He confirmed thateverything Nathan and I had been wondering matched up with theconclusions that both he and his Pack had come to after hearingwhat Heather and Brendan had been put through.
The blood suckers werehoping to recreate the fluke luck that had made Heather the onlyborn Infected. And somehow, they thought they could achievesomething by adding the Were-gene to the cocktail.
If I was honest, myhead was pounding as Nathan and I made our way back to Heather’s. Iwas relieved my cousin was alive and safe, relieved I now knewwhere The Pack were located, but in my three weeks of wonderingwhere she was and the forty-eight hours of scouring througheverything to find a lead on where she could be … well, I neverwould have guessed any of this. It was crazy, and considering myfamily and our lives, that was saying an awful lot.
The only thing I wasstill confused about was the question of whether Sofia had seen allof this? And if she had, how could she put her own granddaughterthrough it all?
God, my parents weregoing to freak when I updated them.
ChapterTen
Sunday18th October, 2015
With Nathan tuckedaway and settled in the backseat under storage and set with acouple of bottles of mixture, we left London around eleven. I hadthe feeling that Graham had wanted to leave earlier, but myunderstanding was that it had been a long week, and the rest he hadmanaged to catch up on was much needed.
He had chosen to sitin the back. I never liked feeling like a taxi driver, butsomething told me it was more to do with the resting Vampiretravelling with us. By sitting in the back, his weight kept the lidto Nathan’s makeshift coffin shut, so he couldn’t get out even ifhe asked politely.
Or maybe it wasbecause I had a dagger? Maybe it was because we were strangers andhe could keep an eye on me from his position? Whatever the reason,I didn’t care. I was in my car, and we were on our way to Heather.That was all that mattered right now.
I was just pleasedthat there was no traffic. The drive was long enough without someidiot doing something stupid and causing a pile-up on the M6. Thelast thing I wanted was to be stuck on the motorway with a strangeWerewolf who had hardly said a word since we’d set off. Usually,silence didn’t bother me, but my travel buddy sure knew how to makea quiet drive feel super awkward.
After a couple ofhours, I finally decided to break the ice. “So, you’re adoctor?”
“I am.”
A glance through myoverhead mirror confirmed he hadn’t moved a muscle since we had setoff. He sat slap bang in the middle of the back seat, his headleaning on the headrest, eyes closed, arms folded over his navysweater-covered chest.
“That must be prettyhelpful, but I thought you guys heal quickly?”
“It depends on thewound and what was used to inflict it.”
That made sense. “Youseemed t’be unscathed from yesterday’s slaughter.”
“You seem veryunsettled by all of it considering you slaughter Vampires on adaily basis?”
Was I unsettled?Shocked, perhaps. I certainly didn’t expect to walk into the UKColony Nest and find no Vampires but stumble upon a handful ofWerewolves instead. And I admit I was a little unsettled at beingtold that the Werewolves had been on a week-long rampage, huntingdown Vampires and killing them. The fact that they’d hit the Nest... Jesus, they were a new level of pissed off and had clearly beenout for blood.
I guess what unsettledme the most was the realization of what it meant if there were noVampires left in the UK. Home had been different. Ireland had neverhad a high level of activity except for the years that Alexis,Sofia, and Heather had lived there. When they’d left, so had thebulk of the Vampires, and yet, that had never seemed worrying.Perhaps it was because I knew that the Colony was situated inLondon, that Leech activity would naturally be higher inEngland.
No Vampires in Irelanddidn’t mean much, but none in the UK, that was a completelydifferent matter.
“I guess I’m justintrigued at your lack of concern of the consequences.”
“Whatconsequences?”
It had been thequestion that had kept me awake for a few hours. What would theconsequences be now there were no Vampires in the UnitedKingdom?
“Well, you’re almostcertain that you have rid the UK of Vampires.”
“I’m sure there are afew strays.”
“Maybe, but you doknow that if you kill a Vampire who has Bloodlings, theirBloodlings die, too?”
“Cure an infection,and it will wipe everything clean.”
But how long would itstay clean before a new infection appeared? There were moreVampires in this world than anyone would like to imagine.
“If you have wiped outa Colony, there will be retaliation.”
“Do y’think wecare?”
Well, it definitelydoesn’t seem like they do. “You should. Any remaining Vampireswill be pissed. You have basically done what they have done t’yourPack.”
“Nothing can compareto what they have done.” His voice dropped to a rich timbre, agrowl vibrating in his chest. “Let them retaliate.”
“What I mean is theycame on t’your Alpha’s land, they kidnapped three of your Pack, andthey burnt down the Keep. So you slaughter them all as payback.” Irisked a glance in the mirror. “They will want payback for theslaughter of a ton of their kind. And if there is anyone left, andthey call for help from other Colonies across the world?”
Eyes open, hisattention was fixed on the right window, though I doubted he waspaying attention to the scenery. Or the light rain that had startedto fall. His jaw had tensed, and uncertainty had claimed hisfeatures.
“Acting on the spotisn’t always the sensible thing t’do, even though your reasons wereunderstandable.”
He remained quiet.Perhaps it wasn’t sensible of
