Scarlet Mirror (Rise of the Vampire Princess Book 3), page 18
She glanced at me. “Who would attack the wolf pack otherwise?”
“There’s been discord in the pack,” Zayne interrupted. “You know that. We all know that.”
“Grief makes us think the worse.” I sat my mug down and looked at Abigail. “You went through this with Clarissa, too.”
“And that death was my fault.” Abigail pushed away from the counter with a growl. I looked at Zayne, who shook his head, warning me not to push further.
She was hurting. I could see that in the way she scrunched her face up as she paced the kitchen, her coffee forgotten on the countertop.
“Abigail…” I started, and she shifted her gaze to me, light red dotted the lids of her eyes. “We’ll find out who attacked that pack.”
She shook her head. “I’m not allowed to investigate that. It has to be done by PIB and the allies of the pack. I’m not an ally anymore.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I have other stuff I need to focus on. I’ll get to work on your information about Melisandra, too.”
She grabbed her coffee and went back to the living room. Zayne sighed.
I took my coffee to the living room and sat in a chair. “Do you want to talk about all of this?” I asked, motioned to the papers she had scattered.
She sipped her coffee and shrugged. “I’m waiting on details of Grayson’s travels from PIB and from Catalina so I can match things up. Valencia said that she had received a couple of bodies, but it was after Grayson died.”
“Someone that he was working with, then?”
She nodded. “While I wait for that, I’ll dig for information on Melisandra. It really would be nice to have the PIB database back, but I’ve worked on cases without it before.”
“You’re great at using your resources. I know you’ll find whatever needs to be found.” I smiled at her. “If you hadn’t gone to PIB, I was going to recruit you for my work.” I snorted. “Levi probably would have killed me.”
“I was high on the Cult’s list, too.” She smirked. “Too bad I changed before I could accept the invitation.”
“Would you have?” I asked, curious.
She was quiet for a moment. “I think I would have, eventually.”
I let those words settle in for a moment. There were so many things I should have done when she was a child. I should have pushed more against Levi. I should have forced myself to be a part of her life. Yet, I had a feeling she wouldn’t have turned out much differently than she is now.
Chapter Twenty-One
Levi
Isat at the head of the table with the council surrounding it. Abigail sat to my right, Zayne at her back and Mario at mine.
“We have a few events we need to go over and make sure we have the right staffing and the correct protection for,” Catalina stated.
Oscar glanced at me and Abigail. “We seem to have more press releases and meetings since Abigail has become princess.”
“It’s been a lot more since Levi came out as king,” Tabitha corrected. “We all knew things would increase.”
Catalina nodded. “And with the war, it’s important that we show the public that we aren’t scared of them.”
Abigail snorted, and I looked at her.
“Sorry.” She pressed her lips together, and I wondered what she was thinking. Now was not the time to ask, and I could only be glad that she was holding her tongue.
“Abigail and Levi have an exclusive interview with Stephanie tomorrow night.”
There were groans around the table before Catalina continued. “She’s blackmailing us, so it’s best that we comply. Abigail also brought up a good point. Stephanie is a tabloid journalist. She’s less likely to be taken seriously when reporting Abigail’s origins.”
Abigail nodded. “She typically prints completely outrageous things about me. No one takes her articles seriously at this point. I doubt this will be.”
Oscar nodded. “It’s a good way of controlling the information.”
Tabitha crossed her arms. “And if people believe her?”
“Then we work with it,” I stated. “The less we have to worry about hiding right now, the better.”
“And if PIB demands that she go into a special location since she’s an unknown creature?” Oscar asked. “What’s to be said they won’t want to lock her up like an elemental?”
Abigail wrinkled her nose. “We work with Agent O’Donald on that. He knows I’m an elemental and PIB used that to their advantage instead of locking me away. I don’t think O’Donald agrees with Rosiland about me. We form a stronger alliance with him to keep me out of a PIB run facility.”
We still had friends in the agency. It was important that we kept them and used that to our advantage. “We granted Stephanie exclusivity for the first six months after her story runs. That will give us time to deal with any of the follow up reporters that want to verify the information, as well as to put a plan in place.”
“Exactly.” Catalina nodded. “That’s if anyone takes her article seriously. The other thing that we need to discuss is that Abigail and Levi will go to visit Valencia to see if we can form an alliance and destroy the circle that is around her house.”
Abigail cleared her throat. “We’ve finished negotiation. She didn’t want to change much from the boilerplate contract. She did request that Mario and Zayne stay outside the room while we discuss things. I okayed it since Levi will be by my side and Valencia agreed to no harm and no threats against us. Zayne and Mario will, of course, stay right outside the door so they can come to our aid if something goes wrong.”
Everyone at the table seemed to still at that idea. Abigail hadn’t told me that part, but I had to trust and let her handle the negotiations. She’d been there twice before. She probably had a better idea than I did with what we were dealing with.
“Princess Abigail passed it by me first,” Zayne said. “We agreed it is in Valencia’s best interest to behave, since we simply just have to step outside of her circle.”
