“Therefore, we allhave an alliance.” She shrugged when we had all looked at her.“Therefore, if Heather or anyone goes missing again, one if not allof us will have more of a clue with what is going on, and we knowwe can come straight to one another without an invite or fear ofbeing ripped to shreds.”
Her gaze had driftedat that point to Owen who had simply rolled his eyes.
I had a sneakingsuspicion she wanted to be the neutral party. I wasn’t sure yet ifit was because she didn’t trust the Pack, or that she was justoverly concerned about my leadership skills. Either way, having herinvolved—and confirmed in writing—meant we definitely couldn’t losetouch again. We had a commitment to one another. That word inregards to Elle shouldn’t have felt right, but it did. It somehowtied us to one another on a whole other level. A reassurance thatno matter what, we would never not be apart and in fact part ofeach other’s life. It seemed to make her feel better knowing thatshe would never be in such a position again, having a family membergo off radar, and although I’m sure Carter and the others wouldn’tadmit it, but having a Slayer involved in this agreement no doubtmade the whole thing seem more appealing since Vampires andWerewolves were mortal enemies.
Slayers in Ireland,Vampires in London, and Werewolves in Scotland—we seemed to havethe UK and that part of the English seas covered.
Now I just needed tofigure out how to be a Leader of a Vampire Colony, and it would beclear sailing.
***
After our earlyevening meeting, Elle and I had hit the road once more. She hadn’tbeen too happy about being stuck in the Scottish Highlands all dayjust to wait to sign papers, but while the Pack weighed up theiroptions on whether I was crazy or not, it had given her and me timeto come up with a plan.
We would go straightto the Colony Nest and see if any Vampires had crawled out of thewoodwork and clarify that they were part of the UK Colony. Once wehad figured that out, I would announce I was the new Leader, havingsnapped Michael’s neck. Sure, I wasn’t the one who drove the finalblow that turned him into ash, but the Leeches didn’t need to knowthat.
I’d fight anyone whochallenged me, and with a bit of luck, I’d win. Once all thatterritorial bullshit was done, the ground rules would be laid out,all Vampires would be given an option to remain or leave, and thenwe would get to work and re-building.
It seemedstraightforward, but Elle was right—the Leeches wouldn’t be happy.Not with me, a newbie experiment being their Leader. Not at thefact a Vampire Slayer would be acting as a bodyguard, or the factthat a Werewolf would be paying regular house calls, but that waswhy they had the option to leave in the first place.
Despite our half anhour pit stop for food and to pick up some decent clothes for me,the journey back to London felt like it lasted an eternity. Ellewas all talked out and only mumbled the odd word in reply toanything I said. She was worried. The fact that she was lost inthought for most of the long car journey was a big indication, butdespite putting her name to the agreement, despite deciding to stayuntil there was word from Heather, she still thought that all ofthis was a bad idea.
By the early hours ofTuesday morning, we were once again standing outside the ColonyNest. Only this time, we had the keys to let ourselves in.
Elle stood on thethreshold of the front door to the middle house as if her feet werestuck to the marble. Shoving the keys into my jeans pocket, I tookhold of her hands and brought her inside.
Her gaze darted aroundthe darkness. “This feels weird.”
I closed the doorbehind her and then switched the light on. The warm light bouncedagainst the crystal chandeliers, highlighting the enormous spacewhich now looked very different without broken furniture anddecomposed Vampires littering the floor.
“I know.” I went toher side. “But one way or another, we have t’make this work, forall our sakes.”
“Can you smellanything? Hear anything?”
The trio of houseswere quiet with it being the early hours. Neighbours would beasleep. There were no cars on the roads. It was deadly silent so Ishould have been able to pick up on a mouse running around.
“It smells less likedeath than it did last time.”
“It was a good idea totidy up. If any Leeches did come calling, it would no doubt beobvious what had happened, but at least a human would just thinksomeone had moved in or out, with the lack of furniture.”
“I think a human wouldbe preoccupied with the fact that this is a trio of houses that areall opened up to one another.”
Somewhere above us, afloorboard whined. I concentrated, and after a moment, could makeout soft footfall. “Someone’s here.”
“Which house?”
“The right one.”
Removing her dagger,she moved past me into the living room of the right house.“Hopefully, it’s not a squatter.”
“Well, if it is,they’re lucky it’s just us here.” I went to follow her but pausedas another noise caught my attention. “Make that two visitors.”
Glancing over hershoulder, she arched an eyebrow.
“This house.” Ipointed to the floor to indicate the noise came fromdownstairs.
She nodded andcontinued in the direction of the first noise, tiptoeing up thestairs.
Once she had vanishedfrom view, I made my way quietly down to the basement. The lightfrom the ground floor hallway only reached the base of the stairwayto the lower level.
Darkness stretched outbefore me in all directions, but my eyes adjusted, turning theblackness into solid shadows. I remained at the bottom of thestairs, listening. Something shuffled. A crackle followed by aguzzling sound. As I focused on the small noises, my sight seemedto become sharper as if having a focus made the space around memore solid. It was crazy, but now wasn’t the time to analyse howinsane my senses were.
Rounding the stairs, Imade my way
