Page 64 of Tainted Blood

“What happened?” I finally asked, unable to open my eyes, unable to move at all.

“We read what you wrote down for us and saw that the human was using the bunker. Before we reached it, Marcus saw the human had left it shortly after sunrise, less than fifteen minutes before we got there. I opened the door. It was immortal arrogance, truthfully, and I won’t deny it.” His words were deceptively calm as he laid out the facts of what had happened. “Neither Alexius nor I was worried about something happening while we investigated the bunker. Neither of us thought about safety measures before opening that door.

“I heard a small click, but before I could think about what it could have been, Alexius pushed me nearly fifty feet down the passageway… and a firebomb went off. Alexius was still in the blast. He’d had time and the reflexes to push me out of the way, saving me from harm, but it hit him hard. I ran back in and grabbed him, putting the fire out, but it did an immense amount of damage, enough to knock him unconscious.”

“Oh my God.”

“I was able to get him back inside. The end of the emergency tunnel is far enough away from the mansion that no one heard the sound. Marcus was looking through security files, and while doing so, he saw the notification that a camera went offline, the one that watched the bunker door and the exit of the passage. He came to help.

“We put Alexius in my personal bedroom because we can’t leave him wounded where others might be able to sneak up on him. There are a lot of vampires here who can and would take the chance to kill him while he’s down. I knew I couldn’t leave you alone in your suite, so I brought you here. I couldn’t have you going to look for him and letting others know something was wrong, and it’s safer for you overall.”

“How is he?” I asked, lifting my head to look for another door, one that must lead to him. I needed to see him. Selfishly, I wanted to see him and make sure everything was going to be okay. It would makemefeel better.

“We bandaged up the burns and have fed him a copious amount of blood. He’ll survive and return to full strength before the end of the month. It would be smart for him to take some time off to fully recover, say three to four months, maybe more. Nothing should scar, but it could if he doesn’t stay on a strict feeding schedule to maintain the amount of regeneration his body needs to make that happen. So, if he wants to be back toexactlywhat he once was, he’ll need to be careful.”

“But how is herightnow?” All of that was for later. None of it told me how he really was now.

“He’ll be unconscious for another twenty-four hours, at least, but he’s stable and healing. If no one has properly explained it, I will for your peace of mind. Our biology, or whatever magic fuels us, doesn’t let us rise during the daylight hours. You face that regularly. The older the vampire, the more we can fight that and continue running through the daylight hours with little to no sleep. He’s severely injured, which means he’s weakened by the pull of the sun. His body is attempting to heal, diverting any energy he gets from the blood in the process. Both mean that if he’s not awake yet, he could wake before the sunrise, but it’s more likely that he wakes up tomorrow evening.”

“Who…” I trailed off. I knew who had done this. That fucking human running around did this. Like a switch was flipped, my panic and fear for Alexius was overshadowed by rage and a need to end this. “I’m working alone then. For the whole night.”

“You shouldn’t be wandering the mansion alone. The others will be because I can’t keep them confined to their rooms any longer, not without revealing the threat of the cambion blood in full. Theycan’tknow that Alexius is wounded and no longer lurking around any corner. I’ve already moved all of your equipment into the library off my office. Anything you learn, you’ll report to me or Marcus—”

“I am not sitting in that library all night staring at a screen,” I snarled, standing up. “I need to find this guy and put an end to this.”

“You need to take a step back and look at the situation.” Isaiah’s eyes went hard, but his tone didn’t change. “Alexius being around is what keeps you out of harm’s way. While I’m not going to tell the others what happened to Alexius, they’re eventually going to notice his absence and wonder what he’s doing.

“There’s a chance the human we’re looking for knows that his bomb went off. Whoever he might report to will be able to put it together and come to the correct conclusion. Whoever that may be will know that Alexius isn’t able to protect you right now, so killing you would beeasy. Killing you might sound like something petty or vindictive, but the fact of the matter is, they all know you have skills to help Alexius. They know he’s training you. They know it, which makes you a threat to their plans. If you give these vampires a chance, they will kill you.”

I hissed wordlessly while I tried to think of a solution.

“You won’t be reviewing old footage. Marcus and I did that all day after Alexius was injured and we had secured you both. We have the timeline of this human’s movements, though there’s no indication of who he works for yet. You’ll be watching the live feeds. Come see what Marcus’s team set up for you.” He walked away, leaving me to decide if I wanted to listen to him or if I wanted to go rogue with no plan.

I followed him through a door that led to his office. The door was hidden by a bookshelf, a neat way to make sure people didn’t realize just how interconnected his personal quarters really were. Once inside his small library, I saw the wall of screens, each screen with four camera views. Overall, there had to be nearly forty cameras covering the mansion.

“It’s not all the views, but if you catch sight of him anywhere, you only need to tell me the camera number and what direction you saw him moving. I’ll know where it is and head there with Marcus and backup.”

I nodded, wondering if I could even keep up. There were so many screens, so many cameras, all giving me their live feed.

“What if I miss him?” I asked.

“Take a deep breath,” he ordered. Confused, I did. “Good. Don’t worry about that. The views Marcus and I arranged here are all ones that connect. With a few exceptions, if he leaves one camera’s view, he’ll be entering another. Several entrances to the building are blocked, and all the windows are still shuttered. No human or vampire will breach the building through an unauthorized point without the system alerting me to the tampering. That means, if he wants to meet in secret inside the building, he has to come through one of the doors, which you have cameras on here.” He pointed to one screen, all the panels showing doors that left the building.

“The main floor is also being patrolled by the upper levels of the staff. If they don’t see him, you should or vice versa. Beyond that, the vampires in the building know they’re not allowed to leave the building tonight. None of them are allowed to leave, is that clear? If you know they are one of my guests, you report the moment you see one of them attempt to leave the building.”

“And the emergency exits?” I asked, trying to find any sort of weakness to what Isaiah had set up.

“Both are still locked.No onewill be using them. Let’s hope none of these old assholes decides to set the building on fire.” He didn’t sound all that distraught or worried about the possibility. I had the feeling he would be completely okay with burning the building down with the others locked in the basement with no escape.

“Okay…” I pulled the chair back to sit down and watch all the cameras. “I’ll do it. I’ll let you know if I see anything.” Already, my plan was forming. I knew what I wanted to do and how I was going to do it.

“Thank you for listening to reason,” Isaiah said. “I’m going to take my foul mood somewhere else and point it at someone who deserves it. I’m going to release them all and be foul with them. That sounds like a good idea.” He marched out of the library.

He left me with all the power I could have ever asked for. Grabbing a notepad, I readied myself to note anything I saw that could be useful later. Each camera was named and numbered, so when Isaiah let vampires know they could leave their suites only ten minutes later, I watched where they went. I wrote down who they talked to, what rooms they disappeared into, other suites they visited or sitting rooms they went into.

I watched as humans arrived, were fed on, and taken to recover, noting who fed and who didn’t. Gisela spoke to Maxwell in the hall. Isis stalked to her suite then back to the suite where Kamose was being kept for recovery. Solon, one of Athenians, spoke to Conall, who then walked away, looking annoyed.

I had it all, and even if it wasn’t useful today, I would always remember.

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