“These people are going to tell whoever finds them that you stole us. You won't get away with this. The police will be looking for Bat and I.”

“Our people will contact the proper authorities to say you both are safe once we reach home. Drantos will let it slip to a few of the passengers that we're going to go search for help so they aren't worried. ”

“That’s pretty nice, considering you’re planning on kidnapping my sister and me. Criminals with a conscience? How thoughtful.”

He snorted. “You have no idea what kind of danger your sister is in. If we’re guessing right about Decker’s plans, she’ll live a life of pure hell if your grandfather gets ahold of her. Aveoth isn’t the nicest person.” He paused. “And my brother realized you’re not as human as your scent. I’d be worried about your own ass, too, if I were you. Aveoth may settle for you if he can’t have your sister. Your grandfather could figure out he was wrong about your bloodlines if he gets his hands on you.”

She remembered the strange tale from the night before. “Are you just humoring your brother, or do you believe that story he told me about Vampires and Werewolves, too?”

“You wish it were just a strange tale. It’s history. Your mother was a VampLycan. Your grandfather is a crazy son of a bitch who wants to start a war. Everything Drantos said is true.”

“Aveoth is a GarLycan, right? Half Lycan and half Gargoyle? It sounds as if he’d be a man with a heart of stone.” She smiled at her own joke.

“Cute. The heart-of-stone part would be misleading since I doubt he has one at all. His own clan is terrified of him. His viciousness is well known to our clans and it means your grandfather will gain too much power if he makes an alliance with Aveoth by using your sister as a bargaining tool.”

“And that would be bad in your weird world?”

Anger narrowed Kraven’s light blue eyes. “Yes. Decker isn’t happy just running his own clan anymore. He wants total control. He doesn’t agree with how some of the other leaders rule their people. He’d kill everyone who opposes him if given the opportunity. He can’t take on three clans and win. He’d get his ass handed to him unless he gets the GarLycan leader to side with him. That’s going to more than even out the odds.”

“These Gargoyle-and-Werewolf things are worse than VampLycans, huh?”

He hesitated. “Yes. We’re strong but they are damn near invincible. They fly and can turn their bodies into armor. The combination is deadly to anyone they go after. The GarLycans would help your grandfather’s clan slaughter the rest of us if Aveoth gave them the order. With Decker pulling the strings, many VampLycans would die. That’s when he’d start expanding the borders. He tried to do it with his own but the other leaders put a stop to it by threatening to attack him.”

“What does that mean?”

“He seems to think humans are a threat. We got word from someone in his clan that he planned to make some of the neighboring human families have ‘accidents’. Alaska’s a harsh place and he could have gotten away with murdering them without raising suspicion. He’s paranoid, from what we were told. Humans can be turned into Vampires, and of course they’re also a food source for them. He hates full-blooded Vampires enough to want to make sure they have no reason to be anywhere near him.” He paused. “He sees humans as inferior as bugs to crush under his heel. The other clans don’t. We protect them.”

“You know that sounds crazy, right?” She hesitated. “I don’t like my grandfather. He’s an asshole, but to believe he’s some murdering evil bastard is kind of difficult for me to do.”

“He’s killed plenty of people. He’s greedy and power-hungry. We get the news here about your world. How many times have you seen stories where some warlord killed innocents to gain more land or money? Decker wants more people under his control. He murdered his own mate, who he’d sworn to protect, and tried to use his own child, your mother, as a bargaining chip to gain an alliance with the GarLycans in order to slaughter his own kind. Now he’s attempting to use his granddaughter to do it yet again. What kind of monster does that make him?”

“If he’s got a dick, well…you’ve heard of high divorce rates, right? Men can be heartless pigs to their wives. Maybe my grandfather thought it would be easier to kill her than go through a messy divorce. I see stories about it in the news all the time. And I have no clue what happened between my grandfather and my mother. As for my sister, he doesn’t know us.”

“Humans divorce. Lycans mate forever. It’s a bonding that is so strong, some die without the other. Filmore has to be defective in mind and heart to have been able to kill Marvilella. She was bound to him, tried to change him for the better by giving him her love, but she suffered greatly for it. She always looked sad when she visited her family in our clan.”

Dusti rolled her eyes. “Now you’re telling me you’re old enough to have known my grandmother? She died before I was even born. You aren’t much older than I am. You would have been a baby.”

A chilly smile curved his lips. “You’d be surprised at how old I truly am.”

“Right. Because you’re half Vampire and they don’t age. Sure. Okay, Grandpa. You look damn fine for a geezer.”

“Your smart mouth is going to be your undoing. Fine, don’t believe what you’re told, but eventually you’ll see the truth.”

It was too much for her. It was too foreign a concept. “Whatever. If I bought into this crap, what makes my sister such a hot commodity to this Aveoth anyway? Can’t he find a woman on his own? If I’m buying this chunk of swampland you’re trying to sell, a lot would depend on whether or not he even wanted her. You’ve met my sister. Most guys spend two minutes with her and run for cover if they have a brain.”

“It’s the bloodline. Aveoth has a craving for it.”

“Come again?” Dusti frowned.

“He was set to take Margola as his lover but she died before reaching maturity. After she was promised to him, Margola’s parents gave Aveoth a bit of her blood to drink, every month for a few years. GarLycans have stronger Gargoyle genes. They don’t form emotional attachments to lovers, only their mates. Margola’s parents feared he’d be so callous toward her that her life would be utter misery. They’d hoped he’d become addicted to her blood enough that he’d take good care of her, and not kill her soul during the years she’d spend with him until he finally found his mate and set her free.”