Page 32 of Sleeping With the Vampire

“I felt you,” he said, with a tender smile. “I knew you were here. It didn’t make sense but I had to check. Then, as I came down, I saw what was happening.”

“I’m glad you came when you did, but I had it under control,” I said, standing straight.

“Yes, I saw that,” he chuckled.

We reached the top landing and rested for a bit before continuing to his rooms. The castle was bare and basic, it lacked the luxury of the city housing, but it was imposing nevertheless.

The view from the top was magnificent.

“My sons, Ragnar and Layrr, are resting now. They came back last night, exhausted after chasing around a group of bandits. But they were not the real enemy,” he said, pausing.

“It is The Servant. He is taking over, or wants to. He is telling people that I have been selling tainted blood. I think it is the Council’s way of weakening my power.”

I nodded. “What do you make of him?” I asked.

Lucca said, “There is a malevolence about him. He definitely wants me dead and will keep trying until he succeeds.”

His words gave me the shivers.

“What about the old woman?” I asked.

Lucca seemed saddened by her betrayal. “She had many visions of you, and all of them seemed negative. She was trying to warn me off you, but I wouldn’t have it. I didn’t realize that it had more to do with her own wishes.”

I was silent.

He said, “Since I’ve met you, I’ve been getting the answers I’ve been craving for so long. I have been turning to her less and less. I don’t know, maybe she was jealous?”

“Or maybe she is with those who are trying to overthrow you?”

I knew I had to tell Lucca what I had overheard in the house in the capital.

“I think one of your sons is plotting against you.”

“Who?! Ragnar?”

I shook my head. “I am not completely certain.”

He stared at me and then jumped up, ignoring his wound, “You can’t come to me with this and not have proof.”

I bit my lip. I knew he was right.

“I heard someone say that ‘until he is dead, there is no point going further’.”

Lucca said, “But that could mean anyone, even the Servant!”

“Your family name is not spoken of favorably in the Citadel,” I said. “There is a feeling that you are somehow involved in the bad things that are happening. The toxic blood, the ambushes.”

The atmosphere between us changed. Lucca was looking at me with distrust. “Those are lies, you know it.”

“But it is coming from somewhere,” I insisted.

I got up, slowly.

“There is something else,” I said. I didn’t want to continue, but I had come this far and this had been the job he had contracted me for from the beginning.

“I spoke to someone who was at the dinner, the night Tanata was killed.” I took a deep breath. “They saw Layrr going into the maze shortly before the attack.”

“Layrr? He wasn’t there that night! What are you talking about?”

---