“Unless she uses her power on any of us who don’t have living sires.” Catalina pointed out, glancing at me and then looking pointedly at Abigail. “Which could be an issue.”
Abigail nodded. “I understand that. However, she knows that isn’t the way to get what she wants. Or she would have used that against us a long time ago. Her power over the person is finite.”
I leaned back in my chair. “Let’s trust Abigail with this. She’s right. If Valencia wanted to hurt or use Abigail against us, she had plenty of chances. Including when Abigail was laying poisoned in her home.”
More murmuring around the table. “Then we trust Abigail. When is that meeting?”
“Friday,” Abigail stated. “We’ll have to leave here before dawn.”
Catalina nodded. “I would like you to take more protection, but I know that’s a sign of weakness.”
“We’ll be fine,” Abigail promised. “If anything this week is going to go right, it’ll be that.”
“There’s also the ball at the end of the month.” Catalina glanced at Abigail. “Which you are required to be at, Princess.”
“Yes, I’m aware.”
But she didn’t sound happy about it at all. “And nothing better go wrong with that, either.”
I hid my smile behind my folded hands.
“We will do the best we can to make sure that will be the case, Princess.” Oscar’s voice was careful, but I noticed a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He found Abigail just as amusing as I did.
Abigail stood. “Now, if that’s it. I’d like to feed and get back to my work.”
“Of course.” Catalina nodded. “And Princess, those files you needed, they're in your email now.”
Abigail bowed her head. “Thank you. I look forward to going through them.” She glanced at Zayne and smiled. “Lead the way, oh fearless one.”
Zayne disappeared, and a few minutes later, Abigail’s phone went off. She left the moment she checked her phone.
“Glad to see she’s learning to follow instructions,” Mario muttered. “I never thought I’d see the day.”
“I think the last few events have scared her,” Catalina stated. “And If she wants to survive this war, she’ll continue following the rules.”
“You think she’ll do something stupid?” Oscar asked.
I laughed. “It’s Abigail. Who knows what she’ll do in the heat of the moment?”
“She’s learning.” Catalina shrugged. “Speaking of heated moments, have we made any progress on who is trying to blackmail you with the images of you covered in blood?”
“No. Nothing more has come.” I didn’t want to think about the fact that someone had that image. I couldn’t remember what happened when I was attacked or what I had done.
Dread filled me as I thought about it. “Maybe it was Stephanie.”
“I can’t believe we’re giving that rat an exclusive interview.” Tabitha scoffed. “To think we’re going to let the tabloid spill the biggest secret we have and our biggest weakness.”
I leaned back in my chair. “Abigail is not our biggest weakness.”
“Unless she does something rash,” Oscar stated. “Like shoot someone and explain her reasoning later.”
“I don’t think she’s shot someone in a long time.” I paused and thought back. “Without reason.”
Everyone chuckled a little.
“I think I’m going to retire for the rest of the night.” I stood and Mario left to inspect my house.
Catalina also stood. “I got a request tonight from Nickolas wanting to see Abigail.”
I paused. “I’m not sure if I want those two in the same room.”
“He may reveal to her more than he is to us,” Catalina offered. “And with her talent to taste the truth…he wouldn’t be able to lie to her.”
Part of me worried about what he would tell her and how it would affect her. “Abigail and Nick have a complicated past, and I do not wish to put more on her plate.”
Catalina let out a small sigh. “Levi, you can’t protect her from everything.”
“I think I have bent enough rules lately.”
My phone buzzed, and I checked the screen. “I will see you all later.” I took myself home.
I walked into my office to find Mario leaning against my desk. He looked up at me. “You look tired.”
“This whole last week has been draining,” I said honestly. “And Catalina is encouraging me to let Abigail meet with Nick.”
Mario took a moment to consider his words. “Either Abigail will kill Nick on the spot, or we could get some useful information out of him.”
Great, he was with Catalina out of this. I opened my mouth to protest, but Mario held his hand up. “Why don’t we ask Abigail what she wants to do?”
Because that would mean letting go of the control I had over the situation. “I think she has enough on her plate as it is. I don’t want Nick messing with her mind.”
“Nick is a warlock. Abigail is a vampire. If anything, she’ll mess with his mind.” Mario chuckled.
“You know exactly what I mean. I don’t want him getting under her skin.” I glanced at a stack of mail on my desk and looked at Mario. “Maybe I should think about hiring an assistant,” I muttered.
Mario chuckled. “Do you really want someone else rummaging through your mail?”
“With the dangers that come through it, no. It’s probably best not to hire someone.” I sat down at the desk and flipped through the envelopes. Most of them were junk letters and went straight into the trash. There were one or two that were press requests and I put them to the side.
And there was another without an address in the pile. My name was on it this time, where the last one had been addressed to Abigail.
“Something wrong?” Mario asked.
I held up the envelope. “Do we want to take a guess at what condemning photo is in this envelope?”
