“That pretty much sums up real life,” Raquel muttered.
I turned to my mate. She was correct. None of us were completely good—not even close. But… when good was weighed against bad, we definitely fell on the less evil side.
“Make your point please,” Ethan ground out.
“The bad guys wait for a chink in the good guy’s armor and then they attack.”
“What’s our chink, my love?” Ethan queried.
“Me,” she said flatly. “I’m a liability. I’m not even a full Vamp and I’m running the show to a certain degree because I’m un-killable. In their shoes, I’d want my ass on a platter too.”
“Astrid has a point.” Raquel nodded. My mate pulled out a laptop computer and began typing quickly.
“The old fuckers are set in their ways and don’t want change. Right?” Astrid asked as she slid a few daggers into the inside of her boot.
“Correct,” I affirmed. “But as you said, they can’t eliminate you.”
“No, but they could weaken me by destroying what’s mine,” Astrid countered.
“And that would be?” Ethan prompted.
“Oh my Hell,” she groused. “Has anyone been listening to my romance novel analogy?”
“Um… yes?” I said trying to follow her confusing logic because I sensed there was a gem of genius coming. The painful ass-zapping session about being kind to Raquel had taught me that lesson.
“Okay old people, it’s simple. It looks like they’re eliminating the Royal Family,” she announced. “If they herald me as the problem and I’m supported by the family… the family must go. Gareth is already aging and dying. Correct?”
“Yes,” Raquel replied, looking up from her computer.
“Lelia, Alexander and Nathan are missing?” Astrid continued.
“Yes,” I confirmed.
“Bingo,” Astrid yelled and high-fived herself.
“It’s possible,” Ethan said thoughtfully in regard to his mate’s assessment.
“Yep,” Astrid said as she did a little victory dance. “It’s either that or unrequited love or a love triangle or even a hidden baby that the heroine had, but the guy left and didn’t know she had his baby… and then he comes back and realizes that he loves her, but she’s hiding this huge fucking secret. You know, then there are all these stupid misunderstandings and they break up, but the sex is usually so hot that they end up back together.”
Again we were silent.
“Did I lose you guys?” Astrid asked with a grin.
“Yes. Yes, you did,” I said hoping she was done. Alarmingly, I kind of followed her bizarre logic due to her penchant of making me listen to the plots of her damn books… not that I would admit it aloud.
“Sooooo, back to the matter at hand. Were we all invited to the Summit?” Astrid asked as she gave Ethan an evil eyeball.
“Yes, we were,” Ethan replied with a shrug. “They’re gunning for you. There was no reason to bring you here.” He defended his omission. “If you kill the entire Old Guard, we could have bigger problems on our hands.”
“Hmmm… so little faith in me… In the future, if you like BJ’s, I’d suggest you let me know when a bunch of blood sucking fart wankers want me eliminated. Clear?” Astrid smiled sweetly, but her eyes narrowed dangerously.
“Clear.” He laughed and planted a kiss on her head. “Are you planning a mass elimination?”
My eyebrows shot up. It wasn’t really a bad idea…
“Only if they force my hand. So to avoid a bloodbath, I say we show up at the Summit and prove that I’m sane and able to lead with Ethan,” Astrid said. “Easy peasy.”
We all went mute.
I’m fairly sure Ethan gulped. I knew I paled.
Raquel stared at the floor and I was certain I detected a snicker.
“I’m going to take your silence as a yessssssss,” Astrid snapped and began to glow.
“So now we pay Gareth a visit?” Raquel suggested abruptly, changing the subject before there was an explosion.
“Yep,” I said as I flashed a shiny bejeweled dagger in Astrid’s face to distract her.
It worked.
“Whoever is behind this is stirring the pot,” Raquel hissed. “Look at this.”
She gestured in a jerky movement to her laptop.
Amazingly, Vampyres used social media—more specifically, Facebook. Hiding in plain sight had become de rigueur. Plastered on a page that any sane human would take as a joke was a headline reading, Where is the Leader of the European Territory? What Are the Royals Hiding From Us?
“When was that posted?” Ethan asked as he looked over his sister’s shoulder.
“Today,” I said as I sat down next to Raquel and scrolled for more information.
“My people know Gareth is temporarily leading in my absence. Who ever is inciting this knows Gareth has been taken,” Raquel guessed with an angry hiss.
“Or they took him,” Astrid cut in.
“Do your people know of your curse?” Ethan asked.
“Former curse,” I reminded him.
There was no more cryptic information on Facebook. However, what was there was enough to cause problems.
“No, they don’t know of my curse,” Raquel replied with a grateful glance at me. “Only Jean Paul and our Royal family. Of course it’s all moot since the curse is gone.”