“No, I wasn’t,” he scowled, then his face softened. “Well, I had to compel her a little, but I’d never... She’s so... different from everyone else... so full of life.”

  I gave him a long look, pursing my lips together.

  “I think she’d love to have you back too, and I’d love to have a real chance with her without having to lie to her or compel her. We just need to petition the council...”

  “Absolutely not.” I glared at him. “If you care about her even a little, then you won’t ask me to help you introduce her into the world of danger. The less she knows, the safer she is. If we mention to some council a human who isn’t resistant, won’t every single vampire know about her and want to see what all the fuss is about? Just because no one will compel her to forget about us doesn’t mean other vamps won’t use the opportunity to feed on her, compel her, or do God knows what with her.”

  “We could protect her,” Marcos said determinedly.

  “No. No way. We can’t keep an eye on her all the time, and I’m not ruining her life with this. End of story.”

  “You should reconsider.”

  “Why? So she can be your chew toy, is that it? I thought you and Selena...”

  “Selena and I have a different type of relationship.” He ground his teeth together. “Bea would...”

  “No. Stay away from her. Do you really want her to be a part of the vampire world in which no one seems to want to catch a mass murderer?” I observed him for any kind of reaction, but his face was emotionless.

  “No one died since that party,” he said. “It’s probably just the hunters trying to get us to turn against each other. Besides, a rogue vampire can attack your ex-friend any moment, and knowing about the danger would help her defend herself.”

  “There are thousands of people in this city, and this is a very crowded area. If a vampire gets to her here, it’ll be because he knows about her and is specifically looking for her, so let’s not pretend that we’d be protecting her by letting her know. And even if she did know, what could she do against a vampire who can rip her throat out before she can even scream for help? Or who can compel her any time he wants because he doesn’t care about the rules?” I spat out at him. “I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with her, but I can see that you’re thinking only about yourself and not about her.”

  “Fine. It’s your decision.” Marcos turned on his heel and hurried away. I was sure he didn’t even know Bea that well, unless he’d been meeting with her without me knowing. But a few dances at the club didn’t equal eternal love, and painting a target on Bea’s back by letting everyone know she existed and was somehow important so Marcos could try to seduce her was beyond stupid and reckless. And if his father was actually the one the hunters were looking for...

  Careful not to be seen, I followed Marcos at a distance, glad that he couldn’t just use his vampire speed here with so many people around. A few blocks away, he took a turn into a long driveway of a house that was surrounded by a spiky fence. When he was out of sight, I tiptoed through the open gate and inched closer. If someone spotted me, I’d just say I wanted to speak to Marcos about Bea. A car was parked in the front, and as I came closer, I could hear various voices arguing in the house.

  “Are you seriously blaming me for this?” Hugo said. “Are you out of your minds? My company provides a lot of things, but you don’t have any proof I arranged anything. I was asleep when the delivery happened. Anyone could have had access to those bottles. For all I know, it’s you who are trying to get rid of me. This whole thing is terribly suspicious. Every time something happens, you have your noses in it immediately, but this time you have no proof and no clue about what happened. How odd.”

  “If you think someone is setting you up,” a male voice said, “then do everything in your power to prove you weren’t involved in this and cooperate to help us find the culprit.”

  Hugo snorted in indignation. “Guilty until proven innocent. Is that what you’re trying to pull here? Well, it won’t work! The council will never agree to you prosecuting me for no reason like this! And you’d better do your jobs! I heard you have potential witnesses, so why don’t you go question them instead of me?”

  “We will, but if you noticed anything suspicious in your interaction with other vampires, you should tell us.”

  “We’re not going to turn on each other,” Marcos hissed. “Now stop pestering my father and get the hell out of this house.”

  “You’re playing a dangerous game, Hugo,” a woman said. “Despite what you might think about us, we’ll get to the bottom of this, and when we do...”

  “I didn’t do anything and you’ll see that,” Hugo said.

  “We should go.” I recognized Nataniel’s voice, and as I heard footsteps going toward the door, I ran away from the window and hid in the bushes. If the hunters were finally going around and asking questions, then that meant that they didn’t have many options left. They’d be coming to question Enrique and me for sure. I took a quick peek as the hunters spilled out of the house and got in the car. After they drove away, my phone vibrated. Nat had sent me a text telling me that they were coming to question Adán, Enrique, and me, and that we should all be ready at Adán’s house. I immediately headed there.

  Chapter 21

  One of Adán’s servants opened the door and let me inside. Enrique was standing at the foot of the stairs and running a hand through his hair, a look of exasperation on his face. A girl with long light brown hair was standing a few steps up, her arms crossed, her lips set into a tight line.

  “Daniela, please,” Enrique said. “Dad and I have some important business to do. Go upstairs.”

  “No.” She gave him an angry look. “You always have some important business to do!” Her voice was high-pitched. “You never have time for me!”

  “Dani...” Enrique seemed to be at a loss for words.

  “You didn’t even bother to come to my play today,” she said, her brown eyes filling with tears. “I nailed it, just so you know. Not that any of you care about me! It’s like I don’t even exist.” Her lip quivered. Enrique swore under his breath and in two quick strides got in front of her, placing his hand on her cheek.

