“What else did you learn from the scientist?” he asked, his voice steady and strong.
Since Ainsley’s death, I learned my uncle was really good at deflecting his emotions. He had moments of weakness, like that moment only minutes before, but then he always changed the subject as fast as he could, wanting to talk about anything else. I realized he did that when I knew him before. That was how I knew him as a homeless man, but never really knew him at all. He always turned questions around on me so he didn’t have to share anything personal. I really wanted to get to know my uncle better and I made a promise to myself that I would, even though I would never push him.
Amos looked from me to Devlin and back to me before continuing. “She told us she had never met anyone from the Council, and never questioned why everyone she came in contact with, besides the prisoners, were all casters. But she fully believed what she and the other scientists were doing was for the greater good. Her only regret was that she won’t be able to be there to complete the task.”
My nostrils flared and my vampire side emerged as I thirsted to end Dr. Edgebert’s existence in the most violent way possible. I locked eyes with Matias when I saw his predator slip in and out before going back to normal.
“Dr. Edgebert ended her own life before we had the chance to stop her,” he seethed, as if reading my thoughts. “I’m sorry, little one, but your thirst for vengeance will have to wait. I know you wanted to be the one to do it, and I wanted to give that to you.”
With deep breaths, I was able to calm myself enough to listen to what my mate was saying.
“What? How is that possible? I thought she was stripped of her magic?”
Matias looked away and clenched his jaw.
“I made a mistake by leaving out a blade. She grabbed it off the floor when our backs were turned and jammed it in her throat.”
“It’s not his fault,” my grandfather spoke up. “She was weakened to the point of death anyway. We didn’t expect her to be able to have the strength to do it.”
My eyes didn’t leave Matias as my grandfather defended him and waited for him to make eye contact with me again. He wasn’t used to failure, I could tell and the fact he felt as if he failed me, it was more than he wanted to ever bear. But then, he looked back up into my eyes and saw I wasn’t angry, at least not at him. It was an honest mistake, even for a vampire such as he. His expression softened as did the rest of his rigid body as he relaxed a bit more against the arm of the sofa.
“Is there anything else?” I then asked, looking toward my grandfather.
“Yeah.” Amos looked at me and his eyes grew exponentially more tired in a matter of seconds. “The detention facility, it vanished.”
“More likely it was shrunk down and moved to another location,” Devlin sighed. “Even with all the people and things inside of it, it’s almost impossible to make something disappear completely, even for the more skilled casters.”
I furrowed my eyebrows and remembered the way Ingrid shrunk the cars before we broke into the facility. It really was a nifty trick and in this case, put us back to square one. I wasn’t sure what intel the other team collected, but I was pretty sure the team I was on didn’t gather anything concrete. Well, other than what we saw and the supes they saved.
I was so lost in thought, I didn’t hear the rest of the conversation around me, and I definitely didn’t notice Dev got up and left the room. When I did finally come to my senses, I thanked my grandfather for the information, grabbed my mates by the hands, and began walking toward the door.
“One more thing, Emelia.” Amos’ words made me stop dead in my tracks. I slowly turned on my planted feet until I was looking back into his solemn eyes. “There was no sign that Ronan Young had ever been in the facility, either as a prisoner or as a representative from the Council.”
I took in a deep breath and let it out before replying. “Thank you.”
Matias was the one to lead us out after that, as I retreated back into my mind to think about everything I was told. Ronan wasn’t there. That was a good thing, right? That meant he hadn’t been a part of the experimentation and that he wasn’t being experimented on. But then again, we were no closer to finding him or at least finding out what happened to him after the battle at the cabin.
“Emi?”
My faraway eyes snapped to attention at my nickname, and I saw that Xander was sweetly holding my hand, waiting for me to walk into my bedroom. Matias was already in there, at least that was what I thought until I heard the sound of the water turning on in the bathroom.
“What are you thinking?” Xander asked me, making my attention go back to him. He could tell the wheels in my mind were turning.
I squeezed his hand and then let go and closed the door behind us and walked toward the bathroom. Matias had his hand stuck in the water to check the temperature. Then he rose and walked over to the closet, retrieving a couple of fluffy towels. After depositing them on the side of the garden tub, he walked over to me and began removing my boots, one at a time.
I watched as he and Xander removed my clothes and led me over to the tub where I slid in and sighed audibly. They were waiting for me to answer Xan’s earlier question, but they were not pushing me. I
