Page 122 of The Donor’s Dilemma

“So?” Jesse asked a little too loud and Theo realised that he and Verity had been staring at each other. “Di Campbell?”

“I think it’s an alias,” Verity said, turning her attention back to the paper. “The articles are planted, propaganda to scare humans off joining the Exchange and make it sound reasonable for the curfew.”

“But why would we want a curfew?” Jesse asked.

“It’s just a first step,” Verity went on. “It’s what happened in Cliffhaven. Curfews, restrictions on movement, quarantine.”

“It’s slower,” Theo said, checking the dates on the clipped articles. “Things are bad in Cliffhaven?”

Jesse nodded. If Jesse considered them bad, they must be horrendous.

“Whoever’s doing this is going for a more phased approach,” Theo said.

“If you take a person’s rights away slow enough… If you tell them, it’s for their own safety…” Verity said.

“If you attempt to kill the mayor on the streets…” Jesse said.

“Fuck,” Theo said, head falling into his hands. His city was being taken, bit by bit, and it had been happening for months, right under his nose. How long ago had Harris first come to him? Three months? Four? How long had this been in the works?

“Maybe Cliffhaven was an accident at the start,” Verity said. “Maybe the first articles were just to cushion the blow, prepare people for the inevitable. But then the vampires started liking the… freedom it gave them, so they thought they’d try it again, but carefully. Make the fall more structured and,” she swallowed, “repeatable.”

Even the funding cuts started making sense, keeping Theo distracted on the sinking ship while the sharks circled. He’d been such a fool.

“The Roses?” he asked, looking to his brother.

“Doubt it,” Jesse said.

“No,” Verity said. “It’s Vivienne.”

Both men turned to her, and she gave them an eye roll that said it was obvious.

“Why would she take Abe?” Verity said. “She needs to impress the guy, make him want to do business with us. Why would she take him to Cliffhaven if she wasn’t proud of it? Why would she keep bringing him here? Why not Highhaven or Stonehaven? We aren’t the biggest city, or the fanciest or most affluent. Why us?”

“She is a bitch,” Jesse said, shrugging when Theo scowled at him.

“Being a bitch isn’t proof,” Theo said.

“Neither’s her taking Abe to Cliffhaven but it’s a good point,” Jesse argued.

It was a good point. If free feeding in Cliffhaven was an accident, and one that the powers that be were trying to rectify, why on earth would Viv show it to a trade envoy? It had been many years since Theo had visited Salvation, but they were respectful of humans. The ones who grew up there at least.

He turned to Verity, remembering another detail of their morning at SubRosa. “Those girls?”

Verity nodded. “What if Abe’s trying to help them?”

The softness of her words, the sympathy in her eyes, snapped something in Theo. “This is fucking insane,” he seethed. “This is Havenshire. We are the safe place. We are the ones who take care of our own. Not the fucking Blessed.”

His hands shook, heart hammering with a low rage-filled growl. If all this were Viv’s doing, he’d fucking kill her for it. To bring such shame on the county—on Cliffhaven, on his city. Donors were missing, lost, dead, and no one was looking for them. He’d thought it impossible but if Viv had the power to hide Cliffhaven, then misdirecting a little money and information would be nothing for her. How many human lives had been lost in Cliffhaven? How many humans were being forced into unspeakable situations?

A warm, soft hand rested on his arm. “Who outranks her?” Verity asked, cool and steady, grounding him before he lost himself. A simple question for a plan already forming in her mind. He turned to his brother; they both knew the answer, knew the easiest way to get in, but Theo didn’t want to ask.

“Only the Roses,” Jesse said. “There might be a couple of others, but there’s no point going to anyone else. It’s too big, we don’t know who’s in on it. Only a Rose will do.”

“What if the Roses are in on it?” Verity asked.

“I’ll call Petra,” Jesse said, his tone somewhere between defeat and acceptance.

Verity bristled. “She’d help? I mean, she wouldn’t be okay with what’s happening?”