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enough name to mix you up for another one.”
    “You’re talking about when I got drunk after Mom and Dad died?” Seattle mumbled as he started past the vampires at the door, not wanting to meet anyone’s eyes but not willing to look down as if embarrassed. I don’t know if those doors were any improvement though. They were depressing as shit. Like nicely dressed, very pretty prison doors.
    Meaning we weren’t ever getting back out if they didn’t want us too. Steel bars on them and all, even if they were ornate.
    “Yeah.”
    “Then it was him. I wanted to call him. If we had been on speaking terms, I would have because he’s the only one outside of our family I would have trusted with all of this, and an objective opinion is always good.”
    “High praise coming from you,” Julus hedged. “I heard about your parents. I’m sorry for your loss.”
    “Thank you.” Seattle met his gaze then and I swear I saw something there.
    Julus cleared his throat and gestured to the castle. “The director is waiting to speak with you, and then you can get some rest.”
    As we stepped inside, I was immediately struck by the smell of the place… Or lack of smell actually. Almost like a hospital where it didn’t really smell like any one thing but sterile and a person just knew it was taken good care of. Weird.
    And what didn’t make me feel better was the lack of sound. Was this place like a sensory vacuum? We weren’t walking on carpeting so why weren’t our sneakers squeaking or Boston or Seattle’s boots making noise. My eyes couldn’t seem to lock on any one thing, darting around and quickly scanning everything but not seeing any of it. All while this rushing sound flooded my ears from probably too much blood or something. Did that really ever happen? Paranoia. I was going to go with paranoia and my nerves were fired. Yup. Sounded logical to me.
    “I’d love a shower,” Orlando mumbled. “My blood is starting to flake off and itch.”
    “You didn’t bitch about getting shot but that you complain about?” Phoenix did a double take as we followed the vampires. “Seriously?”
    “Dude, we’re walking into a coven of vampires and I’m covered in my own blood, dried or not. Yeah , that’s what’s on my mind.”
    “Fair enough.” Phoenix swallowed loudly. I felt the tension amongst us rise as we walked along a long hallway with hanging tapestries on either side. I tried to act natural and take them in, studying the crests on them as if I weren’t checking out every inch of the place to make sure people with fangs weren’t waiting in corners to eat my brother.
    “We can control ourselves,” Julus drawled.
    “Of that I have no doubt,” Orlando chuckled. “But flip this and you’d still be thinking about it and slightly nervous. I mean, you wouldn’t come to our house around the full moon, steaks strapped to you, and not wonder if we might jump you.”
    “Too true, too true,” the vampire chortled good-naturedly.
    He stopped as we reached a main room and stepped aside. I took in the room, never having seen anything like it. It was straight out of some movie that had a throne room set hundreds of years ago. All done up in lavish black and purple velvet, which made sense since I was pretty sure that was the colors on the director’s family crest. It was still very welcoming though. The first thing since our arrival that was actually.
    “Director Fabian, may I introduce the late Liaison Niska’s sons, Seattle, Boston, Phoenix, Milwaukee, Orlando, and the youngest, Chicago.”
    It was customary in paranormal society to go in birth order as if going by order of importance. Whatever, I was used to it.
    “The loss of your father was a tragedy for all our kind,” Director Fabian said as he moved forward with three men flanking him. “I respected him very much and your mother was a wonderful woman.”
    I was struck stupid by how attractive the man was. I mean holy shit of sexy. It was like someone took