Page 7 of Dark Souls

I frowned. “What other reason would there be?”

He raised one eyebrow. “Your brothers? And Neve? They left to go on a crazy adventure to another realm and you are stuck here. I know being away from them hasn’t been easy these last few weeks. I never had siblings, but being separated as triplets must be very hard. And with your best friend gone too. You must be lonely—”

“This has nothing to do with them.” I shook my head, ignoring the tightening in my chest which always grew when I thought of how much I missed them. “This is about me. And what I want, Grandpapi. Yes, it’s hard being away from them. We’ve never spent more than a day apart since we were born. But I see this as an opportunity to find myself. To figure out who I am without them around. If only you’d let me.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. I tried to suppress my smile, knowing he was so close to giving in.

“I’ll think about it.”

I dived forward, wrapping my arms around his neck and squeezing him. It was as good as yes. He chuckled, tapping his hand against my forearm.

“Don’t get too excited. That isn’t a yes. But I’ll speak to Raiden. Find out more about it all.”

“Thank you! And dad?” I released and gave him a pleading look.

“You’re on your own there.” He smirked as I dropped my head and groaned.

My phone started vibrating next to me and when I saw the caller ID, a flutter of adrenaline had my heart racing.Shit.Had they realised I’d looked at the cases?

“Oh hey, girl. How are you?” I answered in an overly friendly voice, glancing at Grandpapi in warning. He lifted his hands and stood up, ruffling my hair out of place before strolling out of the library to give me some privacy. I didn’t want him to be here if I was about to be scolded by Sienna, even though he’d be sure to find out about it through Raiden.

“Oh, uh. Hi.” Sienna was clearly taken aback by my cheeriness. I dropped the act.

“Sorry. Grandpapi was sitting next to me.”

She chuckled. “I see. He is still not budging?”

“Oh, he’s budging. Just at the pace of a snail.”

“These Romano men.” She tutted. “So headstrong.”

“But they have nothing on the women,” I added, which caused her to laugh. It was quite unbelievable that Sienna and I were in such a good place after our rocky start. It’s safe to say I wasn’t her biggest fan. I pride myself on being an excellent judge of character and I knew she was hiding something from the moment I met her, even though I frustratingly couldn’t read her mind. But it was all water under the bridge and she’d proved her loyalty to my uncle and this family so I didn’t hold a grudge. I was even considering her as a friend as well as my uncle’s mate.

“So, I shouldn’t really be telling you this but I knew you’d want to know seeing as he was your arrest-”

My spine straightened. I could tell by her tone that something was wrong. “Eddie Hughes? Don’t tell me they’ve released him on bail or something?”

“God, no. He’s… He’s dead.”

“W-What?” I frowned with confusion. How could the asshole be dead? He was in police custody and was about to be locked behind bars for a very long time.

“I’m about to head down there now with the clean-up team but I thought you’d—”

“Where? I’m coming!” I shot off the sofa with my phone balanced between my shoulder and cheek as I shoved all my belongings in my rucksack.

“No, you can’t. This is now a SIA investigation. I shouldn’t even be telling you.”

I paused. “Wait. A supernatural killed him? When? Why?”

“That’s what we are trying to figure out. The police vehicle which was escorting him to the prison was ambushed last night. Raiden is at the scene now and he said it’s not pretty.”

“How did he die?” My heart was now hammering with excitement and adrenaline.

“I don’t know yet. Like I said, I’m on my way there now.”

“Wait for me. Where are you?” I asked again. There was no way I was missing out on this. Luckily, my grandpapi had gifted all of his most loyal vampires with the magical ability to shimmy so I could transport myself from England to America behind a puff of smoke. There were some limitations, though. I could only teleport to places I had already been to and if I wasn’t too thirsty for blood.

Sienna sighed deeply. “I’m at HQ. I’m leaving in two minutes—”

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