Chapter 49

The next night was a somber one. Ki was sitting across from me, looking over the official reports regarding the fire. Nick was watching on the flat screen the tapes from the security cameras, as well as the offical CCTV from the city.

It hadn't been easy to convince him not to even let his most loyal clansman to help. There was just too many chances that what we were learning could leak and the Phantasma would try to cover up any cracks left unfilled. Ki says, handing me a document, 'Only one body was recovered. it is being matched with dental records at the moment.'

'We both know that its Fullerman,' I murmur, looking at the burnt remains of the man. Did he have a family? What about children? It was my fault that he died, wasn't it?

My mood was growing dark as I stare at the picture. Ki's voice breaks through my thoughts, 'Don't get pulled in.'

'What?'

'Don't believe its your fault. Blaming yourself won't bring him back. He made the decision to help you, no one else.'

'I'm under the impression you understand my predicament.'

It was rhetorical, but he still nodded, 'Several hundred years ago, I had a hunch that one A rank family from a clan was about to complete a coup against their upperclansman. I didn't warn them, and it turned out to be true. The upperclansman family was wiped out, fifty individuals. So I do understand.'

I couldn't imagine something so terrible, but that was the world of the Phantom. It was a world of intrigue and misdirection. Looking back at the picture, I close the folder and turn to the fire report. It was what I thought, a simple plastics explosive bomb, most likely C-4 on a cellphone trigger. Looking up, I fill a lightbulb go off and say, 'Only one body.'

'Yes.'

'Two people walked in.'

'One of them was a vampire,' Nick says from the couch, not even glancing back.

Frowning, I say, 'Most C ranks can't survive a close range blast. B ranks can but will be burned. A ranks can easily manuver so as not to be harmed. But...'

'Purebloods are infalliable when it comes to explosion,' Nick finishs, and I look over at him. It was true, he had saved me not just once, but twice from very powerful explosions without a hair out of place. It was truly awe inspiring when a Pureblood showed their strength.

'Do you actually think a Pureblood.. the leader...'

'No,' Nick says, shaking his head and looking over his shoulder at me, 'I don't think the leader would do this job on his own. But if he has enough strength to cowtow people into submission, he would send them.'

'But, poweful enough for another Pureblood to be his laky?'

He nods, and I stare, feeling my own suspicion for him growing. Yesterday, as the daylight rose and fell my mind had wondered back to the boys bumping into me in the French town. I had touched Nick yesterday, before the fire. Could he have been a part of it after all?

'Don't look at me with such suspicion, Nina,' Nick says coldly, eyes fixed on mine.

'Why n...'

'I heard what the girl said about the bomber looking similar to me. It wasn't me.'

I didn't question it, but I didn't agree with him either. Staring at him for a moment, I then ask, 'Do you have cousins or other family that look similar to you?'

'Of course I did.'

'Past tense?'

Nick just stares at me for a long moment and turns back to the tapes, before continuing, 'Yes.'

That one word was him saying the discussion was over. Looking over at Ki, I see his eyebrows are raised in amazement. Frowning, I ask, 'What?'

He just shakes his head, hands me a file and says, 'Here is the girls statement that saw the whole thing. It might have more detail. They are having a sketch artist draw out a description of the man.'

...D...

The night had progressed and Ki and I were taking a break. He was sipping in a glass of blood and the metallic scent made myouth water. He notices and asks, 'Want some? I can pour you a glass.'

But I shake my head. Yesterday I had tried to drink a glass of blood and almost vomited it back up. It was so strange. The blood was probably the best quality it could be, and even though the smell inticed me, the taste was vulgar. Something inside me was changing, I didn't know if it had happened right after Nick and Igor fought, or before that when all of this began, but it was happening. My stomach clinched in revolt against me, crankly telling me to eat but at same time telling me to not even think about touching it. Ki had shrugged and gone back to the old worn book he was reading.

Curiousity gets the better of me and I ask, 'What are you reading?'

He looks up a little surprised and says with a toothy grin that made his eyes turn into upside down smiles, 'A good one.'

I let out a qucik clipped laugh and say vemused, 'What is the title?'

