s a method behind the madness here.”

“If there’s a connection between the disappearances and House Roho, or House Kifo, for that matter, Arrah will know for sure,” Heron muttered. “But we have to be quiet about it, and not put her in any danger.”

“We need to follow those Correction Officers,” Avril said. “Arrah said they wear blue badges. Not easy to spot, but once we do see one, we should totally track them.”

“Patrik’s getting that protection spell ready,” I replied. “We’ll be out to help him put it together anyway. Might as well use the opportunity and search the crowds. If we spot a CO, we follow.”

“We have to be discreet about it.” Heron snatched two blood flutes from a passing waiter, and handed one to Avril, who thanked him with a brief smile. “Then again, we do have some invisibility spells with us.”

“Let’s run this by Jax and Hansa first,” I said. “They might not want us to use any of the swamp witches’ magic just yet.”

Either way, we had our hands full.

The disappearances were linked to the Valley of Screams. Sienna’s abduction had also been connected to the same phenomenon, but it didn’t fit the pattern, and this new development with Arrah made it possible for Houses Kifo and Roho to be involved, as well. Lots of unknowns there, for the time being.

The thing that really nagged me, though only partly related to our investigation, was the prison. People in Azure Heights knew very little about it, and it didn’t seem natural for any society to be so uninformed. And no one knew where the prison was, except for the Correction Officers, who were also the ones arresting suspected or accused criminals. You broke the law, you were jailed, period. But then, Arrah’s brother was a peculiar case, given what Avril had told us about him. The charges were too vague...

We had to get to the bottom of all this quickly, especially after the daemons’ vicious attack on our team last night. And, according to my mind map of the disappearances, they followed a pattern, so we had to make sure we could prevent the next attacks from happening.

“Having our hands full” didn’t even begin to cover it.





Hansa





Emilian couldn’t seem to get enough of dancing with me, and I wasn’t going to take that away from him. We needed the Five Lords busy while Avril and Heron were out interviewing Arrah. I also wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to ask him more about the prison, Kifo’s Correction Officers, and the daemons. Our younglings had gathered a healthy amount of useful information from the city’s library, but Emilian was the best to help us make sense of much of it.

His hand rested on my hip as I allowed him to lead me across the dancefloor, swaying to a tender waltz. I’d learned a few basic dance steps at the weddings that had followed our war against Azazel. I’d attended eight in the span of three months, including those of Serena and Draven, Vita and Bijarki, Field and Aida, and Anjani and Jovi, and I’d had plenty of opportunities to practice. Not that I was crazy about the dancing part—I just hated standing on the sidelines while everyone else had fun swaying to music.

Emilian was a handsome Mara, despite his almost ten thousand years of life, and he didn’t hide his enjoyment of being in my presence. From what we’d learned so far, Emilian’s wife, Evelyn Obara, had passed away a century earlier, and he’d yet to remarry. They’d left Calliope together, and she’d been a staunch supporter of reforming the Exiled Maras. They’d even erected a statue of her in one of the squares.

“I must say, Hansa,” Emilian said, “you are truly a vision in that color.”

“Thank you,” I said, feeling my skin light up with a genuine blush. I knew my assets, but I’d lived for so long in war mode that it was sometimes nice to be reminded that I was designed to seduce and impress. “You’re looking quite dapper yourself.”

“Thank you.” He smiled. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen a succubus—you must forgive me if I stare. I’ve forgotten how beautiful you creatures are.” He sighed, a hint of sadness settling in his eyes. “Long ago, I used to look at your kind with awe and wariness…”

“Why wariness?”

“Because I had my heart set on a succubus once, and I would’ve wanted more than a Pyrope with her. It was the most intimate contact I could have with a soulmate outside my species. Not that my kind fell for non-Maras often.”

“Pyrope… That’s the blood oath, isn’t it?” I asked, remembering how Eritopian Maras got their non-animal fix once in a while. The most recent example I could think of was the Pyrope that Jax had going with Zeriel, King of the Tritones. He’d saved Zeriel’s life, and, in return, the Tritone had agreed to give Jax a few ounces of blood, once a month.

“Yes, Pyrope has always been a… flexible method that our people employed after we were first threatened with war.” Emilian nodded. “Back when I was still bloodthirsty and foolish. Some of us fell in love with creatures outside our species, and, in some instances, the craving for their blood came naturally. Pyrope was a fair method of tasting them, without hurting them. And, like I said, it was a most intimate gesture, like drinking the very essence of your loved one. I was head over heels with a succubus back then, before I met Evelyn. And I was quite sad because I couldn’t do Pyrope with her, thanks to her toxic blood…”