An End of Night (A Shade of Vampire #16)(22)

“So you have absolutely no idea who and where Magnus is?” Mona asked.

“No,” he said.

Mona turned around slowly to face us, anxiety creasing her forehead. “Perhaps Rhys concluded that the trail is cold for Magnus here in this realm… Maybe we have hit another dead end.”

“Why would he vanish so suddenly?” I said. “He has enough reason to want to stay and finish us all off.”

Mona bit her lower lip. “Maybe he has gotten another idea… and his time is now too precious to waste on us.”

Chapter 14: Mona

“Will you help to wake up the rest of my pack?” the chieftain asked, still eyeing us with suspicion.

I stared at the werewolf, my brain ticking over. “Yes,” I replied. “But first you must agree to do something for us. Given the fact that we have just saved you, it should not be too much to ask.”

“What?” he asked.

“Call a meeting immediately with the other chieftains so that we can ask them whether they know about Magnus.”

The chieftain shook his head. “I truly doubt that any of us have come across a vampire named Magnus.”

“I did not ask for your speculation,” I said impatiently. “I asked you to arrange a meeting.”

“I’m not on good terms with many of the other chieftains,” he replied. “But all right. I will try.”

“How long will it take?” I asked.

“At least three days.”

I cursed beneath my breath. We didn’t have that sort of time. I turned to face the others again.

“Can’t you gather them any faster?” Derek asked.

The chieftain shook his head. “Impossible.”

Three days—it was out of the question. It had occurred to me that perhaps Rhys had left to seek out another chieftain.

“Why don’t you just magick the chieftain around this realm to make the traveling faster?” Rose asked me.

“Some packs aren’t even here in The Woodlands right now,” the wolf said. “At least two chieftains who cooperate with me are out on expeditions… As I said, I think you’re wasting your time. No wolf here would tolerate a vampire’s presence. You would be better off searching elsewhere.”

Reluctantly, I saw sense in the wolf’s words.

But where do we search next?

Where did Rhys go?

Although we couldn’t afford to hang around now, Corrine, Ibrahim and I agreed to help the chieftain awaken his pack. Even though he was doing us no favor in return, I figured that there was no harm in befriending these wolves. It was good for them to see that not all witches and vampires were bad.

Once we had finished, we returned to the rocky shore where we had first arrived.

“And now?” Ashley said, the tone of her voice bordering on desperate.

I didn’t answer, although I knew the question was directed at me. All eyes were on me now, waiting for my answer. I moved away from all of them and walked further up the rocks. I sat down on the edge, glad that nobody followed me. I didn’t even want Kiev next to me right now. I just needed to be alone.

I took a deep breath, inhaling the crisp sea air and closing my tired eyes.

Magnus.

Where are you?

The fact that Rhys had left us so quickly when he should have at least caused some injury to us after the beating we had given his people in The Shade was deeply disturbing. I knew Rhys. If he was after Magnus, he would not stop until he found him. I didn’t know whether the vampire was crucial to their ritual, but clearly he was important, otherwise Rhys would not be wasting Lilith’s precious time searching for him.

We just seemed to be looking in all the wrong places. At least in The Blood Keep, The Tavern and The Cove we had managed to get some clue as to where to search next, but here… it seemed like we had met a dead end. Nobody had even heard of Magnus.

“What are we going to do?” Ashley repeated her question, and this time I answered. There was no point in denying it to myself any longer:

“I don’t know.”

Chapter 15: Rhys

Mona and her companions’ appearance was certainly unexpected. And the thought that they were on to Magnus too was disturbing. But as much as it had been tempting to stay and finish them off, I had more pressing matters to attend to.

I did believe the chieftain when he told me that he did not know where Magnus was. Now I had to be sure that other chieftains hadn’t seen Magnus either. Even if Magnus had befriended the werewolves, there was no way that they would risk their lives for a vampire. It just wasn’t done by werewolves—at least not the wolves of The Woodlands. I traveled quickly from pack to pack, following much the same procedure as in the first chieftain’s mountain. I eliminated all who were in my way by putting them to sleep. After meeting with the sixth chieftain, I stopped. None of them so far had seen a vampire named Magnus.

I have to rethink what I’m doing.

A feeling in my gut told me that even if I took the time—time I did not have—to meet with every single chieftain in this realm, I still would not find Magnus.

But where could that vampire have gotten to?

How could he have made it out of the realm without attracting the attention of even one werewolf?

Besides, he would have been weak on waking. He wouldn’t have had any blood in years.