Dev had had a bad fucking day. He had to confine his mate in the rouge room this morning and spent the entire rest of it waiting on Esmeralda to get back to him on what she needed to perform her ritual. She was unnecessarily drawing out his agony and when he’d threatened to bring in another witch to help instead, she suddenly came up with the items she needed in order to determine whether Kate was telling the truth or not. Hair and blood. How utterly unique.
She’d given him some bullshit about needing to wait until “the witching hour” to perform the ritual, so while he was in this meeting, he’d asked Big D to collect Kate’s hair. They already had some blood in the lab from the previous samples they’d taken. He’d keep this meeting as short as possible, so he’d be done well before midnight and would have a few minutes to talk to Kate alone before Esmeralda started.
He was man enough to admit that he was being a pussy. He hadn’t visited her all day. He’d ignored her pleas. Hearing her begging through their shared connection was agony. She was confused and angry. She had no idea why she was locked up in that room, like some animal that had committed a crime. Had she? He truly didn’t think so.
The more he thought about it, the more he believed she had no idea of her heritage. She’d acted genuinely surprised when he told her she carried vampire blood. He just didn’t think she could be that good of an actress. He could now admit he may have acted hastily in keeping her captive while he figured this out. Did he need to go to that extreme? He didn’t know. What if she was lying to him? His whole Regent…hell, all of the regents could be in jeopardy. Shit. He should have trusted her more and by not doing so, he felt like a bastard of epic proportions. She would no doubt agree. Would she understand? Jesus, he hoped so.
The sound of Elle and Damian’s voices arguing—loudly—brought him back to the moment at hand. Goddamn he wished he knew what had gone down between the two of them.
“Elle, what were you able to find out from the professor?”
Elle pulled her attention away from Damian, while they both continued muttering under their breaths. One of the reasons Dev had sent Elle to interrogate the professor was because she possessed a rare skill to memory sift. Alas, it only worked on humans, not vampires.
“He’s been telling the truth about never seeing Xavier. I didn’t see any interaction with him, but I did see that one of Xavier’s lieutenants, Geoffrey, is the go-between, so we can definitively say Xavier is behind the kidnappings.
“Geoffrey would meet with the professor every other week at the university, where he would turn over the results of the sleep studies. That’s how they are able to identify potential dreamwalkers. He also had to provide details on the participants that were interviewed for the study but weren’t accepted. Occasionally he would be told by Geoffrey to put a particular candidate he’d previously dismissed into the study.
“The sleep study, along with their ‘alliance’ has been going on for over a decade, but just a few days ago the professor’s daughter was taken. Dickwad apparently grew a conscience and wanted to end the study after the vamps had taken an interest in Sarah Hill. When he tried to get out of their arrangement, they took his daughter as incentive for him to continue.
“Sarah is the second participant in the professor’s sleep study that was identified with potential dreamwalker ability and so she was also kidnapped. The first girl, a Jamie Hallow, was kidnapped eleven years ago and was never found. The professor seemed genuinely broken up about her, which is why I think he tried to disengage with Xavier after they started focusing on Sarah. He didn’t want any more blood on his hands.
“On a side note, when I mentioned Jamie’s name to our detective, he looked like he was gonna ralph on the spot. I got the impression this case was very personal to him and just got a lot more so. We should keep a close eye on him and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid, like try to find Xavier on his own and get himself killed.”
“And why would you care if something happens to your insolent detective? It sounds like he’s a detriment instead of an asset anyway.”
Rom could be such a coldhearted asshole sometimes. Dev would rather continue their alliance with Thatcher as opposed to bringing on someone new, but Elle’s response peaked his interest. Elle seemed a little too passionate about making sure nothing happened to Detective Thatcher. He decided to let her respond instead of stepping in, as he was quite interested in her explanation.
Elle glared at Rom. She had fear of no one or nothing. Dev worried that was going to be her demise someday.