  “You’ll go upstairs and go to sleep. You won’t come down.”

  When he let go of her, she just turned around and trudged upstairs without another word. Enrique placed his hand over his forehead, looking more tired than ever, then spotted me standing there. I could see his smiling mask falling back into place as he came down to greet me.

  “Is she your...?” I asked.

  “Yeah.” He scratched his head. “My half-sister. She’s nine and doesn’t understand why she almost never gets to see her family.”

  “You could just tell her the truth. If you’re afraid she’ll try to become like one of you, maybe you can compel her to prevent that? Or at least take her somewhere fun at night and then make her think it was during daylight? Or whatever.” There had to be something they could do, because the current situation was clearly affecting Daniela too much.

  “It’s not my call to make.” Enrique sat down on the last step. “The hunters are coming to question us. They know we’ve been at that party.”

  “Okay.” I shrugged. “We don’t have anything to hide, right?”

  “Right,” he said quietly, staring down at his hands. “You shouldn’t worry about anything.”

  “Enrique...” I started to say just as the doorbell rang and the servant opened the door to let a group of hunters inside. Nataniel’s eyes went to me, but he didn’t react in any way. The servant led the hunters straight to one of the rooms, probably where Adán was.

  “Um, shouldn’t we go with them?” I asked when Enrique remained sitting.

  He shook his head. “My father will call us if he needs us.”

  “Okay.” Could Adán refuse to let the hunters question us? I supposed he could, although I wasn’t sure how that could help his case. Or maybe he just wanted to make it as difficult as possible for the hunters to do this. I strained my ears and could only hear multiple voices arguing, but once they quieted down, I could finally hear everything clearly.

  “I’ve done everything in my power to help,” Adán said. “I don’t see what more you could want from me.”

  “Your son and his protégé were at the party. That can’t be a coincidence,” a woman said. “They destroyed the evidence, and for all we know, they slipped something into the drinks, then when everyone was down for the count, you came in, killed those people, and are trying to blame it on Hugo.”

  “That’s ludicrous.” Adán barked in laughter, not even a hint of worry or distress in his voice. “Kike, come here! Bring Destiny with you.”

  Enrique immediately got to his feet, sighing, and we headed for the door. When we entered the room, all five hunters looked up at us.

  “If you want to question my son, go ahead,” Adán said. “But then stop making such silly accusations because you seem utterly incompetent.”

  An older woman with long curly black hair and piercing green eyes stepped forward. “Enrique, we know you and your protégé blew up that house.”

  “I blew it up, yeah,” Enrique said, his chin held high, his face cold. “So what? Would you rather a bunch of humans stumbled on the crime scene? Took photos of it and shared it everywhere before anyone could do anything? All I did was prevent a disaster. You should be thanking me,” he sneered.

  “We know you and Destiny aren’t strong enough to withstand the drugs that were found in the blood of the victims or drain so many bodies, so why don’t you tell me who else was there? Who are you protecting?”

  “How do you know they were drained?” Enrique retorted. “My father’s right. You did this and are trying to blame it on us. Admit it.”

  “We have our sources,” the woman said, her lip curling. “And we’ll find out who you’re protecting whether you can tell us about it or not.” She shot Adán a glare. Can or can’t tell us. Huh. That meant she believed Adán had compelled Enrique not to say anything. I hadn’t exactly told Nat that the bodies had been drained. Well, I wasn’t even sure if they had been drained completely, so the hunters’ forensic team must have figured that one out.

  “What about you?” The woman turned to me. “Anything to add?” She didn’t look hopeful; as if she knew that there was no way I’d tell her anything useful. Adán’s gaze on me felt like a heavy weight.

  “No.” If there was something I wanted to say, I’d tell Nataniel about it.

  “If that’s all, get out of my house,” Adán said. “Your hunter stench is making me nauseated.”

  The woman started toward him, her teeth bared, but Nataniel placed his hand on her shoulder and pulled her back. As they headed outside, his gaze lingered on me, and I gave him a quick nod. Once they were gone, Adán got to his feet and ordered his servants to get him his coat. A few minutes later, Adán left the house, and Enrique turned to me.

  “You can go,” he said.

  “Do you think someone’s trying to set up Hugo or your father?” I asked. “Would your father benefit if Hugo was out of the picture?”

  “What does it matter?” There was a tic in his jaw.

  “It does. If he compelled you to... Do you really think the hunters will let this slide without finding out the vampire responsible? If they think you’re covering for someone and they blame you for...”

  “Just shut up and go away,” he snapped, then his eyes softened a little. “Please.”

  “You’re not helping. If you can’t tell me, you could try and give me a sign or something. And you promised you’d tell me more about this whole vampire power thing and how it all works, but there never seems to be time. I assume you don’t want to talk now either.”

  “Some other time. I have things to do.” Without another look at me, he rushed away so fast that my hair fluttered in the wind. Awesome.

  Chapter 22

  “Hey.” I offered Nataniel a small smile. “Any news?” We’d agreed to meet a couple of days later when we were sure nobody would be able to follow us or see us. Well, I hoped they couldn’t, because both vampires and hunters had eyes and ears everywhere. But I had to admit, meeting Nat in secret was kind of thrilling.

