Narrative P.O.V."Put the building in a lockdown. No one leaves and no one enters."Upon hearing the Alpha's command, the large wooden doors were closed immediately."I want this building searched from top to bottom," Cain said to Dinesh.Dinesh walked away swiftly, giving orders in Marathi through a radio hidden in the hem of his shirt sleeve."Where is the guest list?" Cain asked, pointing to Daniel."I have it," Jai said, producing a clipboard from the bag he had slung around his shoulders."What's going on?" Daniel asked, alarmed by Cain's command for outlandish security measures."We have an uninvited guest in the form of Otto Müller," Cain said, taking the list from Jai.Daniel went pale."Where's Ella?" he asked."Locked in the car." Cain said.Jai's facial expression morphed to one of confusion."You just locked her in the car?" He asked.Cain said nothing as his eyes scanned the guest list."You honestly think that he listed himself as Otto Müller?" Daniel asked in disbelief.
Ella's P.O.V.I watched in a cold sweat as Cain and my grandfather held each other's glare.Using the moment of distraction to my advantage, I whipped around and, in one fluid motion, yanked my arm from my grandfather's grip and swung the other one to slap him across the face.He stumbled away in shock and I took several steps backwards until I ran into something hard.I turned around to see Cain wink at me."I was wondering how long we were going to have to stand there until you did that," he said sarcastically.I shook my hand, which was now stinging from the slap.Two of Dinesh's men each ran up and grabbed my grandfather."We can handle this from here," Dinesh said.He began to thrash around in their arms. As he did so, my grandfather turned his head to look at one of the men."Would you unhand me?" he said angrily.I raised a hand to cover my mouth."Cain," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.He leaned in, a look of concern on his face."Look at his neck," I said.Cain turne
Unknown P.O.V.Rain poured down on the grassy plains that stretched on for miles outside the window. Lightning flashed across the sky, followed closely by a crack of thunder.The sound of the heavy rain pattering against the glass panels of the window competed with the cracking of logs that burned in the hearth of the large stone fireplace.The gloomy evening did nothing to lighten the moods of those in the castle as they observed the storm."Where are we in implementing Plan B?" the man asked in annoyance.As he spoke, his attention turned away from the window to the man who entered his study. The subordinate came to stand in front of him, shaking in fear."The teams have been dispatched, sir. They are required to check in with us once they have reached their destinations, before they complete the task."He drew in a deep breath."Have we found the plane yet?"The young man stumbled over his words as he tried to answer the question."Not exactly, sir. We have the coordinates for the
Narrative P.O.V."I appreciate all of the physical evidence you left for us to determine who this guy was," Jai said sarcastically.Cain looked up from where he sat, crouched next the couch where he had laid Ella down. He stood up wiping the blood on his hands onto the shorts he had just changed into."He was barely alive before I could even kill him," Cain said, throwing on a t-shirt.Daniel looked at Cain incredulously as he placed his hand over his nose and mouth to mask the smell of the scattered entrails."So he was an old one?" Jai asked, still inspecting the larger pieces of flesh."Ancient," Cain said."At least seven-hundred years old."Daniel's eyebrows furrowed."So clearly they were never extinct," he noted.Cain shook his head."He wasn't feeding regularly. Vampires are immortal if they remain well-nourished. He hadn't fed in at least a month," he said.Jai looked at him with a raised eyebrow."There's certainly ample evidence of blood in his veins," he said.Cain ran his
Ella's P.O.V.I woke to the smell of burning pine.I was engulfed by the large bed I laid in and the warmth surrounding me from the heavy fleece blanket that tucked me in made me want to go back to sleep.I was more comfortable in that moment than I had ever been in my life. But then I remembered that I had almost been killed by a version of Gollum that needed a dentist and an exorcism.I could still picture the carnage that was spread across the room from the attack and the putrid copper odor of that creature's blood would be something that I never forgot.I pulled myself up from the bed and sat up slightly to look around.The bedroom I was in wasn't very big, maybe twenty feet from one far corner to the other. Dark wooden paneling covered the walls and ceiling. There was a small stone fireplace embedded in the wall facing the bed. A stuffed elk's head hung over the mantle.Next to the bed on one side was a wall with a bay window.There were curtains pulled over the windows but I cou
Ella's P.O.V.When I woke, Cain's warm embrace was gone.The room was still dark, leading me to believe I hadn't slept past dawn. This didn't surprise me due to the fact that I'd slept enough in the past twenty-four hours to get me through the next three days.I sat up in the bed to see that the fire in the fireplace had burnt out, only glowing embers remaining in the hearth.The bedroom door was just barely open as I got out of the bed and wandered over to it, rubbing the sleep from my eyes as I did.SO.I opened the door slowly to see the living room was barely illuminated by the hauntingly blue glow of the coming dawn.My guess was that it wasn't even five o'clock yet."Surprising to see you up so early."I turned to see Cain standing at the counter, one arm crossed over his bare chest and the other raising a stainless steel cup to his lips."Are you though?" I asked, walking over to him." I think I've gotten my fair share of sleep for a while."I made my way next to where he stoo
I landed in D.C. sometime in the early morning.I was as jetlagged as I could be, especially given that Kashmir was around five and a half hours ahead of the east coast.Hailing a taxi, I gave the driver the address and he was off. Ignoring the monuments that whirled past the cab window, I looked down at the number on the sheet of crinkled paper for the thousandth time.I had long since memorized it.The driver knocked me out of my daze, informing me that we had arrived.I looked out the window to see the familiar ranch-style home and leaned forward to pay him for the drive.The cab was gone as soon as I stepped out with my luggage, leaving me standing on the sidewalk of a dark street.I walked up to the porch, my suitcase trialing behind me. I lifted up the vinyl cap on top of the porch railing where Zak left his spare key, exactly the same spot it had been hidden in our childhood home.I unlocked the front door and walked inside the dark house.A light came on in the kitchen as I sh
Unknown P.O.V."You lied to us."Otto Müller was on his knees, literally, begging for forgiveness."I don't know. I swear," he cried."You do know!" The man bellowed, eyes burning.Otto Müller said nothing, his hands trembling in the shackles that held them behind his back."You only had two jobs," he continued."You were supposed to kill the damn Beta and then kill him."Otto's eyes shot up to glare at Zak, who was standing in the corner of the room."You sent him to kill Cain as well and he couldn't do it either," he said to the man."Why is he not in chains too?"Zak crossed his arms."Zak was only supposed to gather information," the man snarled."His attempt at the life of the Alpha Sovereign was unplanned and opportunistic. Besides, he was able to track their location, which proved much more helpful in the long run than anything you've contributed thus far and he's delivered the girlafter you were unable to."Otto Müller exhaled a shaky breath."I couldn't kill my own granddaug