“He left in a fucking hurry,” I say as I extend the video to Florence. She swears under her breath. Sysco steps up, and I show him the video. “This had to have been only two minutes before you got here.”
“Shit, Lana,” he says, shaking his head in worried confusion. “If I’d been looking up, I probably would have seen him leave the building. What the fuck is happening to our boy?”
Our boy.
Those words practically make me cry.
Sysco has Ares’ back.
Will he still have mine when I give him the answers to the questions I haven’t let him ask?
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “But we need a plan for when we catch up to him.”
“I think knocking him out is still a good option,” Florence says as she pulls the syringe from her pocket.
“Agreed,” I say, picturing Elle’s dart that’s hidden in the guest bedroom. I don’t know if I dare say anything about it. Everything about Elle is fantastical, but her stories and secrets are also dangerous to her and her growing family. Sometimes, secrets are not ours to tell. “Ares obviously isn’t in control. And if he tries to fight us, he’s a capable man. It wouldn’t be easy.”
“We’ll need to contain him after,” I add. “This might not be a quick fix. Itwon’tbe a quick fix since we don’t know what the hell happened to him. So, once we knock him out, we need to lock him up somewhere.”
“How do you lock up a Born?” Clementine asks doubtfully. “When they can break through chains, burst through walls, how do you contain that kind of vampire?”
“Harry,” Sysco says, his gaze growing heavier, darker. “He had some serious enemies a few years back. He needed information. And he needed somewhere to lock them up. Harry has a place in one of his properties, designed specifically for a Born.”
I raise an eyebrow at that. Every single vampire I’ve met has a fascinating backstory I know very little about.
“You trust Harry with this, though?” I ask, knowing it’s a hard question. “I definitely like Harry enough, but I’ve only known him for a few months. What do you think?”
Sysco takes a moment to consider it, holding my gaze. But he nods. “Harry’s a good guy. And he likes Ares. He understands there’s nuances to life. We can trust him.”
“You’re sure?” Florence asks, concern etched into every inch of her expression. “This is my brother we’re talking about. I don’t take any uncertainty when it comes to my family.”
Sysco meets her gaze, his eyes narrowing for a moment. His eyes flick to me and then back to Florence. Oh shit. He’s piecing things together. “I’m sure,” he says with confidence.
“Can you call him when we’re done here?” I ask, relying on Sysco completely in this situation.
Sysco simply nods. “Are we going to talk about it now? Because I’d really like to know what the fuck happened to you, Lana. And is it because of Gio?”
I feel it like a change in air pressure—the whole atmosphere of the room changes in an instant.
Once more, I look back at Florence. How the hell do we proceed? We protect those we love, and I don’t know what the consequences of outing Florence might be. What she’s doing is groundbreaking, yes. But it’s also wildly experimental. Who knows the long-term consequences. And I don’t know how the hell the rest of the Born are going to feel about it.
“Don’t look at her, Lana,” Sysco says, his tone warning. “Tell me why you smell different. Tell me why your heart is beating differently. Tell me why you’re talking differently. Tell me why you look just a little bit different. Lana.”
My eyes slide back to Sysco. His expression isn’t vengeful. It isn’t suspicious.
It’s worried.
It’s scared.
Sysco has my back. I just have to trust that.
“It is because of Gio,” I say, honestly. And, as I begin, Clementine steps closer to Florence, her stance shifting a little more protective. It feels wrong that my hands aren’t shaking a little, that they aren’t sweaty. I’m nervous to tell Sysco the truth. But my body functions completely differently now. “I think you were trying to call me to warn me that Gio knew that Ares killed Luciano?”
“I did,” Sysco confirms. His name had displayed on my phone at the same moment Gio showed up at the Hunt house. “He was spouting some crazy shit. Said he was going to even things out.”
I swallow once and nod. “He tried. He showed up to Florence’s house, where I was, and he said ‘a love for a love.’ He gutted me. Sliced me from the throat down before plunging the blade into my gut.”
A curse slips from his lips as his eyes slide down to my stomach. But when he doesn’t see any kind of damage, they rise back up to meet mine with confusion.
