The Wolf's Witch (book 1)

31. He Who?

Kaitlin

Roman cocked his head at me, "I spread word about the demon and his pets. Charles here," Roman half turned and the vampire went rigid at the sound of his name, "He overheard that guy," he pointed to the man with a missing heart and half a throat, "making a contract to save his wife who has cancer and he accidentally died when Charles tried to kill the demon. Him and his friends chased them here."

Friends? The ones outside? I recalled the ghost. Normally vampires stopped at blood but it wasn't beyond them to eat flesh when they were starving and overexcited. I remembered their bloodshot eyes. It had been too dark to notice blood on their robes.

"We don't know which one the demon is in." Roman added when I didn't answer.

Ice-pelts turned to rain.

"Accidentally?" That's how he wanted to play this? His uncle who ruled the Seethe took training his vampires seriously. There hasn't been a viral accident in over twenty years. Why now? At a time when they couldn't risk more unrest, this scene didn't add up.

Something was off but I couldn't make out what.

I slanted my eyes at him.

Roman seemed unaffected as he let out a bored sigh making me wait, "He's new."

New? And here I thought it couldn't get any worse. Vampires weren't permitted to turn humans. When the Guild hears of this, they will have grounds to do a thorough investigation. Who knows what else or who else they'd find?

The Guild's goal was to contain the disease and while vampires managed to escape being chipped, they had developed a registry with the government's support. Vampires were expected to check in when they picked up their blood donations or partnered with a human willing to volunteer on a full or part time basis in return for pay. I knew vampires were only pretending to play along. They preyed on runaways, prostitutes and those without a family to miss them... but the scene in front of me was beyond careless. Roman, or whoever turned Charles, would likely be executed as well.

Charles scooted forward, falling on his knees as he inched forward in my direction. His voice was hoarse like he'd been screaming and crying for hours, "Please I didn't mean to. I thought I was doing the right thing." he shuddered as if stuck in memory, "I have a daughter, 15 now-" he choked on his last words with his hand out as if to reach for me. His black and red eyes had trailed up to my face and my range gave him pause.

I felt for him, I did, but it didn't change what he did as far as others were concerned. His people had failed him. Did Roman really think sending a new vampire demon hunting was a good idea?

Roman nodded, "He hasn't been allowed to speak to her, ten years but forget that. We need your demon hunting expertise." He gestured before him, "Take your pick."

I facepalmed. Forget that really? Well at least it was still possible to hide the existence of demons from the humans. The ones here would become believers but the rest of the world won't believe unless they saw for themselves.

The vampires will take all the blame.

I got glimpse of the little eleven year old birthday girl drying her eyes under the table. A tiny sniffle gave her away her location. Round eyes found mine and shook in fear.

I, on the other hand, was happy to find her. I feared the demon or a vampire had taken her elsewhere. I tried to relax my features.

"How did he chase him here?" Vampires were fast but demons would travel through the smallest of crevices.

"He lost them and then scented the blood here. They said that dead lady chopped off that guy's hand," my head swerved and I noticed that older man tied to one of the chairs had a wrist dripping blood. The hand was nowhere within immediate view. "and she tried to kill the little girl and that guy." he pointed to the man with the boom sticking out him. Roman's face was passive, "Killing the lady's didn't work."