Page 55 of Priest

“Not a little human anymore,” Oliver murmured.

Priest smudged a kiss over his jaw. “You will always be my little human. I told you that before, and I meant it. I don’t care what you actually become. I only care what you are to me.”

The mood in the room was somber. Jeremiah insisted they eat first, which Priest appreciated because now that he was being sated by Oliver, his human appetite was growing. They took their meal in the living room, Oliver pressed against Priest’s side. He only picked at his food, but Priest didn’t pester him about it.

They made quiet conversation about the Dragons, and Jeremiah seemed to know about the missing mate.

“They asked me to look into it a few years ago,” he said as he set his empty plate on the table. “We had a few leads, but they dried up pretty early on.”

Priest looked over at Storm. “You helped?”

“My brother didn’t want me to at the time,” he said quietly. “It probably wouldn’t have mattered either way.”

Oliver wrapped his arms around his middle. “Losing a mate must be…”

“Hell on earth,” Storm answered quietly. He took a beat, then pushed to stand. “I need to go make a couple of phone calls. You don’t need me for this, right?”

Jeremiah shook his head. “No. I just need Knight to stay.”

It wasn’t a dismissal, but both Storm and Slate looked happy to be dismissed. They filed out of the room, and a moment later, Jeremiah gestured to Knight, who rose from his chair. He paced a little in front of the coffee table, and Priest could see how stressed he was. He was more sallow than ever, and his fingers were shaking.

“There’s been something oddly familiar about all of this since the attacks began. Not the attack on Remi,” he added, glancing at Jeremiah. “But the shop and Poe going missing. Then, the law office. And now the others.”

“Do we think they’re connected to what happened to the royals?” Priest asked.

“I think that the attack on Remi was a red herring. I think McCornal was a distraction,” Jeremiah said. “The more details I uncover, the less sense it all makes.”

Priest frowned. “I mean, he’s been the spearhead of the anti-supernatural movement for years.”

“Yes, but that sentiment isn’t new,” Jeremiah said. He rubbed his fingers over his mouth. “A bigot gone too far—it’s a tale as old as time. But the timing of it all was… convenient. As the sentencing was happening, the shop was blown up and Poe was taken. But the media was fixed on the trial.”

Priest had a sinking feeling in his gut, and he turned to Knight. “What aren’t you saying?”

Knight fixed his gaze on Oliver, his eyes more red than they normally were when he wasn’t feeding. “I’m sure Priest hasn’t told you much about what happened to me.”

“It’s your story to tell,” Priest said.

Knight shot him a grateful smile, but he quickly sobered. He shoved his hands into his pockets, and Priest could see him squeezing his fingers into fists. “I was about as young as Poe when I was taken. I don’t remember much of it. Fire. Smoke. Screaming. I was in a fog for… I don’t know how long. I wasin and out of consciousness. I remember a lab and being poked and prodded. They took what felt like gallons of my blood.” His breath trembled. “I was injected with things that made my veins feel like ice and then fire.”

“I’m sorry,” Oliver whispered.

Knight shook his head. “Eventually, I got away, but I was changed into this.” He bared his teeth on the right, showing fang.

“How did you escape?”

Knight rubbed a hand down his face. “I don’t know. I used to fantasize about it. I had a thousand different plans, all of them as unrealistic as the other. I came to while I was running through the woods, and I’ve always suspected that maybe I didn’t escape at all. Maybe I was let go once I turned.”

Priest hadn’t heard this before. His heart was pounding in his chest so hard it felt like it was going to break his ribs. “What are you saying?”

“That this is familiar,” Knight repeated. “We’re near the lab where I was held. I can feel it. I recognized the trees. The paths. The road.”

Jeremiah cleared his throat. “Oz sent Remi a detailed message three days ago saying he was cornered in his office a year ago by a couple of people claiming to be students asking questions about Vampires. He didn’t think much of it until the media finally started picking up the stories of the kidnappings.”

Priest frowned as Oliver sat forward. “What kind of questions did they have?”

“Strange ones. Like if there’s a genetic component to the turn. If there could be a trigger. Absurd because everyone knows?—”

“Vampires are created through a virus,” Knight finished for him. He swallowed heavily. “But apparently, Oz has beenworking on a theory that there isn’t a virus at all. That it’s a latent genetic trait that gets triggered.”

---