“I haven’t been feeling like myself lately.”

“You’re sick? I didn’t think we could get sick.”

“We can’t, but we do require a vast amount of energy. Energy we get from our connection to our voralexes. The search for you, and then playing catch-up with my outlier duties as well as Academy training setup, might have overtaxed me. I’ll stop off at my voralex and charge up tomorrow.”

He sounded like he was making excuses. This was Azazel, the ancient son of Lilith. He didn’t get overtaxed.

“Azazel…”

“I’m fine, Fee. I promise you. I’ll let you know if I get hold of Kristoff.”

I wanted to push, but there was nothing I could do from here, and nagging him wasn’t going to help. Azazel had been around for a long time. He knew how to take care of himself, and I had pack business to take care of right now. I needed to focus on my duties here.

I let it go and blew a kiss into the phone. “I love you.”

“I love you more.”

He ended the call, and I set the landline back in its cradle.

Dean strode out of the lift carrying a mattress. He glanced at the phone, then back at me. “Any luck?”

“No. Our contact is missing.” I gnawed on my bottom lip. “I’d like to speak to the vamps again.”

“You think they’re hiding something from us?”

“No. I think maybe we’re asking the wrong questions.”

Dean smiled with his eyes. “Okay, Poirot, let’s do this.”

Chapter Eighteen

The garage was a large building situated to the left of the firehouse. The pack used it to house the two vans and two cars that belonged to us. There was a workshop at the back and all sorts of mechanical equipment to maintain the motors. But even with all this stuff, there was enough room for the vamps to set up camp. Mattresses had been pushed up against the wall, blankets and pillows supplied. Someone had brought in a couple of camping lanterns, and if not for the offensive reek, the place might have been cozy.

While Bastian was off on a quest for pig’s blood, the other members of the pack worked on clearing the debris in the house and fixing the busted door, an expense we would have to foot the bill for.

“We told you all we know,” Ella, the female vamp, said. The others nodded in agreement.

I believed her, but I also believed there was more relevant information that she probably didn’t even realize was pertinent. It was my job to find it.

“I’m not here to ask about the vamps that are hunting you.”

She looked confused. “Then what?”

I stood with my back to the Rover, Dean to my left, Grayson to my right. “I’m wondering why you suddenly decided to start nesting.”

Her brow furrowed. “What? Nesting?”

“Yes, coming together in groups. Aren’t vamps usually solitary hunters?”

Even though my experience had pitted me against groups of vamps, the lore stated vamps lived alone and hunted alone. I guess things had been changing for a while, but no one had taken notice.

Ella seemed to consider my question, then shrugged. “It felt right.”

“Uh-huh, and when did it start to feel right?”

“A few months ago. I woke up, and I wanted to…connect. I met Dan that night.” She glanced down at the gaunt vamp lying with his head in her lap. “We connected.”

“And after that?”

“We found Dottie and Fran and Jack and we…We were a family. It felt right.” She rubbed her temple.

“After that, we met more,” one of the other vamps said. “There were thirty, maybe forty of us, and there were two more groups too. We bunked down in the old museums, but those weeks are kind of a blur, to be honest.”

“I remember them coming for us in the gray light of the dawn,” Ella said. “We barely escaped the first time. The rest of our family was captured. We were forced to go into hiding.”

“And then the withdrawal hit,” the other vamp said.

Ella looked grim. “We realized we were addicted to Bliss. We’d been feeding on humans whose blood was tainted with it for weeks. The high…God, it was something else, and then we weren’t able to hunt without fear of being hunted.”

Bliss… Puzzle pieces began to click in my mind.

“But the drive is gone,” one of the male vamps said. He looked almost wistful. “I want to feed. I’m hungry, but…the excitement of the kill has gone.”

I needed more information. “And how long have you been clean?”

“Almost a month now,” Ella said.

“What are you thinking, Fee?” Grayson asked.

“I’m thinking where the fuck did Bliss come from? No one seems to know, right?”

“Right,” Grayson said. “It hit the streets a few months back and then somehow made it to humans.”

“And vamps feed off humans. Vamps find this Bliss addictive, and then vamp behavior starts to change…They start to gather in groups…Groups are easier to reap.” I raised my brows, looking from Dean to Grayson. “See what I’m saying?”

