Therefore, a good vampire maker would be responsible and teach the rules to their progeny or face punishment from the Conclave themselves. I knew—because I was an educated witch—that those eight fossils weren’t the forgiving kind. They were eight of the nastiest bastards I’d ever read or heard about. I hadn’t met them, and since I didn’t have any inclination to work my way through the thirty layers of protection they surrounded their compound with, I probably never would. I certainly doubted they’d be travelling to Prosper Woods anytime soon.
Unless…
I knew what was in the books, and I sure as hell hoped it never got out. The fact that they were written in the ancient vampire language which only the members of the Conclave could decipher, had protected Vincent until now. Even his maker, Robert, hadn’t been able to read them. I was grateful for that. Why the Conclave had never reclaimed them, obtaining them from Robert and then Vincent, was a mystery to me. They left Siberia now and then when called out to mediate a claim. Since Sergio’s claim had been adjudicated once already and the books still remained with Vincent, I had to believe there was a reason the old fuckers hadn’t just locked the books up for safekeeping.
I’d been pondering that turn of events for a while now. I still had no idea.
At the moment, I did know this…as I watched Floyd and his enforcers leave, the two wolves left in the bar had decisions to make. It seemed the poor guys had been banished from their own pack. At least they had each other…each other and the allies I suspected they’d made in Romeo and Vincent. If nothing else, the town would rally around them. Though, shifters and werewolves rarely got along, Sam and Greg had always been a couple of good guys. They were well known and well liked in Prosper Woods. Floyd and his enforcers were not.
Before Floyd came around and claimed the title of alpha, there had been a lot of good wolves in the Frederick pack. Most of them had either died off or run off when they saw what kind of a leader their new alpha was. A few of the old ones like Clancy Barrows hung around but that was because his family owned the land the town sat on and every alpha who took over paid him a sizeable piece of the pack income in the form of a tax.
“What are we gonna do now?” Sam said, standing in front of Greg and holding a wet bar rag to the side of his friend’s neck where it still bled. Vincent had gone to lock the saloon after Floyd and his guys left, bringing the compress back to the table. Rome and Vincent were currently huddled around us, keeping watch. The rest of the bar staff was busily busing tables and cleaning the grill, since all the patrons had run out of the place at the first hint of trouble from Floyd and his goons.
The look on Greg’s face was pure agony, not from the deep cuts on his wrist and neck, but if I were to guess, from the fact that they’d both been thrown out of the only pack and home they’d ever known. Tears shone brightly in his eyes, and I had the distinct impression he wished he’d never encouraged Sam to sit with us. Floyd had taken away the only thing the two men had ever had, a familial birthright to their pack. At least they had each other and as long as I was around, they’d stay above ground. I had a feeling our new sheriff was with me. Even Vincent the vampire looked suitably upset about their banishment.
Good.
“Look, guys, you’re welcome to stay at my cabin,” Sheriff Harmon said. He glanced at me. “Your brother won’t have a problem with that, will he?”
“Tommy?” I scoffed. My brother, the Prosper Woods town mayor, had little involvement in the town. Truthfully, though, he was a witch, he had no interest in either his powers beyond what it took to ingratiate himself with the townsfolk when election day came around.
He’d hired the sheriff a month prior but that had been the only thing related to town business that he’d done in the last year. He didn’t show up to city council meetings half the time, preferring to stay at the lake and fly fish. He always cashed the paychecks I wrote as part of my job as town treasurer. But other than coming into town to pick up the check and visit the bank, he stayed out of sight and mostly out of mind. I was pretty sure he wasn’t even aware our former sheriff had quit until I informed him we’d need a new one.
“Yeah…and where is he anyway?” Sheriff Harmon asked. “He does exist, right?”
I nodded. “He exists. I deliver food to his house, he comes into town once a month to visit the bank, and other than that, stays out of the way until a month before election day.”
Harmon’s eyes widened. “Really?”
I shrugged. “Really. It’s a source of some pain for me, so please drop it.”
Vincent snorted, and I glanced over to see the vampire hiding a grin behind his hand as he watched the exchange.
I shrugged again. “It’s better this way. He can’t get into trouble.”
“Is he also a witch?” Romeo asked.
My glance shot to the two wolves who were listening. I wasn’t sure they knew about me but when they simply blinked back, I realized, yes, they most likely knew I had powers. They’d seen me that night at
