Page 16 of Chains of Blood and Darkness

I gnashed my teeth like a wolf. “We can’t let him discover our world. That would bring Vlad out of the shadows and make him come after us with a vengeance.” The mere thought of Dracula’s looming presence made every hair on the back of my neck stand straight up.

He met my hard gaze. “What do you want me to do if DuPont gets too close?”

I shrugged. “Detectives die in the line of duty all the time. Just make sure it looks like an accident.”

I wasn’t sure, but I thought I saw hesitation in Enzo’s eyes. And he never shrank from an assignment.

I steepled my hands and put my elbows on my desk. “What do you know of these girls?”

“Not much. I have an informant. He may know something about who is killing those girls—one of them may have come from Simon’s stable, but I’m not sure. He’s really paranoid and will only meet with me.”

I sat back. “So meet with him. We need to know who is murdering these girls, especially if they are pinning the crimes on us.” Suddenly I felt a need to have everyone I cared about close to me. Someone was setting me up, and it would be only a matter of time before they managed to hurt people I loved. “Tell Dimitri that he and Gianna need to come and stay here.”

“She won’t like it.”

“Doesn’t matter. Just tell them.”

Enzo nodded. “Done—but, by the way, DuPont isn’t the only one curious about these deaths.”

I rubbed my forehead tiredly. “Let me guess. Palazzo and Tarus?”

“Yup. I suspect they’ll be wanting to set up a meeting with you soon.”

King Nico Palazzo was the actual king of the vampires. He had sworn allegiance to Vlad years ago and decreed that vampires follow Vlad’s rules of not killing humans. But that decree wasn’t observed by me and my family organization. We were a constant thorn in his side because of it.

Costin Tarus, meanwhile, was the headmaster of Red Rose Academy. He and the king were thick as thieves, and the headmaster frowned whenever one of his graduatesforsook what they learned and switched their allegiance by joining my family.

They would love nothing more than for the Aeternum Stone to grow dark, thereby causing my organization to come crashing down.

I locked eyes with Enzo and gritted my teeth. “We can’t let them know about Serenity’s true power. The last thing we want is for them to prevent Serenity from revitalizing the Aeternum Stone.”

Enzo’s nod was grim and determined. “Agreed. But you won’t be able to avoid taking a meeting with them unless you want to be at war with them too. I would have thought the wolves and the dark Fae were enough there.”

I pondered the recent murders, massaging my stubbled jaw. “Do we have any leads? Could it in fact be the wolves or the dark Fae behind these gruesome deaths?”

Enzo gave me another helpless look. “I’ve reached out to our usual sources, but no one knows anything yet. Maybe my informant will have news today. Based on previous interactions, I highly doubt it is connected to the Barone family. But I’ll do some digging, just to be sure.”

There was a knock at the door. One of my guards, Lorenzo, peeked in hesitantly. Usually no one disturbed my meetings with Enzo, so this must be urgent.

“Summons for you, Angelo,” he murmured quietly. “It’s from King Nico. He’s requesting that you meet him at Fandor Citadel.”

Fandor Citadel was King Nico’s plantation. It looked like any other plantation in New Orleans, but a wallsurrounded it, keeping out the curious. I had no intention of going anywhere near it.

“He knows better than that. Tell the king’s messenger that I will be happy to meet with him at St. John’s Tavern tonight for dinner.”

St. John’s Tavern was a restaurant that was frequented by tourists and in which I was a silent partner. We would both be quite safe there.

My guard bowed slightly and left.

Enzo lifted his eyebrow. “Do you think the king will agree to that?”

“If he doesn’t, we don’t meet. Simple. Now, has Simon sent the three magical objects I bought at his auction: the Eclipsing Mirror, the Codex of Eldritch Lore, and the Phoenix Feather Quill?”

Enzo’s brow furrowed as he shook his head. “N-no,” he said uncomfortably, crossing his beefy arms over his chest. “Simon is holding your shipment hostage until you pay for the damage to his bedroom window.”

I clenched my fists angrily. “He should know better than to try that. Send some of our guys to talk to him and make an example of the idiot. Meanwhile, I want you to meet with your informant.”

A wicked grin spread across Enzo’s face as he stood from his chair. “Consider it done,” he said with a menacing glint in his eye. I knew Simon would soon regret making such a foolish demand.

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