Lilith & the Nephilim Snippet #8

“Hello?” I answered, looking at Sampsa. He didn’t seem concerned, but he was much better at masking than I was.

“We found Drake.”

It took a moment for Ian's voice to register but when it did so did what he'd said. The fiery hatred I had for that bloodsucking bastard came back full force as I remembered what he’d put into motion. Joey was nearly killed and Rory… I wanted Devlin Drake dead for what he’d done.

“Sarah?” Ian asked, pulling me out of my head.

“Where is he?”

“Patrick has him at Crystal Lake.”

“Patrick? Why does Patrick have him? Why is he involved at all?”

Sampsa and the rest of our gang had stopped talking and focused on me. The vampires could hear every word but Sampsa still didn’t seem too worried about the fact that I was on the phone with one of my guards.

“Drake is messing with the order of the dragon community and you know how strongly Patrick feels about that.”

Patrick was the only one of my children who could tell you for certain what he was. He was a hybrid like his siblings, but he chose to be a dragon. My son had always been independent and very self-sufficient. When he was a month old he flew from Stuart, Florida to the Crystal Lake house, scaring the holy bejeezus out of Wendy Folten, the sprite that had been watching over the Crystal Lake house since it was constructed in 1917. She was only 4'2”, but she was tough as nails and wielded magic powerful enough to keep the guys in check, but even she was a bit disturbed when a “mini dragon” flew in the window and started drinking out of the cat's water dish.

“Have you spoken to Patrick or is this second-handed?”

“He knows how much you want to see Drake dead. He called Caden and told him to let you know where he is.”

“Did he say he was alone?”

“He's alone for now, but this won't be secret for long. There is a handful of people who have reasons to beat you there.”

“I'm going to kill him, Ian.”

“I know you are and no one's going to stop you, but you will get every ounce of information first.”

“You want me to torture him?”

“Were you planning on killing him quickly?” I opened my mouth to answer, but it was a rhetorical question. “There are more people involved in this, Sarah. I can feel it.”

“Alright, where are you right now?”

“Doyle has reorganized the Guard and we're back on Rasputin's trail.” I sucked in a breath, gritting my teeth. “Sarah, what do you know?”

“I sort of… well, I might have met Rasputin.”

I could hear the wheels turning in his head. “You might have met Rasputin? This isn't something you can be uncertain of. Did you meet him or not?”

“He showed up in Cattie's basement. He's the one that told me that Rybel had taken Sampsa.”

“And you didn’t take him down? Sarah, he had information that we—”

“Ian, I was a bit upset at the time. A little out of it.”

“Will you be picking the musketeers up on the way there?”

“Why would I do that?”

“You don't think Joey would want to be there when you torture the man who tried to kill him?”

“Joey's not the torturing type. Caleb, yeah, he's the torturing type, but I want to keep them as squeaky clean as I can for as long as I can.”

“They're your true protectors, they're going to end up killing people no matter how long you try to protect them.”

“Killing people to protect someone is one thing. Torturing someone is a completely different sin that, no matter the reasons, can't be forgiven. The end may justify the means, but very rarely.”

“I'm not entirely sure I like the way you talk now.”

“And how do I talk now?”

“You talk like a queen with the full knowledge of how shitty the world is and how much of her kingdom is in peril.”

“The alternative to that is to be naïve and I can't afford to be naïve anymore, Ian. There is too much that depends on me not being naïve.”

He sighed. “I guess you had to grow up eventually. I just hope you keep a hold of some of that innocence. And don't ask what innocence. It's not diplomacy that makes you different from everyone else.”

“It's not?” I asked, chuckling.

“Okay, so maybe it's not as much the difference as your diplomacy, but it's right up there.”

I hit the END button on my phone and looked up at Sampsa, who had been watching me the entire time.

“Patrick has Devlin Drake at Crystal Lake. It will get around pretty quickly that he's there and there are about twelve different people that want him dead.”

“Including Jean-Claude,” Sampsa sighed.

“Yeah, he'll definitely be ready to kill him. Ian said that he has to have information so he suggested that I get it out of him.”

“You're going to torture him?”

“Do you have a better way to get information out of him?”

“Well, no, but I just… I never imagined you torturing people. Do you want to call Caleb and—”

“No, I'm not calling them.”

“Joey is the one who was blown up.”

“Yeah, Ian tried to convince me to invite them, but I'm not going to.”

“Rockford isn't that far from Crystal Lake.”

“Sampsa, I'm not calling them.”

“Okay, vauva, it's your decision,” he said before kissing my temple. “So when did you want to leave?”

“You’re letting me go?”

“Hannele and I will go with you.”