Page 80 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 1

“And more and more powerful,” I said. “I’m not sure I even know my own limits at this point.”

“You should talk to Marcus,” Gabriel said. “I’ve only met him in passing, but he seemed quite powerful. He might be able to help.”

"I should call Isabella, too.” I clambered out of bed, stretching my arms over my head. “I don’t know if she’ll actually be able to help, but she’d be pissed if I left her out of the loop on this.”

“Just have them both come over,” Gabriel offered. “We should keep the others up to date, too, and we might as well streamline things and tell them all at the same time.”

I went still. “The others?” I said cautiously.

“Lissa, Vic, and Theo,” Gabriel said, frowning at me just a little.

“Right,” I said slowly. “Is that, uh…”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow.

“Are you sure we should loop them in on this?” I asked gingerly.

Confusion, hurt, anger, and resignation moved across Gabriel’s face one after the other, almost too fast for me to follow. “I trust them. They’ve always been there for me,” he said. His voice sounded hollow.

“I’m just saying that it might be?—”

“I know what you’re saying,” Gabriel said. He didn’t even sound angry, just bone tired. “They’re nothing like my father. You’ve met them; you know that.”

“Gabriel.” I stepped back over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it so we were closer to eye level. “I trust you, okay? Trust doesn’t come easily for me, but I do trust you. It just seems like this is a situation where it would be smart to be on our guard. I’d rather be paranoid than fucked over.”

“This isn’t really a time where I have a great deal of faith in my own judgment of people,” Gabriel said. He let out a shuddering sigh, dragging a hand over his face. “The choice is yours, Evangeline. If you aren’t willing to bring them in on this, I’ll respect that.”

I blew out a small sigh. “I want to talk to each of them first. Just to make sure we know what we’re dealing with.”

It took a while to get everything set up, but by noon I had what I needed. I had the three vampires in front of me, and in front of each of them was a small cup of freshly brewed potion.

“This is going to make it impossible for you to lie to me,” I explained, looking each of them in the eye in turn. “You may admit things you wouldn’t otherwise, but unless it’s a threat, it’ll stay between you and me. I wouldn’t ask you to do this if it wasn’t important, and I understand if you have concerns.”

Vic looked at me, looked at the cup, and downed the potion like a shot. Lissa shrugged and sipped hers daintily, letting out a delicate sigh when the cup was empty. Theo, on the other hand, glowered at me, arms crossed.

“I’m only doing this because you saved Lissa,” they said, then drank their dose.

After the potion had time to take effect, I took each of the vampires into one of the smaller sitting rooms, one by one. With my phone on the table, voice memo app running, I studied each of them carefully.

“Please tell me your name and date of birth.”

“Victory-in-the-face-of-turmoil William Ulfred?—”

“First and last name and date of birth.”

“Victory-in-the-face-of-turmoil Hoyer. May fifteenth, 1792.”

“Lissa Hoyer, née Hrafndottir. June fourth, 1843.”

“Theodemir Nottingham, November first, 1381.”

“Have you ever worked with Roland De Montclair? Have you ever knowingly given him intel about Gabriel?”

“No.”

“My god, absolutely not. Can you imagine?”

“Fuck, no.”

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