Chapter Thirty-Two

I spent the next day with my mother, keeping up the act that everything was fine until I knew for sure why everything wasn’t fine. And maybe she’d tell me more about my father while we were “bonding.” She was pleasant enough, but she really liked to shop. And I didn’t.

“You have to let me buy you something,” she insisted.

“I don’t really need anything,” I said.

But we weren’t leaving without buying me something. “Why don’t we head to Old Navy?” I suggested.

“Don’t you want something designer?” she asked.

“Not really,” I said.

“I’m buying you this,” she said. She held out a cute but designer green silk dress.

“Don’t you think it’s a little too expensive?” I asked.

“Don’t you like it?” She sounded disappointed. Maybe she’d missed doing mom-type things like buying her daughter clothes. I gave in.

“I do like it.” I shrugged. “Whatever. It’s your money.”

She dug through her wallet and slid out a credit card, then handed it to the guy behind the register. A black AmEx. Unlimited spending. Where’d my mom get that kind of money? Did cat breeding really make her rich? Some of those purebred cats were expensive, but there were hundreds of cats in shelters just waiting for a home.

“Oh, wait, I just saw a necklace I might want,” Vanessa said. I stayed put while she wandered a few feet down to look at a jewelry display. She’d left her wallet open on the counter, and I caught a glimpse of the address on her driver’s license.

I slid out my phone from my back pocket and snapped a picture, then caught sight of Vanessa. I pretended I was reading a text while she chatted away with the salesperson. Something about that address bothered me. I typed it into the map app.

“What—” I slapped a hand over my mouth. Vaughn had been right not to trust her.

My mother lived at the same house where we’d found the hellcats.

…

That night, Vaughn called Thorn, Rose, and Skyler over to my house for a meeting.

Skyler and I still weren’t friends. Not exactly. But she wasn’t glaring daggers at me, either. We were trying.

“Can any of you think of a reason why someone would want to kill Tansy?” Vaughn got straight to the point.

“It’s likely,” Thorn said. “Almost inevitable, really. A vampire king or queen is bound to make a move eventually, to try to take your kingdom from you.”

“Exactly how many kings and queens are there?” What I wanted to say was how many vampires with oversize egos was I going to have to deal with? I had enough on my plate with my mother.

“In the U.S.?” Rose said. “There are nine regions, which are divided geographically. California and Texas are the only realms that are also single states. The Western region is Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, and Oregon, although there are actually no vampires in Oregon.”

“Maybe hipsters don’t taste good,” I suggested.

Thorn snorted. “Alaska’s full of them, though.”

The twins took turns giving me the low-down about each vampire realm. This summer had been too intense for a vampire political structure lesson, and now we were busy dealing with murders and hellcats and werewolf boyfriends. By comparison, this stuff didn’t seem that urgent.

“But sometimes,” Thorn said, “there are high populations of multiple paranormal creatures within a certain region, so there might be conflicting groups.”

“Like there could be a vampire queen and, say, a werewolf king?”

Rose shook her head. “Werewolves don’t have kings. They have pack leaders.”

“Then that makes Connor the leader of the pack?” I giggled.

They both gave me a blank look, and Vaughn kissed the top of my head. “They don’t get your music humor,” he said. Honestly, very few people did, but I thought Granny might have recognized the song, at least.

“There are several pack members in your realm,” Rose continued, “but they are considered to be some of the most peaceful werewolves in the country.”

“We did see a werewolf with the hellcat. And there are a few werewolves who wouldn’t mind seeing me staked.”

Skyler and Vaughn exchanged a glance. “Connor would never,” Skyler said.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “He’s done some pretty hurtful things in the past. Some of them to you.”

“This doesn’t seem like his style, though,” Vaughn said. “He’s very direct. And besides, he was attacked, too. He almost died. It just doesn’t add up.”

“Okay, who does that leave?” I asked.

“What about Vanessa?” Vaughn replied. “We know she’s somehow involved. And she almost killed your grandmother.”

“Except she’s not a vampire anymore, so she couldn’t rule even if she wanted to,” I said, annoyed that I couldn’t fit all the pieces together into anything that made sense. Yes, my mother was involved, but who was leading all of this? Who wanted to take my place? “What about Travis?”

“You banned him from your realm,” Vaughn reminded me.

“That doesn’t mean he listened,” I replied. “And there is a werewolf in his band now.”

“I don’t think it’s Travis, as much as I would love to blame him for everything,” Skyler said. “Travis is interested in blood, groupies, and music. In that order. But being in charge of his father’s realm? Not so much. He never even mentioned it when I was…”

She didn’t finish her sentence. She didn’t have to.

“The Thirsty Thieves are long gone,” I said. “But it’s the drummer I’m really worried about. Boris. He just seemed off.”

Vaughn went still. “That’s because he’s a rogue werewolf.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Connor mentioned it after the first time we saw him at The Last Stop. I didn’t make the connection then.”

We all stared at him, waiting.

“But what?” I said. “You can’t leave us hanging.”

“A loner without a pack can be more dangerous than a whole pack,” he finally said.

“Why?” Skyler asked.

Vaughn drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Because they go by their own rules, and the only loyalty they have is to themselves.”

What was in it for Boris? Would a rogue werewolf be willing to kill other werewolves? And if so, why?