for murder.”
“All this because he’s still angry at Carlos,” Jeff marveled.
I understood Jeff’s surprise, but also a touch of Michael’s anger. Ethan had made me a vampire without my consent. He’d done it to save my life, but my initial nights as a supernatural had included frustrating realizations of all I’d be giving up.
“The fact that he makes use of the ring and the initials suggests he’s harboring some anger,” my grandfather said. “He is, in a sense, reliving his experience each time he kills, but he gets to be the attacker.”
I nodded. “He kills Oliver and Eve, placing them in a secret room in a property owned by Carlos. We aren’t yet sure why he picked that particular property or that particular room, but it stands to reason there was some connection between him and Carlos.”
“Maybe that’s the place Carlos turned him,” Catcher said. “It’s unlikely to be a place he’d soon forget.”
“That’s a good thought,” Ethan said. “We’ll check with Morgan.”
I nodded. “After Oliver and Eve, he gets brave. He walks right into Navarre House, takes them out while everyone else is asleep.”
“The connection there is easy,” Luc said. “Revenge against the House that created the monster who attacked him.”
“And earlier tonight, he attacks Margot outside the House.”
“Unfortunately,” Luc said, “the video doesn’t help us on that one. Coincidentally, after the GP ceremony, Michael recommended we upgrade the cameras to get a better view, so we’re in between hardware. There’s no video in the back of the House.” Not that Luc sounded bitter. At all.
I saw the flash of regret in Ethan’s eyes. Michael had been his hire, and he’d been badly bitten.
“Why Cadogan?” Jonah asked. “What’s the connection there to Carlos?”
“We aren’t sure,” Ethan said. “It could be part of his escalation. He killed Rogue vampires, then Navarre vampires, then attempted to kill a Cadogan vampire.”
“And Grey House would be next?” Jonah wondered.
“Perhaps,” Ethan said.
“I obviously can’t let that stand,” Jonah said. “What’s our approach?”
“He might suspect we’re onto him,” I said. “My father dropped off a map of the warehouse plat, and I mentioned it to Michael. Michael left the House quickly after that.”
“In that case,” my grandfather said, “he might make himself known, especially given the theatrical way he’s arranged the bodies. He’ll want us to know who he is and what he’s doing.”
Ethan’s phone rang. He checked the screen and seemed surprised.
“Who is it?”
“Diego Castillo. He’s a member of the GP,” he said, for the nonvampires on the call. “A representative of Mexico.”
Something uncomfortable thrummed in my chest. Why was a member of the GP calling Ethan?
Ethan answered the phone. “Ethan Sullivan.”
I could have used my vampiric senses to listen in, but since I was already in RG hot water, I thought it best to trust Ethan would tell us what we needed to know.
But when he sat straight up, my heart sped exponentially.
Ethan? I silently asked, but he didn’t answer.
“Diego, I’m here with my team. I’m going to put you on speakerphone.” Ethan put the phone on the table and pressed a button. “Go ahead,” he said.
“Darius and Lakshmi have been taken.” Diego’s accent was melodically accented, but his voice was firm.
A shock wave of alarmed magic crossed the room.
“Taken?” Luc asked. “What do you mean, taken?”
“We were at the Dandridge waiting for our ride to the airport. Darius stepped outside to smoke a cigarette, and Lakshmi joined him.”
Darius liked to smoke cloves, and I had a sudden vivid memory of their peppery smell.
“I saw through the window,” Diego continued, “a vehicle pulled to the curb. The driver got out, began to chat with Lakshmi and Darius. I thought perhaps he was a vampire, although not one I knew.”
“Brown hair?” Ethan asked. “Slender build?”
“Sí. You know this man?”
“I may,” Ethan said. “What happened next?”
“Our limo pulls up and we walk outside, but the car is gone, and so are Darius and Lakshmi.”
“What kind of car?” Ethan asked.
“I do not know. It was large. Black with dark windows.”
Ethan’s eyes narrowed, and it didn’t take much to guess the direction—or violence—of his thoughts.
“Wait,” Luc said, leaning toward the phone. “So someone forced Darius and Lakshmi into the car? How?”
Probably the same way Michael Donovan had done it before, I thought.
“He’s got a weapon that shoots bullets made of aspen,” I said. “A direct shot and they’d both be dead.”
“There were no human witnesses?” Jonah asked.
“The bellmen were inside,” Diego said, guilt in his voice. “They were helping us gather our luggage.”
“How long ago did this