Page 78 of Entombed By Blood
Frost watches the interaction with barely disguised jealousy before continuing. “Even when we’d pretty much given up on Cain and were just searching for you, no one knew where you were. We thought he was keeping you in the dungeon with the other prisoners, but not a single one of our contacts knew anything about a silver coffin. We paid hundreds of bribes for information. We never thought he’d leave you at the old manor. It didn’t make sense, when he kept such a close eye on all of his other daughters. Even when we knew you had to be there, so few people survived the Massacre that only a few incredibly loyal to Cain even knew where the place was.”
Evie glares at him, expression darkening with distrust. “You mean to say you lived in the village next to it for thirty years and somehowforgotwhere it was?”
Frost’s expression darkens. “He erased the village and the manor. They no longer exist on any map. I searched for both for ages. At one point I fucking stole a tiltrotor and flew it over the Old Country. There was no trace.”
“So naturally, you decided to infiltrate Cain’s inner circle,” she notes dryly.
“Draven pretended to return to Cain with us, saying we were new recruits who had helped him track down and kill a lot of resistance members in his search for Frost.” Silas takes over from Frost, sparing the ghoul any more of Evie’s scrutiny. “He was suspicious at first, but Draven insisted we worked well together, and after a few years of testing us and us setting up fake victories over the resistance, we gained his trust.”
“Just you four?” Evie glances at Finn curiously.
“For some reason, they thought my winning personality wouldn’t work on your sire,” Finn quips.
“No, we weren’t going to put the heart of our pack right under his nose,” I growl.
I’ve always agreed with Gideon’s decision to keep our omega far away from Cain. He was barely immortal when he joined us, and still fucking traumatised by the pack he was born into. Routinely forcing him to face off against similar lycans in the barracks would’ve been cruel.
“Finn was needed here, as support. Obviously, I had to stay behind, so we worked together to coordinate the resistance against him, piling on the pressure. At the same time, I started increasing the ghoul attacks,” Frost adds. “Sending them at his weakest spot which—at the time—was here.”
“In response, he moved his court to New York,” Gideon finishes, giving up all attempts to ignore our discussion. “At the same time, he started sending us after Frost again. When it was clear he wasn’t going to get rid of him that easily, he decided to wake you in the hopes that it would destabilise Frost.”
Evie sucks her lip back beneath her teeth, only to release it when she catches sight of me watching her. Her face is drawn now, eyes glazed with thought. Down the barely formed bond, I can feel her worry.
“What is it?” I ask.
“How long did you all spend undercover, working for my sire?”
I grimace, hating the answer. “Thirty-nine years.” Too long.
“That’s fast,” she mumbles. “Normally, it takes centuries before he takes notice of someone.”
Her confirmation of what we’ve always suspected makes Gideon’s already stony expression turn downright dour as he meets my eyes.
We knew we were getting into it for the long-haul when we decided to go undercover. We’d anticipated at least a century of proving ourselves. When Cain said we were the only pack he’d trust with her... I guess we all hoped it was Draven’s history with him making him cocky.
Now, after how easily we escaped New York, I’m beginning to doubt our acting skills. What if we only got away with Evie because Cainwantedus to?
Evelyn
Gideon starts to say something else, but Frost clears his throat and silences the other alpha with a wave of his hand. The tension in the room ratchets up several notches as we all wait in silence, barely breathing.
“Three vehicles.” Vane mouths after a long pause.
My stomach drops.Dear God, he’s found us.
“Four,” Frost corrects. “There’s another coming from the south. Ground troops have just passed the first ring of dormant sentries.”
Vane releases my toes and heads for the stairs without another word. Gideon moves to the television and switches it on, the noise blares out and stops anyone approaching from hearing our conversation.
“Draven, you and I will take Eve,” Frost orders. “Gideon, grab our gear and take the van east with Finn. Silas and Vane can lead away any that aren’t distracted by the sentries west before doubling back. Meet up at the rendezvous point by dawn.”
No one argues. Finn and Silas release me—almost dropping me in their haste to pack up and go. Gideon is already snatching up equipment and shoving it into bags.
I don’t want to speak up, but it seems wrong to be splitting up. Yet, there’s no opportunity to question the wisdom of the decision as Draven’s hand clamps over my upper arm and drags me toward the back of the house.
With his spare hand, he flicks back a rug, revealing a trap door with a keypad set into the floor. A few button presses later, it hisses open, and Draven drags me down a set of stairs, into the darkness beyond.
“You’ll have to run, doll,” he mutters. “Stay close to Frost, and the ghouls won’t touch you.”
