Between Shadow & Ruin (Fangs & Fae Saga Book 2)

two.

I dialed Val's number and placed her on speaker – not that it was necessary thanks to our vampire hearing. But I needed the satisfaction of seeing the look on his face when there was no question on what Val said and that every Magister in the vampire Syndicate heard it.

"Hi, honey. I have a quick question for you. What would you do if I told you that there was a clan of vampires running around feeding on children and their Magister ignored it?"

"That bastard would be brought to the fae realm and would have to answer to his crimes! Ignoring vampires feeding on children is just as bad as doing it! They'd be lucky if all I did was desiccate them! Why?"

"Just wondering. Thanks. Love you, bye!" I hung up the phone before she could continue the conversation. Alphonse immediately slumped in his stance and held his breath.

"Th-the Eminence. Sh-she's your w-wife?" he stuttered. "I kn-knew she'd taken on v-vampire lovers, but I h-had no id-idea it was y-you."

"Take care of this, or I'll be back with her." I felt overly confident, and I knew I was stepping on toes, but it was never acceptable to allow vampires to feed on children.

"I'm s-sorry, Elizabeth."

"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to the kid who I had to heal and compel to forget that fucker hurt him." I heard the Magisters clear their throats in the meeting hall as I headed outside. I grabbed a cigarette and lit it. Anna came up behind me. She put her hand on my shoulder.

"Anna, I'm sorry, but that guy pisses me off," I said, taking a drag. She took the cigarette from my fingers and took a drag.

"As your Magister, I should send you to the Maze for speaking to Alphonse like that," she said.

"Uh huh..."

"But I've never seen Alphonse look that terrified before and I'm kind of proud it was from you." She laughed, handing me back my cigarette. We both headed back inside after the remaining Magisters left. Alphonse had the vampire I threw into the hall being strung up by his servants. He was rolling up his sleeves.

"Elizabeth! Anna! I – I thought you'd left!" he said, nervously.

"Oh no. I'm staying to make sure you take care of this properly..." I sat down in one of the chairs and put my feet up on the table. Anna shot me a glance, but I ignored it. We waited for the vampire to wake up in silence. Alphonse fed from one of his servants, offering him to us to feed from as well. I declined the offer. The bearded vampire was stirring.

"I am your superior, Elizabeth. I won't take any more of your insubordination, even if your wife is the Eminence," Alphonse said.

"Then you shouldn't have insulted her or my mother." I lowered my legs off the table. "I don't pretend to be superior to you, but I expect you to have some damn morals by at least taking care of the human children in your jurisdiction, if not for the very least a future feed. How long has this asshole and his clan been feeding on children and you just ignored it? It took a few hours for me to find out, so I hardly doubt that you didn't know about this."

"I haven't had the resources to get them tracked down. My numbers have been severely lacking – that was part of what we spoke about in the meeting. When you suffered from your wolf attack five years ago, so did I. That hag's work reached across the pond and promised the wolves of England a way out of transforming. I lost quite a few vampires to the wolves, and we've been living in hiding ever since. Not to mention other issues that are none of your concern as a Sheriff of America."

"So, they've turned to feeding on children? What's wrong with blood bags or compelling adults? Judging from the amount of servants you have in this place I doubt you have quarrels against compulsion."