Page 65 of Those That Defy the Realm

“You are avoiding the question, Asher.” Her tone gets serious, full naming me as well, and I don’t have an answer.

“Well, I’ve been thinking about what you said,” I say, my tail very much between my legs. “And yes, I still agree with you, and I’ve absolutely started to look into it but⁠—”

“You’ve not taken this to Agent Morris’s team have you?”

“Not so much.” I offer her my sweetest grin and throw some soft eyes, reminding her that I’m her son and she loves me.

“Ash!” she admonishes. “You agreed to pursue this with Agent Morris’s team. It’s important that we track down any other vampires.”

I remember the conversation more clearly now. She’d shared some theories with me about there being more unturned out there—humans, or demi-Fae—like Rory, and that we should start identifying them. I’d agreed to take it to the detective team seeing as they would have the resources to do the searching. I’d agreed because it gave me more reasons to stay in Froan, and swayed my mother into giving me permission.

“I’m sorry. I was going to get around to it. The talks for getting citizenship added to the new Act have been taking up a lot of time.”

“Indeed, that has to be our priority,” Agent Morris chimes in. “Now Froan has enacted the right to govern itself more, we need to get this Act into law. It’s taking more time than we anticipated and the central government is not conceding as much power as we initially hoped.”

“I know all that, but they’ll give in eventually. We just need to be putting the next steps into motion.” My mother waves a hand across the screen, dismissing the issue.

“I don’t have the resource, Theodora, I’m sorry.”

“But you need to take this risk seriously,” my mother counters.

“What risk?”

“From the digging I’ve done, Rory isn’t the only one of her kind.”

I straighten, that news taking me a little by surprise. The two vampires beside me don’t react, however, which means they’ve been thinking the same thing.

My mother rarely sets off down a rabbit hole like this one without cause, but I assumed she was setting me on this mission to find out its validity, not because she already had evidence.

“We’ve looked into it, Theodora, and hit dead ends on each path,” Ty reveals. “We had the same thought as you. But the trails always go cold.”

“You’ve not had access on the level that Agent Morris could give you,” my mother pushes.

“Why would more unturned be a risk?” Agent Morris repeats.

“Rory was turned intentionally. She had an entire pack of vampires watching over her.” Ty hugs his mate tighter and emits a low growl at the reminder of how the red headed female got her fangs. “Albeit horrendous circumstances, she was brought into the fold in somewhat of a protected way. What if the next one isn’t?”

“You mean they get accidentally turned?” Agent Morris asks.

“Exactly. What if they turn, go on a killing spree, or walk into a hospital, or seek help without realising they’ll only find a death chamber?” A sombre air fills the room, and Agent Morris goes quiet. “The press will be all over it then, or the authorities will cover it up like they have done for the last four decades. Or have you forgotten that they have caught at least half a dozen vampires since the war ended and have put them to death.”

“That’s on the continent, we’ve not had a death chamber here for nearly thirty years now.”

“But if it happened there, which is likely considering it's where Rory’s parents resided, then you’re looking at a press catastrophe, and the central government finding out your plans before you get that Act signed. Do you think they’ll go through with it if they find out that there is a chance that Froan is still inhabited by vampires? I’d bet not. Mark my words, they’re only letting you go through with this because none of the cases of those rogue vampires have come from Froan. I’d bet they truly believe they wiped them out in the war and the only ones left are those struggling to survive, alone, across the mainland.”

Following her speech, my mother leans back in her chair and steeples her fingers on the desk in front of her. Guilt racks my body, I should’ve taken her orders more seriously a couple of weeks ago. Everything she says is true.

“None of the pack would infect a random human, or fae,” Ty says. “And we can stick to blood packets for now, not that we’ve not been for the last few weeks anyway. It’ll erase the risk of turning anyone.”

“Ty, I trust you and that your pack will follow your orders. But Adicious had months between you leaving and you taking him out. He could’ve tried again with someone else when he thought Rory was gone for good.”

This time all three of us shift uncomfortably. With how busy they’ve been, I don’t think the vampire leaders sitting next to me had made that connection.

“He never mentioned it. When I came back undercover, I mean,” Rory says.

“Would he have trusted you enough to say so?” my mother asks gently.

Rory bites her lip before shaking her head. I can see the worry taking form in her, see her immediate concern that there might be another female out there that Adicious tried to turn.