Page 125 of White Raven
Tony shared an inquiring look with Sarah, and the wheel began to slow. As it did, Sarah noticed something attached to one of the slices. A pamphlet. The wheel finally stopped, and Sarah didn’t bother to see which death the needle landed on. She snatched the pamphlet, revealing the deathunderneath…
“BURIED ALIVE”
Tony cursed under his breath as Sarah flipped the pamphlet over. Her heart nearly stopped.
“Poe had already been buried in one place, and even though there were witnesses, some say they were never completely sure they moved the right body to his final resting place. A lot of weird shit happened with that.”
“His cause of death could never be determined.”
“It wasn’t the last time the lad used a fake name…he used another one to enlist in the military…”
Sarah stared at the picture on the front and whispered…almost to herself.“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague.”
“What?” Tony asked.
John Allan was an impostor. One that had a mind brilliant enough to fabricate an entire existence long after his death.Because he never died at all. The truth…the truth Sykes knew she’d figured out, but still couldn’t believe…was that Sarah’s real father…was Poe himself. And Edgar Allan Poe…was a vampire. He had taken Athan to the place it ended…andthe place it started. Find Athan. Find Poe. He went backhome.
She looked up from the pamphlet in her hand, her fingers shaking. “Athan…he’s in Poe’s grave. In fuckingBaltimore.”
“You’ve been keeping secrets again, Captain,” Foster said, wagging a finger as she stepped into his office. She shut the door behind her and made herself at home in a chair across from his desk. He stared quietly at her, revealing nothing. “You’re not gonna ask me what I’m talking about? Nothing to say?”
“I tend to focus on keeping my aggravation in check when you’re around, Agent Foster.”
“Fine. Play the fool. Good to know I still get under your skin.” She tossed her borrowed files on his desk, and they landed with a thud. “I’ll just cut the bullshit and tell you exactly what we’re dealing with. You and Rhaena Northwood are werewolves. Your old partner got played by a vampire coven, killed, and you managed to lose our best asset—not that I blame you—on the same night you became what you are. How am I doing so far?”
Captain Foley tightened his jaw and rubbed his bald head. “Get to the point, Foster.”
“Alright. So then, Rhaena’s uncle gets flattened, the truth gets covered…redacted. You get your hands on more shit youknow nothing about, or how to piece together, and you look at me like I’m the Devil in the flesh because I turn over every stone. No offense taken, by the way.”
He rolled his eyes.
“While you all have been sitting here stirring a pot you have no business even having, I’ve been all over the northern half of the west coast digging up every buried secret these people have. Ryan Sykes, as I told you, is a hybrid. She wasn’t turned. She wasborn.”
“Yes, you already told us that.”
“Let me finish,” Foster spat, holding up her palm. “Thanks to this little gold nugget you found in your partner’s old stash of belongings, I’ve come to the conclusion that Rhaena Northwood’s mother had been part of this little experiment long before her uncle lost his unholy shit on you and Lindsay Trainor. She and her husband entrusted little Rhaena to Elston Warner, who raised her as his own. Meanwhile, Ashina Northwood, and her husband Baron, fled to the mountains in the northwest. Ashina survived her experiment…Baron didn’t.”
Foley leaned forward and rested his elbows on his desk in intrigue. “How the hell do you know all that?”
“I have access to a lot more than you do, and I told you. I’ve been working this case for a while.”
“Tell me more.”
Foster crossed a leg over her knee and leaned back. “Rhaena’s always believed her birthplace was Texas. It wasn’t. Ashina’s family originates in Oregon. She and Elston had a sister. Emery Warner. Emery was what they called the runt of the pack, and their mother tried to abandon her in the woods because she was small and weak. What they didn’t know was that Ashina and Elston took her and sought help to protect her. They found that help from a very influential vampire elder, whoraised Emery, and married her off to one of his own coven in Portland.”
Foley’s mouth parted. “John Allan…”
Foster nodded. “You got it. John was good to them, but they had a baby. Ryan Sykes. Ryan was the firstbornhybrid. John wanted to study her, but Ryan’s father got fed up and tried to go against him one too many times. John offered protection to the family, and all others like Ryan and Ashina, from the psycho that had tried to grow hybrids in a dish, so to speak. His oldest rival—Dahlia Van Hausen.”
“Holy shit, Foster.”
“So, you see…Ryan isn’t doing John’s bidding because she’s a shitty person. She's doing it because John Allan holds the key to her family’s protection, her secret—and her father’s chains. She can’t be harmed. I’ve been searching all over for her to prove what she is and help protect her. To get them all out. It’s not all about promotion for me, Captain. I did the same for Sarah St. James.”
Foley slowly shook his head. “You know, don’t you…” She held his pointing stare. “You know what happened to St. James’ mother.”
“I already told her what happened. She was murdered by a vampire.”
Foley smirked and shook his head again as he leaned back and dropped his hands into his lap. “Yeah, okay. But you know more than that. You know whodidit.”