  “I’m afraid not.” He bent his head, his shoulders sagging. “As expected, talking to the vampires was useless, even when we threatened to take further action against them, which might as well result in a larger conflict and get us all in trouble, so we’re trying to find an alternative way to figure things out.”

  “Don’t you have some special ways to find the culprit? I’d been told you always found out things eventually.” I scanned the woods around us, but I couldn’t hear anything other than the birds and rustling of leaves. Hopefully, vampires couldn’t spy on us through birds.

  Nat shook his head. “We’ve used up every magical object at our disposal, and all we know is that a very strong old vampire was responsible, but we have six potential suspects and no proof. Well, except for Hugo, but we found the traces of the drug used in the drinks in a factory, which is close to the location of Adán’s last business trip. It seems the bottles were opened there, filled with drugs, and then closed and sent to that party, but it happened during daylight, and no one saw any of the vampires or compelled people going there.”

  “So the vamps paid someone to do it rather than compelled them?” I came closer to Nat and lowered my voice. “Do you think it’s Adán?”

  “Maybe, but we usually don’t monitor humans, so we couldn’t find out much. The cops don’t think anyone working in that factory is involved in the drug business. I’m afraid we’ll have to arrest everyone and try to find the truth in a different way, but that may trigger a war, especially since there’s no solid evidence. Vamps will see us coming and flee or prepare for an attack.” Nat picked at the sleeve of his black jacket. “I think we need more magic for this case, but the only person who can help us is a witch who won’t cooperate if a hunter doesn’t bring a vampire willingly with him since only a vampire can drink some potion necessary for...”

  “Nat! That’s it!” I grabbed his arm. “We can go to that witch! I’m a vampire, you’re a hunter. That’s all we need, right? You know I want to help.”

  Nat stared at me in shock. “No, absolutely not.”

  “Why not?” The witch seemed to be the solution to all our problems, so why wouldn’t he want to do it?

  “You’re a new vampire and it’s against the rules that you go without permission of your maker...”

  I waved my hand. “Who cares about permission? It’s not like any of those vampires will agree to help you anyway. And without finding the killer, our world could descend into chaos. We have a chance to stop that. Even vampires won’t be able to argue once we figure out who’s behind all this.”

  “It’s not that simple.” Nat’s brow wrinkled. “I don’t know what that potion can do to you. I’ve never seen it used. What if it hurts you or something bad happens to you? Witches are rare and their magic is unpredictable.”

  “But she promised to help you, didn’t she? Then we can go ask her if there are any side effects or consequences for using that potion, right? We don’t have to do anything until we know all the details.”

  Nat seemed at a loss for words and scratched his head. “I don’t think that’s...”

  “Do you have a better idea? Because I’m all ears. I’m not looking forward to meeting some witch. Hell, I didn’t even know those existed. Seriously, what else is out there?”

  “Nothing else, hopefully.” There was uncertainty in Nat’s voice.

  “So, where is this witch? Why can’t we just go talk to her?”

  “She’s somewhere in the woods. No one really knows the true location of her cabin.” Nat checked something on his phone, and judging by the disappointed look on his face, whatever he’d expected hadn’t happened.

  My eyebrows shot upward. “How is that possible?”

  “Magic, I guess. Believe me, we tried all kinds of technology, but it’s like none of the signals can detect her, and it’s possible her cabin changes its location from time to time.”

  “Okay.” That was... well, awesome and creepy at the same time. “Do you think a vampire could’ve used that kind of magic? To just poof himself in and out of some place? That would explain why you didn’t detect anything strange.”

  “No, that shouldn’t be possible. There are no records of any vampire ever doing something like that.”

  “Um, okay. Let’s go find that witch.”

  Chapter 23

  We traipsed through the woods, far outside the city. Nat was carrying a flashlight, but aside from trees, a few animals, and trash, we didn’t really see anything. I was straining my ears and eyes for any sign of a person or a house, but I couldn’t detect anything.

  “Are you sure we’re in the right place?” I turned to Nat as I stopped. If I weren’t a vampire, I’d be too terrified to walk around here. “I mean, there are tons of identical trees around here. Maybe it’s in another direction?”

  Nat shook his head, glancing down at his phone. “No, it should be somewhere around here. At least that’s the info the witch gave the hunters. Maybe her cabin is in some other plane of existence right now, so we should wait.”

  “I don’t think a cabin would fit anywhere around here.” The trees were way too close together. “If we’re going to wait, we should at least find a spot where a house could fit. Or can the witch make the trees disappear too?”

  “I don’t know,” Nat said in a sharp tone. “She wasn’t very forthright with the information. But she said that she’d know when we needed her.”

  “Fine.” I ran my hand through my hair, sighing. “But let’s find a better spot. Maybe in a clearing or something. If there is one around here.”

  “Okay.” Nataniel shone the flashlight around us.

  “Over there.” I pointed toward the area where the trees seemed to be a little less dense. As the branches crunched underneath us, a howl made me freeze in place. “Is that...?” I looked at Nat with wide eyes.