A Valley of Darkness (A Shade of Vampire #52)(35)

“It’s worth a shot!” Harper replied. “And we could patrol the hotspot on the second level tomorrow night, just to make sure. Better safe than sorry, right?”

“Agreed.” Hansa nodded. “What about Sienna? Should we keep investigating her disappearance, given that it might be a dirty Exiled Mara secret? I mean, I know they want us to find her, but do they really? Or is there a trap waiting at the bottom of this hot mess?”

“We’d have to ask ourselves why the Exiled Maras would want to lay a trap for us in the first place,” Jax mused.

“It all boils down to Arrah,” Avril said. “And that prison. We could find her brother in the prison.”

“How do we do that? We don’t even know where the prison is. Or her brother’s name, for that matter…” Caia sighed, her gaze fixed on the map.

“Actually, we know the brother’s name.” Harper smirked, then pulled a couple of folded pages from her notebook. “I came across a household registry for the Roho mansion when we were in the library earlier. I found all the names listed there, including Arrah’s and her brother’s.”

She handed the papers over to Jax, who unfolded them and stilled, realizing what he was looking at.

“You ripped these from their official record book?” he asked, disbelief blaring from his voice.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Harper shrugged. “We were getting ready to leave, and I didn’t have time to write them all down.”

Jax exhaled sharply, then shook his head, but didn’t reprimand her action further. Instead, he scanned the pages.

“Demios and Arrah Greywood, siblings, children of Marina Greywood,” he read out loud. “Demios is the brother, then. He worked for House Roho. And so did Marina…”

“Oh, damn, I know that name.” Caia’s eyes widened as she flipped through her notebook. “Yep, this is it. Marina Greywood. She’s one of the victims of these daemon abductions! She vanished a year ago, almost to the date.”

“Yes, she did,” Heron remembered, and got a nod from Avril. “Arrah mentioned her mother as an abductee.”

“So one member of the family taken by daemons.” Jax frowned. “Another arrested on a vague charge… No wonder the girl is scared to come forward. Heron, didn’t you try mind-bending her?”

“Fun fact…” Heron pursed his lips. “Arrah is immune to mind-bending. Otherwise I would’ve gladly done it.”

“How is she immune?” Jax replied. “She’s an Iman. They’re all highly susceptible to our abilities.”

“Not Arrah.” Heron shook his head. “For some reason, unbeknownst even to her, she cannot be mind-bent.”

“We should definitely keep investigating Sienna’s disappearance.” Jax nodded. “If these Maras are doing something shady, we need to know.”

“Yeah, Arrah said she was afraid that they were also jailing Imen for no good reason, but she didn’t want to say more,” Avril said. “I think we should help her, maybe even get her brother out and get them both to safety so she can tell us what’s going on in that house. And what happened to Sienna.”

“All the more reason to investigate,” Jax replied, then looked at Hansa. “If they’re abusing the Imen in any way, it becomes a GASP issue, whether they like it or not. I couldn’t give a damn about their laws and ways of life if they’re infringing upon the rights of innocent creatures.”

“I completely agree.” Hansa scoffed. “We need a plan. We clearly have a lot to do. We’ll need to do this in teams, and we’ll run a tight schedule. Let’s meet up again in the morning and hash it out.”

We all nodded, and, one by one, the team left the infirmary.

“Patrik, I’m guessing you’ll spend the night here and watch over Minah, but one of us can take your place in the morning,” Hansa added, glancing at the Druid from the open doorway.

“That’s fine.” Patrik nodded, and Hansa left.

I was the last to move, my arm brushing against Patrik’s hand as I moved toward the door. He caught my wrist, bringing me to a halt. I looked at him, and my stomach dropped. He wore an expression of genuine concern, his brow furrowed and his eyes burning through me.

“Be careful out there,” he said softly. “Lock your door and windows tonight.”

“Thank you, Patrik.” I gave him a gentle smile. “But don’t worry about me. I’m too fast for any of those daemons to catch me. They almost got lucky last night because I was trying to keep them away from Minah, but if they ever try to come after me, they will fail. Miserably.”

“I need you to be safe, Scarlett. Just lock everything up before you go to bed.”

“Okay,” I replied, swallowing. “I will. Goodnight, Patrik.”

He didn’t say anything, but his gaze spoke for him with a single blink. He let go of my hand, and I left the infirmary. I heard the door close behind me as I rushed after the rest of my team. They were only a dozen feet away.

I held my wrist close to my chest, as if still feeling Patrik’s touch on my skin. I didn’t want that sensation to go away.





Harper





(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)