Page 68 of How to Entice a Fiend

“I… don’t know. I wasn’t involved in that,” Callum says. “Leona?”

“I didn’t know they did. How long has he been a vampire?” she asks.

Marcus responds, “Only two years. It’s unheard of for a new vampire to join the council. Generally, that’s something reserved for older vampires with higher influential power. How did that get approved?”

Callum opens his mouth but his phone starts ringing. “I apologize. It’s another member of the council. After Mads went missing, I contacted the others to inform them of what happened. She was hoping to join us but got delayed.”

He steps out of the room as Leona turns to us.

“Have you found out any more about this drug that’s leaving vampires just… dead?”

I leave this to Claude, as he and Alexei have been the main ones in charge of organizing that information. “We have some information on it, but we need to decide how it’s best to discuss it,” Claude says.

“I believe it should stay within the VRC,” Alexei states. “I trust no one here.”

Leona opens her mouth, undoubtedly wanting to say something about that before we’re interrupted by the sound of footsteps.

The door opens and Callum returns with a woman and a man behind him. The man smiles the moment he sees us, but she seems to scrutinize the group of us. Callum steps back to introduce them. “This is Vivian and Arrington. They’re both council members but Vivian is directly in charge of Mads.”

“I came as soon as I heard what happened,” she says. “Have you heard anything new as of yet?”

“We were just discussing the details. I’m Detective Finn Hayes of the VRC,” I say before introducing everyone from the VRC and shaking their hands.

Marcus folds his arms over his chest instead of shaking anything, throwing out his dominating aura like he justhopessomeone dares to fuck with him on this. “Here’s where we stand. We don’t feel comfortable releasing some of this information to a roomful of people we don’t trust. We’d prefer to keep it out of the council’s hands and within the VRC.”

“Why out of the council? Shouldn’t the council be the safest place for it?” Vivian asks, like she could possibly have not heard what happened with the US council.

Alexei scoffs. “You’d think, but take a look at what happened to our council. And if we can’t trust our own council, why would we trust yours? Our council went above and beyond to try to imprison one of our own while harming another member. They nearly killed Finn. And it was staged in a way to separate Marcus from him. Do you see why we’re reluctant to trust the council?”

“Understandably,” Arrington says. “I guess, at this point, does it matter? If we have trust that the VRC is doing what they can, it’s not like any of us have information that would help or we’d have already given it. Do we know why Mads was taken?”

“Not at this point in time,” Marcus answers.

“Can you fill us in on anything that is essential to keeping the rest of my members safe? At this point we don’t know whetherthis was a targeted attack on Mads or the council, correct?” Vivian asks.

“That is correct, and I sure can try,” I say. “There is no connection between those who were killed on scene, at least none on surface level. They are all vampires registered under different makers, and all of the deceased vampires were from different areas. We know that they targeted Mads but there is a possibility they took one other.”

“Who is that?”

“We will disclose that information when we know more.”

“Is it a council member?” Vivian asks.

“It’s not.”

“I heard that Ender invaded the meeting last time. Was he involved in this attack? Did he attack Mads or plan this?” she asks.

“I know for a fact he wasn’t one of those who attacked Mads,” I say.

“Why for a fact?” Arrington asks.

“He came in here demanding Orin take over as council head,” Callum says. “Nothing against Orin, I’m sure he’d make a fantastic council head, but he’s never even been in the council. It would certainly be best for someone who has been in the council for many years to take over.”

Orin leans forward in his chair, watching Callum closely as he gives him a smile. “No, I haven’t, but I have a pretty good idea of what’s expected to keep it running. I can assure you that anything I do will be better than how it was run previously.”

Vivian rubs her head. “Callum… it’s hard to nominate someone who has beeninthe council when most of them are dead. Harris and some minor members are the only ones left. We are either left with the choice of foreign council members joining or inviting people from outside of the council. I’ve known Orin for a very long time and would not be opposed to himtaking the position. He’s always been a very sensible man of high standing without any problematic issues. But before we get deeper into this, our current concern is dealing with Mads’s disappearance, who took him, and if they’re targeting all of us or just Mads.”

“Why would they want Mads?” I ask. “Is there someone who is targeting him? I can’t imagine it was a serial killer or something of the sort when so many people attacked him. It could have been whoever mysteriously killed the members of the council, but why kill them and take Mads alive?”

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