Grayson cursed. “You think Bliss was put on the streets to fuck with the vamps. To alter their behavior and make it easier for this organization to capture them.”

“It fits,” Dean said. “But the question is, what do these hunters want?”

“Only one way to find out,” Grayson said. “We catch one of the fuckers.”

Sounded like a plan.

Eldrick pulled me into a hug as soon as I stepped out of the lift. I relaxed against him and hugged him back.

“I was so worried. I’ve never been that worried before.” He pulled away slightly to look at me. “I’m sorry this happened. It should never have happened.”

“It’s okay. I’m okay.”

His mouth tightened. “Grayson told me you requested we leave Hunter be?”

I moved past him and strode into the penthouse. “How about you make us some coffee, and I’ll fill you in on the fine print.”

Fifteen minutes later, Eldrick looked decidedly pale. “A Tribus? I thought that was a myth.” He rubbed a hand over his mouth. “Hunter and Grayson…what a mess.”

“Right?”

He looked up at me sharply. “You know what Hunter’s father did?”

I nodded. “He told me.”

“He was an emotional mess when he came to me,” Eldrick said. “Oh, he never showed it, but I saw it. I recognized it.”

It was my turn to give him a sharp look. “What do you mean?”

He gave me a dry smile. “Your grandfather was a hard man, and his lack of affection, the lack of closeness, was always a shadow over me growing up, but I knew he loved me. Hunter didn’t have that assurance. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

“So, you made him your successor?”

He smiled and shook his head. “Not a decision taken lightly, believe me. Hunter is…brilliant. His mind is sharp, he’s a leader, and he has a heart of gold. At least I believed he did until I started to hear about his darker side—the beat-downs, the dodgy dealings.” Eldrick sighed. “I should have known he was being set up. I should have confronted him about it all, and maybe we could have caught Larson sooner.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Larson suggested we hold off and watch things play out, catch Hunter red-handed. I see now he was simply buying himself time. Hunter was innocent.”

Hunter wasn’t a monster. I’d accepted that fact in the cabin when we fought side by side. Still, it was going to take some time to wholly accept this new version of him.

“He acted rashly taking you,” Eldrick continued. “I won’t excuse that, but he’s a good man who has a lot of healing to do.” He was watching me intensely. “I assume by asking me to forgive him, you’re telling me that you intend to reach out to him?”

“Yes. Grayson is looking for him.” I picked up my coffee cup and drank the now tepid coffee. “Hunter and I didn’t start off on the right foot. I intend to change that. I’m going to give him a chance to be a real part of the Tribus.”

Eldrick exhaled in relief and sat back. “You’re making the right decision. Together the three of you will be a power to be reckoned with and what I’m about to ask you won’t feel like such an imposition.”

“Oh?”

He set his cup down and clasped his hands in front of him on the table. “I’m tired, Fee. No, I’m exhausted. This pack has been my life from the day I was born. Our bloodline has been the alphas of this pack for generations. It’s all I’ve known, and it’s one of the most powerful packs in the country, except now I have traitors in my midst that I need to weed out, and I’m exhausted.”

I studied his face, noting the dark smudges under his eyes and the lines bracketing his mouth. I cracked my shields, and his emotions washed over me in a gentle wave—a yearning for something left behind in a dream.

I covered his hands with mine. “What can I do to help?”

“I need you to take over the pack.”

“What?”

“I want you to be the alpha of the Rising Pack. You’re my blood. You’re strong, even stronger now because you’re part of a Tribus. The pack will accept you.”

He wanted me to take over the Rising Pack? “But I’m joint alpha of the Regency Pack? Grayson is my mate; I can’t leave.”

“Maybe it’s time to change the way we do things. Maybe it’s time to form an alliance, to merge the packs.”

He was serious. Deathly serious. “You can’t be serious.”

“Why not, Fee? Tell me why not?”

Because I had cadets to train in preparation for a war in the Underealm. I had Dread to track and hooded figures that were trying to kill me to find, and now super vamps on the loose that I needed to look into, not to mention my regular Deadside and reaping duties.