Page 43 of Cloak of the Vampire
Eliza didn’t like his answer. “So you’re saying,” she drawled, “your eagerness to get your hands on a Gifted was what led you to this whole mess?”
He gave her a cold look. “I don’t appreciate you taking this tone with me,” he said, voice dropping in warning.
She pursed her lips, and they engaged in a war of wills. Eliza wanted to keep judging Ragnor’s actions. He refused to budge or let her walk over him. In the end, she must’ve realized that pushing the topic would be a death sentence, whether they were friends or not, and she rolled her eyes. “You’re so bullheaded,” she grumbled.
His shoulders relaxed now that she backed off. “What are your other questions?”
Eliza took a sip from her beer before she asked, “Did it happen before? Giving the Imprint to someone you should have killed?”
He didn’t like the answer he had to give. “Only once.”
Her gaze collided with his in realization. “Do you think—”
“No,” he cut her off, “and this is not what I came to talk to you about. Any more questions?”
She sat back, looking at him with obvious contemplation. “What do you need me to do?”
“This girl is now a vampire in my League,” Ragnor said, feeling all sorts of things regarding this little happenstance. “The Auction is only a couple of months away, and I plan to sell her to the first Lord willing to bid on her. Until then, I want to hire you to dig up whatever you can about her.”
Her face turned serious. “Your team is as good as me. What makes you think I’ll find out something your people didn’t?”
This wasn’t a question; it was a test. He and Eliza might be on good terms, and she might be one of the very few he could call a friend, but just like he was zealous for the privacy of his League members, so was she with her own people. She was trying to figure out how much he knew about her so she would know not to give anything away.
He gave her a pointed look. “I’ve witnessed your abilities firsthand, Eliza. I know what you’re capable of, and I know that while my team is as good as you are, you have more ...unconventionalmeans of getting results.”
That seemed enough to satisfy her. “I’ll see what I can do,” she said, “but I don’t understand. Why do you care so much about some Common vampire’s past? You plan to sell her at the Auction anyway, so what’s the point?”
Old pain rose inside him, threatening to color his eyes neon blue. He pushed it away, refusing to submit to those buried emotions, and said, “My instincts tell me she’s not who she pretends to be, and I need to know why a random girl caused me to give her the Imprint against my better judgment and how she managed to recover from the Imprinting in no more than twenty-four hours, when it usually takes a new vampire at least three days.”
That was one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the girl. No one, not even him, had woken up from an Imprinting that fast. The average time was seventy-two hours, and even Ragnor himself, when he received his Imprint a long time ago, needed forty-eight hours to wake.
Yet that girl woke up after a single day.
And she hadn’t stopped aggravating him ever since.
Eliza didn’t like the sound of that, he observed. “It all sounds like the making of a clusterfuck, Rayne.”
“And this is exactly why I need you,” he added plainly.
“Dammit.” She sighed. “Do you at least have some files on her?”
He took out a crumpled piece of paper with the insultingly few details he knew about her. “Aileen Henderson,” he said, handing the paper to Eliza.
She scanned the page. “Average height, average build, brown hair, hazel eyes, olive skin,” she read out. “Claims to be of Scottish, Egyptian, and Ukrainian origins—” She paused and raised her eyes to him. “Are yousure—”
“Yes,” he cut her off once more, irritation evident in his voice.
Scowling, she continued. “Claims to have no talents or hobbies ... recovered from the Imprint earlier than ninety-nine percent of the vampiric population ... assigned to kitchen duties ... resides with Zoey Rittman and Tansy Contos ... former friends with Cassidy Jones and Skye Garner ... relationship status unknown, family members unknown, acquaintances unknown ... Wow, you really know nothing about the girl.”
“Keep reading,” Ragnor growled.
“Personality unclear,” she resumed. “Sometimes hotheaded and rash, but other than that has a tight leash on her emotions. Versed in martial arts according to Logan—who’s Logan?”
“One of the Gifteds,” he replied curtly.
“Fine. Targeted by Margarita—you mean Margarita Wallen?” Eliza’s eye sparked dangerously. “Is that who I think it is?”
“She’s my Lieutenant,” he said warningly, “a Gifted one too.”
