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Now
“Did you put her to sleep again?” was the first thing Reese asked, after Silver joined them in one of the bedrooms.
“No, but she’s resting.”
She spared them the mushy details as she caught them up on what happened with Shauna.
“Are you okay with her leaving?” Adam asked with a frown. He was lounging around on one of the beds, like he didn’t have a single care in the world. Which was why Silver looked mostly to Theresa as she replied.
“I’ll do what I can to help, but if she wants to be on her own, that’s her choice. Anyway, your turn. Tell us what happened.”
He gave her a brief look before dropping the matter of Shauna and answering her question. “I had a close call at the station, but overall, it paid off.”
Concern for him flared up within Silver, but she tried not to let it show. “What did you find?”
“The article’s definitely fake. I found the original report, and it was two entirely different people. It’s like someone intentionally copied an old case report and replaced the identifying parts with Reese’s information to make it seem like she was the victim.”
“Who would do that?” the girl wondered.
“The better question is why?” Silver added. “And what did you mean about that close call? What happened?”
Adam turned to Reese. “Do you know someone named Officer Halls?”
“Uh, no. Should I?”
He shifted his gaze to Silver. “How about you?”
She shook her head. “Who is Officer Halls?”
“She’s a hybrid who almost caught me at the station.”
Silver’s eyes went wide. “A hybrid police officer?!”
“Exactly. Your werewolf contact gave me a heads up about her, but I figured you would’ve mentioned something if you knew her, so I stayed out of her way. Almost got caught leaving the station, but I got out just in time.”
Close call indeed. “Is that why there’s a dent in my car?”
He raised his eyebrows, mildly amused by her choice of words. “Yeah, that would be her palm imprints. Anyway, her name was on the fake report, but I’m not sure if she had something to do with the fact that you couldn’t find anything on Reese online. She could have just been trying to fake Reese’s death, not completely erase her existence.”
The girl shook her head in confusion. “Why would anyone do that?”
“Because of whatever’s different about you,” Silver said.
“Like how quickly I just healed,” she guessed. Reese sighed and shook her head again. “Guys, I’m seriously starting to doubt my own humanity.”
Silver had no answer to that. She was questioning things herself, despite the girl’s very human aura. The only people she could think of to turn to for answers were Quinn and Levi, but even they might be puzzled by the Reese conundrum.
“Speaking of your new powers,” Adam interjected, “I actually know someone who’s a little similar. I never thought it was relevant until now.”
“Who?” Silver asked hopefully.
“Devon.”
That stunned her speechless for a second.
“Who’s that?” Theresa asked.
“Lord Drake’s younger brother,” Adam told her. “He’s human, but his blood is bad for any bloodsuckers who try to feed on him.”
“I always assumed he had a regular feeding schedule,” Silver said. “I figured it stopped after his brother ascended.”
Adam shook his head. “Neither of them ever had a schedule from the moment they joined; I was there when Lord Benjamin specifically asked for that. Drake was his successor, so that one’s easy to figure out, but I never understood why Devon was never fed on.”
“Maybe it’s just because he’s Master Drake’s brother.”
“I thought so too, until a few weeks ago. Vince let it slip that he knew a vampire who once tried to feed on Devon but hated the taste. Everyone was banned from even attempting to drink from him after that.”
“So... this Devon guy is like me?” Reese asked unsurely.
“In that way. I don’t think his blood ever poisoned anyone, it just didn’t taste good. I’m not sure about the super healing, though. I never had the chance to test that.”
At a loss, all Silver could do was shake her head. “What could he possibly have in common with Reese?”
“I don’t know,” Adam said. “But whatever it is, someone’s going through a lot of trouble to hide it.”
***
A WEEK PASSED BEFORE the message finally came. Shauna had left after just a day, so Silver and the other two were finding ways to pass the time as they waited for word from Levi or Quinn.
Silver had finally given in to Reese’s request to do something new every day. A nagging voice in the back of her mind was warning her that this was exactly what she didn’t want to encourage out of the human, but she couldn’t help it. She had gone back and forth on the matter a lot in her head, but in the end, she ignored the warning and decided to have some fun with Reese and Adam.
They were engrossed in their latest thing of the day, which was basically just a game to test Silver and Adam’s powers. It was remarkable how patiently the hybrid indulged the whole thing, while Silver struggled not to snap every ten minutes. But they had nothing else to do when Reese was awake, so they kept at it. It got them a few laughs.
When Silver went to turn on the phone, as she had grown used to doing a handful of times a day, a surprise ding! sounded from the device. Adam’s eyes immediately snapped up in her direction, but it took Reese a moment to catch on.
“What? What happened?” she asked.
Silver didn’t answer, and when she looked up from the phone, they were both staring at her with the same look of anticipation.
“It’s a message from Quinn,” she told them.
“What does it say?” Adam asked first.
“They want us to go to Richmond.”
“Virginia?”
“No, Utah. There’s a place near there I know about; one of the sanctuary’s old bases. Quinn said they want us there by noon tomorrow.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Reese said, her eyes wide with the excitement of something happening again. “Let’s start packing!”
