City of Blood

22

The drive to Dad's house is silent; if either of us talks, I know it could erupt into some kind of fight because I so badly want him to be wrong about Joseph. My brother, the same person who gets mad at me for annotating books and gives me his leftovers when I'm hungry being a feral, murderous vampire?

Gods, let Callum be wrong. Please, let him be wrong.

I can handle Dad hating me and almost killing me as a pup and I can put off confronting Ramsay regarding his... career path. However, if Joseph really is the killer that's been attacking humans, we can't put that off and something needs to be done.

I don't want Joseph to be hurt or under supervision of the vampire community, and I don't want to put the rest of my family at risk either. However, if Callum's right, Dad needs to be held accountable for trying to hide it and allowing humans to be killed.

Callum pulls into the driveway of the house I've grown up in. All of the cars are in the driveway except for Raina's.

"Lennox-"

"Let's just get this over with. They'll probably disown me for the accusation."

"I was going to say that we could wait if you're really against it."

I sigh, laying my head back on the headrest. "What you're saying makes sense, even if I don't want to believe it. If Joseph is out there killing people, then we need to know so we can put a stop to it. You told me the night we met that you wouldn't let Ramsay drive because you wouldn't put innocent humans at risk. That shouldn't have changed."

Callum lays his head on his headrest, looking over at me. "It didn't. I still want to protect innocent humans, but you're my soulmate. I want to protect you, and who knows what will happen if this conversation escalates? He may have raised you, and it's probably going to hurt to hear this, but I don't think he'll choose you over Joseph."

"I'll be okay," I murmur, opening the door to the car. "We'll accuse my brother of being a murderer, disown my family, then start packing my stuff."

Callum gives me a piteous look that I choose to ignore.

I approach the front door and knock once before opening the front door and entering. I want to at least act natural for the time being and try to gauge what's going on here.

Ramsay and Joseph are in the living room, both entirely focused on the television as they try to beat each other at Mario Kart. A pang in my gut makes me feel ill, knowing that I won't be able to keep having this. Even if Joseph isn't our killer, Ramsay is a human trafficker and I can't support him.

I still want to hope there's a reason that Ramsay is involved with the business and that it wasn't his choice. I sit on the couch behind the two, Callum following me. Thankfully, since my vampire family doesn't have the same sense of smell as werewolves, they can't tell I'm not taking the pills anymore.

"Yes!" Joseph cheers, lightly punching Ramsay in the arm.

Ramsay rolls his eyes. "Look at the overall score, Joseph. You've beat me once. Out of eight races."

"A win is a win," Joseph responds, setting down his controller and looking back at us.

He looks terrible. The bags under his eyes are dark, the whites of his eyes are pink so he clearly hasn't eaten much lately, and his scent is telling me that he hasn't showered today and probably hasn't for the last couple of days.

"Hey, Callum," Ramsay says, tapping my boyfriend's knee and I have to fight to keep myself from snarling at him for touching my mate. "Is my brother pregnant yet? When's the baby due?"