Page 51 of Death Dance

With ever-widening eyes, the girls focused on the stake I worked on. I set the stake and the knife on my lap and offered both of them handkerchiefs. “Blow your nose and wipe your eyes, and when you’re ready, you can tell me, okay?”

While it took them a few minutes, the girls did as I asked. I resumed whittling at the stakes, alternating between them until they were proper weapons. “Was your instruction to take the stake and stab a vampire?”

They both nodded.

“You weren’t told to kill the vampire, just stab them, right?”

They blinked, and they furrowed their brows. Then, after consideration, one nodded while the other shrugged.

Interesting. “If all you were told was to stab a vampire, I can help you do as you were told. Were you given any other instructions?”

Both shook their heads.

“Ben, do you have any photographs of Breckenan’s brood on your phone?”

“I have our entire database, yes. And I have a gallery just of conspirators. Why?”

“I want to see if we have a match. Put your phone in my reach, and I’ll see if the girls can tell us anything useful. Dad? Do we have any spare rooms for them? They’re going to need soup, baths, and clothes.”

“Easily arranged. Once we have a chance to figure out what size they wear, I’ll send one of my uncles to shore to get them what they need. I believe the smallest of the stack suites is still open. Eugene? Go make yourself useful.”

“On it. Don’t push your luck, Pepper.”

I chuckled at my brother’s warning. “If I push my luck, Emerick will enjoy taking care of me, I’m sure.”

Behind me, my husband sighed.

Once I had Ben’s phone in hand, I placed it on the floor so it faced the girls. “Are any of these men the bad ones who hurt your family?”

My patience paid off, and the girls came closer, put their heads together, and regarded the phone. Careful to keep my movements gentle and smooth, I swiped through the images one by one. After six images, the girls gasped and pointed. The one on my right blurted, “That one! That’s him!”

I took the phone back and handed it over to Ben. “That one is mine,” I informed him in a cold tone. “Who is he?”

Ben checked the device, and after a few moments, he grunted. “He’s one of Breckenan’s brood, from what we know, the oldest of the vampires he turned.”

I allowed myself a grim smile. “What are the chances the girls were equipped with bugs?”

“I can check,” my father announced.

I twisted around in time to observe my father press his palms together. A golden glow enveloped his hands. After a moment, he shook his head. “They have no technology on them.”

I raised a brow. “How can you tell?”

My father chuckled. “Long before you were born, little girl, we needed to check for storms before the storms arrived. Growing storms often electrified the clouds. Back then, we searched for lightning, as lightning could set wildfires capable of killing all in their wake. Now? I’ve refined the same divinations to look for electronics. Your phone is in your pocket, and you need to do something about your battery.”

Damn. “I have a tendency to forget to put it on its charger.”

“I can tell. But no, if they tracked them, it was with magic.”

“Can you detect that?”

My father made a thoughtful sound, and after a few moments, he nodded. Clapping his hands together dispelled the golden glow, and he adjusted his position so only the tips of his fingers touched. Rather than a golden glow, bloodied hues wafted from his skin. “There is no tracking magic, but there is magic on them—and I recognize what it is.”

With a frown, he raised one hand to his temple to rub. The illumination died away to nothing. “Alisander, please go find my uncles and gather them. We have a problem we will have to deal with.”

“Dare I ask?”

“They’ve been fed vampiric blood.”