“I’ve never been very good at gambling.” Mario crossed his arms. “I’m going to say it's something about Abigail since it’s addressed to you this time.”
I nodded. “But Abigail has very few secrets to be shared.”
“Are you sure about that?” Mario asked. “Just because we know most of them doesn’t mean the public knows.”
He had a point. I stared at the envelope.
Mario snatched the envelope from me and opened it. I waited for something magically bad to happen, but nothing came. I glanced at Mario as he stared at the picture.
His hand trembled as he flipped it around for me to see. What I had been expecting was a photo. What we got was a detailed drawing of Abigail.
Abigail lounged on my throne, a gold crown with rubies sat on her head. The artist had captured every glint of the crown, every fold of the Victorian dress Abigail wore, and every drop of blood on the floor.
My eyes traveled to where the blood had come from. My body lay on the ground, blood surrounding me.
“A threat?” I asked, as I studied the look on Abigail’s face. There was no pleasure there, no smirk like she’d done it. Rage shone in her eyes, and I had to wonder if it was aimed towards the person who killed me or if she had killed me in rage.
Mario put the envelope on the desk. “I’m not sure. Maybe it’s just insane fan art.”
“If we hadn’t received a photo of me with a human victim in the same way…I could accept that theory. I’ll call Merick and see if he can trace the person from this.”
Mario nodded.
My phone rang before I could even reach for it. I swiped the icon to answer it. “Levi speaking.”
“That lab we found was cleaned out when we got there,” Catalina stated. “We went to raid it and found everything gone.”
I pressed my lips together and took a moment to process what she was saying. “That means we have a spy. We didn’t release any of that to the public.”
“That’s what I’m worried about.”
My mind turned to the council and the last time that we had someone betray us.
“Levi?” Catalina brought my attention back to her. “There’s not much else we can do with this situation right now.”
“Take Abigail to the scene. She might see something we don’t.”
“What happened to her having too much on her plate?” Catalina asked.
“This is more important than the Nick situation. I’m placing it as a higher priority. Tomorrow night, after our interview, we take her to the scene.”
“Understood.”
We disconnected, and I looked up at Mario. “Utter chaos.”
Mario nodded. “If we have a traitor, can we tell Abigail?”
I snorted. “Sure, if they didn’t get the message the first time, maybe a bullet from Abigail will help get the point across.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Abigail
The next night, I printed out the reports that Catalina gave me and started comparing where the bodies were left to where Grayson traveled. I had expected some of them to match up due to him being on the cases. However, between the PIB travel records and the Council’s tracking of his cell phone, it looked like he went to a lot of the same places twice.
One place that he’d visited a lot was another territory. I kept coming back to it because he didn’t have a case in that territory.
I texted Catalina and found that there was no council business there.
My front door opened, and I put the papers down on the coffee table.
Levi walked into the living room. “Hard at work, I see?”
I nodded. “There are a couple of strange things that I’m finding. After the interview—”
“We have something to investigate.” He cut me off, and it threw my train of thought off.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“I would like you to investigate the lab was that we found.”
“Was?” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Did we lose it?”
“They cleared out before we could raid it.”
There was a flash of annoyance in her eyes, but she blinked, and it was gone. “Okay, then I’d like to talk to you about something I found with the bodies case.”
“That sounds like a good plan.” He nodded and held his hand out. “Mario has already cleared the interview location that Stephanie has set up.”
“Zayne went with him and told me it was good.” I took his hand. “So, let’s go.”
We disappeared from the house and reappeared in front of an office. I glanced around the road we appeared on and wrinkled my nose. “It smells awful.” Something rancid was in the air, reminding me of rotting corpses. “You sure this is where the interview is?”
He nodded. “Mario said it smelled outside.”
“Let’s get inside. Hopefully, it’s not as bad.” I walked up to the door and Zayne opened it for me.
“Hello, Princess.” He held the door for me and Levi to walk in. “My King.” He bowed his head.
I hated it when things got this formal because it felt incredibly awkward.
I straightened my blouse as I walked into the lobby of the office where Mario was standing. He stepped forward and kissed my cheek. “Princess.”
“Good evening, Mario.” He stepped back and then bowed his head. “King Levi.”
So awkward, like we were in an old fashion movie. At least Mario didn’t kiss my hand. The kiss on the cheek was pretty casual compared to that.
Stephanie walked out of a door behind Mario. Her hair was pulled back in a low bun today, her shoes were sensible flats and there was no bright red lipstick.
It was a stark contrast to her normal, and I wondered if I had walked into the Twilight Zone.
“Thank you for coming tonight.” Stephine’s voice, however, was still screechy, and I tried not to cringe.
“You didn’t really give us an option.” I crossed my arms. “You blackmailed me into coming.”
Stephanie smirked. “A girl’s gotta get her exclusive.” She turned. “Please, we’ll do the interview in here.”
We followed her into a room with a desk against the wall and in the middle was a couch with two comfortable chairs on either side, all in the same matching royal blue color.
