I know this as well as I know anything.I feel it in the deepest recesses of my soul.
If he killed, it was because he had no other choice.
And it occurs to me…
Who were these vampires?Why didn’t I get more details from my father?
Easy enough to answer the second question.I didn’t care at the time.I feel no connection to the Vampire Brotherhood or even to my father.
Now?I want to know.Not because I care about the vamps in question, but because I care about Rogan.If Rogan felt these vamps had to die, he had a good reason.
And I’m going to find out what it is.
“Start talking,” I say to him, “and don’t leave out a single dirty detail.”
30
Rogan doesn’t speak at first.I’m not overly surprised.Clearly he’s been lying to me from the beginning.
But I’m not in any hurry.I have nowhere to go.Hell, I don’t even know where we are.We’re simply in a bedroom.
So I wait.
And I wait.
Seconds pass…and then minutes.
Until—
“It’s not what you think,” he finally says.
“I have no idea what to think.According to my father, your bite marks were all over those two vamps.And—”
I drop my jaw open.
“What?”he asks.
Until this instance I had forgotten my father’s most important words—the words he said to me when he first put me on this assignment.
I was so taken by Rogan at the sight of him that I forgot.
“There’s been a threat to the Brotherhood. One of the lycans has allegedly aligned with a demon.”
My father was talking about Rogan.
But Rogan can’t be aligned with a demon.He just fought demons for me.He got me the hell out of my stepfather’s lair.
I consider my father’s words once more.He didn’t say Rogan had aligned himself withalldemons, just one.
And it can’t be my stepfather.Can it?
“You going to answer me?”Rogan says.
My mouth is still dropped into an O.I don’t know what to say.He has admitted to killing those two vamps, but he claims he’s not the one who cut their hearts out.Is my father mistaken?Is Rogannotaligned with a demon?
And if he’s not, why did he kill those two vamps?He claims it was to defend members of his pack.If that’s the truth, why isn’t he telling me?
“Start talking,” I say.