I understood it.
Especially with Velra factored in and everything she’d been through because ofPuritas.
Of course they’d wanted to keep it a secret, off both our radars. They knew what it would do to Velra. And they also knew whatIwould do to protect her from it.
Something crazy.
Something reckless.
Like I was sure they’d consider what I was doing now to be.
“And the actionable intelligence? Where does that stand?”
“There are leads that we can discuss and now share, especially with Sylas compromised, likely for the foreseeable future.”
But after hearing that about theirleads,it had become clear that I was needed. Especially with Sylas now down.
The Shadowed had intel onPuritas.That was now damned clear to me with everything else connecting and falling into place after I’d heard that conversation between Cassius and Kai. It was why Sylas had been pushing me to let him track my father.
But that wasn’t the only reason I was headed out on this mission now.
“I am also aware just how little time Sylas had left before this even transpired earlier.”
He was fucking dying! Not just slowly or over time now. He was on a ticking clock.
And as much as it enraged me and hurt me that Sylas hadn’t told me, especially after our fucking agreement for him to be open and not cut himself off, I was choosing to focus on action, on what could be done about it.
That also lay with The Shadowed.
The vampire underground was connected to information that other beings weren’t. There were answers to be found there.
Normally, trying to find answers there was impossible, because they operated in whispers, in shadows. And outsiders were definitely not welcome at all.
But now I had a link there—my own fucking father. And he damn well owed me for shirking me all these years. Better believe I’d make him pay up.
I sucked in a breath as I tore down the backroads onThe Hound’s Shadow, my trusty Yamaha MT-10, at a hundred miles per hour.
My gaze darted to the indigo crystal attached to my handlebars.
Kelsana’s spell.
I had to admit, as much as I’d disliked her initially, she’d really come through and done amazing work with it.
She’d managed to fuse Sylas’ blood and obtain the Blood Trace tracking results for me and she’d spelled it into the crystal on my bike that was guiding me toward my father.
My gut twisted as thoughts of Cassius snuck up on me again.
I didn’t take what he’d done for me last night lightly. What we’d done for each other, with each other. It had meant a lot to me and I knew it had to him as well.
Sneaking out after that… it hadn’t exactly sat well with me.
I just hoped he knew that it didn’t take away from what had happened between us. And, fuck, he’d helped me too. I’d gotten a lot of shit out of my system that would have made it near impossible to think clearly otherwise.
But I’d had no choice.
He—and Ketheron—would have stopped me from leaving the apartment. For my own safety.
I couldn’t allow that.
