Surrendering(70)

“Anything else?”

“No, my liege.”

“Then get the fuck out. And bring me a female. I’m hungry all of a sudden.”

“Right away, sire.”





Chapter 45





Dev





“We need to put that cocksucker in the ground and yesterday!” A round of expletives abounded. The noise level in the room was nearly deafening.

They were in Dev’s lower level boardroom; a thirty-foot, hand-carved cherry wood table was the centerpiece of the room and could comfortably seat forty people. It was nearly full.

“Quiet!” Dev yelled. You could instantly hear a pin drop.

“No need to state the obvious. Let’s go over what facts we’ve all been able to gather in the last few days. Ren, start with your conversation with Detective Thatcher.”

Ren stood, his loud voice echoing off the walls.

“Apparently one Professor Duncan Bailey was the last person known to see Sarah Hill alive. He tried to run and is now in custody. It seems the good professor was in bed with a Master Vampire”—Ren air-quoted Master—“who threatened his family in exchange for his cooperation. Apparently this Master Vampire had recently acquired the professor’s daughter as collateral for his continued assistance.”

The usually quiet Romaric spoke up. “What type of assistance?”

“I’m getting to that. Bailey’s the head of Northwestern’s psychology department, and was running several sleep studies that focused on the dream state. Sarah told Bailey she was having some unusual and very realistic dreams and he asked her to be part of his little research project.

“Seems this vamp was looking for candidates for his own little experiments. In exchange for Bailey’s cooperation in handing over candidate names and the sleep project results, his family lived. He was also paid handsomely, I might add. Oh…and one more thing. Sarah was the second such young woman this asshole served on a silver platter to Xavier.”

Damian slammed his hands on the table as he flew out of his chair. “Son-of-a-fucking-bitch. That motherfucker is now looking for dreamwalkers?”

“It would seem that way, Damian,” Dev answered. Dev knew Xavier was a sick son of a bitch, but even he had been surprised at Xavier’s depravity. It seemed his former bestie was back to his old tricks of kidnapping women and callously killing them, but according to Kate’s dreams, one was pregnant. How could someone keep their Moira in that depraved situation? So many questions and not enough answers.

“You mentioned Xavier. Have we confirmed it’s him, or is there possibly another player?” Romaric’s deep, ever calm voice interjected.

“The professor claims not to have seen this master vamp personally and Thatcher believes him. But they all refer to him as…my liege or lord, so, yes, we think it’s Xavier.”

“Fucking-A!” Damian shouted. The room erupted in shouts and curses.

Dev spoke calmly to Giselle. “Elle, tomorrow morning I want you to go down to the station and personally interrogate this asshole. Use whatever means necessary to extract all information from him.” Giselle was ruthless. The perfect vamp for the job.

Giselle smirked and nodded in his direction. She lived for this kind of job. A wolf in sheep’s clothing was a euphemism that fit her to a “T”.

Dev looked at Kate and his entire demeanor changed. His voice softened. His hard eyes filled with encouragement.

“Love, will you tell the others of your most recent dream?”

She looked nervous, and he was immensely proud when she stood confidently and recounted her most recent dream where she saw Sarah and two other females. One, noticeably pregnant; the other being raped. She recounted every little detail she could remember, including the landmarks outside the small window. Her description of the vampires and hostages was detailed and thorough. Too bad she hadn’t seen Xavier in her dream.

“So…” Damian began, rising up to his full six-foot-six-inch frame. “Let me get this straight. Are you saying in addition to Xavier tracking down dreamwalkers, some psychotic motherfucking rogue has actually let their Moira be used to help Xavier create his army?”

Dev sighed heavily. “It would appear that way, yes.”

“Well, fuck me runnin’. This is worse than shitting fire and falling in it.”

Ren burst out laughing, shaking his head. “Where do you get this shit, bro? Do you troll the Internet now to come up with new sayings?”

Damian smirked. “You’re just jealous of my timely and inventive wit, fucker.”

“Suck it.”

“Whip it out.”

“You couldn’t wrap your lips around it.”