Page 58 of Bite of Vengeance
Silence blanketed the room for a few seconds before Warner cleared his throat. “I think we should talk to the Clovers.”
“Are you fucking insane?” Viggo snapped. “They want us dead as much as the human government does.”
“They want a free world,” Warner shot back. “And I talked to Collin when he was under Zan’s entrancement when he and Pax were getting Keeva. I know where some of their camps are.”
“Good,” Zan said firmly. “Then we can avoid them.”
“The Clovers have ways to contact nearly all the safe cities,” Warner gritted out. “They have a radio frequency that connects all the Clover groups. They can help stage an uprising. You want the civilians to go against PARA? That will only happen with the Clovers’ help. They would never follow vampires.”
“They would never work with us.” Gia shook her head. “They hate our kind as much as the government.”
“I thought we wanted to get rid of Amaros.” Warner looked at me for backup. “He’s the one wanting to continue the war. If he’s gone, then maybe there’s a chance of peace between humans and vampires. But to do that, we need the Clovers on our side.”
“You think killing our father is going to be easy?” Viggo asked, his low voice filled with danger. “We’ll be lucky if we all survive it.”
I didn’t miss the anger laced in his voice. He might have followed me for his brothers, but Amaros was still his father. Zan’s blood. Would they really try to kill him?
“Well, we can’t hide the rest of our lives,” I said slowly. “Especially with all the Shadows. It’s impossible. We have to do something.”
“Getting into bed with the Clovers is the worst damn idea,” Viggo grumbled.
“Does anyone have a better one?” I questioned. “There’s no harm in talking to them.”
Zan scowled. “No harm? What’s stopping them from attempting to take one of us captive? They’ll want you, Kali, now that you’re a Shadow. Especially since you’re wanted by the vampires and PARA.”
“Maybe they want freedom more,” I said softly. “That was why that group was started.”
Warner grinned smugly when Zan glared at him. I was siding with Warner because he was right. Even with all the Shadows, we could only storm one city at a time to fight PARA. If the Clovers could convince the civilians to rise up alongside them, it could happen simultaneously in all the cities.
Then we could focus on killing Amaros.
“If theseCloverscan help, then why are we still arguing?” Keeva asked, trying to follow our conversation.
“Because they tried killing Kali and already captured me once,” Zan grated out. “If we do this, you two are staying here, out of sight.”
Viggo cursed under his breath. “They won’t help.”
“They might,” Pax said in resignation, shaking his head. “It doesn’t mean we trust them. But we have a common enemy. It can work in our favor.”
Viggo glowered at his brothers when he realized he was outvoted. “Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn all of you that this will blow up in our faces.”
“While you all plan that, I’d like to spend time with the sister I never knew existed.” Keeva stared at me. “Can we talk please? Alone?”
Chapter 22
Zan
“What do you think they’re talking about?” Viggo asked before taking a drag of his cigarette.
I sat on top of one of the long tables, resting my feet on the bench seat. “No idea. Keeva probably has a thousand questions. Kali knows more about their past than she does. They’ll probably go talk to Gia at some point, since she knew their mother.”
My brothers and I were still in the cafeteria while Kali and Keeva were in the smaller room I’d shown Kali earlier. Meaning I couldn’t eavesdrop on their conversation since that room was soundproofed. Gia had wandered somewhere and taken Warner with her so I could talk to my brothers alone.
“We’re going to need to find blood soon,” Pax said with a sigh.
“We brought two coolers of blood bags and one human from the property.” Viggo paced in front of me. “But nowhere near enough to quench the thirst of hundreds of Shadows. We’ll have to hunt.”
I nearly laughed.Hunt.Something we knew how to do by instinct but never needed to. Not while we’d been by our father’sside. I couldn’t think of one time there wasn’t a human within reach to feed from. That was one reason most vampires fell in line. There was never a worry about their next meal.