Blue Moon

Chapter 11

Isaac handed out three blood beers and sat down with a coffee. He'd been awake since yesterday but couldn't handle the thought of drinking at the moment.

"Sounds like quite a tale. You're lucky that Oscar can mount an attack like that. And a quick one too."

Lyla nodded solemnly. She knew that they would have struggled without his help.

"While I was gone, I spoke to Tom about your friend. He suggested that I get in contact with the head of vampire relations. They track all sorts of things and are full of useful information. This did not come from the person that I work for or me. You don't know where you got it from, is that clear?"

"Sure."

Lyla opened the folder and began reading through the notes.

"Gamichee Larmen, self-appointed leader, known criminal with diplomatic immunity. Seriously?"

Isaac gave her a grim smile.

"Crimes include money laundering, murder, abduction, trafficking. I figured he'd be into all this nonsense already."

"Turn it over."

As she turned the page, Lyla read more about the vampire that she'd once thought was pleasant.

"Creates a high vampire population by abducting children, pregnant females and breeding partners. Adults are removed, and all children are placed into care."

"He gets a populace rebate. If he can't tempt vampires to come to this area or stay in this area, he would have to think outside the box, which I believe he's done."

"That would also explain why he always tells us that we can't travel to other areas. Do you think that maybe Chad never really lost his fangs?"

"Yeah, I think so."

Lyla picked up the next piece of paper, reading about Nironsa.

"This was the boyfriend." she murmured.

After skimming through it, Lyla passed the piece of paper to Isaac. He didn't want to read about the pervert that had taken his daughter.

Interestingly, Lennon was the next profile. Underneath it was Merissa's. Lyla picked it up and handed it to Ris. She quickly skimmed through it, smiling when she read about her siblings. Merissa had two sisters and a brother, all older.

"Lennon Webster, only child of Maryanne and Karl Webster. Last known residence was in the Cayman District. Where's that?"

"Here," Merissa said, lowering the paper in her hands. "The nurses always told us that we were children from out of town, the other cities dumped us. Why would they lie like this?"

"Clearly, they're hiding the fact that the children were abducted or stolen from dead parents. Read on. There's more."

Lyla read that the parents were definitely dead. Their bodies were found in their home. It was a closed file that was marked as a murder-suicide. A note had been left. It said that their son was well cared for by a trusted source.

"Did you read this?"

Isaac nodded, then reached out to the file. He shifted papers and pulled out the one that was marked with a pink tag.

"You know how sceptical I can be. So, I dug a little deeper. Turns out that it was not an accurate report. Do you want to know how I found that out?"

"Absolutely."

"The post mortem report indicates that they were already dead when they were strung up. Pretty sure the dead can't hang themselves. Now, I'll bet that you're going to pin this one on the club owner and yeah, I'd totally understand why if you did, but you'd be wrong. Turns out, he was the trusted source. The letter is legit. The handwriting matches other documents that they found. That's why they ruled it as a murder-suicide. They believed that the father was still alive when he hung himself."

"So, they trusted Gamichee to look after Lennon? If that's the case, then why put him in an orphanage?"

"Because it was the safest place for him. That's why they said that he had a sister. It was known that Maryanne and Karl only had one child, a son. If anyone looked at the children in Fielding Hall, they'd see a lot of children, but they'd never see an only child."

Lyla couldn't believe what she was reading. Lennon was pureblood, an only child, and his parents were dead. All fact, all confirmed by the government. They also confirmed that it was a time when purebloods were being culled by an unknown source.

"Isaac, was Gamichee taking in pureblood children to hide them from the great cull?"

"Yeah, I think so."

With a resigned sigh, Lyla put the document down.

"Do we know who was orchestrating the great cull?"

"I have thoughts on that, but we need to take another path at the moment. When I was on the plane coming back, I thought about everything that you've said. This Gamichee fellow, he wanted Eloise and you, but did he ever say that it was for breeding purposes?"

"Not directly. Carson was always elusive when I questioned him. I guess he didn't really know."

"Okay, so, hear me out on this one. We know that Gamichee hid Lennon in the orphanage and probably a whole heap of other purebloods. His interest in Eloise was always to bring her into his circle, but that was only after he met you. I read that book that his assistant carried everywhere, Eloise was with this guy for a year, and Gamichee never demanded that she was brought in. It made me wonder why. Something happened in that first meeting that made him change his mind."

"He met me." Lyla murmured.

A heavy frown filled her face as she tried to remember that night. She was so wrapped up in finding Eloise that she didn't really pay attention to what was going on or said.

"So, he meets you and figures out that you're a part pureblood."

"What?"

Isaac shifted the pages, pulling out the profile with an orange tag.

"This is the guy that bit you when you were a child. Father of several children, including Carson. He was pure blood, and he also died in odd circumstances. Carson and his siblings were not put into Fielding Hall as they were all adults, but they were given a change of identity. Because he was pure blood and bit you, injecting with the venom, it makes you partial pure blood. Gamichee must have figured it out because only a pureblood can create a hybrid. Turned vampires don't have the ability. He wouldn't have seen it in Eloise because she was only sixteen, but in you, he saw a woman that didn't quite add up."

His gaze lifted to Lyla's. Isaac could see that she was confused. They'd spent a lot of time with the belief that Gamichee was the bad guy, and he was, but in this case, he was the good guy.

"He was trying to protect you from the great cull."

She looked at Ris, who offered a vague smile. Smokescreen. Yes, she was right about her adoptive father. The smoke was clearing, and now she could see the truth.