Page 62 of The Highwayman's Bite

Chapter Twenty

Aldric stood over MadameRenarde’s bedside and frowned as the companion thrashed and moaned in the throes of her fever. She had not awakened since their talk in the kitchen last night.

He thought of the kidnapper’s last ransom letter. The one containing the lock of Vivian’s hair. “Next time, it will be her finger,” it had read.

Instead, the man had sent back Vivian’s companion. Had it been only because Renarde was ill? A servant wasn’t valuable in a ransom situation, aside from the purpose the villain had outlined in his first missive. To vouch for Vivian’s virtue.

That made Aldric wonder if Renarde had been released as a message that the kidnapper intended on compromising Vivian, along with the other message he did indeed deliver.

“I know what you are,” Renarde had told Aldric before she collapsed.

The man who held Vivian hostage didn’t only want Aldric to know that Vivian was now alone, unchaperoned with a man. He also wanted Aldric to know that she was alone with a vampire.

Aldric’s fists clenched at his sides as the possibilities of what the vampire could do to his niece flitted through his mind. The vampire likely already had fed from her. An action that filled Aldric with distaste, though he could accept that because she at least wouldn’t endure lasting harm for it.

But a vampire could also mesmerize Vivian with his mind and make her do... whatever he wanted. And leave her with no memory of bending to his will, if he was merciful.

Impotent rage curdled in his gut as he imagined his dear niece being at the mercy of such a dangerous creature. True, most of their kind were imbued with laws and morals. However, whatever vampire that had taken Vivian had already flouted the law when he’d abducted two humans and revealed his nature to them. What care would such a creature have for lesser laws, like the prohibition of rape?

The urge to call his people and spread out to all neighboring territories and demand that all Lord Vampires account for their subjects roared forth once more. Yet Aldric had to refrain from such a foolhardy move. No one could know that he harbored a human who knew of their kind. And most of all, no one could learn that his niece knew.

Aldric would have to learn the identity of the culprit on his own. An easier feat when Madame Renarde was awake and able to tell him all she knew, but there were things he could deduce on his own.

His first thought was that a rival lord had taken Vivian, but Aldric immediately dismissed the notion. He hadn’t made any direct enemies of any lords, though he supposed the Lord of Grimsby and the Lord of Liverpool may bear him ill will for fighting against them during London’s little civil war when another vampire tried to overthrow the interim Lord of London. A Lord Vampire would demand more than two hundred pounds. Most Lords wanted more land to rule over, not money.

A common vampire was more likely, but Aldric had determined from the last Gathering that none of his own were guilty. They had all been at the Gathering the night Vivian and Madame Renarde were taken, for one thing. Furthermore, he was generous in his loans, so if any of his people needed money, he knew they would not hesitate to ask.

Would a vampire of one of the neighboring territories dare risk his own lord’s wrath by committing a grave crime against another lord? Aldric doubted that very much.

All those facts led to the conclusion of what sort of vampire Aldric was dealing with.

A rogue vampire.

He shuddered at the thought. Unfortunately, logic dictated that this was most likely the case. Rogues could not stay in the same place for long, lest they risk being hunted down, so they were always in need of money. Two hundred pounds would be a king’s ransom for that sort.

And since rogues were already exiled for breaking the law, they had no reason to live by the rules. Aldric loathed the system. It only bred more crime, in his opinion. So very few could be reformed, so it was best to kill them if they were caught on his land. He’d only made citizens of a handful during his two-hundred-year reign over Blackpool. One an alleged thief, who Aldric believed innocent, another who’d had an affair with his lord’s mistress, and the last, a vampire whose only crime was to have been Changed by another rogue.

---