“You called my friend Brianna two days ago. Why?”
Showing her Brianna’s phone, I pointed out her name. I had charged it when I had returned to mine, searching for clues as to what my friend was up to. The call from Helen had lasted two minutes. Not long enough for a deep conversation but long enough to know that something had been said between them.
Sighing, Helen fluffed her perfectly coiffed blonde hair before shaking her head. “I really don’t know what you mean.”
“I hate to do this...” I muttered. “...No, I really do...” I added when she raised her eyebrows. “... but, please strip. I have to carry out a body search for the phone.”
Her horrified gasp almost made me laugh. Biting my lip, I stopped myself from reacting, even though it would’ve been nice to laugh at the leader of the PFF. The bitch had killed a group of humans at a concert for no reason, she deserved to be humiliated.
“You cannot do that! I’m not under any obligation to-”
“Fine!” Clicking my finger, I cast a spell of disintegration.
Helen’s squeak was accompanied by her shooting off the bed. Her prison shirt started to dissolve into ash, falling away from her. Grabbing at the fabric, she shouted at me to stop.
Shrugging, I folded my arms across my chest. Maybe I was being a little cruel, but I didn’t have time to play. If Brianna was being held by Xvair Harvey, she was in danger. It had been two days since I had killed his son. If he was feeling particularly miffed, he might have killed her already.
“Okay, okay!” Helen dug her hand into her bra and brought out a phone.
Thrusting it at me, she rushed to her chair, where there was a spare shirt. Tugging it on, she wiped tears from the corner of her eyes as I flipped open the old style phone.
“This is so humiliating! I’ll get you back!”
Waving away her protests, I scrolled through her last calls. There were no names saved in the phone, which meant the numbers looked like gobbledygook to me. I would have to sneak the phone out of the building and get Dave to run the numbers to see who they were. Three calls had been made since Brianna’s. All the same number.
“Where is Brianna?”
Smoothing the white shirt over her stomach, Helen took a deep breath. “I’m not telling you anything. Unless...” The word hung in the air causing me to raise my eyebrows.
“Unless?”
The corner of her lip sunk into her cheek as she tried not to smile. I hadn’t spent much time with the vampire terrorist, but it looked like she was about to surprise me.
“I’ll tell you about Xvair Harvey if you get me off death row.”
Ah, the bargain that would be hard to refuse. And yet, I didn’t have the power to grant what she requested. Dave did however, so I would try and make her offer work for me.
“If you give us information that leads us to Xvair, we can grant you clemency from death row.”
Sitting on her bed, she leant back against the padded wall and crossed her legs. “I’m not sure that’s a fair deal. The man has managed to dodge you for quite some years, has he not?”
Sucking in a breath, I sat back on the stool. If I wanted to win the game, I had to play well. The vampire wasn’t going to give over information that easily.
“I’ll have to check with the high powers before I make anything official, but you’re right, because Xvair has managed to give us the slip, your information will come in very useful... if it is useful information, of course. You understand that I cannot just grant you your life. That’s not how this works.”
Scratching the top of her head, she frowned at me. “Fine, I’ll tell you what I know, but I want decent recompense. You may want to reward me yourself considering I’ll be helping you personally.”
“You will?”
My nails dug into my palm as I prevented myself from going over to her and giving her a good shake. The woman was my enemy. Someone who wanted to disconnect me and my blood line from the ley line. That wasn’t what we were here for now, though. Although, I would sneak in a question or two about the equinox.
“I made a deal with Xvair Harvey. I promised him that I would bring you to him. He’s ready for you. Now.”
My feet were on the ground, my mind unable to stop their movement. As my arms reached for Helen, she tried to scramble off the bed. My fingers wrapped around her throat before I was aware of what I was doing. Her squeak made me come to. Thrusting away from her, I left her a heap on the bed.
“You tried to get Brianna to lead me to Lucien, didn’t you?”
Her gaze snapped to mine as she heaved in a breath and rubbed her neck. The look was full of fury but something underneath it caught my attention. Shock.
“Yes, yes,” she hurried out. “I did that. However, it didn’t work. My deal with Xvair still stands. He wants me to get you to him.”
“He does?”
Helen raked her gaze over me as I sat back on the stool. Her eyes narrowed on my face, squinting as she shook her head. “You’re supposed to be one of the most powerful agents of Paranormal MI5. However, you know nothing about your enemy. Did you not know that he has another son?”
Rolling my eyes, I tried not to laugh at the predictability of my life. The unfolding was pretty much like the books I read. Kept in the dark until something shocked me into realising that my strength was inside me all along... Blah, blah, blah.
“Let me guess,” I said, cracking my knuckles. “You agreed to lead me to Xvair so he can marry me off to his other son, who just so happens to come out
