Sam thought on that for a moment. “I’ll contact him later, see what I can find out. Right now, we need to go hunt down Marge’s ‘suppliers’, as she thinks of them – the people who kidnapped and sold the victims to her. There were names and clear images of them in her mind. Our researchers should have their locations by now.”

“How many are there?”

“Four, in total. It’s a little group of Kejas who like to dabble in trafficking. Each of the bastards will have an entire squad from the legion tracking them. Hopefully that’s enough.”

A little while later, we discovered that, to everyone’s utter fucking dismay, it wasn’t enough. Each of the suppliers had done as Sam had suspected and gone to ground. Their apartments were empty, and it was clear that they had left in a hurry. The vampires from their small nest – who made their dislike of the group of four very clear – claimed to have no knowledge of where they were or how to reach them. They promised to get in touch with Sam and Jared if the group made contact.

Back at The Hollow, Sam threw a series of energy balls at the sea, and it was clear then why Jared had wanted to discuss the issue outside – he’d sensed that she was on the verge of exploding.

“Either they found out what happened to the brothel, or the owner warned them to lie low,” growled Sam, pacing.

“She could have killed them,” suggested Harvey. “She wouldn’t want any witnesses, right?”

“Considering what her gift is,” began Ava, “I doubt that she’ll be worrying about that. It will have made her overconfident.”

I’d been thinking the same thing. “She’s likely to think she’ll never be caught, or she probably wouldn’t have opened the brothel in the first place.”

Chico sighed. “So what now?”

“Now we place our trust in the researchers.” Jared didn’t move his eyes from a severely pissed Sam as he spoke. “They’re going to search through what records they have on Pagori lines, find the names of vampires who have a gift that allows them to be untraceable.”

“You could put bounties over the heads of the suppliers,” proposed Paige. “You could even make a statement over V-Tube about the brothel. It will quickly go viral.” V-Tube was the vampiric version of YouTube and was often used as a way for Sam and Jared to post messages.

Sam paused in her pacing. “That could work.”

“It proved effective when you wanted Paige found,” Imani chipped in. “She’d managed to maintain a low profile for a long time until then.”

Beside Imani, Butch nodded. “If nothing else, it will make the suppliers panic even further, could rob them of any allies they have.”

Sam turned to Jared, a smile forming on her face. “I like this idea.”

Jared took her hand. “Then let’s do it.”

CHAPTER FOUR

(Ava)

Hoping to catch Sam before she started work the next evening, I headed to the beach house a little after dusk. It was Jared who opened the door, his hazel eyes widening in surprise. “Ava,” he greeted simply. “Come on in.”

“Thanks.” I’d been inside many times before, and I was totally jealous. The place was bright, relaxing, and homey. And it had great eye candy. Honestly, Jared was like the personification of sex. But I preferred Salem’s rough, hard looks to Jared’s pretty face.

Taking in my wide smile, he groaned. He looked exhausted. “You’re a dusk person, aren’t you?” I just giggled, which made him groan again. “You know where to find her.” He disappeared into the kitchen while I went into the living area, where Sam sat on the floor, cursing at the T.V.

“Evening,” I sang.

Without turning, she held up her finger. “One sec, Ava. Give me one sec.” She was playing on her PlayStation; she was literally addicted to the thing.

“Ooh, can I play?”

Suddenly, Jared was between us, having moved in vampire speed. “No. No. No. The last time that happened, the pair of you were on it for two hours.” He handed me a cola-flavoured NST and pointed to the sofa. “Over there. And stop smiling. It’s too early for chirpiness.”

“Killjoy.” I went to sit beside Sam’s snake, Dexter. As I greeted him and lightly stroked his white scales, they turned a brilliant blue. Dexter had been a gift from Antonio’s Sire, who had the ability to make his pictures come to life. After Wes drew a snake on Sam’s arm, it instantly became a tattoo that could become a live snake. He was a mix of a rattlesnake, the black mamba, spitting cobra, and a garter snake – a breed Wes had termed ‘Strikers’, and I badly wanted one. Dexter’s colouring actually changed with his mood. To go from white to brilliant blue meant he had gone from relaxed to happy.

Jared sighed tiredly at his mate, who was again cursing at the T.V. “Baby, get off the damn thing! You haven’t even touched your breakfast!” Actually, to be fair, it looked like she’d nibbled on her toast and possibly had one swig of her NST. “Sam…”

“Fine.” Ending the game, she turned to face us and shot me a bright smile, though it was strained. She was calmer than last night, more composed, but she was still seething inside. “Evening, Ava. Please tell me you’re here to accept my offer.”

I returned her smile. “Actually, I am.”

Her expression smug, she pointed at Jared. “Ha. Told you.”

“I said that you’d refuse the offer and go back to your brother,” he explained to me. “Not because I didn’t think you had it in you to join the legion, but because I know what it’s like to be really close to your sibling. I’d hate to leave Evan behind.”

Ah, well that really did explain it. “I called Cristiano last night and told him I’d decided to stay. He admitted he’ll miss having me around, but he wants me to be happy more than anything else. He said if this makes me happy, I have his support.”

Sam smiled at Jared. “See, he’s not all bad.”

Jared snorted, and I had to laugh. It was true that Cristiano got some perverse joy out of pissing people off – me being the only exception – and he’d certainly pissed off Jared by flirting with Sam. She didn’t realise that Cristiano wasn’t just dicking around; he really did care about her. But Jared saw that, and he hated it.