“Oh, so we’re allowed to bring strangers to the internal meetings now?” Aleksey asked, his lips pulled back in a sneer.
“He’s not a stranger,” Byron snapped. “He’s been part of this team for the last few months.”
“You’ve been fucking him for less than a week and you’re grandstanding and calling him ‘yours’. You’re crazier than I thought,” Aleksey said drolly.
“Enough,” Damyr said impatiently. “We’re getting on with this and if you have a problem, Aleksey, you’re more than welcome to leave.”
There were a few grumbles and sideways glances at me, but that might have been because Byron sat at the table and pulled me into his lap. It bothered me that people were looking at me, but that was smothered by the sheer relief I felt at being held in Byron's arms.
He kissed my temple and pressed his nose against the top of my head, breathing deeply. "Are you alright?"
I gave him a stilted nod and tucked my head under his chin, instantly feeling safer. It still amazed me that I did. Here I was, curled up with a psychopath and I felt like no monster could evertouch me. Perhaps that was because the biggest monster I knew had claimed me as his.
Damyr leant forward and pressed a button on the intercom. Roxie's chirpy voice filtered through like a rainbow in a sky of clouds. "Good day my lovely sugarplums, are we ready to delve into the pile of shit I've uncovered?"
I hadn't known Roxie for very long, but she was definitely larger than life. Impressive considering I'd never actually met her. I assumed Damyr had, but no one else seemed to. She was just a name and a voice down a phone line.
A screen flickered to life on the far side of the room, and it filled with images of my father and his associates.
"So," Roxie began. "Meet Lawler Rowan. Green witch and black-market dealer. He's part of some shady underground network called the Hollow Thread that procures any manor of item. You want something, they can get it for you. Some of the associates we’ve been able to identify so far are Timothy Humphries, who has been on my radar for a while. A vampire who likes to steal women for his blood harem. Then there’s Matteus de Luca, a judge at the High Court.”
A judge? I forced out a breath like I’d been punched in the gut.
“Makes sense why nobody involved has been prosecuted if they have a judge participating,” Vlad offered.
“How are we supposed to unravel all of this if these are the kind of people involved?” Aleksey said with a huff. “This isn’t going to end well.”
Byron tensed beneath me and I wasn’t sure if this was just Aleksey being his usual grumpy self, or if he was deliberately trying to provoke Byron.
More pictures flashed on the screen, faces and names. Most people I didn't recognise but there was one that I did.
Orson Aldworth. The vampire from Astrid's store.
I sat up, my mind trying to pull the memory of him from the auction, but it was fuzzy. I remembered the pocket watch though.
"What is it?" Damyr asked.
"That man was at the auction and then at my potion dealer's store this morning," I replied. "He gave me his card."
The screen shifted again, filling with a handful of pictures of Orson going back hundreds of years.
"Orson Aldworth, vampire. Not much of an online presence at all. Seems like a bit of a recluse, currently resides in..." Roxie paused and then hummed thoughtfully. "... Brackley Hollow. Interesting."
That was interesting. Brackley Hollow was like a miniature version of Misthaven up in the North. A safe space for people like us. If Orson was there, either he was really good at hiding his true nature or he wasn't as bad as he appeared to be.
A picture of the Brackley University teaching staff popped up and there he was. Orson Aldworth, tenured history professor.
"He doesn't seem like the type of man to wander into a black-market auction," Byron mused, his fingers sliding into the top of my waistband and idly stroking over my hip bone.
"Roxie, see what else you can find on him," Damyr said, his finger tapping lightly on the table. "Tell us more about Lawler."
The images of Orson disappeared, and my father filled the screen again. My stomach twisted uncomfortably. I chanced a look at Dara across the table, and her face was pulled into a sharp grimace. She'd known everything and hidden it from me. I was still unsure about how I felt about that. I wanted to hate her, but she'd done what she had to protect me. I couldn't hate her for that, but the betrayal of knowing she'd lied to me stung like a bitch.
"Lawler Rowan is a nasty piece of work. All his wealth seems to come from his dealings with the Hollow Thread. He'sgot a number of properties listed under various different shell companies." Roxie pulled up a number of the properties on the screen. A mix of warehouses and buildings that flashed on a horrific carousel.
"Do you recognise any of these," Damyr asked me.
I swallowed, the churning in my stomach intensifying with every new image. "Some, but not all."