'Its the genealogical history of the Won Royal bloodline.'

My smile fades and I frown, giving him a puzzled look, beforr replying, 'I thought we were taking a break.'

'You are. I don't take breaks. What is the saying? Oh yes, an idle brain is the devil's playroom.'

He says it spookily and I smile, suppressing a giggle. I could feel Nick looking back at us as I ask, 'Do you enjoy learning about your families history?'

He sets the book aside, and says as he leans back, 'Yes and no. I know that if my grandmother had married her second cousin, the now ruling monarch of the Won, I would be a crown prince.'

He wiggles his brows at me, with a devilish smile and bow I laugh, feeling my drowning soul lifting. He was a lot luke Jerry, but then at the same time he was more predatory than most vampire. The past two days I had noticed that whenever he thought no one was looking his eyes would sharpen. It was as if he was making minut calculations in his head, and playing out the final result. I shake my head as I give him a wink and say, 'If things had played out differently I would have either been a Countess or Dante's wife.'

Ki's eyebrows hit the roof at this and he said, 'You lie.'

'No, I tell the truth.'

'So I know you were bitten, as you saying before this you would have married a Count?'

'Yes.'

This was one thing I never shared with Nick in my human years. We had talked on many subjects, but I could never bring myself to tell him I would marry within the next year. So I felt a freeness in saying something about myself that would not harm me, or so I hoped. Ki shakes his head and says with a smile, 'Its amazing how some things work out.'

'Yes it is...' I say, and sober, remembering something Ki had said the previous day, 'Ki, something you said yesterday has me curious.'

'What is it?'

'Well you said the Igor is one of the five. Can you explain that to me?'

Ki looks over my shoulder at Nick and then back at me. I knew Nick wasn't looking, because I could always feeling his burnjng gaze if he was. His pheremones were calm, level, and disinterested. It was as if a stale smell of dust filled the room, but I could sense the slight change in the charge of the room.

But Ki answers me, 'There are five Grand Commanders in the Night Hunter's. They are the most senior and steongest of mind and will. I had been offered the job some time ago but declined as I was never good with responsibility of that magnitude. But E... he was somethibg totally different. With his help, the Night Hunters became more streamline and tighter knit.'

'I could see that, he seems rather machine like,' I say blandly, feeling a shiver of cold fear run through me, remembering the blade againdt my neck and the look in his eyes when attacking his brother.

Ki shakes his head and says, 'No, you have him wrong. At first he seems that way, and of course when he is commanding brigades, but as a rule, he is kind, and loyal.'

Nick snorts from his seat on the couch and he both look over at him. He looks back at us, blue eyes aflame and says, 'Loyalty is far removed from that man.'

My eyes swing to Ki and I see the hard look on his face. In that moment, I realized something had happened between Nick and his brother Igor. It must have been big, but Ki was like a middleman - keeping the peace. Ki turns to me, the look slippibg away like a mask and continues, 'Everyone has their faults, so please don't hold things against him.'

I knew that statement was directed more to Nick than myself, so I just shrug. But then another question pops to mind and I findm myself blurting out like an idiot, 'Does Nick have any living family besides Igor?'

That's when a blast of pheremones slams into my back, and I hear Nick say beside me, having instantaneous moved from the couch, 'Be careful what you ask Nina.'

Fear sung through my veins, everything telling me not to look up at him. Ki looked uncomfortable and a bit defensive. But still he was a bubble of emptiness as I will my eyes to look up at Nick. He was looking down at me, he overwhelmed my personal space as I ask, 'You yourself have said you did. If I'm not supposed to know, why hint towards it.'

Nick stared down at me, his eyes slowly moving to Ki as he says, 'Explain to Nina about my family.'

He wasn't asking, simply telling. Ki clears his throat in discomfort and replies, lookibg down at me, 'Besides Igor, Nick is the last remaining Pureblood Royal of the Dracul line.'

Shock reverberated deeply inside me, I though he might have other Pureblood cousins but he was the last. If he died the Dracul line would cease to exist, my eyes having found his again. Nick says, not taking his eyes off me, 'Nina and I need to discuss some things, and go for an errand. We will return shortly.'